What is the difference between..

Northwood and Prescott?

Prescott's have a 1MB L2 Cache while,

Northwoods have 512KB L2 Cache

Prescott has 2x larger and 2x slower L1 cache, 2x larger and 2.5x slower L2 cache, has more than 2x the amount of transistors, has Enhanced SpeedStep & Thermal Monitor 2 implemented (but not yet enabled - ask Intel why), it's pipeline is about 1.5x longer (means lower performance), has hardware bit rotation and other smaller not that important enhancements to architecture like SSE3 instructions that only 0.00001% of applications use.

Prescott has also much higher power dissipation:

Northwood = 101W max.
Prescott up to 3.2 GHz = 100W
Prescott 3.4 GHz and some series of 3.2 GHz for s478 = 115W
Prescott 3.6 GHz and 3.4 GHz for LGA775 = 151W

And Prescott has about twice the power consumption in idle due to serious leakage problems. If you want advice then I say go Northwood - it is very old now but still better.

Alright, thanks, i think that answered my question =)

Oh, and im planning to oc in the 3.75GHz range (3.0 default), should i still go northwood, or can they not support that high?

def go northwood. get a 3.0C with 30 caps and you may be able to make it to 3.75.

Both 3.0's are good overclockers. Some people ae getting 3.8 on the Prescott's, but excellent cooling is a must. If your cooling is air, then go Northwood. Even if it's WC, northwood is still the better one IMO

northwood = 130nm
prescott = 90nm

. Even if it's WC, northwood is still the better one IMO

Click to expand...

ima havta disagree with you here...some of the best OC's have come from prescotts, but water-extreme cooling is needed. air will limit your OC on a prescott. the northwood is still what you want.

if u have very good cooling pick prescott
it like to overclock , but it like heat too