P4 2.4B or 2.53?

Intel (like all other semi companies AFAIK) "bins" their chips. So what this means is that they test the chips at say 2.4GHz. Say 90% pass. Then they test those at 2.53GHz, 80% pass that test. But now they need 80% P4 2.4B and 20% P4 2.53Gs. So obviously you could end up getting chips that overclock to the exact same speed. For all you know the 2.4 or 2.53 could overclock more. You never know til you try.

You could try pairing a P4 2.5A (C1 stepping, better than the B0 stepping for overclocking) with an SiS64X board since they have good RAM dividers. Running at 120MHz FSB (3GHz even) and using a 3:5 RAM divider, you'd get DDR400, as long as your RAM could run that. That would make for some pretty good performance.

...And all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put my computer back together again...

A good OC with that level of P4 requires two things (mostly).

A. A 100fsb processor will naturally allower greater headroom. It wont be so quick to reach the limitations of the FSB or ram.

and

B. Preferably a C1 stepping CPU. I do not know if any 2.4's are of that stepping. 2.53's are i belive. The C1 can overclock really well.

<b>The Intel Celleron 2.1 & 2.2Ghz processors provide consumers with a great way to get on the Internet. Which one of the 478 pins plug into the phone socket? - <i>Intel & The Inquirer</i></b>

Nope 2.53s are not as of yet. The lowest clocked CPU guaranteed to be C1 is the 2.5A.

Some people have been getting C1 1.8As from Dell systems.. :tongue:

...And all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put my computer back together again...

Hehehe NO!
Someone, possibly on overclockers.com, found a 1.8A in a store that was a C1. Naturally it was overclocked. Even with the 100fsb, the ram/board gave out before the CPU did [laughs]

<b>The Intel Celleron 2.1 & 2.2Ghz processors provide consumers with a great way to get on the Internet. Which one of the 478 pins plug into the phone socket? - <i>Intel & The Inquirer</i></b>

Oh I know some people got lucky and got C1s, but the lowest guaranteed is the 2.5A. Peeps have been getting 1.8A C1s, but they're rare.

...And all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put my computer back together again...

Okay, so I should be looking for a P4 2.5A, which if I am not mistaken, is still a Northwood core, but is listed as a 400 MHz FSB, right? Also, it sounds like I should be able to OC this to the point that I get better performance than an equivalent 533 MHz FSB processor?

Obviously I am new at this, so I appreciate you bearing with me here. I am planning on either going with the Gigabyte GA-8PE667 Ultra, or the new GA-8INX (E7205 chipset), so I should be able to OC a 2.5A to an effective 533 FSB, right? Also, since memory speed impacts OC performance, is there a good resource that will tell me how to calculate what speed I should buy based upon where I want to end up?

Gracias Mucho!

Hmmm... a 533MHz FSB overclock on a 2.5A would be somewhat difficult on air. If you got something like a Swiftech MCX4000 heatsink (which are quite costly) and a good 40-50CFM fan, it may be possible. The reason I said a SiS chipset mobo would be better is cause they have more dividers, but a Granite Bay mobo would be fine as well. They will most likely be quite costly and we don't really know how well they o/c yet.

I don't really understad your last sentence:

If you mean what kind of RAM you should get, for single channel, try to get some Corsair DDR400. For the GA-8INX, get some DDR333.

...And all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put my computer back together again...

Thanks for the quick reply. Last question, if I find a P4 2.5, how do I know that it has C1 stepping? I just went to NewEgg and found the 2.5 processor, but it is not specified as 2.5A or what stepping it uses. One of the reviews there indicated that there were two batches of 2.5s made, some with C1 and some with something less.

Sorry for all of the questions, I'm just trying to get the most for the money and learn as much as I can from those of you with experience.

The C1 is written on the surface of the processor, so usually you dont know tillyou get your hands on one.

<b>The Intel Celleron 2.1 & 2.2Ghz processors provide consumers with a great way to get on the Internet. Which one of the 478 pins plug into the phone socket? - <i>Intel & The Inquirer</i></b>

Yikes. Seems like a big gamble to go down to the 2.5/400 FSB with no guarantee that it can be ocd to surpass an ocd 2.53/500 FSB.

Any 2.5A SHOULD be C1, and hit around 3.2GHz on air. Now, going to "533" bus requires 3333MHz, so...maybe air cooling would work, maybe not, depends on the CPU I guess.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

Okay, so how do I know if I am buying a 2.5 or a 2.5A without looking at the processor itself? Is there a way to tell from the product code or anything that NewEgg, et al., might post in the description?

Damn it, OK, if it's a 2.5, it's a 400 bus CPU, what these guys are calling a 2.5A. If it's a 2.53, it's a 533 bus CPU, what these guys would call a B.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

P4 2.5A (400MHz FSB) is <b>only</b> C1 stepping. That settles it.

...And all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put my computer back together again...