what is a cpu core?

[bruin1970]

specifically, i've been trying to find out more about canterwood, northwood, and prescott. i haven't found a single answer, even on the intel site. the reason is that i and a friend have been interested in building our first pc, and in picking a mobo(abit is-7), it says that its fsb is 800,533, but 400 for a northwood cpu. at this point we are clueless, and newegg doesn't sell canterwood, but it does sell northwood.

i have searched for info about this topic, "cpu cores", and have come up zero.

are there nuances i must be aware of concerning this issue?

Posted by: mko

 

[ChipDeath]

The CPU Buyer's guide at the top of the forum has some info about these things

<b>Northwood</b> is a CPU core that comes in 3 types: A, B & C. the 'A' chips run a FSB of 100Mhz (x4 for intel's Quad Data Rate bus = 400Mhz in marketing terms) the 'B' chips run a 133Mhz FSB (533QDR), and the 'C' chips run 200Mhz (800QDR).

<b>Prescott</b> is a newer CPU core which has only been released quite recently. It has had various things done to it that should in theory allow it to reach much higher clockspeeds that the Northwood Core, but the current versions don't perform too well, and run very hot. There's not much point in buying them at the moment.

<b>Canterwood</b> is <i>not</i> a CPU core. it's the codename for the Intel 875 Chipset. This chipset can support either prescott or Northwood Core Pentium 4 chips.

<b>Springdale</b> is Canterwood's cheaper brother, the i865 Chipset. This is the one that the motherboard you mention (Abit IS7) uses. In practice for a home user the only real difference that a home user would notice between Canterwood and Springdale is price. Canterwood carries a price premium.

The Abit IS7 is a highly recommended motherboard, by the way.

Are you planning to build a system? Post a budget and ppl here can suggest a few things...

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[bruin1970]

i am planning to do graphics. i don't play games. the speed of my video card will depend on whether or not i decide to get a CAD program.

right now, i have decided to use the is-7 over the p4p800 delouxe because of price. and i will deirect that saving to the video card,,,,,,somewhere in the $130-$150 area. my eye is on a 256mg-type card,,,maybe chaintech or sapphire. i have no specific pref for eithet ati or nvidia,,,,but since everyone likes ati, i might go with the nvidia

sound is unimportant. in fact, i might use on-board everything else, except someone told me that i should direct some of that workload to a card and relieve the motherboard of those chores.

i am obviously clueless to details about incompatabilities and some other nuances of building a pc.

case,,,,lian li. i saw one with a blueish clear door cover that popped this model nicely.

 

[bruin1970]

seems like most of the incompatabilities and lockups i read about have to do with mobo+video card+games. i don't overclock.

 

[Crashman]

IS7 also has more features than the P4P800, and you probably wouldn't need the deluxe (or the -G). Anyway, most 256MB video cards are 0% faster than 128MB cards, and many 256MB cards are actually slower than 128MB cards.

The onboard sound isn't bad, and Abit offers all 5 analog sound ports.

I have an AIW 9600 Pro and it's fine for 3D modelling. I use Solidworks on it. You could find the 9600 Pro (without the AIW TV-Tuner) within your price range.

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[Mr_Nuke]

The CPU Core is the part of the CPU die where all the procesing takes part.

 

[justaguy]

The differces in the Pentium 4 cores are available by reading reviews on the releases of each of the processors. Basically three different (albeit slightly) cores share the P4 name. I'm leaving out the first one entirely because the only two worth considering at this point are Northwood and Prescott. The difference is they have a slightly different means of accomplishing the same computations. The Northwood varies in speed from 2.4-3.2 GHz. These are also called the "C" versions. They are currently the most popular CPU in the world by sales volume. Prescott is the newest incarnation under the P4 name. It is slightly slower in many applications than a Northwood on a clock-for-clock basis. The Prescott will be the primary Pentium 4 core in the future and it does appear to do well at higher clock speeds, provided that you have good cooling, because Prescott consumes huge amounts of power.

Basically it sounds like to me that you should either: A. Read reviews on the Northwood and Prescott CPU's (Prescotts are the Pentium 4 "E" series), not focus directly on the core itself, because broadening your focus will give you the answers you seek, or B. Buy a 2.8 GHz Northwood, because it is widely regarded as the best price-performance CPU currently offered by Intel.

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