Best CPU to get for 478 Board

Goumet · 16 Apr 2007 at 17:59

Best CPU to get for 478 Board - Urgent Answer Required!

I have a P4P800E-Deluxe board, currently with a Celeron 2.4 running water cooled at 3.2 GHz.

Just put vista on, and its running like a pig........

What CPU should I get to go in here at a reasonable price? or should I just not bother.

I've been looking at P4 3.2, 3.2E, 3.4's etc but as yet still not got a good price for 1 on the bay.

Any help would be greatfully recieved.

Corasik · 16 Apr 2007 at 18:07

Northwood C, 3.2Ghz, or 3.4Ghz if you can fine one (3.4's are rare). There are also a few P4 EE's for that socket, which are excellent chips, but finding one cheaply might be a problem.

Personally I would avoid P4 'E's, as socket 478 prescotts have a tendancy to run very hot.

Northwood 'C' can be easily identified as it will have an 800Mhz FSB, 512KB of cache, and Hyperthreading (even on the slower 2.4Ghz chips)

The EE if you can find it will be a 3.4Ghz with 2meg cache. A nice chip, basically a repackaged Xeon.

When I upgraded my main PC, I moved my old 3.2Ghz Northwood 'C' into my HTPC, and it's still performing really well. Should be fine with Vista, as long as you have the memory running dual channel.

Goumet · 16 Apr 2007 at 18:10

Would love an EE, but are they really worth over £100??

Would a Northwood C, even with only 512K cache be faster than what I have?

The 2.8'#s are cheap but really looking to keep it a while. so probably 3.2 or 3.4

How much should be looking at paying?

Goumet · 16 Apr 2007 at 18:11

Also, whats a SL7PN theres loads about.

Corasik · 16 Apr 2007 at 18:24

Goumet said:
Also, whats a SL7PN theres loads about.

Thats a 3.2Ghz Prescott. To be honest, in most apps, the Northwood will beat the prescott, as Northwoods have a 21 stage pipeline, and Prescott's is 31 (I think thats right anyway).

Shorter pipeline means higher IPC but doesnt clock quite as easily. More cache was added to the prescott to 'mask' this, but that only helps certain applications. To be honest, the performance differences between a Northwood and a Prescott at the same speed are pretty minor, but the northy will be a lot cooler running.

Which Celeron do you have (how much cache).

I've run Vista on a 2.4Ghz Northwood 'C' clocked to 3Ghz on a test machine, with 512meg of ram it was a dog, and having an old slow hard drive didnt make it any better. However I was running the same P4P800, and with 2Gb of ram, a modern Seagate 7200.10 SATA hard disk, and the 3Ghz P4, Vista ran pretty sweetly. Graphics provided by an ATI 9800 Pro. Aero enabled etc.

'Most' Northwood 'C's will overclock to around 3.3 to 3.4Ghz on air. So you could always slap in a 2.8 and overclock it a bit.

Goumet · 16 Apr 2007 at 20:11

My Processor is:-

Intel Celeron 335 2.8 (Prescott) Currently running at 3150mhz (It gets to unstable over that).

Is shelling out £100 for a P4 3.4 EE worth it?

Goumet · 16 Apr 2007 at 20:45

I've Know where I can get a SL8K4 (Prescott 3.4) tonight for £55.

Is it worth it?

Would it be a good upgrade?

Mr Footlong · 16 Apr 2007 at 22:16

I would hold out within reason for a 3.4 Northwood. Used to have one, very nice chip. Wouldn't take a 478 prescott core by choice at all.

Corasik · 17 Apr 2007 at 00:37

The Celeron D 355 you have is slow because (A) its a Prescott 31 stage pipeline core, and (B) its been cripped with a 533mhz FSB, and 256kb of cache.

A prescott with low cache is a poor performing processor.

Still think a Northy would have the edge, however for £55, a 3.4Ghz processor will still turn in a good performance, and as your watercooling temperatures arnt going to be such an issue as someone air cooling.

For sure the EE isnt worth £100.

PS. Make sure you have the motherboard running in dual channel mode. Memory performance in single channel mode is a big performance hit.

Mr Footlong · 17 Apr 2007 at 00:43

'Watercooling' varies greatly in performance subject to kit and config

.

benktlottie · 17 Apr 2007 at 09:47

Without a doubt, the 3.2 Extreme Edition (EE) or the 3.4 EE processor. The Northwoods have 512k of cache, and are decent overclockers (the 2.4c is a legendary Northwood). The Prescotts have 1mb cache, and get pretty hot and are quite sensitive to voltage). The EE has 2mb of L3 cache and are pretty nippy. I've owned the EE's in the past on socket 478 and they fly. I overclocked the 3.2ghz EE to 3.8ghz on air and was impressed with the responsivness of the system. You can pick them up on Echo Brave Alpha Yankee pretty cheap these days...

benktlottie · 17 Apr 2007 at 09:48

Without a doubt, the 3.2 Extreme Edition (EE) or the 3.4 EE processor. The Northwoods have 512k of cache, and are decent overclockers (the 2.4c is a legendary Northwood). The Prescotts have 1mb cache, and get pretty hot and are quite sensitive to voltage). The EE has 2mb of L3 cache and are pretty nippy. I've owned the EE's in the past on socket 478 and they fly. I overclocked the 3.2ghz EE to 3.8ghz on air and was impressed with the responsivness of the system. You can pick them up on Echo Brave Alpha Yankee pretty cheap these days...

