Here's a Dumb question on Processors | Forums

[GT182]

What's the difference between a P4 Northwood and P4 Prescott processor? I haven't a clue but I've seen both for sale on some sites....as in P4 3.0 or 3.2 CPUs, both being listed as either Northwood or Prescott.

I know LuckyBoy, Hunter and others will know.

LB, that would be a good one to answer for your Guide. Sure would help us "dummies" decide on what to get.

[GT182]

What's the difference between a P4 Northwood and P4 Prescott processor? I haven't a clue but I've seen both for sale on some sites....as in P4 3.0 or 3.2 CPUs, both being listed as either Northwood or Prescott.

I know LuckyBoy, Hunter and others will know.

LB, that would be a good one to answer for your Guide. Sure would help us "dummies" decide on what to get.

[Udidtoo]

I'm not all that well read on the main differences but strictly speaking from personal experiance my new 3.2 with the Flamethro.....I mean Prescott tends to run a little hot. 812F give or take.

OK seriously Prescott=Heat you can find literally hundreds of threads on hardware and overclock forums that have the sentence 51C at idle with standard Intel heatsink somwhere in them.

If you go the Prescott route Good cooling is a must.

[steve_v]

Pretty good article here

Three Pentium 4 Amigos - Northwood, Gallatin and Prescott Compared
http://www.tweaktown.com/document.ph...rticle&dId=647

[GT182]

Thanks guys, I knew the answer was here in Community Help.

On my way to read the links now Steve.

~S!~

[LuckyBoy1]

The main difference is the amount of cache on the chip. Think of cache as the CPU's internal RAM. The Northwood has 512 KB and the Prescott has 1 MB of cache. You will get a bit better performance, clock speed per clock speed with the Prescott and it makes a handy place to cook the stir fry as well! If you decide to go Prescott, whip some water cooling on it because nothing less will do!

[Fish40]

What about the Pentium Extreme Edition chips? I think they have 2mb cache. How are they compared to the Prescott's at generateing heat? I'm toying with the idea of getting a new system with this chip, mabey next fall. The way it is now, I'll need to work alot of O.T. to afford one.

[LuckyBoy1]

They generate less heat because they are not 478 pin chips, but I hate to break the news to everyone, but no matter what you go to in high performance chips, heating will be an issue to one degree or another. Will it be a situation where you "have to" water cooling just to get the game to run at stock clocked speeds like the 3.2 Prescott? Absolutely not! However, silicon has its limits and until they come out with a material that can handle significantly more heat, cooling issues will be with us. I've heard they are trying to come up with a synthetic diamond material, but that's a technology at least 10 years away, if at all.

For all the expense of the newer Intel chips, I'd go AMD 64 939. It's not that much more expensive and they really perform well.

[SlickStick]

As your questions have been answered already, GT, let me just add my little thankfulness for AMD. For without them, we would be pwned by Intel and their prices.

I made the jump when I could buy a $50.00 XP1700 and overclock it to XP2600 (333FSB) speeds. I'm just waiting for the 64-bit systems to become more mainstream as I plan on staying loyal to AMD.

Not an Intel bash, I just like paying as little for as much performance as possible.

[ASM 1]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Fish40:
What about the Pentium Extreme Edition chips? I think they have 2mb cache. How are they compared to the Prescott's at generateing heat? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The EE is actually a Northwood with 2mb cache FYI... heatwise, not sure... would like one but they are (as you know) bloody expensive Currently have a 3.0 pressie but with some seriuous cooling:

At the moment

CPU 36*C
Mobo 28*C

Thermalright SP94 and a vantec tornado on top of it... plus lots of case fans (noise isnt too bad )