Is a Northwood good enough?

[DarrylLicke]

Okay. Screw Conroe I'm going cheap. The Wii comes out in a couple months and that can be my gaming fix.

That said I need to do some pretty "basic" things on my new home box: photoshop, programming, file server, webserver, multi-tasking, serve torrents (as in be a "repository" for the .torrent files on a private network).

Ideally, I'd liek to be able to do all these at once. Sure I'll turn off the torrents if I'm surfing the web but this machine, running linux, will be running 24/7 for the most part.

Minimum ram I'm thinking is going to be 2 gigs.
Probably on board audio and video, unless cards handling that will let me do photo editing a little better/faster.

DVD burner

DVD-rom.

couple fans since the case I have was a gift and doesn't have good circulation.

Some cheap HD to get me up and running. Maybe a 50g...100...meh.

 

[agent2099]

Are you building from scratch? If so I'd say minimum should be AM2 (or a S939 system as I'm sure there'll be plenty of deals to be had especially in the FS/T forums). If you already have a Northwood and motherboard lying around then that's different but I don't see there being much value in building a new P4 based system.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Biostar TForce 6100-939 mATX and X2 3800+ socket 939, or the $160 combo deal Newegg has for the TForce + A64 3500+ single core.

A used P4 3.0 - 3.2 Northwood would also be good, but stay away from the 3.4 and from the Presshot Lous-E. Also only buy from someone you trust not to have overclocked the CPU.

 

[eelw]

What is wrong with a 3.4 Northwood??? It's the best 478 chip out there.

If you're planning to build a cheap system, then get the ASRock 775Dual VSTA and a E6300. As noted, unless you already have parts laying around, there really is no reason to get anything but a C2D.

 

[bendixG15]

Is money reason enough ??/

 

[eelw]

But how cheaply can you get a Northwood? For $300, you can pick up both the ASRock board and E6300.

 

[DarrylLicke]

Originally posted by: agent2099
Are you building from scratch? If so I'd say minimum should be AM2 (or a S939 system as I'm sure there'll be plenty of deals to be had especially in the FS/T forums). If you already have a Northwood and motherboard lying around then that's different but I don't see there being much value in building a new P4 based system.

Well I'm going to be buying new...found a few Northwoods for around $50 on pricewatch. Just a matter of finding a suitable board.

And yes I'm building from scratch. I'm wary of buying used for many of the reasons listed below. My main concern is whether a Northwood/AM2 can do what I mentioned above without breaking a sweat.

 

[DarrylLicke]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Biostar TForce 6100-939 mATX and X2 3800+ socket 939, or the $160 combo deal Newegg has for the TForce + A64 3500+ single core.

A used P4 3.0 - 3.2 Northwood would also be good, but stay away from the 3.4 and from the Presshot Lous-E. Also only buy from someone you trust not to have overclocked the CPU.

I'll look into those options, thanks.

Why should I avoid Presscott? I think that's what you're referring too.

And I won't be buying used.

 

[DarrylLicke]

Originally posted by: eelw
What is wrong with a 3.4 Northwood??? It's the best 478 chip out there.

If you're planning to build a cheap system, then get the ASRock 775Dual VSTA and a E6300. As noted, unless you already have parts laying around, there really is no reason to get anything but a C2D.

what about cost? A Conroe is going to run me the cost of a solid motherboard and processor riight? I'm not trying to go bleeding edge. I at first thought of doing so but then it dawned on me that I play the majority of my games on gaming machines like the upcoming Wii.

 

[DarrylLicke]

Originally posted by: eelw
But how cheaply can you get a Northwood? For $300, you can pick up both the ASRock board and E6300.

http://castle.pricewatch.com/s/search.asp?s=northwood&c=CPU&i=3

$50.

 

[Blain]

If you're locked into some type of single core "Pentium 4" and are buying "new", get a Cedar Mill CPU...
* 2MB L2 cache
* EM64T
* Hyper-Threading
* 65mn

 

[DaveSimmons]

> Why should I avoid Presscott? I think that's what you're referring to.

Because Prescott Es run very hot and are not a good value. The Northwood Cs were great CPUs for their time and I'm typing this on a 3.2C now, but even intel admits the Prescotts were a step backwards and that the P4-duals were a second-rate hack to counter the AMD X2s.

Core 2s are also great CPUs but can be harder to set up since the motherboard support is version 1.0 bleeding edge.

