so northwood is better?

Hi guys. I've been trying to figure out but before I finish, I think I'll be gone nuts. So I really need your advice on this. My current specs is...
Celeron 2.4 o'ced to 3 gig (box cooler)
Asus P4S800 m/b Rev 2.00
Ram 512 mb pc3200 cl 3
AGP 5200
80G harddisk
420w psu

My priority upgrade will be CPU with HT. But from what I gather the prescott is very hot while extreme edition is expensive.Furthermore there seems to be less supply of "C" prefix processors. The information at the Asus website shows I can't use "E" prefixed processors. Now the question is this. If i'm to upgrade to 3gig P4 would there be much difference (with no overclocking) as compare to my current system overclocked?

My ram is at default setting 3-3-3-7.But running at 416mhz.What you be the better setting?

I want to upgrade my graphics card a little better and am looking at 5700LE for my budget or 9600SE.Which should i go or is the difference not that much for an upgrade?

Or do you think If i got a AMD it would still be cheaper compared to this upgrade for the same speed?

I thank you in advance for you advice.


so does that mean northwood is better than prescott?<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by dinoshan on 01/20/05 09:47 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

The price of P4 3ghz is around US200 here. So is it going to cost the same for AMD 3000+ and motherboard?
How about my graphics card would there be any difference in upgrade?

Check to see if your mobo supports dual channel ram. If it doesn't you are not going to see all that great a perf boost. The early P4S boards were pretty lame.