To Northwood Or Prescott

J

Jiggaman2576

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 27, 2004
Messages
377
I had a 2.8 Northwood and could OC it to 3.5 on water with some Corsair XMS PC3200LL. I recently changed to a 2.8 Prescott and OCZ PC4400, I can now run at about 3.7 Ghz, but I want to run at near 4 if possible. My question is, I have the chance right now to get a 3.2 Ghz CPU which I think will get me closer to the mark, which should I buy? I like the coolness of the Northwood, but I also like having the latest and greatest, but only if it's going to benifit me. What do you guys think? I'm running a DFI Lanparty875 Rev B, everything in my system is high end, dont want to list it all here. Thanks
 
well, if you allready are hitting 3.7, i think it would be a waste of $200 to get a pressy just to get 4.0. But im sure with water cooling you could hit 4.0
 
I thought I should be able to hit 4ghz with what I currently have but the 2.8 just doesn't seem to want to do it. I dont know if its my ram or my board. My thinking is that since I know my ram can run at 265 all day long, with a step or 2 higher on the multiplier, my ram should still be able to run that fast. With a 3.2 I'd leave myself enough room to lower the ram if I had to but if I didn't have to I would be easily over 4ghz. Right now with my watercooling setup I idle at around 95F and hit 115F at max load. With a northwood I think my cooling would probably keep it about 5-10 above ambient at idle, which might make for a better overclocking choice. See why I am so undecided on this? I want to place the order today. Thanks
 
I went a purchased the 3.2E Processor mainly because of the 1MB of L2 Cache. My system runs pretty cool, although it does so by kicking out a lot of heat (Great for winter, bad for summer). I guess it will just have to kick out even more heat.
 
well, if you bought it, then its a good CPU, i have it too :) But i would say, while you do have 1 MB L2 cache on that CPU, it has also has 31 step pipelines, which are long in comparison to northwoods, which are like 20 i think. So it really doesnt make it any faster than the northwood, just makes it be able to keep up...although my and my buddy were running super pi at 3.2 GHz and my pressy stomped his northwood...the cache might help with very long numbers. Oh well happy OCing and let us know how it turns out!
 
HighwayAssassins said:
well, if you bought it, then its a good CPU, i have it too :) But i would say, while you do have 1 MB L2 cache on that CPU, it has also has 31 step pipelines, which are long in comparison to northwoods, which are like 20 i think. So it really doesnt make it any faster than the northwood, just makes it be able to keep up...although my and my buddy were running super pi at 3.2 GHz and my pressy stomped his northwood...the cache might help with very long numbers. Oh well happy OCing and let us know how it turns out!
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I never ran SuperPi at 3.2GHz :rolleyes:

<- buddy
 
My 2.8c died from over-volting it. Had to run it at 1.75v to get to 3.71ghz (265fsb). The new prescott 3.0 is happy right now @ 258fsb (3.87ghz). Good luck in getting your's higher.
 
I got my prescott 3.2 installed and so far I'm not too happy. I do have it running stable at 3.865 (240X16) but I cannot for the life of me get it to go any higher without issues. Its like a major drop off point, even 241 fsb it starts having issues. I dont want to cook mine with insanely high voltages either. The highest I would ever go is 1.55 and that's only if I absolulety needed it. I am at 1.425 right now and I believe it's prime95 stable. Started prime lastnight and my system had rebooted, then I checked and windows update was nice enough to do that for me, so I lost my stability test :( Anyway, can you guys think of why I can't get any higher? My ram can do 260 with the 2.8 I had, and my LOAD temp with Prime running was 100F (Kickass watercooling setup) Also, I got a C0 stepping not the D0, am I pretty much stuck do you think?
 
