Small update: which P4 should I take ?

[SpeedyGonzales]

Hi guys,

I want to do a small system update, as I am running a crappy 1st generation 1.8P4 (from Dec 2001) that overclocks only to 2.3 Ghz.

I am running it on a Abit BD7 (845D chipset) board, with PC266 (Kingston) Ram and I do not want to change the mainboard or the RAM at the moment, this will only happen early next year.

The mainboard and RAM will not allow me to do extreme overclocking, so I would be happy to run a 2.0a at 2.66Ghz with 533FSB, I assume my chances should be near 100%.

There is just one question: the 2.4 is just 30Euros more (equals more or less 30 USD). Is it worth going for the 2.4 in order to have that speed "guaranteed" and simply do less overclocking ? BTW, is it correct to say, that each 2.5Ghz P4 is by default a C1 stepping ?

Cheers
Speedy

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: SpeedyGonzales
Hi guys,

I want to do a small system update, as I am running a crappy 1st generation 1.8P4 (from Dec 2001) that overclocks only to 2.3 Ghz.

I am running it on a Abit BD7 (845D chipset) board, with PC266 (Kingston) Ram and I do not want to change the mainboard or the RAM at the moment, this will only happen early next year.

The mainboard and RAM will not allow me to do extreme overclocking, so I would be happy to run a 2.0a at 2.66Ghz with 533FSB, I assume my chances should be near 100%.

There is just one question: the 2.4 is just 30Euros more (equals more or less 30 USD). Is it worth going for the 2.4 in order to have that speed "guaranteed" and simply do less overclocking ? BTW, is it correct to say, that each 2.5Ghz P4 is by default a C1 stepping ?

Cheers
Speedy

Yes all 2.5s are C1s at 400FSB with a high multiplier of 25. With 2.4, regardless if it is C1 or B0 steppings, are still luck of the draw if you can overclock these sucessfully or not. Some are great at 2.8, other not so great, and some exceptional ones going over 3ghz.

 

[SpeedyGonzales]

Thx Thor86,

lost already the hope, that someone answers. Ok, with the information you gave me, i thinkt the 2.4 does not make sense. Either I try the 2.0a at 533FSB or I try to get the 2.5a to 480FSB, that would be 3Ghz, should be possible with a C1 stepping. Price difference between the two CPUs is around 90 Euros.

Cheers
Speedy

 

[Duvie]

I would go with the 2.4b chip as it has the 18x multiplier and you are still likely 100% certain to get 2.66ghz but instead you will have near 600mhz fsb instead of 533.

All of this is ofcourse as long as you ram can handle at least 300mhz or so....

If tha pc266 which I assume may mean 266mhz ddr or pc2100 you may not want anything higher then 133 or 533fsb so then go with the 2.0a...Stay away from the 2.5 as the multiplier is too high and even if it is a c1 you may still not get to 3ghz and havea low system fsb to boot....

 

[SpeedyGonzales]

I have no idea how far I can go with my memory. I always ran my 1.8a between 512 and 533 FSB (but it is not Prime95 stable at 533). I will do some tests tomorrow and post the results. If I can get it up to 150 (specs are 133/PC2100) using the 4:3 ratio for testing, the 2.4 with the 18multiplier may be a good option.

Thx for your input Duvie

Cheers
Speedy

 

[SpeedyGonzales]

I can boot into windows running it at 300Mhz. However the machine fails in Prime95.

After some more testing I am quite confident, that I can not expect more than 280Mhz. I have not tried to increase the DRAM voltage. This old DDRAM is not the best match for an 2.4b. I will sleep over it again, but a new 2.0a seems to be the best, as long as I do not upgrade both RAM and Mobo.

Cheers
Speedy