s478 Northwood question

[hedron]

I have an Intel Pentium 4 northwood socket 478 at 3.4GHz. Now, I've heard that some of these are actually extreme edition chips and that you can tell by the amount of transistors (or whatever they are) on the bottom of the chip. I'm wondering if there is any truth to this and how can I tell for sure?

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Easy answer is the look at the cache on the processor, if it has 2MB of L2 cache it is an Intel® Pentium® 4 3.4GHz Extreme Edition; if on the other hand it only has 512KB of L2 it is the normal model. If you want to know how to look this up you can run CPU-Z on your system you can pick it up for free at cupid.com. http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=27490,27504, here is some basic information on both processor and the differences between them.

 

[colinstu]

the "transistors or whatever" are the pins that connect the processor to the socket on the board (478 pins... hence the name).

 

[Forceman]

the "transistors or whatever" are the pins that connect the processor to the socket on the board (478 pins... hence the name).

I think he's talking about the small surface mount chips in the middle on the bottom. I think they might be resistors, actually.

 

[colinstu]

Oh, those....

They look they are transistors, but it would be much easier to determine the model other ways

(but they're definitely not the transistors on the main die)

 

[plugwash]

My guess is they are probablly resistor and/or capacitor networks.

 

[Zero82z]

Easy answer is the look at the cache on the processor, if it has 2MB of L2 cache it is an Intel® Pentium® 4 3.4GHz Extreme Edition; if on the other hand it only has 512KB of L2 it is the normal model. If you want to know how to look this up you can run CPU-Z on your system you can pick it up for free at cupid.com. http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=27490,27504, here is some basic information on both processor and the differences between them.

I'm fairly certain it had 512kB of L2 cache and 2MB of L3 cache, since it used the Gallatin core. And yes, that means the ARK site is wrong.

 

[hedron]

I think he's talking about the small surface mount chips in the middle on the bottom. I think they might be resistors, actually.

Yea, that's a picture of a normal northwood core P4. My understanding is that there is another northwood P4 that is essentially an Extreme Edition but the tests failed on the L3 cache, so they had to sell them as normal P4's. The P4 I have has more capacitors/resistors/thingies on the bottom than that pictures shows. Which is, if my memory serves, the amount an Extreme Edition has.

Here:

Mine looks like the one on the right, but it appears as a normal northwood in CPUz.

 

[nösferatu]

I'm fairly certain it had 512kB of L2 cache and 2MB of L3 cache, since it used the Gallatin core. And yes, that means the ARK site is wrong.

Yes, the L3 cache actually what differentiate the Extreme Edition since the non-Extreme doesnt even have L3 cache, only L2 cache iirc.

 

[Crosshairs]

I have heard then referred to as "30 cap" chips.....I had one back in the day and I cant say it performed or clocked better than any other P4 that I had

 

[Zero82z]

Yes, the L3 cache actually what differentiate the Extreme Edition since the non-Extreme doesnt even have L3 cache, only L2 cache iirc.

That and the unlocked multiplier.