"Bill W" said:
I am going to a computer show tomorrow and I am looking to upgrade the CPU
on my P4PE motherboard with the 478 socket. The specs state it supports
3.0Mhz +, but I am wondering what is the maximum that the motherboard will
support. Any information will be appreciated.
Regards,
Bill W
If you look here:
http://www.asus.com/support/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx
and enter P4PE, the list looks to be all 0.13u silicon.
There are ordinary Celerons listed (but no 90nm "Celeron D"
processors). The Pentium4 processors listed go up to 3.2GHz
and are Northwood 0.13u silicon. There are no Prescott 90nm
processors with 1MB cache listed there.
The best practical processor, is the 3.06Ghz/FSB533/512KB
cache processor - the first processor to have Hyperthreading.
The reason this processor is good, is because you can run
two double sided sticks of memory on the memory bus, when
running at the normal rates associated with that processor.
If you want to live on the wild side, there was an overclocking
option for that board as well. You can run a 3.2GHz/FSB800/512KB
Northwood processor, and it will run pretty well exactly at FSB800
and not much more. The memory bus, under those conditions, runs
at DDR400, and the signal integrity of the memory bus is such,
that only one stick of memory will work. If you wish to buy a
processor like that, you might search for a single good quality
1GB double sided DIMM. One with 16 chips on it, each chip being
64Meg by 8 bits.
If you want to shop for that stick of memory, while at the
computer fair, be careful, as there is plenty of non-compliant
generic 1GB sticks being sold for cheap (no brand name on the
memory chip and/or on the DIMM itself). They do not use 64Mx8
chips and could cause problems when you get it home. Crucial,
Kingston, Corsair, OCZ, might sell you a compliant memory, but
the price difference between the "gambler" RAM and good RAM,
will make the gambler RAM very enticing.
So, safe play is 3.06GHz/FSB533/_512KB_ cache. The 512KB is
one of the indicators you are getting the right one. These
are getting hard to find, as Intel has stopped making them.
A 3.2GHz/FSB800/_512KB_ Northwood 0.13 micron processor is
your "single DIMM overclocker" option. The 845PE is actually
a pretty good Northbridge, and according to one of the hardware
review sites, has as low a latency as some of the newer dual
channel boards, when run at FSB800. But one limitation you
will continue to have, is the P4PE has a single memory channel,
so the memory bandwidth won't be quite as great as a dual
channel board using two matched sticks of RAM. (The difference
might equal a 10% application performance difference, in a
memory intensive program. Email, web surfing, and office
applications don't count as memory intensive.)
I hope your power supply is ready for the upgrade.
This is an example of a 3.2Ghz Northwood:
http://processorfinder.intel.com/sc...cFam=483&PkgType=ALL&SysBusSpd=ALL&CorSpd=ALL
I found it by selecting Pentium 4 from the list here:
http://processorfinder.intel.com
The 82 watt power rating, means 82W / 12V = 6.8 amps. The
motherboard Vcore converter is 90% efficient or so, so that
means the current used by Vcore will be 6.8 / 0.90 = 7.6 amps.
1 amp for cooling fans, 1 amp for a high end video card,
0.5 amps per idling hard drive, means you need at least 11-12
amps on the +12V output of your power supply. I recommend a power
supply with 12V @ 15 amps minimum, as the extra capacity gives
the power supply some breathing room (you don't want to run
a PSU at its limits all the time). A quality 350W power
supply can do this, while some super-cheap "500W" supplies
have only 10 amps to offer. Reading the label on the side
of the supply, is how you get the necessary information.
Have fun,
Paul
