(Retro Thread) Pentium Extreme Edition 955!

[Hi-Fi Man]

I've got an old PC build that I did with some spare parts awhile back but I didn't need it so I just gave it to my mom (family member and friends always getting my hand me downs).

I was thinking of dropping in a Pentium Extreme Edition 955 (don't laugh...) and OCing it to around 4GHz to max it out because the chipset doesn't support Core 2 CPUs. She's possibly going to be working from home (browsing, spreadsheets, and entering allot of client data) so I thought she might need something that's a little better at multitasking hence the extreme edition with hyper threading. So I'm wondering how well will this CPU do for such a task? She's perfectly fine with the Pentium D 925 @ 4GHz that's in there now so I figured I'd give it a little boost for working at home.

Specs:
CPU: Pentium D 925 @ 4GHz (FSB @ 1066MHz)
GPU: GeForce 8600 GT
Mobo: Asus P5WD2-Premium
Cooler: CM Hyper TX3
RAM: 4x1GB DDR2-800
OS: Windows 7 64-Bit
Hard Disk: WD caviar blue 320GB
PSU: Antec earthwatts 380D

 

[podspi]

Since you already OCed the 925 to 4ghz, I doubt there would be much difference. IIRC, hyperthreading didn't work all that great on the Pentium 4s.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

Interesting, I thought it might help a bit because I saw a guy on youtube playing crysis 2 on a Pentium Extreme Edition 965 and he was talking about how he tested the game with hyper threading on and off and the result was that HT gave him about 10 more frames. so I figured it might help in a heavy multi tasking scenario.

 

[sm625]

If you could get that thing to run all 4 threads at 4GHz I'd be impressed. And yes it would be a somewhat ok system. It would probably match an i3 sandy bridge ULV (1.3GHz) in general performance. But there are going to be things where its just dog-slow. It probably wouldnt score over 1300 on passmark.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

Running at 4GHz isn't too hard since it's a 65nm chip and these things have gone up to 4.26GHz on stock cooling. It's not a bad system for what it's used for I just what to put a little more pep in it's step for better multitasking.

 

[NTMBK]

Frankly, you'd be better off putting an SSD in the thing. That processor upgrade isn't going to do an awful lot.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

I do have an OCZ Onyx laying around but it's only 32GB so I'm not sure if that would be a good idea.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Frankly, you'd be better off putting an SSD in the thing. That processor upgrade isn't going to do an awful lot.

This. An SSD will make more difference than even double the GHz.

Plus it won't burn with the heat of a thousand suns.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

A Celeron 1037U would outrun it, even at 4GHz.

SSD++ though.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

SSD it is then. I'm still going to keep an eye out for those Extreme edition space heaters just for the nostalgia.

 

[Torn Mind]

SSD it is then. I'm still going to keep an eye out for those Extreme edition space heaters just for the nostalgia.

What OS does that computer have? If it is XP, there's some prep work involved.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

What OS does that computer have? If it is XP, there's some prep work involved.

Moms get Edubuntu. It's virus-proof, relatively speaking.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

It's running Windows 7 64-Bit so TRIM isn't an issue. I would put Linux mint on there if Flash wasn't needed but oh well.

 

[Rickyyy369]

If you wanted to get her a decent upgrade to something that isnt a space heater and would blow a 955 @ 4ghz out of the water you could just look around for a refurbished C2D system. Like this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883256856

Granted thats a little more expensive than what 955s go for on ebay, but it would handle modern applications a lot better.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

Just installed the SSD (OCZ Onyx) and wow even on an old CPU/mobo with SATA II these things make Windows fly. This may be enough, if not I'll think about the extreme edition if the price is right.

 

[dbcooper1]

For that kind of workload, I'd go with the SSD and UNDERclock the CPU unless she lives in a colder climate and can use the heat.

 

[Centauri]

This may be enough, if not I'll think about the extreme edition if the price is right.

I really don't understand why you're expecting a perceivable difference in desktop performance out of a nearly identical CPU configuration based off of somebody's Crysis bench.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

For that kind of workload, I'd go with the SSD and UNDERclock the CPU unless she lives in a colder climate and can use the heat.

LOL, it's actually not THAT hot, it's hot though, but because it's the latest 65nm stepping and it's decently cooled it isn't absurdly hot. With a pipeline this long Netburst NEEDS clock speed.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

I really don't understand why you're expecting a perceivable difference in desktop performance out of a nearly identical CPU configuration based off of somebody's Crysis bench.

Because of HT and an unlocked multiplier (higher clocks). But that's why I started the thread to see if it's a big difference or not.

 

[dbcooper1]

LOL, it's actually not THAT hot, it's hot though, but because it's the latest 65nm stepping and it's decently cooled it isn't absurdly hot. With a pipeline this long Netburst NEEDS clock speed.

Even if it's not running that hot, it's dissipating quite a bit of heat; you're talking about a CPU in the 95w or 130w category depending on which you decide on. Browsing, spreadsheets, and inputting data don't sound like CPU intensive or multi-threaded activities. The SSD is likely to be your best bet.

 

[anthd56]

Interesting. I just upgraded a family members PC from P4 630 to PD 950. Only cost about £10 for the PD haha. An extra 3.4GHz core made a good difference. But adding HT probably won't do much good considering how much it would be. However it would bump the FSB to 1066 so make sure the board supports it if you really want it.

If its already at 4GHz with an SSD theres not much you can do. If you really want a CPU upgrade then even an Ivy Bridge Celeron would destroy it and that thing is very cheap. Mind you, Toms did an article (Core 2 duo vs Ivy Bridge) and the IB Celeron was on par with a E8400 at stock...

 

[Arkaign]

Late-gen P4 Cores are about .48-.49x the IPC of Conroe, so you can calculate yourself at the rough performance level of a Core 2 Duo E6300 to E6400 level on CPU. Combined with an SSD, that's plenty of power for a home user who isn't a gamer and typically runs only a handful of things at once + AV.

Power consumption wise though, and the power delivery portion of the mobo, I'd put it under your hat that a mobo/cpu replacement is a wise investment. I've seen some nice Pentium D OCs, but if the board doesn't have all solid-state caps, you may eventually see bulged/leaky caps and random spontaneous reboots. As noted, a dirt cheap combo would do wonders, such as :

Pentium Dual Core S1150 + 4GB DDR3. The whole shebang should be peanuts, and will run ludicrously cool and low power.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

I've maxed everything out almost, FSB @ 1066MHz, SSD, 4GHz OC, and 4GB of RAM. So I guess I'll just let her run that system to the ground until something breaks lol. The motherboard is pretty decent (cost about $260 when it came out!). Board review: http://www.anandtech.com/show/1678

 

[Arkaign]

That is a pretty good board. It doesn't have 100% solid state caps though, and the 955X is a really reallyold chipset. Who knows, it may last 10 years, and as long as it stays alive it will almost certainly offer 'good enough' performance with that setup and light usage. I just know that I would be prepared for a sudden decrease in stability after awhile, along with the very real potential of mobo death (and to a lesser but valid extent : electromigration in the CPU causing instability and lowered OC ceiling).

 

[Arkaign]

Look at the section of the board surrounding the CPU on the old board :

compared to later Asus Premium S775 boards :

The supporting VRM/power delivery/cooling/caps are all vastly improved, some hard lessons were learned in the preceding years. I never saw so many dead/dying boards as in the 2005-2007 timeframe.