- Joined
- Sep 15, 2001
Well I just got my new 2.6c P4 and a IS7 with 1x512MB of Kingston HyperX Cas2 2-2-2 DDR. The Machine I upgraded from was a 1700+ @ 2GHz at the time, I became use to the quickness of the 2.0GHz of AMD power with 166 Bus. It did everything I wanted it to do but my reason For upgrading was to compair Intel to AMD on the grounds of price/preformence for my customers at my work.
In the past I have used: K6-2's, PII's, pIII's, Athlons, Athlon Xp's, Durons, Celerons, and even VIA's. What was keeping my from trying the P4 was the price, but now that I found a much better source for money this is no longer an issue. With much research and contemplation I fell upon the purchase or a Intel P4 2.6c with HT and 800FSB, the abit IS7 with the Springdale i865 chipset, and one stick of single channel Kingston Cas2 2-2-2 DDR 3200. Overall with a Heatsink it cost a hair under $450usd.
My first impressions were that the products that I bought looked to be of high quality which should be the case with such a pricey (for me) buy. The processor was quite heavy for how small it looked, and the pins looked easy to bind because of the size but this was not the case as they were sturdy and stout. The board had may features that I liked and use such as 3 Firewire Ports, 8 USB2, Gigabit Ethernet, SATA, RAID 0, and the overall look and rugged build. Also I found the stock Intel mounting system to be near flawless and easy to use.
CPU Preformence was at par (stock) with my Athlon that was at 2.0GHz, the Windows 2000 Pro Install went easy and as it should with a quick system, I went trough the typical driver install as well as all my programs. Updated windows to current status and set my desktop and all other personal touches. Overall the system (stock) was quick, a little faster IMO then my Athlon which is about right when compairing AMD power to Intel power, but to run the 2.6 stock was not the reason for me picking it, it was to Overclock it (duh of course ).
My overclocking AMD experence was extensive, I took a 1.47 and pushed it to 2.45GHz on Air which for ANY AMD is a accomplishment in itself. So I was not a rookie to making a Chip come to it's knees when squeezing it for every ounce of preformence. I started playing with the Memory and the FSB settings, I locked the AGP and PCI busses so they would not hamper any attempt to push this chip. I first started to see the limits of my ram, I played with settings and came the relize that I got one of the worst sticks (OC-wise) that I have ever bought. It would only do as sold nothing more. So now with a semi dud stick of memory I just got screwed on unlocking the true memory bandwith of this chip, well cannot blame the processor for this folly my next try was to push this new chip of mine to insane levels, I heavly relaxed the ram, and put the 3:2 CPU:RAM ratio to make sure that the ram would not keep me from reaching a high chip overclock, to bad for me I still had a Tried and true 350w Powersupply that I used on my athlon which rails stood strong in the face of heavy air cooled overclocking. The only thing I did not factor was that this P4 Draws heavly off the 12v rail which sorry for me was not enough for this thursty P4. When in the hight of my 1700+ overclock my 12v rail never diped below 12v but stock this processor took this rail to sub 11.8v range and with a slight overclock at 2.9GHz it pulled the rail to a horrable 11.68v. Damn an other upgrade . Sorry to say that the OC aspect of my first look will not happen till this tempory problem finds it's 530w fix.
The Stock feeling was in ways much quicker then my Athlon, for one my HDD sandra scores were Much faster then my VIA based KT333 board, (now this proves VIA sucks). Any I/O opreations were from a little quicker to noticeably quicker. This is just as importain as any clock speed, becuase this is usally the bottle neck in almost any system. Also one thing that is cool and often overrated it Hyper-Threading, it has it's pluses but as a realistic and useable technology it is still in it's infancy.
