Specific P4 question

Balendor · Sep 25, 2003

Gentlemen,
I am looking to upgrade, and was considering trying my hand at overclocking a P4 2.6 However, I look around and don't see many 2.6s overclocked, mostly it seems to be 2.4s. Is there any particular reason for this? Also, what brand of PSU favors overclocking? I usually go with Antec, but also read that Enermax is good. Also, It seems that some specific models/batchs of CPUs are better at overclocking than others, would someone kindly list which 2.4 and 2.6 are best? And can this information be determined from looking at the CPU externally, or do you have to run a CPU ID program from within a OS?

Thanks in advance.

pIII_Man · Sep 25, 2003

IMO the 2.6 is a better overclocker...

Here's why, lets say you want to overclock to about 3.2ghz. You say it is easy for a p4 right? Yes this is true, however you will not get full performance by running a mem/fsb divider. It is extremely hard to overclock a 2.4ghz p4 to 3.2ghz while keeping the memory and fsb synchronous because you are limited by how far you can push your mem. If you do not keep the 2 syncronous then the added bandwith you have gained by overclocking the fsb goes right out the window because your cpu is not able to take advantage of it. Therefore i would recomend a 2.6 or even 2.8ghz P4 with an 800mhz fsb and HT. I would also recomend some pc4000 or higher, memory.

Here are the max sync overclocks with pc4000 (note, pc4000 memory will not overclock much further than 500mhz especially on an 865 or 875 chipset)

2.4c
12 x 250 = 3.0ghz

2.6c
13x 250 = 3.25ghz

2.8c
14 x 250 = 3.5ghz (only possible on some good chips)

I would recomend a fortron 400w powersupply. But enermax is good, more expensive than fortron, although fortron still makes better psu's.

Well, you can find the production date, batch number, s-code and country of origin. All these have effects on how far the cpu will overclock.

Proud owner of DOS 3.3

Crashman · Sep 25, 2003

Various overclocking didicated sites will point to certain chip codes being better than others, or Malasian chips clocking higher, whatever. Seems it's usually just a small difference. But the 2.6C is a good choice, for the reasons mentions by PIII_man.

Why do people buy the 2.4? Two main reasons are price, and bragging rights. If you overclocked your 2.4C to 3.2GHz, it's an 800MHz gain. But if you do the same with a 2.6C, it's only a 600MHz gain. Now 800MHz certainly sounds better than 600MHz, but most of these guys are having to run the memory at a much lower speed simply to make the system run. In other words, they give up some memory performance in order to gain more bragging rights.

A lot of guys are saying the 2.4C is a better overclocker than the 2.6C. Not because it can go faster, but again because an 800MHz gain sounds better than a 600MHz gain.

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

HardWareBoss · Sep 25, 2003

Crash ir right on price being cheap on P4 2.4C. Thats why I bought it plus nice little OC to 3.0.

Balendor · Sep 25, 2003

From pricewatch, 2.6 is $200 vs 2.4 $165. Not a large difference, compared to going up to 2.8 or 3.0.
Are there any particular stepping codes on the 2.6 that do well?

alivegy · Sep 26, 2003

I overclocked my P4 2.6 ghz with an asus p4p800 deluxe motherboard. My FSB is 242 mhz with a core speed of 3145 mhz. The stock voltage of the chip was 1.536v and I haven't had to adjust it to maintain stability what-so-ever. My Corsair PC3200 ram is running off a 5:4 divider. I wish I could have bought faster ram but I needed a gig of it and I just didnt have the $$ at the time. I can tell you, however, that when doing Renderings in Maya 5.0 it is much quicker despite the ram not being syncronized. I haven't tried to go any higher than I have already since I do a lot of work on this computer but I haven't had an ounce of trouble and I've been punishing it for the past 24 hours. Hope this helps. I love my 2.6

PHOBOS · Sep 26, 2003

Hi there
I'm thinking of doing the same thing.
Like in the THG artical with the 1000FSB tests.
I want a P4c 2.6 at 13x250=3250MHz.
Question: Will even the worst version for the P4c 2.6 (800FSB) overclock to 3.25. Reason I ask is I cant tell the diff' and I cant open all the boxes in the shop to find the right one. So if the all can overclock to 3.25 GHz the it doesnt mater which one I get. And will this overclocked CPU have a much shorter life span now.

