Which P4 to choose?

[TRIAD]

Couple of questions.

I have seen alot of talk about over clocking the P4 Northwoods, but which one is the best to overclock. It seems so far that the 1.6A is by far the best choice. Is this true?

Lets face it, I do not want to buy a $450.00 2.2A when I can spend $140 on a 1.6A and overclock to 2.4Ghz.

Please give me your thoughts.

 

[alkaprim]

buy 1.6A
be aware that not every 1.8A does 2,4GHz.
Actualy I think that higher numbers of 1.6A do 2.4 than 1.8A.
Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[John]

The retail 1.6a is only 150.00 and lots of folks are getting 2200+MHz out of it. However, in order to do so you will run a FSB of 139+ and it tosses the PCI & AGP out of spec a bit. If your peripherals can handle it, good deal. You could get the 1.8a, bump the FSB to 133MHz (everything in spec) and 2400MHz might be a reality.

 

[CedarTeeth135]

Stay away from Intel, go for AMD, all the way. I'd say spend 150 on an athlon 1900 xp.

What do i know, go for the 1.6 if you must.

 

[Wik]

<< Stay away from Intel, go for AMD, all the way >>



And how does this answer his question about which P4 to choose?


With everything I have read so far, the 1.6a is the most MHZ for your dollar. I was thinking on getting one myself. But like John pointed out, a 1.8a at 133mhz would keep everything happy together.

 

[TRIAD]

From what I have been reading on these boards is the 1.6A is the best overclocker, and the 1.8 is not as good. You can correct me if I am wrong.

 

[jiffylube1024]

<< buy 1.6A
be aware that not every 1.8A does 2,4GHz.
Actualy I think that higher numbers of 1.6A do 2.4 than 1.8A.
Correct me if I'm wrong. >>



Sounds about right to me. 1.8A @ 2.25 right now (won't even POST @ 2.4 GHz) ... using arctic silver 2 also.

 

[TRIAD]

Is the P4B266 board one of the better choices? How does the RAM come in to play here. Is the DDR better than the RAMBUS or should the ram speed not even be a concern of mine?

 

[jiffylube1024]

P4B266 is basically the best motherboard for the P4 northwood. It's very very stable, and is the only choice (it and the P4S333) for heavy overclocking. With the DDR memory running @ 266 MHz it's pretty close to PC800 Rambus speeds. @333 MHz, the DDR memory (if you get good stuff like crucial, mushkin high quality) is as fast as PC800 memory.

 

[M3ta]

I currently have a Dual P3 1000 and i would like to summon your advice ... As the present P4 situations stand, what would be your choice? Of course i would like to keep myself "dualled", but 2000mhz is sort of ... easy to get nowadays with only 1 cpu..

 

[Acts837]

I bought the 1.6A and P4B266-C combo last week from newegg. Great rig! After a two day burn-in, I now am running my fsb at 133 for a 2.133 GHz processor. With the turbo1 setting my AGP/PCI slots are in spec. I have played around with this in several settings and after the ASII settled in my 133 fsb temps are about 1-2 degress higher than the default 100 fsb temps. Still at default voltage! Idle is 31 deg and full load with Prime 95 or Sisandra never goes above 45. Anyone who has purchased the 1.6A will tell you that this is better than the 300A of the early days.

 

[nvektus]

My 1.8A won't even do 2.2 stable. It'll post at 2.4 but will bsod. I got it runnin' at 2.1 :disgust:

 

[Tom]

My 1.8a does 2.5g stable, but I usually run it at 2.4g.

My reasons for getting the 1.8a instead of the 1.6a..

1. I wanted to run 2.4g at 133FSB which means everything is in spec.
2. If it wouldn't overclock at least it would be 1.8g instead of 1.6g.
3. It is about $50 more but has more room for price drops.(Amex Blue price protection factor)
4. The 1.6a wasn't available yet.

Advantages of a 1.6a are its cheaper and if it will overclock to 2.4g it will be faster because of higher FSB. (Assuming the motherboard and ram will allow running the memory at 347mhz(139fsb with 4:5 ratio))

BTW, I like my first Northwood system so much I decided to build another one with a 1.6a.

 

[sigmatic]

If the FSB is set at 150, won't everything be running in spec? Well, perhaps not the DDR, depending on which memory you're getting.

But I know some folks out there got their P4's to hit 150 MHz FSB, and I seem to recall it's the next "in spec" FSB level.

 

[MegalodoN]

I thought there was a way to adjust the FSB seperately from the memory speed(depending on the mobo of course). If this is true there would be no reason to get a 1.8a over a 1.6.....can anyone confirm this?

 

[Yelf]

Got me a 1.8a from Newegg (Malay) and it does 2.4 at 1.65 on a TH7II.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I am soooooo happy to see Intel finally make a chip that alot of people like. I wont say anything bad about AMD cause they make great chips also. Its just good to see Intel get their act together and make a GREAT chip. I have had my 2.0 at 2.4 just to try it and it was fine. I am not a big overclocker myself just like to see what I can do. Maybe when their is more info about my Soyo p41 Fire Dragon then ill do some bigger overlcocks not sure yet. As for your question I have to agree with the 1.6 and an Asus mobo, very strong combo and great for hitting big fsb.