OT: P4 Northwood vs Prescott

caveman wrote on 2/2/2004, 9:59 AM

After reading several reviews on the subject I'm a little confused as to which way to go for a new computer 3.0 or 3.0E. Does any one have any insight as to which is better for Vegas.
Thank you.

Caveman

Comments

pelladon wrote on 2/3/2004, 9:46 AM

Both performed around the same level, so get the cheapest one.

DCV wrote on 2/3/2004, 11:02 AM

There are other considerations too in additon to performance. The Prescott CPUs run considerably hotter than their Northwood counterparts. When rendering for long periods of time this could become an issue for other components in the case, not just the CPU itself. Hard drives, burners, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing more heat related problems crop up as people build machines based on Prescotts.

HardOCP has a good writeup on the Prescotts and to summarize their take on the new Intels, stay put with Northwood. The Prescotts still have a little ways to go before they hit a sweet spot.

John

pelladon wrote on 2/3/2004, 1:14 PM

Considerably hotter? Both the Northwood and esp. Prescott run "hot", but not enough to cause people to worry or anything like that. The real issue was that the smaller geometry used on Prescott didn't reduce the wattage like everyone hoped (well, the overclockers actually).

It's the future Prescotts that have people concerned (will the wattage go up even higher ???)