Pentium 4 Northwoods (forget Conroe)

C

CRXican

[H]ard|Gawd
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I'm into buying the old while everyone clamors for the new stuff but I have a semi-serious question/concern. I'm looking specifically at Skt 478 in this case.

With all of the AMD price drops and the quite decent DDR2 prices it's difficult to resist upgrading to the latest gear.

I'm seeking opinions on why people are still asking over $100 for old P4 Northwood CPUs and $75 for old 478 mobos when a new AMD X2 3800+ can be had for less than $200 and in some cases, close to $100.

Am I totally stupid for just picking up a P4P800SE for $75?
 
I'm hoping that soon the prices on the old chips will finally get reasonable. I got a 478 board I can upgrade to a 2.8ghz northwood and 2 370s that I want to put 1.2ghz P3s into, but with prices still around $90 for the northwood, it's nowhere near worth it.
 
My previous rig was a 2.4 northwood OC's to 3.2 and it was plenty speedy. I had the same mobo that you are looking at.

It was ROCK SOLID stable
 
Rare1 said:
My previous rig was a 2.4 northwood OC's to 3.2 and it was plenty speedy. I had the same mobo that you are looking at.

It was ROCK SOLID stable
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That's really my main reason for forking over the money (again). I had the same mobo before, maybe the deluxe version with a 2.4C ocd to 3.0Ghz. I LOVED it, totally stable and cool running.

Long story short, my friends AMD PC died (haha) and I sold the P4 rig to him. I really regret it now, considering the prices. He even has my sweet ass SP-94 CPU cooler.
 
Yeah, you'd be totally stupid to buy into s478 when you can get X2 for a few bucks more. You're looking at spending $175 on an Intel setup, when you can get a 3800+ for $150 and an ASRock Dual for $60. Bringing the AMD total to $210 and the Intel total to $175. For $35 more, the X2 will wipe the floor with the Northwood.
 
my 2.4c is at 3.2ghz on a $40 ASRock socket478 mobo right now i'm using for my media center. solid so far. been running at 3.2 for 3 years on my abit previously.the 2.4c is an excellent deal if you can find one on ebay for less than $50 or have one lying around. Don't even need fast ram. If you have a little extra cash though, go for a newer athlon.
 
hmm, already commited to buying the mobo

I guess I can try and sell it after I get it, likely for a loss. I just won't have a CPU to test it. Guess I'll keep my fingers crossed.
 
The best CPU for the P4P800-SE is not the Pentium-4 Northwood, but rather the Pentium-M Dothan. If you can find a S479 adapter and get a Pentium-M 7x5 series, you should be able to clock it in the mid 2Ghz with stock cooling or high 2Ghz with good air cooling. Thats on average performance on par with an A64 of teh sameclock speed.
 
dexvx said:
The best CPU for the P4P800-SE is not the Pentium-4 Northwood, but rather the Pentium-M Dothan. If you can find a S479 adapter and get a Pentium-M 7x5 series, you should be able to clock it in the mid 2Ghz with stock cooling or high 2Ghz with good air cooling. Thats on average performance on par with an A64 of teh sameclock speed.
Click to expand...

Actually it will most likely beat an A64 of the same speed in most everything. ;)
 
whoa, that sounds sweet

where in the world would I find such an adapter?

::edit:: did the google thing, looks like the adaptor can be found at ZZF for $49.99

now to find a "cheap" Dothan
 
I've got a P4 2.4 Northwood, CPU-Z reports it as revision C1 stepping 7, so I guess that means it is a 2.4C. Hmm, interesting to know I might be able to selling it for at least a couple bucks when I upgrade to Conroe soon.
 
Check my Post. While i m waiting for Conroe. I got a new ASUS P5W DH i975 and INTEL PENTIUM 915 which is based on new C1 Revision and OC it to 4.17GHZ at TEMP is freaking awesome on INTEL stocked Cooler. But i m using Artic Silver 5.
 
