P4 1.8A vs. Athlon XP 2000.. OC'ing will be done. Opinions welcome

[SpaceRanger]

Title says it all. I'm looking to put together a new system, and I'm debating on which system to build. Here are the configs I have chosen for each proc.

P4 1.8A (Northwood)
---------------------------
ABIT TH7II-RAID Motherboard
(2) KINGSTON RAMBUS 512MB PC 800 NonECC


Athlon XP 2000
-------------------
Abit KR7A-133Raid
(2) CORSAIR 512MB PC2100 DDR RAM

I have the HD's, Case, and other stuff already to put in..

I have all intentions on doing OC'ing as well. Any suggestions/improvements you can see in what I want to get??

Thank you for your time,

Space Ranger

 

[x86]

The Northwood offers MUCH more OCing ability, no questions about it whatsoever. If you are going with the P4 configurations, I would have (4) 256MB of RDRAM because it is cheaper in lower denominations.

-x86

 

[CraigRT]

I'd get the AXP/KR7A/Corsair setup... the AXP 2000+ is probably currently the fastest CPU available right now to the general public.. the 2000+ is definitely faster than the 1.8A, the 2.0A might be alot closer, but the 2000+ is certainly more powerful out of the box.

 

[tapir]

depends a lot on how much you want to spend on cooling and extra stuff. if your case is well-ventilated and you put an 8045 on, you should be able to bump that 2000+ up quite a bit. on the other hand, pretty much every northwood will get a 500MHz o/c with no problems. if I were you, i'd consider getting a less powerful (1800+) athlon and putting the money you save into watercooling or something, that way you will really be able to o/c the athlon. if you just want to do straight air cooling, the 1.8A will give you a lot more headroom.

 

[Acanthus]

1.8a will go to 3.0ghz with vapochill, check it out at madonion.com, top score was P4a@3100

 

[AGodspeed]

If you're going to overclock (a lot) go with the 1.8A rig, no doubt about that. Go with the 2000+ rig if you're only going to do occasional or mild overclocking.

At stock speed, the 2000+ rig is about equal to a 2.2A stock, so it's going to be significantly faster than the 1.8A stock.

However, I've heard that you're less able to crank up the FSB on that particular RDRAM motherboard, and that RDRAM in general doesn't overclock as well as DDR DRAM.

Good luck!

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< However, I've heard that you're less able to crank up the FSB on that particular RDRAM motherboard, and that RDRAM in general doesn't overclock as well as DDR DRAM. >>

Actually, the FSB is easy to crank up (world record of 3808MHz on TH7II), and RDRAM overclocks very well.

 

[SpaceRanger]

Ok.. So far it's 50/50 as to which way to go.

Tapir: What kind of watercooler would I use if I was to go that route?? Currently I've only done OC'ing with forced air for cooling.

Conversely, could I get watercooling for the Northwood as well??

Thank you all for your input.. You're helping greatly..

Space

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< Ok.. So far it's 50/50 as to which way to go.

Tapir: What kind of watercooler would I use if I was to go that route?? Currently I've only done OC'ing with forced air for cooling.

Conversely, could I get watercooling for the Northwood as well??

Thank you all for your input.. You're helping greatly..

Space >>

Yes, you can watercool a northwood.

 

[Raiz]

I just ordered a P4 1.6a Northwood, 512 meg of DDR ram, and the Asus P4S333. After all of the success stories, I just couldnt resist. I would seriously think about a P4 NW with a DDR board.

 

[Boonesmi]

unless you plan on doing some major overclocking i would go with the athlon xp

 

[Strawberrymom]

the northwood will smoke the athlon

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< I just ordered a P4 1.6a Northwood, 512 meg of DDR ram, and the Asus P4S333. After all of the success stories, I just couldnt resist. I would seriously think about a P4 NW with a DDR board. >>

Or an RDRAM board. The only thing to avoid is SDRAM.

 

[SpaceRanger]

Thank you all.. I've made my decision to go with the Northwood solution. I ordered it last night and expect receipt of the equipment by the end of this week.

Space