Asus P4GE-MX motherboard / Intel Processor

[Toney]

I have an Asus P4GE-MX (845GE / ICH4 chip set) motherboard. In section
1.3.1 of the manual where it talks about processor compatibility, it
specifically mentions that the board is compatible with 512/256 Kb of L2
cache.

1. May I use a 2.4 GHz P4 with 1MB of L2 cache with this motherboard?

2. I intend to use this system for multi-track sound recording. Will I
notice a big difference if I use PC2100 DDR as opposed to PC2700 DDR?

3. Will I notice a big difference if I use a 2.4 Ghz Celeron with 256Kb
L2 cache as opposed to the processor mentions in number 1 above?

Thanks,

Toney

 

[Paul]

I have an Asus P4GE-MX (845GE / ICH4 chip set) motherboard. In section
1.3.1 of the manual where it talks about processor compatibility, it
specifically mentions that the board is compatible with 512/256 Kb of L2
cache.

1. May I use a 2.4 GHz P4 with 1MB of L2 cache with this motherboard?

2. I intend to use this system for multi-track sound recording. Will I
notice a big difference if I use PC2100 DDR as opposed to PC2700 DDR?

3. Will I notice a big difference if I use a 2.4 Ghz Celeron with 256Kb
L2 cache as opposed to the processor mentions in number 1 above?

Thanks,

Toney

The best link for info on supported CPUs is here:
http://usa.asus.com/support/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx

You can use Celeron Northwood (0.13u) to 2.8GHz/FSB400/128KB
You can use CeleronD (Prescott core) (90nm) to 3.06/FSB533/256KB
You can use P4 Northwood (0.13u) to 3.06GHz/FSB533/512KB
There are a couple of P4 Prescott (90nm) to 2.8Ghz/FSB533/1MB
(Check your BIOS release before using 90nm processors.)

There are no FSB800 processors, either Northwood or Prescott.

The 3.06GHz/FSB533/512KB Northwood might be the best of the
bunch, but those are now hard to find. (The longer pipeline
of the Prescott reduces performance, the larger cache increase
performance. But the processor tends to run hotter.)

When a FSB533 processor is used, it can transfer a maximum of
533*8=4264MB/sec. Both PC2100 and PC2700 are less than 4264.
As to how much this slows down an application, really depends on
how memory intensive the application you are using happens to be.

Paul

 

[Toney]

Thank your for your post and for pointing me to Asus cpusupport.

I'm still a bit baffled because the "cpusupport" page only shows one
processor, the 3.06GHz Northwood, as having Hyperthreading (assuming
that is what the HT stands for), yet the overview page for the P4GE-MX
touts the fact that it supports Hyperthreading up to Prescott 2.8.
Well all the HT processors in that range seem to be 800 FSB chips.
Are they saying I should put an 800 FSB chip in a 533 FSB motherboard?

Any help appreciated.

Toney