Upgrading CPU Northwood or Prescott

[matermoh]

Hello all,

I just won some money playing poker, so I figured why not upgrade my 2.4C processor. I want to purchase a 3.4 Northwood, but I really can't find them. I've heard the 3.4 Prescott is worse...but is the difference great? Where can I find a Northwood 3.4? I have a socket 478 MSI mobo, and its new, so switching to AMD 64 is out of question.

THANKS A BUNCH!!!!

 

[Matrix21]

You could Find a northwood P4 on Ebay

 

[RussianSensation]

Before you do that, 2.4C's overclock like champions. You should easily squeeze 3.0ghz out of it. 3.4+ ghz is not out of the question at 1.65 Vcore. Try overclocking first.

 

[imported_bum]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Before you do that, 2.4C's overclock like champions. You should easily squeeze 3.0ghz out of it. 3.4+ ghz is not out of the question at 1.65 Vcore. Try overclocking first.

I agree. It's tempting to spend the money, but at least see what you can do with this thing first. If you get a decent overclock, maybe you'd better benefit from another ram stick, etc. If you are new to overclocking go ahead and search these forums, I'm sure there are plenty of helpful threads on the topic.

 

[stevty2889]

3.4 northwoods are pretty rare and over priced, why not get a 3.2ghz northwood and overclock it a bit. I wouldn't get a 3.4 prescott unless you have a very good aftermarket heatsink. Even a Thermalright XP-120 couldn't keep my 3.4 prescott from overheating and throttling. My Prescott runs almost as warm on water cooling as my 3.06ghz northwood does at 3.45ghz on air, and even at 3.8ghz, the prescott loses in a lot of areas to my old trusty northwood.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

I'd get a 2.8 northwood and overclock that beast!

 

[Sentential]

If your mobo supports Prescott I would go with that. Its well documented that E0 Prescott will clock much better and will in addition be much faster in games than will a Northie.

 

[MrC4]

I would buy this 3.2 Northwood before anything with a prescott core. Retail box for $271.99 is not too bad!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116164

 

[matermoh]

Cool thanks for the advice. I guess I try some OCing, and upgrade to a 3.2 Northwood a few months down the road.

 

[HomicidalSloth]

2.4C's are AWESOME overclockers. Even if you just get it to 3 ghZ, the BUS speed is so high it will blow away anything else in the 3 ghZ area. Definitely play with your 2.4C first, especially if you can get your hands on some good ram.