What to do with my Prescott?

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imalone

I bought a Pentium 4 3.2E (Prescott core) yesterday. I noticed it was
running hotter than my old 2.26 P4, and after looking around the net
I'm now aware that it would have probably been a better choice to go
with a Northwood core CPU.

Is is worth the hassle of exchanging the Prescott for a Northwood? Or
should I just keep the Prescott.

Some more information:

I'm not having bad heat issues, I don't think. My case is not TAC, or
whatever, but I'm getting CPU temps that hover around the high-40's
idle. I ran 95Prime with the "high heat" test for an hour, and topped
out at 61c.

Then to really push it, since 95Prime only uses 50% or the
Hyper-Threading stuff, I ran the following all at the same time for 15
minutes:

1. 95Prime (high heat test)
2. CPU Burn-in 1.4 (high heat test)
3. Lord of the Rings: The Battle for middle earth (minimized)
4. 3DMark 03 (ran multiple times)

I pegged the CPU at 100% for the duration of the test. I know 3DMark
won't really stress the CPU, but I figured it would heat up the video
card and maybe raise the case temp.

Under this heavy load I was averaging mid-60's on the CPU. I think the
highest temp as 66c. That's about as high as I can push it.

My "System Zone 1" is high 30's idle, mid 40's under load.

My "System Zone 2" is high 40's idle, mid 50's under load.

So my questions are:

1. Should I be worried about the heat? When do the Prescotts start to
throttle?

2. Are the performance disadvantages that the Prescott has bad enough
to warrant a return? Or will they age better than a 3.2 Northwood? By
that I mean, will the stuff that Intel added (longer pipeline, larger
L2 cache) that is making the chip perform worse than a Northwood help
it perform better than the Northwood in a year or so?

I use this PC for games and some audio/video stuff. The motherboard is
an Intel 865PERL, and I have 2x512MB PC3200RAM.

Thanks in advance.
 
imalone said:
I bought a Pentium 4 3.2E (Prescott core) yesterday. I noticed it was
running hotter than my old 2.26 P4, and after looking around the net
I'm now aware that it would have probably been a better choice to go
with a Northwood core CPU.

Is is worth the hassle of exchanging the Prescott for a Northwood? Or
should I just keep the Prescott.

Some more information:

I'm not having bad heat issues, I don't think. My case is not TAC, or
whatever, but I'm getting CPU temps that hover around the high-40's
idle. I ran 95Prime with the "high heat" test for an hour, and topped
out at 61c.

Then to really push it, since 95Prime only uses 50% or the
Hyper-Threading stuff, I ran the following all at the same time for 15
minutes:

1. 95Prime (high heat test)
2. CPU Burn-in 1.4 (high heat test)
3. Lord of the Rings: The Battle for middle earth (minimized)
4. 3DMark 03 (ran multiple times)

I pegged the CPU at 100% for the duration of the test. I know 3DMark
won't really stress the CPU, but I figured it would heat up the video
card and maybe raise the case temp.

Under this heavy load I was averaging mid-60's on the CPU. I think the
highest temp as 66c. That's about as high as I can push it.

My "System Zone 1" is high 30's idle, mid 40's under load.

My "System Zone 2" is high 40's idle, mid 50's under load.

So my questions are:

1. Should I be worried about the heat? When do the Prescotts start to
throttle?

2. Are the performance disadvantages that the Prescott has bad enough
to warrant a return? Or will they age better than a 3.2 Northwood? By
that I mean, will the stuff that Intel added (longer pipeline, larger
L2 cache) that is making the chip perform worse than a Northwood help
it perform better than the Northwood in a year or so?

I use this PC for games and some audio/video stuff. The motherboard is
an Intel 865PERL, and I have 2x512MB PC3200RAM.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's worth while changing the CPU if you already have a
reliable system. The Northwood is socket 478, so you might also have
to change motherboard. Performance is about the same + or - 5%. I run
a Northwood 2.8, it post similar temperatures, though I have throttled
the fans to reduce noise. All P4 have temperature throttling so there
should be no danger of overheating.
 
imalone said:
What to do with my Prescott?
Click to expand...

eat it
1. Should I be worried about the heat?
Click to expand...

better one - what about the heat in your cars engine ? now that is a
disturbing thougth. There's boiling hot oil in there. What brand of oil
are you using ? How often do you change it ? Arent you forcing your car
on the highway ?


.... for ff^^^sake, its a COMPUTER, not a pet. You use it, not feed it
and care about it.

Pozdrawiam.
 
#1. I don't have a car.

#2. My ultimate goal is to do just relax and use my computer. But
before I can totally relax I want to make sure that my heat issue won't
damage anything.

#3. Prescott and Northwood chips are the same price. I want to make
sure the performance is not enough to "waste" the money on the
Prescott, or find that the Prescott throttles to way below Northwood,
and "wasting" even more money.

#4. If this is the chip I am going to be using for the next 3 years, I
want to make sure it's a good investment.
Thanks for the constructive comments, though.
 
snip<

Is is worth the hassle of exchanging the Prescott for a Northwood? Or
should I just keep the Prescott.


snip<


Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

You mean to tell me that the place you bought your CPU will take
trade-ins, swap for another CPU? If so tell us all so we can get in on the
goodness. Most places have a time limit on DOA CPU's and will only swap
out for the same make and model, some places tell you to go straight to
Intel for warranty issues. If a place does swap out for current CPU's then
I would assume that they charge a hefty restocking fee. After all, the CPU
is now considered used, would you buy a used CPU, or a new one? If you
bought a used CPU what price are you willing to pay? Like I said I would
really like to know the shop you purchased from, probably they will not be
in business long, or flog used CPU's as new, in which case I need to know
to avoid them in the future.

Gnu_Raiz
 
imalone said:
I bought a Pentium 4 3.2E (Prescott core) yesterday. I noticed it was
running hotter than my old 2.26 P4, and after looking around the net
I'm now aware that it would have probably been a better choice to go
with a Northwood core CPU.
Click to expand...

your prescott is fine. no worries. sounds like you have a good system.
only concern yourself with cooling if your going to do some real heavy
computing on a regular basis, such as the test you ran under load. and
if that is the case, then consider cooling options rather then a
processor swap. other then that, enjoy your machine and forget all the
heat test. intel provides a three year warranty, so feel free to run it
into the ground :)
 
imalone said:
Under this heavy load I was averaging mid-60's on the CPU. I think the
highest temp as 66c. That's about as high as I can push it.
Click to expand...

I had a Powerspec 9262 back around the holidays rendering video with
Adobe Premiere Elements 1.0 ...

In the "stock" configuration that I got it from the store it shot up to
over 75C within a minute or two.

I have tried various fan combinations. With an 80mm Vantec Tornado in
the front and a 92mm Vantec Tornado in the back, both at full throttle,
I can keep the CPU in the mid 60's during video renders, but the noise
is enough to kill.

I tried several different LGA-775 CPU fans. I think I wrecked it on
one configuration as I didn't clamp it down all the way. It was
popping past 80C @ idle when I only had two of the pins locked.

In its current configuration it idles okay ... running about 57 - 60C,
but if I try to do a video render it ramps up to 80C within 3 minutes
and keeps hovering around there.

So currently it is pretty much a boat anchor and source for spare parts
for my new BTX machine.

Ax
 
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