P4 2.4a Or P4 2.4b?????????

[Nyquest007]

I'm in a bit of a pinch. I'm about to order parts for my new system and I've found a great deal on both of these parts. On an abit bg7 board, which would be the better overclocker? I've always thought the lower the multiplier the smaller increments you can make to getting every bit out of the processor. The B part should have the same multipler as the 1.8a part right? 18 X 133 = 2.4ghz. The a part with the 400mhz bus would need a multipler of 24. X's 100 gives it 2.4Ghz. So would the part with 24x multi. be better than the part with the 18x multi. If nothing else I guess I could go with the b part and have 2.4 on a 533mhz bus. I'm lost in all these price cuts man. A month ago I could've made an easy choice. I was just gonna go with the 1.8a and now look at the mess I'm in.

 

[Beeker25]

Seeing as the 400FSB P4's will be phased out soon, leaving your future upgrade path with a ceiling of 2.5Ghz or maybe a little bit higher, you are better off going with the 533FSB so you can upgrade your CPU in the future without having to buy a new motherboard and RDRAM, especially since you are buying all of your parts now, you might as well leave yourself an upgradable path. If I were to buy a new P4 system right now, I would definately get the 533FSB P4's. I currently have 2 P4 systems with Abit TH7-2 motherboards, 1GB PC800 Samsung RDRAM(4 x 256MB 16 Device) in each and a 2.0A and a 2.4A NW P4 in each. I have had them both for awhile, the motherboards I bought when they firs came out about 1 year ago and I have upgraded the CPU's a few times, originaly started with a 1.9 Socket 478 P4 before the NW came out, went to a 1.6A and 1.8A(which both OCed to 2.4Ghz), then upgraded to a 2.0A(which OCed to 2800Mhz in my VapoChill before it fried due to condensation behind the CPU from downclocking it back to 2Ghz) and a 2.4A, my next upgrade will have to be a new Motherboard that supports 533FSB, PC1066 RDRAM and a 3+ Ghz 533 FSB P4. I am now done with the VapoChill because I have fried 7 CPU's in it in the last 1 1/2 years, 2 x P4's, a 1.9Ghz that OCed to 2500Mhz and a 2.0A that OCed to 2800Mhz, which Intel replaced without any problems, before the P4's, I fried 5 Athlons in the system, 3 x 1333Mhz Thunderbirds and 2 x 1400 Thunderbirds which I had to eat the cost of because AMD doesn't replace CPU's like Intel does.

 

[Duvie]

Well no one mentioned the big factor...The multiplier is way too large...Lets be honest there are really no real differences between either chip.One has 133fsb and one has 100fsb...Both could theoretically do the same final clockspeed...

However...

The real factor is the available fsb you could achieve with a 2.4a and 24x multiplier....133fsb so that you could run pc2700 memory on most boards is impossible, cause you likley wont be able to do 3.2ghz...IN all honesty the highest fsb you could achieve safely would be 115-120 and if you have an i845d or i845e/g mobo you wont get better then 320mhz ddr...It would likely run better in an rdram system or a sis chipset that takes advantage of mem ratios top get 333-400mhz ddr at default 100 speed. A 3:5 ratio on a sis mobo with 120 would put you at 400mhz ddr...

Anything less the pc2700-pc3200ddr or pc1066 is really hampering the ability of the p4....


Get the 533fsb with the lower multiplier so you can likley push it up to 150fsb and attain pc1200 on rdram system or 400mhz ddr on i845d/e/g platforms...Don't go after sis648 as the eraly reports show this thing is a dog in ocing...

 

[Jigman]

Yo, I would give urself a little room and buy a 533 fsb mobo, but i would buy the 2.4a, it has higher multipliers and thus can overclock further.. just they way i would go

by the way beaker were those retail amds? if they were thats kinda strange

edit:

btw i have seen many people safely attain busses of 133 mhz or higher with the a, with some as3 and a decent hsf and decent memory

 

[Duvie]

but i would buy the 2.4a, it has higher multipliers and thus can overclock further.. just they way i would go

How??? Utter nonsense...Both chips likley have same potential level of final clockspeed...

Let say 2.8ghz is doable with current state of chips...with the 2.4a chip that would be 117fsb for a 467mhz total fsb...with the 2.4b it would be a 156fsb for a total of 624mhz total fsb...If you have read anything about the chip you will know it takles advantage in performance with the higher total fsb and leads to higher mem score like I suggest...

Like I said that is non sense...

I think he has seen some reviews that showed toms pushing 100fsb chips like the 2.5ghz p4 but he was doig that becuase he knows the rdram mobos like he was testing has a 150fsb limitation and you would likley hit that with the 2.4b. However you did not say one way or the other you are going rdram and I stated that in my original post...

 

[Jigman]

Originally posted by: Duvie

but i would buy the 2.4a, it has higher multipliers and thus
I think he has seen some reviews that showed toms pushing 100fsb chips like the 2.5ghz p4 but he was doig that becuase he knows the rdram mobos like he was testing has a 150fsb limitation and you would likley hit that with the 2.4b. However you did not say one way or the other you are going rdram and I stated that in my original post...

Edit:

nm, just saw some bs that go high with the fsbs, point made thnx duvie

 

[Drsignguy]

Originally posted by: Duvie

The real factor is the available fsb you could achieve with a 2.4a and 24x multiplier....133fsb so that you could run pc2700 memory on most boards is impossible, cause you likley wont be able to do 3.2ghz...IN all honesty the highest fsb you could achieve safely would be 115-120 and if you have an i845d or i845e/g mobo you wont get better then 320mhz ddr...It would likely run better in an rdram system or a sis chipset that takes advantage of mem ratios top get 333-400mhz ddr at default 100 speed. A 3:5 ratio on a sis mobo with 120 would put you at 400mhz ddr...

Great reply on this thread Duvie! This will give most an idea in what they would be dealing with and may help most on what way they would like to go.

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