Northwood or Prescott???

[bopbop]

Hi,

Which one to get between the 2 CPU

P4 3.0 Northwood with 800 FSB or the P4 3.0 Prescott with 800 FSB, will probably OC in the future, mostly do moderate gaming and the PC is on 24/7. Current memory is OCZ Plat. PC3200 2gb (2 x 1GB), Mobo is 478 socket Abit IC7-G.

Thanks

 

[ps2cho]

Don't the prescott's have more L2 cache?

If you are honestly looking to buy either of these...Dont.

Do you have a budget? Even the cheap Celeron-L's are alot better than the 3Ghz Northwoods/Prescotts!!

 

[JLK03F150]

IMO you should go with the Northwood. It's faster than the Prescott - clock for clock - at stock speeds, & even under a mild overclock. It will maintain lower temps, which is helpful for 24/7 use.

The Prescott can pull away from the Northwood around 3.8GHz & above, but it takes really good cooling to get there.

 

[UBB]

If that's the only choice, I'd go Northwood.

 

[bopbop]

Yeah I'm not really don't want to go extreme with my cooling for the cpu if I OC this 3.0 I probably go for 3.4-3.5, I currently have a zalman CNPS9500. So what s the diff between the 2 cpu anyways, is there a feature in prescott that set this apart from the northwood.

 

[MadMan007]

What's your current CPU? I assume you're doing this to recycle parts which is fine but at some point you're going to have to do a full upgrade anyway and if your current CPU isn't bad it may not be worthwhile to buy one of these unless it's uber cheap. The low price C2Ds (Celeron and Pentium e2xxx) are great bargains and will easily beat either one of those. The decision is up to you of course

 

[JLK03F150]

Northwood - 512Kb L2 cache, 20 stage pipeline, 82 watts

Prescott - 1024Kb L2 cache, 31 stage pipeline, 89 watts

The deeper pipeline and extra wattage are what hurt the Prescott when compared to a Northwood.

 

[meionm]

Northwood at the same clock speed was tad faster than prescott. Prescott also produced more heat and consumed more power.

 

[bopbop]

Ok. thanks for the info, will it matter if I get a box cpu or a oem or this stepping codes or a 30 capper?

 

[ps2cho]

Ok. thanks for the info, will it matter if I get a box cpu or a oem or this stepping codes or a 30 capper?

Why do you want to get one of these processors anyway? You can get a Celeron 420 + LGA775 motherboard for like $30 dollars more. You can even stay AGP and DDR and you can get way faster performance, less energy usage and a higher overclock!!

 

[bopbop]

coz. I have a abit ic7-g and do not want to spend $$$

 

[The Coolest]

Sell it.
And upgrade to current tech. I see no point in getting a P4 now...

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

Northwood at the same clock speed was tad faster than prescott. Prescott also produced more heat and consumed more power.

i recall reading once the pressy got over 3.2 it was faster then a northy, but alot hotter too

 

[JLK03F150]

i recall reading once the pressy got over 3.2 it was faster then a northy, but alot hotter too

I think the Prescott overtakes the Northwood around 3.8GHz. My 3.2C was a lot better than my 3.4E up to 3.7GHz - the Northwood's max oc. The 3.4E could reach 4.1GHz though, under water.

 

[Karadhas]

That may be, but prescott's also have a tendency of literally melting the motherboard they are set in even when adequately cooled. I had a tuniq tower on mine keeping it around 51-52C load when it was 80F or higher in my apartment and the 4pin power plug STILL melted into the motherboard.

 

[UBB]

I had a tuniq tower on mine keeping it around 51-52C load when it was 80F or higher in my apartment and the 4pin power plug STILL melted into the motherboard.

Sounds like you had a bad PSU.

 

[orion456]

The newest prescotts were not hotter than the northwoods. A few years ago I bought a prescott for a friend's board and was very surprised to find no heat problem at all compared to my northwood. I believe he OCed a 3.2 to 3.6 using an sp-90 with no problem. When the Prescott went from 90 to 65nm Intel cut the leakage by 75% and made the Prescotts better chips than Northwood.

If you want a cooler Prescott, find the 65nm version called Cedar Mill.

 

[Moto7451]

I vote for something Conroe based. You're going to have to spend money at some point for a new motherboard. Fry's has some great combo deals, and when you have 100 posts you can access the classifieds and grab some great deals on good hardware.

 

[imposter]

That may be, but prescott's also have a tendency of literally melting the motherboard they are set in even when adequately cooled. I had a tuniq tower on mine keeping it around 51-52C load when it was 80F or higher in my apartment and the 4pin power plug STILL melted into the motherboard.

He speaks the truth, His powersupplies 4 pin Mobo melted hahah along with Dguy's.

I agree on the coolest though to sell everything and get something better.

3000+ A64 is 50% cheaper and is just as good, if not faster.

 

[oakstave]

Northwood, if you only have those two choices.

Prescott runs hotter. I have one. I have to run with the case open, or I am deafened by the stock cooler. Both have very similar specs.