OK, after much deliberation (SP) I have decided to RMA this CPU as it does not do what I want it to do for the money I paid for it. I went from a 260 fsb with the 2.8 down to a 240 fsb with the 3.2. Also, 260 was ROCK SOLID on the 2.8 whereas 240 is still IFFY with some applications. My next question is, what about a 2.6C or 2.6E P4? I have ram that is rated for 275, and I am almost positive that my board can run atleast that if not higher. I have heard some say the 2.6's will not hit over 3.25 ghz which would suck. If I can hit 3.6 I'd be happy becaus my memory would then be running at it's rated speed and I'd get the major increase in bandwidth. What do you guys think?
 
Jiggaman2576 said:
OK, after much deliberation (SP) I have decided to RMA this CPU as it does not do what I want it to do for the money I paid for it. I went from a 260 fsb with the 2.8 down to a 240 fsb with the 3.2. Also, 260 was ROCK SOLID on the 2.8 whereas 240 is still IFFY with some applications. My next question is, what about a 2.6C or 2.6E P4? I have ram that is rated for 275, and I am almost positive that my board can run atleast that if not higher. I have heard some say the 2.6's will not hit over 3.25 ghz which would suck. If I can hit 3.6 I'd be happy becaus my memory would then be running at it's rated speed and I'd get the major increase in bandwidth. What do you guys think?
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you returning a cpu because it didnt overclock high enough for you???

your going to catch alot of shit from people here for saying that.
 
I paid extra for the retail to have the advantage of sending it back. I bought this chip to do something and it did not do it. Yes I understand that overclocking is not always as good on some as it is on others but I have a goal and this CPU would not allow me to reach it. I have bought and sold about 5 CPU's now trying to reach this goal, this time I have no choice but return the new one because I have run out of friends with deep pockets. I am ordering another CPU today which costs almost the same amount, which means either way Intel is geting some of my money which I do not see as a bad thing. The CPU can be resold and most likely will be. It's not like I went to the store and broke what a bought, went and bought another one a few months later and returned the broken one for a good one. I have had this CPU for 6 days, which is one day less then the limit if getting a refund from newegg. I told them I wanted to exchange but they said only for the same part, which I dont want. Give me crap if you must, I will not feel guilty about it. I pay more to have the option to return, and I am taking that option this one time out of 5.
 
99.9% of people that try to give others shit about returning items do it themselves, they're hypocrites so just ignore them. You should consider purchasing a 3.0C northwood since they overclock really well. Case in point my 3.0C hits 4.05 ghz stable at 1.67v on water and right now I have it completely stable at 3.9 Ghz @ 1.62v and my load temps according to Abit are 45C (abits are usually off by +10 C so it should be around 35C load).
 
Thanks MFZ, that was the type of answer I was originally aiming for. I am reading on newegg the success's people have had with the 2.4C but I want a combination of high FSB and high CPU speed. 266 is pretty stinking close to what my ram can run at, and would be good enough for me if I can hit it. Thanks
 
Jiggaman2576 said:
Thanks MFZ, that was the type of answer I was originally aiming for. I am reading on newegg the success's people have had with the 2.4C but I want a combination of high FSB and high CPU speed. 266 is pretty stinking close to what my ram can run at, and would be good enough for me if I can hit it. Thanks
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The 2.4C is definitely a nice chip, I had one in my system before upgrading to the 3.0C. Right now the 2.4C is sitting in my wife's PC but unfortunately it's being held back by a crappy ECS board (came free with my 3.0C). Going to remedy that next month and OC it back to 3.0+ :) BTW the 2.4C in this system was maxing out around 3.4 Ghz which is pretty good but I'd recommend you definitely go for the 3.0C over the 2.4C. At 4.0 Ghz you hit around 270 fsb which is nice. 260 fsb (close to your rams limit) yields 3.9 GHz which is pretty much on the mark of what you want.
 
