Worth the upgrade??

[jjmIII]

I'm upgrading my father-in-laws rig.
Is it worth it? I found the "new" CPU for $11 shipped.

Current: Celeron S478 2600mhz 400bus 128kb

to

Upgrade: P4 S478 2800mhz 800bus 1M Prescott EDIT: it's a Northwood SL6WJ 512kb

Just looking to move IE8 along a bit faster ....seems like his rig is getting slower, but is clean running. Machine is running 2x512mb DDR400, and dual 1gb sticks seem too expensive (only 2 dimm slots).

Thanks -Jim

 

[faxon]

for $11 it's definitely worth it. the larger cache will probably the biggest boost, though even it is only just adequate by today's standards. it's true, spending $60 on 2gb of DDR is ridiculous, but again, for $11, i would say go for it. it wont be a huge speed boost, but it will be good enough for what you want to boost. you will want to keep an eye on that rig though, now is the time im noticing a lot of people coming in with old pentium 4 rigs that are starting to die of old age (478 ones mostly), looking for new parts. i myself have a dead S478 motherboard with a 2.8ghz northwood w/HT in it that i might be looking to sell off for $20 or so. the CPU as far as i know still works

 

[Arkaign]

Check your mobo to make sure it's supported, and make sure the P4 comes with adequate cooling (or your current cooling is good enough?) .. the Prescotts are fire-breathers.

Yes, that's a pretty large upgrade. Lots of S478 boards (particularly those that came with Pre-D series Celerons) won't run the Prescotts. If it's a typical old i845 board, odds are Prescott is not an option, due to the different voltage.

 

[faxon]

if it doesnt work with your board OP, i can do my 2.8GHz northwood (130nm, 800FSB, hyperthreading, 512kb L2) for $20. where do you live?

 

[jjmIII]

The mobo should have no problems with a Prescott, and has plenty of life (time-wise) at only three years old.

I am a little concerned about the HSF...a cheap AVC alum unit. The Allied 300W should be ok. It's a cheap-o, but only running a DVD-RW, floppy, 80gb and FX5200 agp.

Funny thing is these old CPUs run high loads doing modern computing, and it bumps the heat issue up even more.

Got my p4 here....7 left.

I have a machine I'm selling to a buddy with a P4 1.8 (400bus). Should I put the 2.6 Celly in there?

 

[jjmIII]

SWEET! Looks like the chip is a 30 cap SL6WJ Northwood. Not sure why I thought it was a Preshott.

Makes me feel like $11 was a steal!

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: jjmIII
SWEET! Looks like the chip is a 30 cap SL6WJ Northwood. Not sure why I thought it was a Preshott.

Makes me feel like $11 was a steal!

^^Icing right there.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: Denithor

Originally posted by: jjmIII
SWEET! Looks like the chip is a 30 cap SL6WJ Northwood. Not sure why I thought it was a Preshott.

Makes me feel like $11 was a steal!

^^Icing right there.

Heh, what on earth was a 128k L2 Celeron doing on that board?

Yes, definitely a win with the Northwood. The Irwindale/Prescott2M P4s weren't too bad, but don't think they made them in S478. Cedar Mill was actually pretty awesome, but by that time AMD64 was stealing the thunder bigtime. Original Prescott was just too damned hot. $11 is definitely a steal.

We're practically talking antiques here, but that is going to be about the best $11 anyone's spent. The non-D Celeron is nearly useless, but the P4 can still truck along decently for most things, provided the rest of the system is capable.

 

[jjmIII]

Originally posted by: jjmIII
I have a machine I'm selling to a buddy with a P4 1.8 (400bus). Should I put the 2.6 Celly in there?

OK...so the new 2.8 P4 is going in, BUT should I put the 2.6 Celly in to replace a 1.8 P4 on a 400 bus??

The Celly is 800mhz faster, but half the cache (128kb vs 256kb). Obviously the Celly wins then? Right?

 

[Arcanedeath]

a 2.6Ghz 128k celeron is faster that 1.8 400 bus p4, but not by a whole lot.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: Arcanedeath
a 2.6Ghz 128k celeron is faster that 1.8 400 bus p4, but not by a whole lot.

Shockingly, the 1.8 / 400 / 256k P4 dominates the 2.6Ghz Celeron.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=1927&p=17

I think it has to do with the deliberate crippling Intel used on that gen Celeron, it not only has less cache, it has notably higher latency for L1 and L2 cache access, and a different and less efficient way of accessing it (lower set associativity IIRC).

 

[jjmIII]

Wow, cool....thanks for the link. Makes me think about my OP. The 2800mhz P4c should be a bigger boost than I thought.

I will leave the 1800mhz P4a in place, and ouuuuut with the Celly!

 

[jjmIII]

Well....got the 2.8 Northwood today. It ended up being a 12 cap, but I didn't OC anyhow.
VEEEERY nice boost for $11 from that old Cel2.6. I listed it for $7.99...so, even less I guess.

The system really needs a set of 1gb DDR sticks though. Too bad DDR is soo expensive now .