NorthWood or not NorthWood

[Escuchamezz]

I'm buying a new computer this week, is the 1.8ghz processor i've seen with 512kb cache a new Northwood one, as the older one has only 256 cache.
Also do you think its worth spending an extra £200 ~$300 for the new one?
i heard the northwoods can be overclocked much more.

thanks

[jazztrumpet216]

Yes, the Northwoods can be OC'd a lot more, but it's rumored that the sub- 2GHz ones were binned lower, they were the CPUs that couldn't make the 2GHz cut. But even if they can't be OCed more than 100 or 200MHz, the Northwood is still a better processor than the Wilamette can ever be... mainly due to the .13u construction process and the bigger cache.

[Yodums]

I'd say go for it. The Williamette P4's were IMHO a disapointment on the other hand the Northwood lit up a spark towards AMD competition. Seriously I'd go for it. What motherboard are you using and ram?

[Escuchamezz]

i'm using the Abit TH7II-RAID motherboard with 512mb of RDRam

i might go for it, i'll see tomorrow:eh?:

[Yodums]

Well you should take our recommendation :D

But what P4 are you on now? A low end Williamette because if you go to an upgrade of another Willamette wouldn't necessarly but an upgrade. Just remember if you buy it flash the bios to the most recent then put the Northwood in.

Yodums

[maxleo]

>...ones were binned lower, they were
> the CPUs that couldn't make the 2GHz
> cut. ...

I have very different information: the 1.8 northwood just made it in a test to 2.4 with IHS and 133Hz; see
http://www.chip.de/news_stories/news_stories_8638357.html

Rumors ok; but maybe: producing costs of the northwood are lower i read, so why shoud intel not replace 'slowly' the old with the new for the same price (by the way:why 300$ more?!.. did not get that!) without confusing too much the market.

A northwood 1.8 is by itself - have read this somewhere - until 10% faster than 'old' 1.8.

The bad side is, it's not easy to get one.
I try get one tomorrow (instead of a 1.2/1.5 celeron solution)

The price/performance ratio from my point of view is very interesting; maybe similar tualatin celeron 1.2; but you're on P4 upgrade-path then.
maybe see also
http://forums.overclockers.ws/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59749



I'll publish my experiences with the 1.8/2.4 as soon I got.

:burn:

[Yodums]

Originally posted by maxleo
>...ones were binned lower, they were
> the CPUs that couldn't make the 2GHz
> cut. ...

I have very different information: the 1.8 northwood just made it in a test to 2.4 with IHS and 133Hz; see
http://www.chip.de/news_stories/news_stories_8638357.html

Rumors ok; but maybe: producing costs of the northwood are lower i read, so why shoud intel not replace 'slowly' the old with the new for the same price (by the way:why 300$ more?!.. did not get that!) without confusing too much the market.

A northwood 1.8 is by itself - have read this somewhere - until 10% faster than 'old' 1.8.

The bad side is, it's not easy to get one.
I try get one tomorrow (instead of a 1.2/1.5 celeron solution)

The price/performance ratio from my point of view is very interesting; maybe similar tualatin celeron 1.2; but you're on P4 upgrade-path then.
maybe see also
http://forums.overclockers.ws/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59749



I'll publish my experiences with the 1.8/2.4 as soon I got.

:burn:

I don't fully understand your post. The new Northwood really beat out the old Willamette where the old 1.8 Willamette were being beaten by a 1.4 AMD Tbird. While the Northwood were being compared to overclocked XP+ (At least to Tom's biased review).

Actually its the price of the low end Northwood 1.6 and 1.8 which is amazing as they are fairly cheap. Although hard to find as they just been released there about 160 for 1.6 and near 200 - 220 for the 1.8.

Yodums