Which Intel Cpu to get?

[wseyller]

I'm asking for a friend.

Current Specs:

Intel 2.66ghz cpu 533mhz fsb, no hypertreading
Chaintech 9CJS Zenith MB
Kingston HyperX PC3500 1GB( 2 - 512MB)
Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB
Good Power Supply
Good cooling


He doesn't feel like doing any overclocking but he might get curious to later. You can see is memory is running a little slow. This rig is used mostly for gaming , such as BF1942, desert combat, BFV, and soon to be Battlefield 2.


Here is what he decided so far.



Intel Pentium 4/ 3.0E GHz 800MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache, Hyper Threading Technology - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=19-116-175&depa=1


or is the northwood better


Intel Pentium 4/ 3.0C GHz 800MHz FSB, 512K Cache, Hyper Threading Technology - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=19-116-163&depa=1



Which is better at non-overclock and which is better at overclock?


Any other suggestion that might be better?
I tried to persuade him to put a little extra money down and buy a 939 amd 3000+ and a 939 board, but he just bought this motherboard and doesn't want to pay that much. The next time he upgrades he might swing towards amd depending on what is out by that time.

 

[Spikesoldier]

why do you buy faster memory if youre not going to overclock?

get him a 2.8C or 3.0C, those would be my choices, i would do the 2.8 because you have better ram

 

[wseyller]

He bought the memory a while ago even before he built this rig a few months ago. He or I did not know much about memory speeds at the time. So this is what memory he has got. Which he is not complaining. Better to have good memory and not crappy memory.

 

[Akira1224]

I'll be "that guy" (seems to be my mood today) and say it... If he is going to game why stay with Intel? I can understand if he just wants to do a CPU upgrade and money is tight. Maybe it's time to sell the old and build a new AMD system.

That out of the way if I was going to build Intel, and NOT upgrade to the new socket T, I would go with the E.

 

[AristoV300]

The 3.0c would be the better choice of the two. Most will overclock at 3.6 with no voltage adjustments on good cooling.

 

[wseyller]

I was just researching and I found that at stock speeds the northwood would be better for most tasks, except for encoding or SSE3. Otherwise a prescott would not be any better and would have a small performance descrease compared to the northwood. It seems the only other purpose of going with the prescott would be if overclocking as high as possible. I don't think that will be needed. If any overclocking would be done it would probably be little. Probably like 15 x 216fsb to get memory to 433mhz, which at child could do. He would probably be scared past that. So at the moment I'm guessing the 3.0C which is cheaper at newegg.

 

[wseyller]

Actually I just noticed that at newegg the 3.0C Oem is Cheaper than the 2.8C Oem by $2. So there is no point in buying a 2.8C to overclock to achieve 3.0 or 3.2 speeds.

 

[AristoV300]

Yes the Prescott performs less than a Northwood at those speeds. I believe at around 3.6 and higher is when the Prescott can take use of it's longer pipelines.

 

[uOpt]

The Northwood is the better choice for most applications, even if it is a little more expensive. Not only for performance but also for power consumption. You eat up quite some dollars in electricity and some more theoretical dollars from shortened lifespan of components from the heat.

 

[LTC8K6]

He is unlikely to notice any difference in performance between the 3.0C nd the 3.0E. I would get whichever you can get cheaper.

If he plans to do any media encoding work, the Prescott is faster for that. The Prescott also uses the new SSE3 instructions, which may come in handy.

There is really no need to worry about Prescott and heat. While it does run hotter than a Northwood, it is nothing that a good HSF won't handle easily.

Any board that is Prescott ready will not have any problem running a Prescott, and it will certainly not suffer any shortened lifespan of components.

The dollar difference in electricity usage is insignificant, not "quite some dollars".

 

[LTC8K6]

Better make sure he has the latest BIOS. At least V4.0 for Prescott, and V7.0 for XPSP2.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Dont forget to consider the Celeron.

I use a 3.4EE, but will sell it soon and use my backup 3.2c.

 

[cbehnken]

Originally posted by: FelixDeKat
Dont forget to consider the Celeron.

I use a 3.4EE, but will sell it soon and use my backup 3.2c.