Off topic slightly

lease could somebody rank the following HSF in order of cooling efficientcy please.

"Thermalright SLK-900U + Vantec Tornado 92mm"
"Zalman CNPS7000A-CU"
"Thermaltake A1545 P4 Spark 7"

Thanks eveybody.

Leader of TEAMPHOBOS

pIII_Man · Sep 26, 2003

On the box it says where the chip was made, also it tells you the packaging date. I guess the best country of origin is malaysia and try to look for the latest packaging date you can find.

BTW the 900u would probably perform the best, after that i dont really know.

Proud owner of DOS 3.3

scottchen · Sep 27, 2003

Get the SP94 if you can.

-Intel PIV 2.4C @ 3.84G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Copper 2x256 4000EL memory @ 275mhz 3-4-4-8 -Sapphire 9800pro @ 490/780 -SB audigy -80G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 Ultra ATA-133 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

HardWareBoss · Sep 27, 2003

Wow mine does not say where it was made. Must be USA.

Balendor · Sep 27, 2003

On the subject of memory, I've had good experience with Directron.com and looking through the brands they offer...
OCZ, Crucial, GeIL. I wanted OCZ but they sold out, what brand do you guys like? How do they compare to each other?
I've read that you don't really get the most out of XP until you put a gig in it, but really I can't tell a difference between when I had a gig and half on prev machine, and my 512 now. What do you think? The theoretical system specs look to be a p4 2.6 clocked as high as the memory will let it sync, probably dual SATA HDs running in raid 0, and perhaps a radeon 9800. I was going to put 512 in it, but it seems that it would be the bottleneck if the system were to have one.
Also, 9800 vs 9800 pro, It seems the only difference is the memory speeds. If its $200 vs $400 I was planning to get the 9800 and run it as fast as it will let me.

Opinions?
9800, ~3.2 p4 (hopefully) 512 mb dual channel runnin at ~ ddr 500, probably 2x 80 or 120 gb SATA drives.

ironmike · Sep 27, 2003

pIII---mine dont say on the box , but on the chip it says phillapines

scottchen · Sep 27, 2003

Corsair would be nice, Geil is the worse of the high-end memory, ignore crucial for overclocking. 9800pro has more headroom of overclockabillity than the 9800 because it runs at higher voltage and 9800pro uses 2.86ns memory while 9800 non-pro uses 3.3ns memory. If I were you I'd wait 'til 9800XT is released so the 9800pro's price drop a little, then get that.

-Intel PIV 2.4C @ 3.84G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Copper 2x256 4000EL memory @ 275mhz 3-4-4-8 -Sapphire 9800pro @ 490/780 -SB audigy -80G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 Ultra ATA-133 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

pIII_Man · Sep 28, 2003

interesting, off the top of my head i beleive the piii's said the country of origin on the box, but then again i am too lazy to go check...

And HWboss, unless you got a pre prodcution sample it did not come from the united states.

Proud owner of DOS 3.3

pIII_Man · Sep 28, 2003

Scotty, i am still waiting for an e-mail from you.

Proud owner of DOS 3.3

scottchen · Sep 28, 2003

I sent it to you alrdy about 3 days ago.

-Intel PIV 2.4C @ 3.84G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Copper 2x256 4000EL memory @ 275mhz 3-4-4-8 -Sapphire 9800pro @ 490/780 -SB audigy -80G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 Ultra ATA-133 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

Balendor · Sep 29, 2003

How about 1024 vs 512? What is everyone's opinion on this? This will obviously be a gaming rig, not meant for much multitasking.

scottchen · Sep 30, 2003

512's fine, 1024 sure, but not even Doom3's not going to need more than 512.

-Intel PIV 2.4C @ 3.84G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Copper 2x256 4000EL memory @ 275mhz 3-4-4-8 -Sapphire 9800pro @ 490/780 -SB audigy -80G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 Ultra ATA-133 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

HardWareBoss · Sep 30, 2003

Pack date 06/16/03

pIII_Man · Oct 1, 2003

so it was on the box?

If it isn't a P6 then it isn't a procesor
110% BX fanboy

HardWareBoss · Oct 1, 2003

Everything but where it was made. Back of box tells you where all Intel chips are made.

Specific P4 question

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