What's Wrong With P4's?

My first Northwood was a 2.2A - I bought it when the Northwoods first hit the shelves - last Feb I guess it was. It hit 3GHz with a Swiftech water block on a TH7II and 1.85 volts. Now days it seems people are buying much higher grade chips and struggling to get to the same mark that chip did nearly a year ago. When that chip burned out I got a 2.4B and it wouldn't get past 2.6. Is it just me, or does it seem like Intel tried harder when the Northwoods first came out, then they started binning more selectively? Now there's the 3.06 chip which is a different breed from the slower chips. I wonder if the first batch of 3.06's will be similar. People are hitting 3.7 on air with the first batch. I wonder if they'll get worse in a month or two?

I think the odds of a good overclock are in fact improving over time. From looking around here, you can see how overclocks have gradually improved. Not so long ago a 1.8 was advised against for being a poor overclocker.

Logic also dictates this trend, as Intel's yields will improve by process enhancements and the chips themselves will become better too (think of semi-stepping changes).

All in all I think you've had an oddball experience, especially with the 2.2...

You say you bought that 2.2 when it first came out, so that means you had _the_ top bin for a while. Top-bin chips do quite well since they will run at least as fast as their rated speed -- and usually faster. This is the phenomenon some people are seeing with the 3.06.

On the other hand, with mid-bin chips there's a pretty good chance that the chip has marginal silicon. That is, the chip could not handle top-bin speed and was slowed down accordingly. Once the 3.06 chips become downbins of 3.2 and 3.4Ghz parts, they may not overclock so well either.

NookieN said:

You say you bought that 2.2 when it first came out, so that means you had _the_ top bin for a while. Top-bin chips do quite well since they will run at least as fast as their rated speed -- and usually faster. This is the phenomenon some people are seeing with the 3.06.

On the other hand, with mid-bin chips there's a pretty good chance that the chip has marginal silicon. That is, the chip could not handle top-bin speed and was slowed down accordingly. Once the 3.06 chips become downbins of 3.2 and 3.4Ghz parts, they may not overclock so well either.

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I tend to agree with that - all good points here. Better grab my 3.06 soon