upgrade to P4 Northwood? verify this...

[lordsmurf]

I've got a Intel 850GB motherboard, socket 423, using a P4 1.8Ghz CPU. It's the RDRAM (Rambus) system, PC800, using 1GB of RAM.

I can get the 423 to 478 socket upgrade kit for around $50 or so.
More on that kit here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/08/30/performance_injection/index.html

Notice that article was written in April 2004, and it refers to 2.8Ghz and 3.0Ghz CPUs.

It's now 2006, and I see that 3.2Ghz and 3.4Ghz Northwoods exist. Are there even faster than that? Would these work just as well as the 2.8's or 3.0's talked about in the Tom's Hardware article?

I don't know if I'm missing something, or if all 478 Northwoods are basically the same, speed being the obvious exception?

And beyond that, what else exist on socket 478 that is not Northwood? Anything? If something, then are those options too?

The only drawback to this sort of upgrade is I'll apparently only be able to access 400Mhz FSB, and not 800 FSB, but I'd assume it won't make a big difference, as I'm still going to be (effectively) doubling the power of my old CPU.

I know this won't be a "perfect" upgrade, but it'll end up being a whole lot cheaper than replacing the complete system (or motherboard, RAM, case, CPU, etc). And all I really need is more CPU horsepower, the RAM/HDDs/etc are fine.

Also, can I take advantage of a 2MB L2 Cache or am I limited to 512k or whatever by this upgrade setup?

Same for hyperthreading CPUs? Can I use those (with HT likely not functioning), or would the CPU not work if HT was present?

These are the four questions:
- Confirmation? Are all P4 socket 478's the same?
- Can I run on eBay or wherever and grab myself a 3.4Ghz and be fine?
- Is 3.4Ghz the fastest socket 478 Northwood chip around?
- Cache, HT options?

I used to understand computer specs a lot better, before they made CPUs come with a ton of specs instead of numbers alone. Get so lost on this stuff, and all I want to do is make it go a bit faster.

[rallynavvie]

Prescott cores (90nm process) are also available in 478. The Northwoods are the better cores IMO but they are only available up to 3.4 (I thought it was only 3.2) and those are pretty rare and expensive because of the preference for Northwoods among P4 philes. Otherwise the only difference you'll see on a 478 is the clock, bus, core, and cache size.

The only thing I'd be worried about is the "coversion" to an 800 FSB chip. With the P4s there is a close correlation between clock and memory speed, and since RDRAM is such a tricky beast I'm thinking there may be issues if you try anything other than what they tested with. If I had to do that conversion I'd just use the 2.8 they tested it with and leave it at that. Honestly I'd part the old RDRAM system and sell it since you can get some mad money for those systems (ever try to price the memory?) and build a new one on a different processor.

[lordsmurf]

Today's situation is similar: Intel offers P4 models for Socket 478 with up to 2.6 GHz and FSB400 that it is technically possible to run on the old Socket 423, too. Luckily for PowerLeap, however, there are also some even faster CPUs that don't appear in Intel's specs: we received 2.8 GHz for the test; according to PowerLeap, 3.0 GHz models with FSB400 are available as well. While not exactly a steal for $349/€319, the 2.8 GHz version we tested can be had for $249/€219 and is not significantly slower.

So, judging from this little paragraph, it would seem FSB400 is required, and FSB800 is not? They were never very clear on that (not that I saw, maybe I missed it) in the article. I'll have to look up specs on the upgrade kit, maybe e-mail the company (and hope they answer!).

Any ideas where they sell FSB400 Northwoods?

[rallynavvie]

You're probably going to have to camp eBay for 400 FSB P4s, I don't think anyplace sells them anymore. You may try PriceWatch if you weed through the junk.

[lordsmurf]

After further reading, I could have used a 533FSB with a non-Intel board, it's possible. Overclock the RAM, native CPU speed. But Intal boards, it's a no go. Abit is the only one I see for that.

The 800FSB will supposedly only run half CPU speed, so screw it. I'll think about a 2.8Ghz upgrade, it would run about $270 total. Not sure that's enough extra juice to warrant the cost.