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Prescott vs. Northwood

D

domsq

Senior member
Hey guys

I've currently got a P4 2.8C (Northwood, 800 FSB). I'm very happy with the performance, but I have the cash to get a Prescott 3.0 GHz. I realise that the Prescott has twice as much L2 cache, but should I bother making this 'upgrade'?

How much of a performance gain would I see out of the extra 200 MHz, and 512K L2 cache? Or should I rather save a little more, and get a 3.2 GHz Prescott? 😕

Before anybody asks, yes, my motherboard does support Prescott CPU's...
 
id rather spend that money on a 55 gallon drum full of jolly ranchers.

in other words, no. its not worth it at all.
 
Originally posted by: nick1985
id rather spend that money on a 55 gallon drum full of jolly ranchers.

in other words, no. its not worth it at all.
Click to expand...

I heard the apple jolly ranchers scale better at speeds over 3.4ghz though, and at 4ghz, they really stomp the grape jolly ranchers.
 
The 2.80c is an awesome CPU if you O/C. Most of them can easily hit 3.2ghz with the later steppings and most at default vcore.

The current Prescotts are just running too hot to offer any type of "upgrade" over NW. . . . check back in on Prescott this Summer in a new MB socket running faster and no doubt cooler. 😉

 
I have a question about this. I plan to upgrade to a P4 (I have an Athlon XP 2500+ @ 3200+, but my reasons involve linux and media encoding) this summer and i've been going back and forth between a 2.8C and a 2.8E. I DO overclock and I would like to get a good cooler and bump it to 3.2Ghz once I get it (by then, i'll have a gig of some high-quality RAM). Is it worth it then? This room, in a basement, never goes over 67 F and I have 2 120mm fans in the case (it does get some good ventilation, indeed). I did see that review about it being good for overclockers too...doesn't it run pretty hot though?
 
How long are you guys going to keep the CPUs? One of the things the Prescott offers is SSE3, and if you're going to keep them for a while, you might reap benefits from that.
 
Just from reading the posts here, the ones who got prescott are UNhappy and the ones with NW are pleased. 😉
(I guess if you wanna heat your room, it might be ok) 😛

Do a search here using "prescott"
(my memory is "selective")

It makes sense to stay with NW for now and switch to prescott later, when over 4Ghz is needed.
(edited)
 
Originally posted by: mechBgon
How long are you guys going to keep the CPUs? One of the things the Prescott offers is SSE3, and if you're going to keep them for a while, you might reap benefits from that.
Click to expand...


i agree SSE3 is basically the prescott's best selling point over the northwood
other than that, clock for clock the northwood is stomping the prescott right now
 
I don't know, I don't think it looks like the Northwood is stomping on the Prescott when you consider how close they are in Anandtech's review of them both. I was also looking at SSE3 as a selling point to me because, yes, I do want to keep it for quite a while. I'm also getting PC3500 RAM soon and the reason is for overclocking. Someone said his Prescott is just SOOO hot because it idles at 110 F in his case, whereas my 2500+ @ 2.2Ghz idles at 108 F 😛...so i'm not really too concerned about heat. For me, if I find it would idle at some insanely high temp like, say, 130 or higher and for a LOT of people, I would just get the Northwood instead 🙂. However, I do like to OC, and if it is better with overclocking then I am interested.
 
Originally posted by: apoppin
The 2.80c is an awesome CPU if you O/C. Most of them can easily hit 3.2ghz with the later steppings and most at default vcore.

The current Prescotts are just running too hot to offer any type of "upgrade" over NW. . . . check back in on Prescott this Summer in a new MB socket running faster and no doubt cooler. 😉
Click to expand...

I have a 2.8C running @ 3.5 with an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe @ 250 FSB memory @ 1:1 Kingston DDR 500.

I have a 2.8 Prescott @ 3.2 with an Aopen AX4C MAX with memory @ 5:4 and 228FSB. Corsair DDR 433.

At times I think the Prescott is as fast or maybe faster as I ramp up the speed with the memory holding it back. Prescott runs fairly cool with Zalman CNPS7000CU. The motherboard side of the case has an exhaust hole (80MM fan) to keep the back side of the Motherboard cool.

Both are good choices but I would spend the money on DDR 500 memory so you can really clock the NW.
 
Id go with the Northwood. Its a great overclocking CPU.

The current batch of Prescotts, arent worth it. Once the new LGA775 versions are out, then perhaps??
 
you certainly wouldnt notice an increase.

As for DC crunching, thats not a sell point to upgrade CPUs when you will see no other increases. As well as possibly stability/mobo compatibility issues.

I would wait for LGA775 mobos with full official support (i know some I865/I875 support them now, but there are reports of a lot of suddenly dieing prescotts and mobos) and faster prescotts. A 2.8C will certainly hold you over til then 🙂
 
Umm. 2.8C and you don't overclock?

What motherboard - and video card - save money. A better video card, more memory or a new raptor would be a better investment.
 
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