CPU Core?

[hatchmar]

Hello again! in my journey to build a computer, I am trying to be as informed as possible when selecting components. I am looking for a CPU at the moment (Intel socket 478) and I keep coming across the term "CORE" i see there are names like Northwood, prescott etc and I was wondering whatt exactly is the difference between cores? I did google it and just got a bunch of sites tryinng to sell me CPU's and i searched here but I really didnt see any answers.
Thanks in advance!

 

[zephead]

before you try to buy a computer, you should first establish what you intend to use it for and how high you intend it's eprformance to be. the northwood core is arguably the best core available for socket 478, despite the prescott being newer and having twice the L2 cache. but you'll hjave to fill us in on what the machine is for before i can reccomend anything particular.

 

[hatchmar]

CAD/CAM and audio/video type stuff. Im not really much into computer gaming- gots my xbox for that.

 

[hatchmar]

oh and all I have so far is the motherboard- in my signature. I was originally going to use the CPU I already have but I decided to buy a new one, thats why I already have the motherboard

 

[sllewe]

northwood

Well i think the the p4 would be a good coice for you application. As would be a northwood, maybe with HT. NOrthwoods run alot cooler, take less power and overall are more stable (i own both a northwood and a prescott, and would recomend the northwood anyday.) A very good northwood can be found here


Sean

 

[hatchmar]

thank you for the replies and I now have a good Idea of which one I want, but i guess my question is a little more basic than which one is better- im just wondering what makes a northwood a northwood and a prescoot a prescott. is it where they are made? or is it more like a sub -model.

 

[sllewe]

or is it more like a sub -model.

Indeed. When intel or AMD want to tweak the current processor, (maybe to add more cache, or to tweak or add a feature) instead of relasing another set of CPUs, they simply make a new core. A good comparison is the Northwood P4 and the Prescott P4. Intel doubled the l2 cache (prob. to help battle of AMD) and added changed the chop to 90nm, and added a few other features, and named it the prescott. No real drastic change, just an upgrade (that didnt work to well :dead: in that instance)

Sean

 

[Blakhart]

For one thing, the Prescott won't really spank the Northwoods till they run at 5GHz or so. Then look out. Reason is the core diffs, the Pres has a 34 stage "pipeline" to the North's 20.
Read here for some more info on cores:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1301&p=2

 

[sllewe]

For one thing, the Prescott won't really spank the Northwoods till they run at 5GHz or so.

DO you really think that you could run a prescott at 5ghz? Most of them have cooling troubles at 3. I guess if you had water, but i would think it would be hard to run a CPU at 5ghz on air.

Sean

 

[Blakhart]

Yes.
The Prescott (and the Northwood, I think) core was designed to be run to 10GHz before a core change was warranted, other than die size reductions. That was the plan until they went to dual core.
I suspect that after dual core at today's speeds has run its course, they'll resume making faster cpus like the current Prescott core. As in 5GHz and faster.
My guess is that the makers are delaying 5GHz and faster cpus as a way to milk more money from the present technology and fabs.