Help Picking Good CPU

[tifc8lraz]

I am currently in the process of trying to find a new CPU as my celeron busted mysteriously (I had an unstable overclock and I'll leave the rest to your imagination...think black hole in the cpu). I originally thought it was a fan failure and it overheated. I didn't like the celeron anyway. Right now I am eyeing a few things on Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...1707443+1050706985&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=343

I have been told that the Northwood is a better deal. The only problem though is that I am a little hesitant to overclock the cpu because this budget was given to me as a gift, and nothing says "I blew your money, literally" more than another cpu lost to overclocking. Obviously you can see that the mobo is socket 478, and blah, blah, blah. Mobo is listed in my profile and any input would be greatly appreciated!


EDIT: The budget is $100.00. I don't want to have to go over this, as my classes come first over my computers.

 

[nickslick74]

I would go for the Prescott 3.0 for the faster bus and larger cache. But remember, they do get hot, so get a decent HSF combo.

 

[tifc8lraz]

Will the processor be fine on stock cooling for now? My parents computer has a 3.6ghz Prescott P4 560J, and the temps on it are as high as 150F or around 60C, so I've dealt with them before. Note that I am not doing overclocking on it.

 

[nickslick74]

Stock should be okay.

 

[MetalX]

I still say Northwood because they run cooler, cost less, and are almost as fast as the Prescotts. Besides, having a larger FSB doesn't really make the processor THAT much faster. I mean a 3.0 ghz with 800 FSB is going to be practically the same speed as a 3.06 with 533FSB.

 

[wolfram]

I agree with MetalX. I'd choose the Northwood. They have less L2 cache latency, work cooler, and don't use too much power.

 

[dmill89]

I'll also recomend the Northwood. There will be little if any preformance difference and it will run alot cooler.It's cheaper too.

 

[F1N3ST]

They have RoHS Prescotts wolfram, like .1v differance. Im either gonna get a new mobo with PCI-e, and a C2d for X-Mas, or like a PD or A64, new mobo, and new GFX card.

 

[wolfram]

To be honest, I don't exactly know what ROHS means

But I highly doubt that a ROHS CPU will end with Prescott's heat and power consumption problems.

 

[F1N3ST]

The RoHS means like enviremental safe or something, generallyiy meaning lower power. It uses less power than the regular prescotts.

 

[wolfram]

Ummm, now I see

Anyway, I'm sure RoHS doesn't change the high L2 cache latency of Prescotts

 

[tifc8lraz]

The only thing I am a little 'iffy about is the fact that the northwood has only 512kb l2 cache while the prescott has 1mb of it. THe northwood is also 2.8ghz, not 3.0(6)

 

[MetalX]

Oh, sorry I was just using 3.06 as an example comparison to a Prescott. Because sometimes Northwood 3.0 ghz are actually 3.06 because that's the closest they can get to 3.0 with a 533mhz FSB. But while having more cache is good, the less cache there is, the less latency it has, and therefore the faster it can be accessed. Plus, there is almost no noticeable difference between 2.8 ghz and 3.0 ghz. I had a Northwood 2.26 overclocked to 2.72 rock stable and it was (quite obviously) slower than 3.0 ghz, but when I got a 3.0 Ghz Prescott to replace it, I returned it almost immediately because,

A) The Prescott couldn't overclock worth a damn without a tube of liquid nitrogen cooling it and,

B) It got a lower score in 3dMark2001 and 3dMark03 at 3.2 ghz than the Northwood got at 2.72.

Also, Northwoods run MUCH cooler and use almost half the power of Prescotts .

EDIT: Also, RoHS does mean that the product is more environmentally friendly, but it DOESN'T mean that it uses less power. It means that the product contains less lead (or none at all) compared to the average computer part, which contains a lot of lead. It basically means that if you throw the part in the garbage, it won't pollute the environment with lead so much.