I have 2 machines that I upgraded to 3.06/533/512 Northwoods in the past coupla months. The chips cost me $183 and $147... but the prices have actually gone up recently to over $200. I just did a quick Ebay search and it looks like a new crop of system pulls are showing up cheap, so maybe the price on these will settle down to a more realistic plateau. It made sense a few months ago to buy these, but there are so many cheaper, better performing options out there now. Great chip, though...
 
I've hit 3.4 GHz on my Northwood 2.8C. This was with the stock heatsink. I'm sure it would go higher with a better heatsink or water cooling. It will soon be retired as the move to Conroe is inching ever so close. ;)
 
wait wait, we're in the intel forum... I'd recommend a PD805. Same price (around 90 dollars USD) and it's dual core and can overclock to 4.0Ghz to beat the X-2s.
 
StealthyFish said:
wait wait, we're in the intel forum... I'd recommend a PD805. Same price (around 90 dollars USD) and it's dual core and can overclock to 4.0Ghz to beat the X-2s.
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But the 805 is LGA775, P4 Northwoods are S478, so you have to add in the cost of a new mobo for an 805.
 
get PENTIUM 915 its based on new stepping and i have OC it to 4.2 . check above
 
I got D 805 @ 4ghz which is equal to Opteron165@ 2.8ghz or FX dual core @ 2.8ghz.

Pentium D 805 = $100 Shipped.
Asus P5D2N-SLI = $65 Shipped.
2 GB OCZ PC800 @ 677mhz = $149 Shipped
 
that's all fine and dandy but if you read the thread, I already have a 478 mobo on its way to me

the only "hard" upgrade/mod for it seems to be the 479 Dothan route so if you can hook me up with a nice Pentium M shoot me a PM
 
Pentium M 740 (1.73Ghz 2MB/533) CPU for about $75 shipped. Not bad. 7x0 Dothans do 800FSB and more pretty easy
 
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My main rig is an Opty [email protected]. I've built a coupla 3800X2s recently and just put together a 940D today. They are all fast machines, but my [email protected] 533 Northwood at home is holding up great, and a colleague is running another one with my old Gigabyte 850 board and PC1066 RDRAM and it really flies. I find the hysteria over whether the Conroe will be here this week or next to be a bit silly. I wonder how many of the rabid benchmark posters ever do any actual work that justifies all that power...
 
I'm going to have to agree...

My 3.2Ghz P4-C northwood running at 3.85Ghz on air cooling is pretty darn fast for a nearly 3 year old motherboard combo...(Abit IS7)
 
Dennis Gordon said:
My main rig is an Opty [email protected]. I've built a coupla 3800X2s recently and just put together a 940D today. They are all fast machines, but my [email protected] 533 Northwood at home is holding up great, and a colleague is running another one with my old Gigabyte 850 board and PC1066 RDRAM and it really flies. I find the hysteria over whether the Conroe will be here this week or next to be a bit silly. I wonder how many of the rabid benchmark posters ever do any actual work that justifies all that power...
Click to expand...

Northwoods could use RDRAM ? I thought that was limited to Willamettes.
 
Yeah, Northwoods (400/533MHz FSB) were supported on the 850 chipset. That's what was in my old Dell 8250 w/P4 2.4GHz and RDRAM.
----

This is what I like to see:
915combodo2.jpg


Dump the motherboard on ebay and keep the cheap CPU (unless you want an AGP board with DDR1 support). :D This is on sale at Fry's today and tomorrow.
 
*sniff*

..brings back some fond memories of my old Vapochill running my old 2.4c chip at 3.6ghz at stock v's ...ahh the good old days
:cool:

Couldnt get over 303mhz on the fsb tho with my modded IC7-G , hence I started a thread on the topic (of which the forums got redone and my thread deleted and then started up again by another member)

..I could get into windows at higher fsb and run mem benchies , but the vidcard performance got slower and slower past that magically spot .

 
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