> $50 P4
That's 1.8 GHz and 400 FSB not 800. Even a Sempron 2600+ would run circles around that. Check old benchmarks under the CPU tab above.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: eelw
What is wrong with a 3.4 Northwood??? It's the best 478 chip out there.

QFT. The 3.4 Northy is STILL a beast. Nothing wrong with that chip at all.

It sounds like it would suit the OP's purposes just fine. The problem, however, may be finding one for a reasonable price.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Biostar TForce 6100-939 mATX and X2 3800+ socket 939, or the $160 combo deal Newegg has for the TForce + A64 3500+ single core.

A used P4 3.0 - 3.2 Northwood would also be good, but stay away from the 3.4 and from the Presshot Lous-E. Also only buy from someone you trust not to have overclocked the CPU.

Seconded - see sig.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: eelw
What is wrong with a 3.4 Northwood??? It's the best 478 chip out there.

QFT. The 3.4 Northy is STILL a beast. Nothing wrong with that chip at all.

It sounds like it would suit the OP's purposes just fine. The problem, however, may be finding one for a reasonable price.

Here's a 3.4 northy D1 steppping. I believe it's a 30 capper for 140.00 new
http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=543



I'm thinking of this upgrade The price has been fluctuating from 110.00 to 140.00 for weeks. Waiting for it to go back down to pull the trigger.

 

[Auric]

My 3.0E (E0) Prescott has treated me well... better than the 2.4C Northwood which failed. Prescott was cheaper than the same frequency Northwood at the time (year and a half ago?) and was "guaranteed" a high o'erclock without the common risk of "Northwood Sudden Death Syndrome"... quick price check $90. That said, I'm not particularly recommending any old timey models but just stepping in with the obligatory counterpoint to the usual Northwood evangelizing

 

[DarrylLicke]

Originally posted by: Blain
If you're locked into some type of single core "Pentium 4" and are buying "new", get a Cedar Mill CPU...
* 2MB L2 cache
* EM64T
* Hyper-Threading
* 65mn

That's just it....I'm not. I want a solid system to multi-task the tasks above I OP. If it's AMD cool...Intel fine....

 

[DarrylLicke]

I think I need to clear something up. Bleeding edge is NOT required. The cost is the primary factor followed closely by satisfying the requirements above. The reason I'm shooting for dual core is because a single proc is cheaper than two procs but if I can do the tasks above with a generation or two back proc I'll do that. This is just a machine to get me off the loaner I'm using and what would of ultimately replaced a PIII 733 so hopefully it's clear that bleeding edge isn't required. Besides I'm getting a Macbook Pro once they clear up the discoloration issue and will dual boot that with xp so games will be playable on it.

 

[Conky]

I'll sell you my Northwood 3.06 w/HT (runs on 533 bus) and a matching ASUS p4p800 motherboard with an Alpha heatsink to boot for cheap if you are interested...
heck, I can even throw in half a gig of Corsair ram that will run dual channel.

It's definitely good enough for a lot of people. I just had to get a new Conroe though.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Beachboy
I'll sell you my Northwood 3.06 w/HT (runs on 533 bus) and a matching ASUS p4p800 motherboard with an Alpha heatsink to boot for cheap if you are interested...
heck, I can even throw in half a gig of Corsair ram that will run dual channel.

It's definitely good enough for a lot of people. I just had to get a new Conroe though.

Good cpu I have one check my signiture.

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: happy medium

Originally posted by: Beachboy
I'll sell you my Northwood 3.06 w/HT (runs on 533 bus) and a matching ASUS p4p800 motherboard with an Alpha heatsink to boot for cheap if you are interested...
heck, I can even throw in half a gig of Corsair ram that will run dual channel.

It's definitely good enough for a lot of people. I just had to get a new Conroe though.

Good cpu I have one check my signiture.

Yep, mine runs solid all day long at 3.45GHz(with no voltage bump!) but due to the insane amount of drives in my computer I've been running it at stock (with an Alpha) for the majority of the time I've had it.

It's really a fine cpu but I just got that itch for a new cpu and I do a ton of encoding so I am hoping a new E6400 will ease that burden a bit.

I gotta say though... as far as cpu's go, this Northwood 3.06 w/HT has been the t!ts for the last couple years. I am looking forward to a similar experience with the new E6400.