Fastest practical CPU for P4T-E

[_|_|_]

I'm using a P4T-E for my Internet machine. Currently running
Northwood 1.6Ghz with 1.5GB Rambus. Given that browsers and
downloading tools are getting more CPU and Ram-hungry, I
was thinking about speeding up the machine.

Ordinarily I'd just opt for another motherboard, but since this
already has 1.5 GB Rambus, it doesn't warrant swapping the
motherboard. Given that Rambus is at a dead end, I hate to
buy more ram too.

So...in general, how much benefit could be had from a faster
CPU...Say 3Ghz? (Subjective, I know...a wild guess is fine).
And how fast a CPU will the P4T-E accommodate? I guess
I'd have diminishing returns given the 400mhz fsb, so I'm not
looking to go beyond 3ghz (if that's even possible).

 

[Brian Campbell]

Get your cake and eat it too! Sell that rambus! With the money you get
from the rambus, uoi can get a motherboard and ddr ram!


_|_|_ (_|_|[email protected]) wrote:
: I'm using a P4T-E for my Internet machine. Currently running
: Northwood 1.6Ghz with 1.5GB Rambus. Given that browsers and
: downloading tools are getting more CPU and Ram-hungry, I
: was thinking about speeding up the machine.

: Ordinarily I'd just opt for another motherboard, but since this
: already has 1.5 GB Rambus, it doesn't warrant swapping the
: motherboard. Given that Rambus is at a dead end, I hate to
: buy more ram too.

: So...in general, how much benefit could be had from a faster
: CPU...Say 3Ghz? (Subjective, I know...a wild guess is fine).
: And how fast a CPU will the P4T-E accommodate? I guess
: I'd have diminishing returns given the 400mhz fsb, so I'm not
: looking to go beyond 3ghz (if that's even possible).

 

[Paul]

I'm using a P4T-E for my Internet machine. Currently running
Northwood 1.6Ghz with 1.5GB Rambus. Given that browsers and
downloading tools are getting more CPU and Ram-hungry, I
was thinking about speeding up the machine.

Ordinarily I'd just opt for another motherboard, but since this
already has 1.5 GB Rambus, it doesn't warrant swapping the
motherboard. Given that Rambus is at a dead end, I hate to
buy more ram too.

So...in general, how much benefit could be had from a faster
CPU...Say 3Ghz? (Subjective, I know...a wild guess is fine).
And how fast a CPU will the P4T-E accommodate? I guess
I'd have diminishing returns given the 400mhz fsb, so I'm not
looking to go beyond 3ghz (if that's even possible).

Powerleap sells 2.8GHz/FSB400/512KB for $162.
It will go 2.8/1.6 times faster (when not limited
by the FSB).

http://www.powerleap.com/Processors.html

Paul

 

[DaveW]

The top end for that motherboard, I believe, is 2.0 GHz.

 

[NomoreRGS]

The Asus site still says 2.6 GHz. I upgraded my P4T-E CPU from 1.9
to 2.6MHz a couple of years ago and the BIOS to 1007. It works great.
It also over clocks to 120% of the FSB (BIOS setting) with my cards.
My old cheapo video card (32M or 64M can't remember) only allowed the
system to go to 110% safely. At 112% the system would often hang.
I leave it at the correct 100% setting unless I expect to do something
very demanding.


http://www.asus.com/support/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx

 

[_|_|_]

Get your cake and eat it too! Sell that rambus! With the money you get
from the rambus, uoi can get a motherboard and ddr ram!

Hah! Is Rambus that rare a commodity these days? I have a few gigs,
including 1.5g on the machine I was going to upgrade. I'd be glad to
replace the motherboard with something using DDR if it wasn't an
expensive process. I run some real mem-hog programs on that machine
and even 1.5gB is often not enough.

(Aside: Strangely, I often get spontaneous reboots when I try to play
an MP3 with Winamp or play a video file with PowerDVD when other
software is loaded. Aggravating. That may be a problem with a sound
driver rather than memory.)

I actually have a P4PE motherboard laying around. I don't remember
the max RAM capacity, but I'd love to pick up a faster CPU and throw 3
or 4 GB of DDR in there. Slight increase in FSB (533 I think)
wouldn't hurt. Also has a lot of built-in extras (USB2, Gigabit) that
would save me card slots.