Oh, and defo worth £100 IMHO. Saves having to change you RAM, Motherboard and possibly Graphics if you move to a C2D platform...

jbloggs · 17 Apr 2007 at 11:06

I have had both a 3.2GHz Prescott (which I still have) and a 3.4GHz Northwood (socket 478), the Northwood is a cooler running chip, that said, the 3.2GHz Prescott I have only runs 1-2C hotter at idle, and around the same as the Northwood at full load, about 47-48C.

The Northwood (on air) I was able to O/C to around 3.8GHz, I believe the Prescott will go higher than than, just over 4.0GHz.

As regards performance, there really is very little difference between them (clocked the same), if I was choosing now, I would probably (just) choose a 3.4GHz Northwood.

InvisibleG · 18 Apr 2007 at 00:00

benktlottie said:
Without a doubt, the 3.2 Extreme Edition (EE) or the 3.4 EE processor. The Northwoods have 512k of cache, and are decent overclockers (the 2.4c is a legendary Northwood). The Prescotts have 1mb cache, and get pretty hot and are quite sensitive to voltage). The EE has 2mb of L3 cache and are pretty nippy. I've owned the EE's in the past on socket 478 and they fly. I overclocked the 3.2ghz EE to 3.8ghz on air and was impressed with the responsivness of the system. You can pick them up on Echo Brave Alpha Yankee pretty cheap these days...

So what's all this about the limited 30 CAPS Versions of those 3.4 EE chips?

From what I can tell from intels CPU identifier on their site there was only ever one version of the P4 3.4 EE for socket 478 and that is the SL7CH version - those ones up for grabs are alledgedly the SL7CH too. Surely intel wouldn't have changed the spec without giving it a new serial number?

Are all 3.4EE chips 30 caps or is there really another version with the same serial knocking about? ...and would it be true to say this "30 cap version" would definately be a better overclocker, and what would be the difference in heat produced with a 30 cap version vs the regular version? sorry, too many questions..!

What with all the upcoming price drops I'm definately gonna go for a full system upgrade to a Duo E6700 or maybe Quad in a few weeks... but if I could grab a 3.4EE at a silly price as well it would be good then I could max out this current P4P800 system to use as a second machine... would be fun to to see how far I could push a 3.4EE too...

Justintime · 18 Apr 2007 at 00:48

Not even on average, totally 100% of the 2.4C 30 cappers i had made it to 3.6Ghz on a 300MHz FSB and default volts, had 4 in all. I don't think theres anything else but the 30 cappers for the 3.4EE as those were Gallatin cores. I think you might be confusing the search for failed Gallatins that made it into lower priced mainstream 2.4s etc.. the 30 caps signified that.

InvisibleG · 18 Apr 2007 at 01:34

Justintime said:
Not even on average, totally 100% of the 2.4C 30 cappers i had made it to 3.6Ghz on a 300MHz FSB and default volts, had 4 in all. I don't think theres anything else but the 30 cappers for the 3.4EE as those were Gallatin cores. I think you might be confusing the search for failed Gallatins that made it into lower priced mainstream 2.4s etc.. the 30 caps signified that.

So what you are saying is that all genuine 3.4EE's will have 30 caps... meaning some of those sellers are just adding it as an extra to the spec in their descriptions to make their 3.4EE's sound better than the other sellers who don't mention it but still sell the same SL7CU chip... hmmm...typical!

this is the actual spec on the chip for sale:

http://processorfinder.intel.com/Details.aspx?ProcFam=0&sSpec=SL7CH&OrdCode=

...and I'm sure you know the site to look on to find the sellers!

So I take it that if I were to buy one of those it should be a genuine P4 3.4EE and easily OC to 3.6+

Seem like a pretty good buy if I can get one under £80 inc P+P

LaRZ · 28 Jul 2007 at 13:38

core 2 duo 478 ? do they work in old 478 slots ??

Mr Footlong · 28 Jul 2007 at 13:41

Erm, no and no.

LaRZ · 28 Jul 2007 at 13:48

I thought not, so what holds core 2 duo back from going n a 478 board. chipset ? memory specs fSB ?

I have a P4P800 too and like the system, but it would be nice to make it a dual core system

Justintime · 28 Jul 2007 at 14:34

Totally different chip, different socket, different architecture, different electrical needs.. its like they're not even related even though made by the same company, kinda like your step dad having a kid with a different woman other than your mother.