I've ordered the 3.0C P4 like you recomended, hoping for a 30 cap but if I dont get one I'll deal. I've built my entire system to be able to run a prescott at 4 ghz, so this northwood should be a joke for it. My idle temp on my prescott 3.2 was around 95F and the highest I ever saw it go while gaming was 114F. I think my video may be hotter then my 3.0C but it gets cooled 2nd in my loop so the CPU will always have the coolest water. I'll post back my results after I determine a stable speed. I always prime overnight for stability so when I can do that, I'll be posting!
 
As long as you don't lie about the reason for the return (for example if the retailer allows returns for any reason), it's OK. If you lied simply because you don't like the overclock and want to get another, then shame on you. People that do this get return policies changed and we all lose.
 
Neweggs's Policy is 7 days after the order for return with no fee. They also allow up to 15 days with a 15% restocking fee. I didn't do anything fancy to try to screw newegg or anyone else, I just used the system they have in place. Sorry if I came off like a jerk that just likes to send CPU's back after lying about why I didn't want it. I'm actually just a jerk that wants a higher overlclock and will pay extra for the option to refund.
biggrin.gif
 
people like you are the reason why warrenty and return policies are so strict. your cpu is not defective, so you shouldnt be getting your money back for it because newegg will lose money because of you. intel doesnt make a 4ghz cpu, so you might not ever find a chip that can do 4ghz so deal with it and work with what you got.
 
Ive got a 3.0C @ 4.05ghz with 1.64v on water, its a 30 cap SL6WU D1 stepping. I dont think it can go any higher than this, maybe if I gave it more volts I could get up to 4.1-4.2, but its not worth it. 1.7V scares me, and I dont really want to get close to that, so ill just stay where I am.
 
I've spent easily over $10,000 at newegg, maybe more like $20,000 as I build systems for friends and family also. They are not hurting from my ONE TIME return of a good processor. I see people posting they have gotten 4 Ghz with different P4's and damnit I want to hit 4ghz also. I've stated above that I've sold 5 other CPU's on this quest and have run out of friends with deep pockets. If this one does not hit 4ghz I will not be retuning it. I'll just wait for someone who wants to buy it. Newegg and Intel have gotten plenty of my money. I do not care if you think it's wrong, if it was so wrong they wouldn't have allowed me to do it in the first place. No laws have been broken, get as pissed as you want about it, I haven't given it a second thought (until people on these forums gave me a hard time about it). If you are reading this thread and want to recommend a CPU that would most likely hit 4ghz, great. If you are reading this and are offended with what I have done, do us all a favor and hit the back button.
 
you can always check what steppings are better than others, and go to a store and just check through each 3.0C or E box until you find the one with the stepping you want. That way you will probably get a better OCer, but nothing is for sure. Fry's evidently is a good place for that, but I wouldnt know as I live on the east coast, where there is nothing but Compusa's, which are horridly expensive. Some online stores also let you pick your stepping, so if you are determined to hit 4ghz, thats your best bet. I just got lucky on mine, as I ordered it from newegg as well with my fingers crossed, and newegg delivered!
 
I sold my 3.0C and my DFI board for an Abit IC7-G MaxII Advance and a 2.4C P4. What I expected was overclocking bliss on the FSB side of things, what I got, well I'd have to say there is something definatly wrong with my motherboard. I can OC by 1mhz only with the latest bios, and not it all with any others. It gives me "CPU Unworkable" errors no matter what I try. I've tried all the settings that I know worked on the dfi board and I just get that stupid message. I've even tried underclocking, same thing. No matter what I try, even 5mhz over stock it gives me this error. I have no idea what to do next. The board arrived from newegg yesterday, as well as the retail p4 2.4C. Anyone got any idea's? This is supposed to be an awesome overclocking board, I dont understand how at this rate. I'd also like to mention it's EXTREMELY slow in booting and loading programs. When I bench it with sisoft it all looks ok, but it's just SLOW all around compared to the 3.0. I can't believe that it would make that much of a difference. We are talking 30 to 40 seconds more for boot time to a usable desktop.
 
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