So...were you joking? Is Rambus worth that much?

LL

 

[_|_|_]

: I'm using a P4T-E for my Internet machine. Currently running
: Northwood 1.6Ghz with 1.5GB Rambus. Given that browsers and
: downloading tools are getting more CPU and Ram-hungry, I
: was thinking about speeding up the machine.

Get your cake and eat it too! Sell that rambus! With the money you get
from the rambus, uoi can get a motherboard and ddr ram!

I had already replied to this--it disapppeared.

Anyway, is Rambus really such a valuable commodity that I'd be able to
recoup most of the $? Maybe you were joking, but you did get me
thinking about moving to another motherboard. I'd be able to free up
some slots, too, as I currently have to run USB 2, Firewire, and
Gigabit network cards. It would be nice to have all of those on the
motherboard.

My main system has a P4C800-E Deluxe which has all of the above.
I'd love to get another one.

....Which brings me to my next question: As an interim fix, if I can
find a Northwood 3GHz w 800bus speed, can this be run on
my current motherboard at 2.6Ghz w 400bus? I'd think so, but I'm
not an overclocker (or underclocker, as the case may be).

If so, then I can swap in another P4C800-E later.

 

[_|_|_]

The Asus site still says 2.6 GHz. I upgraded my P4T-E CPU from 1.9
to 2.6MHz a couple of years ago and the BIOS to 1007. It works great.

I believe my BIOS is flashed with v1008. Maybe it was a beta or
perhaps just available on one of their overseas sites (I'm thinking
Germany). Is there any reason to use 1007 instead?

 

[_|_|_]

The Asus site still says 2.6 GHz. I upgraded my P4T-E CPU from 1.9
to 2.6MHz a couple of years ago and the BIOS to 1007. It works great.
It also over clocks to 120% of the FSB (BIOS setting) with my cards.

I just realized...If you installed a 2.6ghz CPU w 400fsb, then
overclocked by 120%, you would have been running your main
clock at 3Ghz, right? I haven't seen many 2.6ghz 400fsb CPUs,
and was just wondering if 2.8ghz/400 would work. If you had good
luck at 3ghz, I suppose it would...especially given that the main bus
wouldn't be OC'd.

LL

 

[NomoreRGS]

From what I remember BIOS v1008 is beta. I bet it will work fine
though.

Looks like the link from Asus I posted before doesn't work correctly.
I guess you have to drill down from a higher level page selecting
motherboard, socket478, p4t-e.
http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

I thought the 2.6 was the fastest 400MHz FSB CPU Intel made. I think
there is a Celeron 2.8-400. I haven't been keeping up with hardware
lately so I'm lagging behind. My PC runs well and suits me fine until
much faster hardware is a available. Then I build something new
again.

There is lots of over clocking info available for this board when
searching on the net. I have saved some links below that I found
helpful.
http://www.cifi.com/computing/p4teoverclock.html
http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showt...721b80&threadid=13459&perpage=15&pagenumber=3
http://www.aceshardware.com/
http://www.overclockers.com/
http://www.tomshardware.com/index.html

Over clocking depends on many things. The CPU, memory speed, the
brand of clock generator chips, the cards in the PC and probably some
other things. My memory is a pair of Samsung 256M PC800-40 and also a
pair of PC800-45 for a total of 1G. Memory is running at 4x and both
the memory and CPU setting are controller through the bios.

 

[_|_|_]

From what I remember BIOS v1008 is beta. I bet it will work fine
though.

Followup:

I've had 1008.4 loaded for a few days now with no obvious problems.
I wonder why they've left the status of 1008 as beta. It's certainly
been around long enough to determine if it's solid.

I thought the 2.6 was the fastest 400MHz FSB CPU Intel made. I think
there is a Celeron 2.8-400.

There does indeed appear to be a 2.8/400mhz. Doesn't turn up in the
databases that I've seen though.

I have saved some links below that I found
helpful.
http://www.cifi.com/computing/p4teoverclock.html
http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showt...721b80&threadid=13459&perpage=15&pagenumber=3
http://www.aceshardware.com/
http://www.overclockers.com/
http://www.tomshardware.com/index.html

Thanks for the links!

LL