Current Cost: $415
Months on list: 4
Price Change: -$3
With the recent introduction of the LGA 775 line, Intel is looking to transition all future Pentium 4 processors to a new platform. However, at this time it doesn't make much sense for us to move from the trusty Socket 478 Pentium 4-3.4C GHz Northwood we have been using for the past few months. In the end, it was the platform's lower price and the CPU's cooler running temperature that sealed the deal for us. Prescott does have its advantages, and due to Intel widening the pipeline from 20 stages to a whopping 31, it was clearly designed to scale much higher than the Northwood processors. In addition, Intel doubled the internal cache (Prescott now has 16K L1 and 1MB L2), and the new SSE3 instruction set will come in handy down the road.
As far as LGA775 processors are concerned, aside from a new socket design the basic chip design has not deviated from the Prescott core we have been seeing lately. The real benefits of the LGA775 platform come from the new core logic chipset, with the downside being the more expensive DDR2 memory.
The Northwood Pentium 4-3.4C GHz is set up to compete directly against AMD's Athlon 64 3400+. In a head-to-head match, both processors have no trouble keeping pace with the other, but unlike the Athlon 64, the Pentium 4 Northwood does not force a motherboard upgrade. Still featuring the same 8K L1/512K L2 cache, the Pentium 4-3.4C GHz Northwood offers a performance gain similar to any other 200MHz speed increase on the Pentium 4 highway. Best of all, The Pentium 4-3.4C GHz maintains compatibility with most Intel motherboards with only the possibility of needing a minor BIOS update to recognize the new CPU.
Current Cost: $398
Months on list: 4
Price Change: -$1
AMD's success with the Athlon 64 line of processors is astonishing and has certainly left Intel execs with many a sleepless night. Intel updated their socket design for LGA 775 Prescott Pentium 4 processors, following AMD's introduction of their long awaited Socket 939 architecture. Aside from a change in pin count, the new architecture supports enhanced Athlon 64 chips with an integrated, dual-channel memory controller and a decreased L2 cache to the tune of 512KB, which is now half of what is featured on the previous Socket 754 Athlon 64 3200+ and 3400+. New processors introduced on this platform include the Athlon 64 3500+, 3800+ and Athlon 64 FX-53. AMD also introduced a final Socket 754 chip, the Athlon 64 3700+. However, due to budget constraints we are refraining from upgrading to any of these new chips this month as the Athlon 64 3400+ still offers excellent bang for the buck, as well as being the best alternative to the Northwood Pentium4-3.4C GHz CPU.
Both the Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX chips offer native support for 32-bit and 64-bit software. Future versions of Windows will have support for 64-bit instructions and solid processor will be a requirement. However, until Windows XP 64-bit finally becomes a reality the Athlon 64's incredible 32-bit processing power translates into top-notch performance from the operating system and software that you already have. If you simply must jump on the 64-bit bandwagon right away, Microsoft has a beta version of Windows XP 64-bit available for all to try.
Current Cost: $0
Months on list: 8
Price Change: N/A
Until we upgrade to the hotter-running Prescott-based chips we prefer to save a little money and use Intels retail heatsink-fan. The HSF Intel provides with their retail CPUs is quite good, and is more than sufficient for the needs of this guide. The coolers that Intel supplies are made with a copper-core, and can keep pace with many third-party units, even when overclocking. It is simply not in our best interest to purchase a costly third-party cooler to put on top of our already expensive Pentium 4-3.4C GHz Northwood.
Current Cost: $40
Months on list: 2
Price Change: -$5
3rd-party Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX coolers finally reached the mass market stage, and in our last edition, one particular model caught our eye. The Thermalright SLK-948U is an all-copper unit that can support a fan of up to 92mm in size, offering a perfect balance between ambient noise and cooling capability. As we do not rely solely on overclocking for any of our buyer's guides, maximum cooling capability is not something we would sacrifice our aural sanity for. Therefore, we opted to include a much quieter Vantec Stealth 92mm fan rather than something with a little more cooling power. This unit can push 28 CFM of air at only 20db, making this a very efficient yet quiet fan. However, if you have your sights set on overclocking, the Delta FFB6912EHE 92mm fan might be a better high performance (albeit very loud) alternative.
The Thermalright SLK-948U is actually compatible with Pentium 4, Athlon 64, and Athlon 64 FX processors, but due to the slightly higher cost of our Intel system this month we chose to stay with the retail HSF for our Pentium 4 configuration.
