Intel Pentium 4 1.7 GHz: More Power For Less Money

Features
By published

Test Setup

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Header Cell - Column 0 Pentium 4 SystemAthlon System
MotherboardAsus P4T, Bios 1005 beta 1MSI MS-6341, pre-release BIOS
Memory256 MB Samsung PC800 RDRAM256 MB Mircron PC2100 DDR-SDRAM, CL2, Setting 8-8-5-2-2-2-2
Hard DriveIBM DTLA 307030, 30 GB, 7200 RPM, ATA100, FAT32 (Win98) / NTFS (Win2k)
Network CardNetGear FA310TX
Graphics CardNVIDIA GeForce 2 Ultra Reference Card, Driver 667 (Win98/Win2k)
Power Supply400 W
Operating SystemWindows 98 SE / Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 1
Desktop Screen Resolution1024x768x16x85
Quake 3 ArenaRetail Version
Unreal Tournament4.28
EvolvaDemo
DronezDemo
MDK2Demo
Mercedes Benz Truck RacingDemo
Flask MPEG5.94, DivX 3.11

Overclocking

Due to time constraints as well as system stability considerations I did not include any test runs of overclocked Pentium 4 1.7 GHz processors. I simply dislike the fact that you have to run processor bus clock, memory clock, AGP-clock as well as PCI-clock out of spec to get Pentium 4 to higher core clock speeds. Overclocked memory, as well as out-of-spec operating AGP and PCI-buses pose a significant stability threat to an overclocked Pentium 4 system. This is a big pity, since Pentium 4 would otherwise have big potential to reach rather high core clocks. Owners of AMD's Athlon and Duron processors are in a much better situation, because they neither have to run processor bus or system memory out of spec, nor do they need to overclock the AGP or PCI-bus to reach higher processor core clocks.