Pentium 4 2.8 ghz upgrade

[Matthew Renna]

Hello everyone,

My older system currently has a 800fsp northwood 2.8 ghz socket 470 pentium 4. It's got an hd 2600 pro, and a bunch of missmatched ram adding up to 2.5 gigs.

First question: How much better would getting four sticks of 1gb ddr sticks be for performance? the currently ram is not running in dual channel.

Second question: What cpu would be the best upgrade? Power consumption or heat does not concern me so I'm thinking a 3.4 ghz prescott would be the best. I know the prescott also has certain instructions that the northwood does not but would that make any difference in modern applications?

 

[jaslion]

Hello everyone,

My older system currently has a 800fsp northwood 2.8 ghz socket 470 pentium 4. It's got an hd 2600 pro, and a bunch of missmatched ram adding up to 2.5 gigs.

First question: How much better would getting four sticks of 1gb ddr sticks be for performance? the currently ram is not running in dual channel.

Second question: What cpu would be the best upgrade? Power consumption or heat does not concern me so I'm thinking a 3.4 ghz prescott would be the best. I know the prescott also has certain instructions that the northwood does not but would that make any difference in modern applications?

What are you wanting this system to do? It's using a 15 year old cpu that is basically useless for everything.

 

[punkncat]

Don't spend a dime on that. Keep it around for fun, but even going out to buy a second gen office refurb for ~$150 would SLAY that. TBH, even something lowly like an A6 would make mincemeat of that system. Any dollars you put into it would have been better spent on something much (much) newer.

edit- I actually have a Pentium 3ghz running at my mothers house set up on her modem/router. She logs into her wireless so infrequently that I have to turn this on and go wake the connection. It takes me several minutes just to do that now.

 

[Matthew Renna]

Hello everyone,

My older system currently has a 800fsp northwood 2.8 ghz socket 470 pentium 4. It's got an hd 2600 pro, and a bunch of missmatched ram adding up to 2.5 gigs.

First question: How much better would getting four sticks of 1gb ddr sticks be for performance? the currently ram is not running in dual channel.

Second question: What cpu would be the best upgrade? Power consumption or heat does not concern me so I'm thinking a 3.4 ghz prescott would be the best. I know the prescott also has certain instructions that the northwood does not but would that make any difference in modern applications?

What are you wanting this system to do? It's using a 15 year old cpu that is basically useless for everything.

I know it's junk, it's not my main system. I just want to see the best performance I can get out of it, it's a fun project.

Although....the main computer I use at school is an even older pentium 4, it's still usable.

 

[guanyu210379]

It would not make a big difference on that platform if you go to 4GB RAM.
The HDD is slow
The processor is slow
For 4GB RAM you need x64 Win version and you need also a x64 processor. If you have Prescott, I think Prescott can do x64.
The best performance boost is only if your LGA775 mainboard can do that...Prescott ran on LGA775 right? I forgot those things from back then...try to get one of the Pentium D.

uummmm...your P4 is Prescott or Northwood? Northwood can go Win x64 and this means 4GB will not do.
And..you can not grab those Pentium D.

 

[Matthew Renna]

It would not make a big difference on that platform if you go to 4GB RAM.
The HDD is slow
The processor is slow
For 4GB RAM you need x64 Win version and you need also a x64 processor. If you have Prescott, I think Prescott can do x64.
The best performance boost is only if your LGA775 mainboard can do that...Prescott ran on LGA775 right? I forgot those things from back then...try to get one of the Pentium D.

uummmm...your P4 is Prescott or Northwood? Northwood can go Win x64 and this means 4GB will not do.
And..you can not grab those Pentium D.

My P4 is northwood, socket 478
However, there were prescotts for socket 478

 

[Matthew Renna]

But what are the benefits of prescott over northwood though if they are both of the same clock?

 

[mdd1963]

Great processor.... back in 2004-2005---

Now, simply conversational pieces of CPU history...

Not one more cent invested into it, it is 'glacier-slow' by today's standards...

 

[guanyu210379]

But what are the benefits of prescott over northwood though if they are both of the same clock?

Some Prescott can run on LGA775, this socket is used up to those C2D and C2Q.
It is possible that the mainboard for LGA775 Prescott is also compatible with the Pentium D series, which is quite a huge upgrade at that time.

 

[guanyu210379]

It would not make a big difference on that platform if you go to 4GB RAM.
The HDD is slow
The processor is slow
For 4GB RAM you need x64 Win version and you need also a x64 processor. If you have Prescott, I think Prescott can do x64.
The best performance boost is only if your LGA775 mainboard can do that...Prescott ran on LGA775 right? I forgot those things from back then...try to get one of the Pentium D.

uummmm...your P4 is Prescott or Northwood? Northwood can go Win x64 and this means 4GB will not do.
And..you can not grab those Pentium D.

My P4 is northwood, socket 478
However, there were prescotts for socket 478

I made a small mistake there, misstyped, Northwood can not go x64.
hmmm...most probably that you won't gain any performance boost by using 4GB RAM a.k.a. x64 OS is not possible.
I would just leave the system as it is.