Overall the P4 is a real plus in any upgrade, as for power it has a little more then AMD but this comes at a price, but what I really like about the P4 based system is that it has a much cleaner chipset that is the Backbone, and basically makes or breakes the system in teams of speed and reliably. As I said before my PSU is keeping me from finding the limits of this hopefully highly overclockable chip. All in all it is a cool upgrade not becuase of it's speed but the usefull features that can be found on almost any Intel based board.
In the past I have used: K6-2's, PII's, pIII's, Athlons, Athlon Xp's, Durons, Celerons, and even VIA's. What was keeping my from trying the P4 was the price, but now that I found a much better source for money this is no longer an issue. With much research and contemplation I fell upon the purchase or a Intel P4 2.6c with HT and 800FSB, the abit IS7 with the Springdale i865 chipset, and one stick of single channel Kingston Cas2 2-2-2 DDR 3200. Overall with a Heatsink it cost a hair under $450usd.
My first impressions were that the products that I bought looked to be of high quality which should be the case with such a pricey (for me) buy. The processor was quite heavy for how small it looked, and the pins looked easy to bind because of the size but this was not the case as they were sturdy and stout. The board had may features that I liked and use such as 3 Firewire Ports, 8 USB2, Gigabit Ethernet, SATA, RAID 0, and the overall look and rugged build. Also I found the stock Intel mounting system to be near flawless and easy to use.
CPU Preformence was at par (stock) with my Athlon that was at 2.0GHz, the Windows 2000 Pro Install went easy and as it should with a quick system, I went trough the typical driver install as well as all my programs. Updated windows to current status and set my desktop and all other personal touches. Overall the system (stock) was quick, a little faster IMO then my Athlon which is about right when compairing AMD power to Intel power, but to run the 2.6 stock was not the reason for me picking it, it was to Overclock it (duh of course ).
My overclocking AMD experence was extensive, I took a 1.47 and pushed it to 2.45GHz on Air which for ANY AMD is a accomplishment in itself. So I was not a rookie to making a Chip come to it's knees when squeezing it for every ounce of preformence. I started playing with the Memory and the FSB settings, I locked the AGP and PCI busses so they would not hamper any attempt to push this chip. I first started to see the limits of my ram, I played with settings and came the relize that I got one of the worst sticks (OC-wise) that I have ever bought. It would only do as sold nothing more. So now with a semi dud stick of memory I just got screwed on unlocking the true memory bandwith of this chip, well cannot blame the processor for this folly my next try was to push this new chip of mine to insane levels, I heavly relaxed the ram, and put the 3:2 CPU:RAM ratio to make sure that the ram would not keep me from reaching a high chip overclock, to bad for me I still had a Tried and true 350w Powersupply that I used on my athlon which rails stood strong in the face of heavy air cooled overclocking. The only thing I did not factor was that this P4 Draws heavly off the 12v rail which sorry for me was not enough for this thursty P4. When in the hight of my 1700+ overclock my 12v rail never diped below 12v but stock this processor took this rail to sub 11.8v range and with a slight overclock at 2.9GHz it pulled the rail to a horrable 11.68v. Damn an other upgrade . Sorry to say that the OC aspect of my first look will not happen till this tempory problem finds it's 530w fix.
The Stock feeling was in ways much quicker then my Athlon, for one my HDD sandra scores were Much faster then my VIA based KT333 board, (now this proves VIA sucks). Any I/O opreations were from a little quicker to noticeably quicker. This is just as importain as any clock speed, becuase this is usally the bottle neck in almost any system. Also one thing that is cool and often overrated it Hyper-Threading, it has it's pluses but as a realistic and useable technology it is still in it's infancy.
Overall the P4 is a real plus in any upgrade, as for power it has a little more then AMD but this comes at a price, but what I really like about the P4 based system is that it has a much cleaner chipset that is the Backbone, and basically makes or breakes the system in teams of speed and reliably. As I said before my PSU is keeping me from finding the limits of this hopefully highly overclockable chip. All in all it is a cool upgrade not becuase of it's speed but the usefull features that can be found on almost any Intel based board.