Selling your EE ? Why? You said it was the greatest CPU in the world.

 

[wseyller]

Celeron?

Been there
Done that
Will never do it again

 

[Markfw]

Will his motherboard even do 800 fsb ? If not, why not go AMD for a gaming rig ? You have one, so you know !

 

[wseyller]

Originally posted by: LTC8K6
Better make sure he has the latest BIOS. At least V4.0 for Prescott, and V7.0 for XPSP2.

I don't see a version 7.0 bios for that mobo. I see V4.0 pertaining to prescott and a V6.0 pertaining to voltage adjustment issue.

 

[Darknessxk]

Yes that motherboard supports 800fsb just checked. Anyways, like what others have said, get the 3.0c

 

[wseyller]

Its too late. I told him to wait but he bought the prescott. Oh well. That mobo should support everything for $170.

 

[carlosd]

Originally posted by: cbehnken

Originally posted by: FelixDeKat
Dont forget to consider the Celeron.

I use a 3.4EE, but will sell it soon and use my backup 3.2c.

Selling your EE ? Why? You said it was the greatest CPU in the world.

Who would be as stupid as you to buy the extreme expensive? That will be a hard work to sell it, at least that you sell by 500 or less. Good Luck!!:laugh:, but Wait!!!! people can get A64 3000+ 939 for US$180 which overclocked to 2.5-2.6GHz will blow away the extreme expensive, sorry.:laugh:

 

[Dacalo]

Originally posted by: carlosd

Originally posted by: cbehnken

Originally posted by: FelixDeKat
Dont forget to consider the Celeron.

I use a 3.4EE, but will sell it soon and use my backup 3.2c.

Selling your EE ? Why? You said it was the greatest CPU in the world.

Who would be as stupid as you to buy the extreme expensive? That will be a hard work to sell it, at least if you sell by 500 or less. Good Luck!!:laugh:

Like your FX is not expensive?
<-- neutral

 

[carlosd]

Yes , but I can get easily to 2.8GHz, and can say I have the fastest CPU, no the same with the Extremely Expensive which is the most expensive PC CPU in the world!!! not being the fastest and that can be beaten by a $200 CPU even if you overclock it to 4Ghz. So, what's the deal? Besides I don't want to sell my CPU, because it performs significantly better than P4 and normal A64 in special electronics APPS I use. And don't forget the unlocked multiplier benefits.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Originally posted by: carlosd
Yes , but I can get easily to 2.8GHz, and can say I have the fastest CPU, no the same with the Extremely Expensive which is the most expensive PC CPU in the world!!! not being the fastest and that can be beaten by a $200 CPU even if you overclock it to 4Ghz. So, what's the deal? Besides I don't want to sell my CPU, because it performs significantly better than P4 and normal A64 in special electronics APPS I use. And don't forget the unlocked multiplier benefits.

Sorry, but people dont like buying wooden processors. Now stfu. Thank you.

 

[bim27142]

Like your FX is not expensive?
<-- neutral[/quote]


:thumbsup:

 

[banibratadutta]

Originally posted by: wseyller
Celeron?

Been there
Done that
Will never do it again

what i hear is that the Celeron D's are a very different breed compared to the snailish ol' Celeron's. given some of the benchmarks between Athlon(32) &amp; Celeron D's at Xbit, i'd not bet on that.

-bd

 

[cbehnken]

Originally posted by: FelixDeKat

Originally posted by: carlosd
Yes , but I can get easily to 2.8GHz, and can say I have the fastest CPU, no the same with the Extremely Expensive which is the most expensive PC CPU in the world!!! not being the fastest and that can be beaten by a $200 CPU even if you overclock it to 4Ghz. So, what's the deal? Besides I don't want to sell my CPU, because it performs significantly better than P4 and normal A64 in special electronics APPS I use. And don't forget the unlocked multiplier benefits.

Sorry, but people dont like buying wooden processors. Now stfu. Thank you.

Why this STFU all of a sudden? He did nothing to you. Are you hurt because you can't give me a good reason why you are selling the best CPU in the world? (YOUR WORDS)