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Thinking of Taking the Northwood Dive. Critique My Specs.

A

AGodspeed

Diamond Member
I've been aching to fiddle with a Northwood rig for a while now, and am taking the first steps in doing so in this thread. I've read some of the other NW threads out there and so I have a general idea as to what I should get. Here's what I've been thinking:

1. CPU: 1.6 or 1.8GHz NW. 1.6GHz = $152 GoogleGear. 1.8GHz = $205 GoogleGear.
2. MB: ASUS P4B266-C. $122 Newegg.
3. RAM: Crucial 2 X 256MB DDR PC2100. $75.59 each.
4. HSF: Retail or Cooler Master DI4-73h53D. $15 Newegg.
5. PSU: Antec 300W. $47 Newegg.

I'm not into overclocking that much, but the only reason for getting a 1.6GHz or even 1.8GHz NW is to overclock it. So I'm sure I'd be easily able to crank it up 25-30% or so, hopefully without changing the voltage, since I want this rig to last (but I shouldn't be overclocking anyway if that's the case 😀).

I've never bought Samsung RAM before (just Crucial and Kingston) so I don't know how good it is for overclocking. I'm also not sure if I should go with a 300W or 350W PSU.

Any comments are greatly appreciated.
 
well yesterday i bought my 1.6a and p4b266-c from googlegear on 2day shipping for 285. thats only 2 weeks after getting my 8kha and 1700+. hopefully, ebay will bring in enough money to minize the money lost in "upgrading". luckly, i have a radeon and some parts laying around i can sell off. i will be running crucial and an enermax. if u'd like to wait until tuesday, i cna give u my results. ;D
 
Well the 1.6ghz should hit 2.1ghz with default voltage and 2.4-2.5ghz with 1.65v plus. I was thinking about the 1.8 for another setup because they are hitting 2.4ghz as well ,but with that asus board and its 3:4 option you could do 18x132=2376 but your memory will be running at super high speeds. Right now im at 20x127 and my memory is running at 172FSB according to sandra with 2500/2500 scores,faster than PC800 RDRAM. At 132 FSB you could see 180+ FSB for the memory which is really good for feeding the bandwith hungry P4. Sorry if I confused you but either way you go it will be an awesome setup, but if everything goes right the 1.8@2.4ghz will have higher memory bandwith than the 1.6ghz@2.4ghz.
 


<< I'm not into overclocking that much, but the only reason for getting a 1.6GHz or even 1.8GHz NW is to overclock it. So I'm sure I'd be easily able to crank it up 25-30% or so, hopefully without changing the voltage, since I want this rig to last (but I shouldn't be overclocking anyway if that's the case ). >>


Just got my P4B266+P41.6A running last night and it went right to 133mhz fsb no voltage change,went to 145mhz with a .1 voltage change to get Prime95 to run for 3 hours.Easiest overclock I've done so far and.Only thing I want is a bios update to correct the temp readings.






P.S. Ilike to overclock😉
 
Personally I'd go for the i850 coupled with RDRAM, but whatever floats your boat.. 🙂
 
I'd go for Abit TH7II+Samsung/Corsair RDRAM rather than P4B266-C+PC2100. It'll last longer because it supports 533fsb unoffically+PC1066
 
I'd go for Abit TH7II+Samsung/Corsair RDRAM rather than P4B266-C+PC2100. It'll last longer because it supports 533fsb unoffically+PC1066

I think the P4B266 also unofficially supports the 533FSB as it has the PCI and AGP buses locked up until 133FSB in turbo 1 mode.
 
DN, he wouldn't go for a i850 chipset based board because RDRAM overclocks like crap. I would go with the 1.6GHz Northwood because I've heard that it and the 1.8GHz overclock to about the same so you'd save a little money.
 
Thanks for the comments guys. I'm glad that I'll probably be able to get a nice, solid overclock without voltage changes.

I should also mention the ASUS P4S333M board (SiS 645). It's about $20 cheaper than the ASUS P4B266-C and supposedly overclocks just as well with 1MHz bus adjustments up to 200MHz.
 
You can get a Antec 350 watt ps from newegg.com for 47.00 plus shipping. You might want to opt for this option just case for few periphals or case fans.
 
i just bought the MSI Ultra 845 and NW 1.6a from newegg, i should get it by tuesday.

not sure why more people aren't getting the MSI i think it was like $73.00.

 
AGodspeed, dont get the "M" version, there are no voltage adjustments in the bios, you would be limited to adjusting the voltage by doing the wire trick, wrapping wire around pins on the cpu.
 
The "M" is micro atx.

The P4S333 has voltage adjustment in the bios as well as memory ratios to the cpu fsb, it lets you run the memory at the same speed as the cpu fsb or faster/slower than the cpu fsb.
 


<< think the P4B266 also unofficially supports the 533FSB as it has the PCI and AGP buses locked up until 133FSB in turbo 1 mode. >>

Yes, but PC2100 doesn't benefit at all from 533fsb while, PC1066 RDRAM on 533fsb will rock.

<< DN, he wouldn't go for a i850 chipset based board because RDRAM overclocks like crap. I would go with the 1.6GHz Northwood because I've heard that it and the 1.8GHz overclock to about the same so you'd save a little money. >>

RDRAM may have in the past oced like crap, but not any more. Pretty much all Samsung/Corsair PC800 will hit PC1066 speeds😀
 
Here's what you get when you overclock a P4 1.6A on a P4T-E with 512Mb of PC800 RDRAM. Sandra memory results are influenced somewhat by processor speed, so you'd probably get even better results with a 1.8A (although you'd have to perform the pin trick). Even then, the results would probably be higher if all sorts of GUI crap wasn't enabled, and the task tray wasn't loaded up to the wazoo with background utils.
 
Thanks for the info guys. Upon further investigation, it looks like I might go with an i850 board, possibly the ASUS P4T-E.

I'll keep researching....
 


<< Thanks for the info guys. Upon further investigation, it looks like I might go with an i850 board, possibly the ASUS P4T-E.

I'll keep researching.... >>

There's also a micro ATX version of the P4T-E called the P4T-EM. It's basically the same board, but with only two PCI slots.
 


<<

<< Thanks for the info guys. Upon further investigation, it looks like I might go with an i850 board, possibly the ASUS P4T-E.

I'll keep researching.... >>

There's also a micro ATX version of the P4T-E called the P4T-EM. It's basically the same board, but with only two PCI slots. >>

Cool, thanks for the info, but I have no need for mATX....
 


<< There's also a micro ATX version of the P4T-E called the P4T-EM. It's basically the same board, but with only two PCI slots. >>

Cool, thanks for the info, but I have no need for mATX....[/i] >>

You may not have a need, but the board itself is cheaper.
 


<<

<< There's also a micro ATX version of the P4T-E called the P4T-EM. It's basically the same board, but with only two PCI slots. >>

Cool, thanks for the info, but I have no need for mATX.... >>

You may not have a need, but the board itself is cheaper.[/i] >>

Yeah, but I definitely need more than 2 PCI slots....
 


<<

<< Yeah, but I definitely need more than 2 PCI slots.... >>

Ah, as do I. I have a P4T-EM for my LAN box, though. >>

For LAN parties and such, the mATX might be nice though, you're right.
 
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