Intel's new Northwood core is here. It has 512 L2 on board cache compared to the older P4 which had only 256 L2 on board.
The P4 1.6a (notice the "a") costs around $150.00. The amazing thing is it overclocks with a slight bump in the FSB to a P4 2.2Ghz and beyond with the stock heat sink and fan.
UPDATE! 3/4/02 The 645 chipset is not yet ready for prime time as far as pro audio goes,(thanks to our fav guinea pig doin the testing) go for the INTEL CHIPSET solution and see the post"AND THE WINNER IS"!
Now the ASUS P4S333 SIS645 motherboard goes for around $100.00 and has greatly improved PCI bandwidth. It uses DDR ram.
So for $250.00 you can have motherboard and proccesor up to 2.2Ghz, rock solid with the fastest floating point performance.
And forget about dual cpu motherboards, its been proven time and again that money spent on a faster single cpu will outperform a dual. Even dual optimized software doesn't utilize both cpus all the time. ;)
Tommy P.
Comments
Opus, how's the project goin? The black 4Ucase is gonna look gre
Opus, how's the project goin? The black 4Ucase is gonna look great in the rack!
By the way, did you get a southbridge with the revision "A2" at the bottom right hand corner? Just curious, mine says "A1" but I read there is a revision, don't know what the performance difference might be. The board I have is rev 1.02. Nice ASUS quality.
:cool:
Well..I've assembled it an am installing XP as I feel that maybe
Well..I've assembled it an am installing XP as I feel that maybe it would be a good idea to have a newer code that will be able to handle the P4 FPU's a little better..
I will post a new thread with my results..the case does look really cool man!! I'm pysched about having a rack mount!!
Kepp going to my usual PC spot tho under my desk!! Got to break that habit! lol
I have A1...I'll investigate as to what A2 would offer us!
Opus
I've been following this thread and trying to keep my mouth shut
I've been following this thread and trying to keep my mouth shut as I'm not too knowledgable on computers. But as I read all this about buying, my PIII 450 just got old(er). Thinking of going the ASUS P4S333 + P4 1.6 GHz route, and not even having the slightest idea how to overclock a processor, I checked out the specs of the P4 1.6a processor. It says that L2 cache is 256 kB up to 2 GHz and 512 above 2 Ghz. Is this what "Northwood" means?
If I keep below 2 GHz,not intending to overclock, is there still a reason for me to buy Northwood?
Looking forward to seeing how your system works out, Opus. You lucky sods, the prices you quote are half of the prices here in Sweden!
Regards,
/Henrik, Luleå, Sweden
Well, if you're inclined to trust, one of us that is buying some
Well, if you're inclined to trust, one of us that is buying something in the next week or so would probably be happy to pick up a couple of the smaller parts and ship them. Regular shipping shouldn't be too much, especially for a processor and some RAM or something like that.
Originally posted by Henrik Wikner:
You lucky sods, the prices you quote are half of the prices here in Sweden!Regards,
/Henrik, Luleå, Sweden
Wow, that's a cool offer, Jon Best! What I'd like to buy is:
Wow, that's a cool offer, Jon Best!
What I'd like to buy is:
-512 MB PC2100 DDR Ram ~$120
-Pentium 4 1.6a GHz CPU ~$150(i guess the 'retail' version with included fan would be best)
-Asus P4S333 ~$75-100 (according to Pricewatch)
-shipping costs to Sweden. ~$10-15? (I don't know but I bought four CD's from PA and it cost me $8 shipping) You talk a lot about free shipping of products in the U.S., is this actually the case? Seems too good to be true. :)
Regards,
/Henrik Wikner, Luleå, Sweden
Yeah, I don't mind. I am going to be ordering a bunch of parts,
Yeah, I don't mind. I am going to be ordering a bunch of parts, probably Monday. Email me at jonbest@cox.net and we'll work out the details!
Shipping usually isn't free over here, except for occasional store's promotions, but it's also usually not too expensive.
It makes sense for you to get your power supply over there- just make sure you're getting enough power supply for this motherboard & processor- you probably know this, but you don't want to use your old PII 450 one!
Henrik, just a suggestion... You mentioned buying the P4 retail
Henrik, just a suggestion...
You mentioned buying the P4 retail version with the stock fan. Not the best idea. As long as you're putting this killer system together, spend a little more for good cooling.
Through newegg.com, you can get a Thermalrite SK6 for $28 witha 60mm Delta fan, or you can spend about $20 more and get an Alpha Pal8045 with a Delta fan. Add another $6.95 for shipping to either one. I just ordered the Thermalrite ... it doesn't cool quite as much as the Alpha, but it's much quieter, and quite suitable for the job of overclocking your new beast.
Its true, overclocking a CPU usually requires a better cooling s
Its true, overclocking a CPU usually requires a better cooling solution, but most of the reports comming in on overclocking the new Northwood P4 1.6a say they're doing it with the stock HSF! This chip runs cool man!
I agree with you SonOfSmawg, about the worth of putting a Thermalright SK6 to lower noise.I have an SK6 on my AMD XP1600, I even took the supplied Delta fan off(it was still too loud for me), and put a small Radio Shack blower fan to the side, blowing thru the fins. Some Artic Silver paste helped too. Half the damn noise gone :)
What I plan to do, is run fanless! Someone over at AT has been running an AMD 1.4 Athlon(not an XP) with a Zalman flower copper heastsink without the fan! His temps stay around 50C which is within AMD specs. The Northwood is much cooler, so I may have a shot at it.
Whaddya think about that?! :cool:
My current rig [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.anandtec…"] 96/24 DAW[/]="http://www.anandtec…"] 96/24 DAW[/]
Soon I'll have a 2.2P4 just waiting for the chip to get here.
Kewl, Tommy, sounds like it just might be a great solution for t
Kewl, Tommy, sounds like it just might be a great solution for the Northwood. If I recall correctly, that Zalman typically employs a 92mm fan with it's speed being controlled automatically by a sensor, but sometimes it runs REAL slow. So, it makes logical sense that the heatsink alone, with it's unique design, may indeed be enough for a processor which doesn't generate a lot of heat. Actual test bench results with that heatsink (without a fan) mounted on a Northwood (overclocked to the max) would be something that a LOT of people here on RO could benefit from, greatly.
You must logically consider, in this situation, that the size of the case, the position of the case fans, and the care that you use in running your cabling inside the case to avoid impeding airflow will all be more important than they normally would be. So if you're building a system from scratch, knowing that you will be employing a fanless Zalman, it may be wise to take care to buy longer cables (to route close to the sides instead of directly accross the open area), and to buy round cables instead of flat, when possible. Having excellent airflow inside the case could make a significant difference in this situation! Just my $.02 off the top of my head...
Originally posted by Opus2000: [QB}I got it thru a company call
I second the MWAVE recommendation, I buy from them alot too. It seems to me that between those guys and NewEgg, you get most anything at very good pricing.
Opus, have you been there, are they as ligitimate in person as they appear over the net?