Which processor is better?

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MetalX

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I was just wondering which processor is better for gaming or are they around the same.

Socket 462 Athlon XP 2800+ (yes I know its a VERY old socket)
Socket 478 Pentium 4 2.26 ghz Northwood (yes i know this socket is a bit old too...)

I have had the P4 for awhile now but i just had a chance the other day to get the Athlon XP and a mobo for free so I was wondering if i should put it in my mian gaming computer to replace the P4 (which is in there now) or if I should leave the P4 in there.
 
Oh, I forgot to mention, the Athlon XP might not be normal. CPU-Z reports that it is a "Mobile AMD Athlon XP-M 2800+". Here is the pic... it is slightly overclocked, I raised the system bus by 7 mhz... it is 140 mhz but should be 133 mhz.

CPU-ZAthlon2800.jpg
 
The AthlonXP-M would be a better choice. The Northwood doesn't even have HyperThreading which is probably the only strong point it could have over the AthlonXP-M.
 
I thought you were suppose to turn off Hyper threading? Can you explain why you keep it on/off?

Thanks been pondering that one. Also in a since, the athlon is comparable to a 2.8ghz P4, because the PR rating is 2800 . Go with the Athlon, it won't let you down.
 
CrossFire851 said:
I thought you were suppose to turn off Hyper threading? Can you explain why you keep it on/off?
With HyperThreading turned on the worst you could get is a game running a bit too fast (GTA does that for example) but you just switch back to the desktop & with the task manager you tell the game's process use only one (virtual) CPU.

HyperThreading makes Windows a lot more smoother when you run lots of applications at the same time. There are also a few multi-threaded applications that get a small performance boost from it.
 
MetalX said:
Oh, I forgot to mention, the Athlon XP might not be normal. CPU-Z reports that it is a "Mobile AMD Athlon XP-M 2800+". Here is the pic... it is slightly overclocked, I raised the system bus by 7 mhz... it is 140 mhz but should be 133 mhz.
that Athlon XP-M is better than the 2.2GHz P4.

not only is it faster at stock speeds, the mobile bartons are awesome overclockers! mobile Bartons are the cream of the crop when it comes to Athlon-XPs. Bartons are native 400FSB processors, the mobiles versions have been turned down to 266FSB, but have unlocked multipliers. you can bring it much higher than 7MHz. bartons can easily run at 200MHz FSB (DDR 400MHz) and many can even go higher. this of course all depends on what mobo you're using.

good luck :wave:
 
Lol i hope i can get it thatt high... but my mobo isnt the best. My friend got the processor AND mobo together for $100 on a clearance sale and then he gave it to me for my birthday.
 
what mobo is it?

you already raised the FSB a little, so I assume the mobo has overclocking options. the only thing stopping the overclock would be no PCI/AGP lock or low speed RAM (with no ram divider setting in BIOS).

p.s. you got a decent overclock out of your northwood I see.
 
I ma having a hard time telling which mobo it is... the most i saw was that it is a PC Chips K7... it does have the one problem of no PCI/AGP lock... but I was wondering if integrated graphics is affected by overspeed pci or agp clocks... becuase my graphics card that is in there now (Radeon 9250SE) freezes when i set the FSB to anywhere above 145 mhz.
 
Unfortunately I can't turn the AGP or PCI bus down... or lock them in place. ALso, there isnt mych hope of gettin a new mobo that can do that because i am only 14 and i cant use a credit card to buy from newegg and stuff and the PC shop in my city doesnt have socket 462 mobos anymore... oh well i will just run it unoverclocked i guess.
 
that's too bad because that CPU is just dying to be overclocked :D (because it is basically underclocked from the factory to run cool in laptops)

but it's obvious that the lack of a PCI/AGP lock on that mobo is what's preventing a significant overclock. look on ebay for socke-A mobos where the seller accepts money orders (you can buy money orders in cash for about $1 from grocery store and drug store chains. just something to consider

cheers :wave:
 
I think i will leave it at as far as I can overclock it for now. I am planning to buy a Athlon 64 X2 ( not sure which one yet) for socket AM2 in a few months anyway and i did manage to get the 2800+ up to 3200+ according to PCWizard... so i will leave it at that.
 
I'm sort of restarting this post because I want to know which Mobos are good for overclocking 462s and I want to know how to unlock the multiplier on my XP-M.
 
Damn... I dont think my bios has that feature... Oh well. It's not a big priority because I'm upgrading to socket 939 in a few days anyway.
 
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