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1.6 northwood or 1.8 northwood?
- Thread starter mmcshmi11
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2001
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- Kansas, USA
Actually, on average they'll both overclock about the same. From what I've been seeing, about 2.4 gig to 2.6 gig depending on the amount of cooling. The 1.6a is a little cheaper, but in my opinion, the 1.8a is currently a hot ticket because RDRAM is at it's sweet spot running at 133 FSB (533 MHz memory bus). The 1.8a Northwood running at 133 FSB puts you at 2.4 gig which is nearly guaranteed with good cooling and maybe a little added vcore. The 1.6a at 133 FSB is running at 2.13 gig, well short of the full potential of the CPU if you want the memory bus to run at full speed. I'm not sure how all this shakes out if you go with DDR RAM and mobo. Hopefully someone else will give us some insight on that option.
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a little cheaper, the 1.6 is alot cheaper, go for that, and hope you can get your ram up.
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2001
- Location
- Kansas, USA
I think he means if you can keep your RAM running at full speed for best performance. Some mobos do allow you to run the memory bus at a slower speed if that is causing you stability problems.
I just checked price watch and the 1.6a is about $50 to $60 less than the 1.8a Northwood. However, at 2.4 gig the 1.6a will be running at 150 FSB and if you have the RDRAM setting at 4X (the max) that means your memory bus is at 600 MHz (600X2=1200). That ain't going to happen with the current PC-800 RDRAM. An Abit TH7-II mobo will allow a memory setting of 3X which would give you a memory bus speed of 450 MHz.
Now there is an advantage to using the 1.6a gig if you are trying to go for extreme overclocking and high FSB. In that case, even at 170 FSB (1.6a @ 2.72 gig) the memory bus could run at the "300" setting for 3X170=510 (or PC-1020). Yep, this is strong possibility with good Samsung RDRAM and good cooling.
However, once the PC-1066 RDRAM is introduced within a couple months, the advantage switches back to the 1.8a again, because then if you run the 1.8a over 133 FSB (greater than 2.4 gig) you'll still be able to run the memory bus at full speed if you have the faster RDRAM. That should give you something to think about.
I just checked price watch and the 1.6a is about $50 to $60 less than the 1.8a Northwood. However, at 2.4 gig the 1.6a will be running at 150 FSB and if you have the RDRAM setting at 4X (the max) that means your memory bus is at 600 MHz (600X2=1200). That ain't going to happen with the current PC-800 RDRAM. An Abit TH7-II mobo will allow a memory setting of 3X which would give you a memory bus speed of 450 MHz.
Now there is an advantage to using the 1.6a gig if you are trying to go for extreme overclocking and high FSB. In that case, even at 170 FSB (1.6a @ 2.72 gig) the memory bus could run at the "300" setting for 3X170=510 (or PC-1020). Yep, this is strong possibility with good Samsung RDRAM and good cooling.
However, once the PC-1066 RDRAM is introduced within a couple months, the advantage switches back to the 1.8a again, because then if you run the 1.8a over 133 FSB (greater than 2.4 gig) you'll still be able to run the memory bus at full speed if you have the faster RDRAM. That should give you something to think about.
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2001
- Location
- Kansas, USA
Oops, nevermind...lol.
Well, figure out how fast your memory can run and do the math to see which processor will peak at your memory's peak. I don't have any DDR experience, so I'll defer this question to someone else.
Well, figure out how fast your memory can run and do the math to see which processor will peak at your memory's peak. I don't have any DDR experience, so I'll defer this question to someone else.
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