P4 1.7 to 2.4A

P

puphus

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 6, 2002
Messages
138
Greetings -- I am considering buying a P4 2.4A Ghz (400Mhz FSB) CPU to replace my 1.7. Would this be a significant upgrade that would be worth the cost ($115) or should I just hold out until I am ready to build a new system? Thanks for your advice in advance.
 
The 2.4A uses the Prescott core, and I don't think your motherboard supports the Prescott.

Now, if it's the plain jane 2.4, as in Northwood core, then yes, it should work. The faster speed and extra cache would be a nice upgrade for you without having to go for a whole system re-build.

Any P4 'A' chip up to 2.0GHz is a Northwood core (1.6A, 1.8A, 2.0A). Any 'A' chip afterwords is Prescott. (2.4A). Confusing, yes.
 
that intel 850 board your running now is a s423 board, not a s478, youll need a new motherboard to upgrade to anything faster than 2ghz.
 
Thinking that the 2.4 is as fast as I can get with 400Mhz FSB paired with my PC800 RAM, plus the doubled L1 & L2 cache would bring improvements.
 
you need to make sure its not a 423 board, i dont remember seeing ANY rdram 478 boards
 
acascianelli said:
you need to make sure its not a 423 board, i dont remember seeing ANY rdram 478 boards
Click to expand...
I have an MSI running a 2.4 northwood with PC800 RDRAM.....they do exist :D
 
You can get at least a bit faster than a 2.4. Newegg has 400fsb 2.6GHz chips in stock. $153.
 
Yes indeed, I thought that they stopped producing 400Mhz FSB chips at 2.4Ghz. To get back to my original question, I guess I just want to know if you all think the upgrade is worth the cost? I am planning on build a new rig either later this year or early next year after most of the new hardware is out (SLI, PCI-express, etc.). Will I see robust improvements with either the 2.4/2.6 over my 1.7, or is it more of just a numbers game with minor improvements and little that will benefit my current system as is?
 
Tiger Direct's got the 2.6ghz for 159.99 as well, but it's oem. I upgraded from 1.8ghz to the 2.6ghz 400fsb socket 478 from Tiger Direct a couple of months ago. It was a moderate increase in speed, about 30%, nothing amazing but was alot cheaper than spending $2000 on a new system. You'll be able to go up a resolution in most games, maybe two if you're lucky. If you buy the oem cpu from Tiger, don't bother getting a heat sink with it except for warranty reasons (they say on there site you need to buy a heatsink for the warranty) or if you overclock. I bought what turned out to be a crappy $19.99 Speeze cooler from them that didn't even make proper contact with the cpu. I ended up just using the stock Intel cooler that came with my 1.8 and it's been doing fine (no oc though).
 
Back to the 2.4A:

Not only is it a Prescott core, but it also runs on a 533MHz FSB - not a 400MHz FSB.

As for a 2.8GHz/400MHz FSB CPU, it's very likely to be a Celeron CPU. And a Northwood-based Celeron, with only 128K of L2 cache. There has never been a 2.8GHz full-fledged P4 CPU with at least 512K of L2 cache that runs on a 400MHz FSB - all of the 2.8 non-Celery P4's require at least official 533MHz FSB support, IIRC.
 
The guy up there said that Newegg has the 400 MHz FSB 2.4A for ~$150, and I know for a fact that the 2.4A 533 MHz is ~$125.

They're different chips.
 
LstOfTheBrunnenG said:
The guy up there said that Newegg has the 400 MHz FSB 2.4A for ~$150, and I know for a fact that the 2.4A 533 MHz is ~$125.

They're different chips.
Click to expand...
However, the 2.4/400MHz FSB P4 Northwood chip is not the 2.4A at all - that CPU is the 2.4 (plain).

As a general rule, Northwood P4's that use a 400MHz FSB and are clocked higher than 2.0GHz have no letter designation.
 
puphus said:
Check out this intel document on page 15:
http://www.intel.com/design/pentium4/specupdt/24919950.pdf

Spec SL7EY is the 2.8 Pentium at 400Mhz FSB. Is this not to be trusted?
Click to expand...
I think that it's an OEM-only processor. There are no current plans to retail-box that CPU.

You will also need to purchase an aftermarket heatsink - and a good one, at that. All things being equal, a CPU using a higher multiplier can run hotter than an equally-clocked CPU on a lower multiplier does.
 
Thanks for the advice. Would you suggest any specific (non-OC) cooling solution?
 
I can't give you that advice as to which coolers to choose. But you cannot go wrong with a Zalman CNPS7000 series HSF unit.

I've also checked the support page for your D850MVL motherboard - and the last BIOS version that was released for that mobo was version P15, back in the summer of the year 2002, when the first S-Spec numbers of the 2.6/400 P4 began shipping. That 2.8/400 P4 is of a much later S-spec number, and thus may not be supported by your motherboard.
 
That would be a real bite. I guess I can give it a shot. Thanks for the help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top