Which P4?

[coz]

I'm going to be buying a new P4 soon and need some advice. The new chip will be either a 3.0C or 3.2C and it'll be watercooled on an Asus P4C800-E with 2 x 512MB PC3200 (the original Corsair TwinX 3200LL stuff) modules. I have noticed that there are some P4s with slightly different (8-layer, 30-cap) packaging around and they seem to be pretty decent overclockers. Given that the 'new package' P4s (SL78Z, SL792) are tricky to get hold of, is it really worth me trying to get hold of one of them? I mean, do you think they really offer enough of a benefit to warrant the hassle of trying to find one?

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

[mayakindaguy]

The P4 3.0C is probably a great choice since your watercooling. I'm assuming you're going water to overclock and that you customized your own rig rather than buying a prebuilt, which can be okay. Anyways, you should be able to hit the 3.9 mark with water easily. The 30caps...I stopped my search cause it just became too much of a hassle buying and selling and etc. So that's all up to personal prefernce. The reason people really want them is I think they're supposed to have unlocked dividers thus allowing you to push farther with your overclock.

 

[coz]

The reason people really want them is I think they're supposed to have unlocked dividers thus allowing you to push farther with your overclock.

Unlocked dividers? Do you mean unlocked multipliers? I haven't heard anything about unlocked multipliers on any P4s, not even the ultra-expensive, Gallatin-based P4 EE. I think hell will freeze over before we get unlocked multipliers on non-ES Intel chips.

I decided to just go ahead and buy a 3.2C today and screw trying to find a 30-capper!! In fact I bought 2 x 3.2Cs, each from different suppliers. Once I've found the champ I'll send the other one back or sell it privately. I'd like to reach 3.7GHz+, I think I've got a pretty good chance. I've also invested in an Antec Sonata case, an Asus P4C800-E and a couple of 160GB Hitachi 7K250 SATA drives to run in RAID0 on the ICH5-R. Even though the Hitachi HDD stuff is the artist formerly known as IBM (I still get nightmares thinking I'm running my old 75GXP timebomb), I've got a good feeling about the new drives!

Now, if you'll excuse me I have to go and prostitute myself because I no longer have any money.

 

[digitalman]

Unlocked dividers? Do you mean unlocked multipliers? I haven't heard anything about unlocked multipliers on any P4s, not even the ultra-expensive, Gallatin-based P4 EE. I think hell will freeze over before we get unlocked multipliers on non-ES Intel chips.

I decided to just go ahead and buy a 3.2C today and screw trying to find a 30-capper!! In fact I bought 2 x 3.2Cs, each from different suppliers. Once I've found the champ I'll send the other one back or sell it privately. I'd like to reach 3.7GHz+, I think I've got a pretty good chance. I've also invested in an Antec Sonata case, an Asus P4C800-E and a couple of 160GB Hitachi 7K250 SATA drives to run in RAID0 on the ICH5-R. Even though the Hitachi HDD stuff is the artist formerly known as IBM (I still get nightmares thinking I'm running my old 75GXP timebomb), I've got a good feeling about the new drives!

Now, if you'll excuse me I have to go and prostitute myself because I no longer have any money.

Now I know what all the welfare money in England was spent on. Now get to work you pommie bastard.

I just bought a 2.8 since it was the best bang for the buck I could find. I also got an Abit IC7-G MAXII from newegg and a Abit SERILLEL2 adapter from eWiz.

 

[Stugots]

...couple of 160GB Hitachi 7K250 SATA drives to run in RAID0 on the ICH5-R...

awesome drives, very quiet, and i get ~115mb's in hdtach with mine. only strange thing is that about once every 10 minutes the drives emit this meowing noise thats perfectly normal, its some sort of recalibration of the hard drive. 207$ for 320gb is a damn good deal imo.

 

[coz]

Now get to work you pommie bastard.

Never! I'm on workers' comp due to the emotional trauma of having to work for a living. Never again I tells ya!!

How's that new P4 of yours working out BTW?

 

[coz]

only strange thing is that about once every 10 minutes the drives emit this meowing noise thats perfectly normal, its some sort of recalibration of the hard drive.

Thanks for the warning, that's the kind of thing that might make me think one of the drives was defective and start worrying about it.

 

[Stugots]

Thanks for the warning, that's the kind of thing that might make me think one of the drives was defective and start worrying about it.

we order ibm laptops where i work, and a guy was saying that theres a utility by hitachi to disable that feature which eliminates the meowing noise, but i dont know if it works on the desktop drives. besides, you barely notice it when they make the sound.

 

[mayakindaguy]

Divide, multiply ehhh...it's all the same. lol. Wasn't sure, but that's what I remember reading. Are u going software RAID on those drives? Might want to read IceCzar's sticky about that in the Storage forum.

 

[digitalman]

Never! I'm on workers' comp due to the emotional trauma of having to work for a living. Never again I tells ya!!

This from the guy who just spent a long vacation in Australia and New Zealand. LOL

I get the 2.8 and IC7-G on Thurday. I get the SERILLEL2 adapter on Monday. eWiz is raping me for shipping the SERILLEL2 adapter . I paid ~ $8 for Fedex ground. Their only saving grace was that they wanted $21 for the SERILLEL2 adapter and everybody else wants $35.

 

[coz]

I've received the new stuff I ordered yesterday and have some results of the testing I did on the two 3.2C chips. Both chips were SL6WG, 12-cap/6-layer parts, I'd been hoping for one of those 30-capper monsters! I wanted to find the best of the two so I did some simple POST-only testing with the stock Intel HSF+TIM on my new Asus P4C800-E Deluxe using the 5/4 (320MHz) memory divider and 2T (non-turbo) setting to make sure I was only stressing the CPU......

(Cooling - Intel stock HSF and TIM, room temp 28*C)

1st 3.2C (Northwood, SL6WG, FPO# L352B015, Packdate 29th Jan '04)

220FSB, 3.52GHz, POST OK, 1.55vcore (std vcore)
230FSB, 3.68GHz, POST OK, 1.55vcore
240FSB, 3.84GHz, NO POST, 1.55vcore
235FSB, 3.76GHz, NO POST, 1.65vcore

2nd 3.2C (Northwood, SL6WG, FPO# L344B055, Packdate 18th Feb '04)

220FSB, 3.52GHz, POST OK, 1.55vcore (std vcore)
230FSB, 3.68GHz, POST OK, 1.55vcore
235FSB, 3.76GHz, POST OK, 1.55vcore
240FSB, 3.84GHz, POST OK, 1.55vcore
245FSB, 3.92GHz, NO POST, 1.55vcore
245FSB, 3.92GHz, POST OK, 1.65vcore
249FSB, 3.98GHz, NO POST, 1.65vcore


It looks like we have teh winnar!! Yeah, I know it's only a POST test but it's with pretty dire cooling in a hot room. Given some H20-cooling I think that 4GHz may be possible. I'm only interested in reaching 4GHz for some benchmarks, a normal running speed of 3.6-3.7GHz will suit me just fine.

The moral of the story is.....don't worry about searching the Earth for a 30-capper, the older packaging is still doing the business!!

 

[mayakindaguy]

told ya so. jk.