Crazy Thought

[Player0]

I have a P4 based notebook with a 2.0ghz Northwood in it right now. Its a Prostar 5694 and only supports a 400mhz bus. I'd like to upgrade the processor sometime by spring, but had some questions since I'm new to the intel game.

I have the 845MP chipset on this board, and it can take up to the 2.6g 400mz P4 cpus. More recent P4s are 533mhz bus. My questions are:

1.) Are there any utilities for overclocking 400mhz P4 chipsets? Ive had no luck at all raising the FSB on this notebook as theres no options for it in BIOS.

2.) The new 3.06 has hyperthreading, which seems to make a big difference. Would it be possible to run this chip on a 400mhz FSB system (which would make it run as a 2300mhz)? And would this be faster than a 400mhz 2.6g processor (because of the hyperthreading advantage?)

3.) Or should I wait for future P4 533mhz processors, ones with a higher multiplier so that I get better performance from them with a 400mhz system.

Thanks for the help

[SHrKY]

First off, you're sure your laptop has a desktop chip in it, right? Sorry if it seems like a dumb question, but Prostar sells both mobile and desktop based laptops so I can't really make that assumption. If it is a desktop chip, realize that a faster chip will make put off more watts, which may or may not be a problem depending on what kind of heat solution prostar put in it.

As far as the 2.6GHz vs. an underclocked 3.06 at 2.3 with HT, I'm pretty sure for just about every possible application, multithreaded or not, the 2.6 would come out on top. Also, the 400MHz FSB 2.6 would be a lot cheaper than a brand new 3.06, so IMO there's no question that you should go with the 2.6.

As for a software overclocker, don't try it. Those things are really :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:ty and rarely work right. Plus, even if you got it to work, the memmory and chipset (which on laptops usually don't have active cooling) would be running overclocked as well; which, in the worst case, could become very unplesent. (imagine a melted keyboard :eek: ;) )

[Player0]

Yeah, this laptop has a desktop processor, and actually has a great cooling solution. I see on Tomshardware that the P4 3.6g is actually slower than the 3.06g with HT. At least in terms of running multiple applications, which is something i do quite often. If i replace the processor, I will be upgrading the cooling solution.

In terms of overclockign the FSB, i wouldnt think a small overclock would hurt anything, and I wouldn't be raising voltages so heatgain on the NB and Ram would be minimal. The NB is actually connected to the active cooling. The ram isnt, but it doesn't really get warm now.

Yeah, the 3.06HT is too expensive right now, but I'm thinking spring for this upgrade, where prices between the 3.06 and the 2.6 will be much closer and more competitive. If not the 3.06, than the 3.2gHT which is coming next year. With the higher multiplier, it might definately be faster than the 2.6g in this laptop.

[Tweaked!]

Yeah, but I do believe that the only chipset right now that supports the hyper threading is the intel 845pe chipset. So I'd do some more digging into that 845mp chipset and see if it will support it. Might just need a driver download to enable it. :D

[Player0]

Hmm...that is a very good point

[RichBa5tard]

Originally posted by Tweaked!
Yeah, but I do believe that the only chipset right now that supports the hyper threading is the intel 845pe chipset. So I'd do some more digging into that 845mp chipset and see if it will support it. Might just need a driver download to enable it. :D

Almost any recent intel chipset supports hyperthreading (845e/pe/g/gv/ge,850e), the 845mp doesn't.


Intel desktop chipsets that are currently optimized to support Hyper-Threading Technology include:

The Intel® 850E chipset with PC1066 RDRAM memory support offers high performance and dual channel RDRAM support.
The Intel® 845GE chipset delivers the ultimate in flexibility, with enhanced Intel® Extreme Graphics, DDR333/266 memory, and AGP upgradeability.
The Intel® 845PE chipset features robust DDR333/266 memory support and discrete AGP graphics for both mainstream and performance users.
The Intel® 845GV chipset enables aggressive system price points with Intel® Extreme Graphics.
The Intel® 845G chipset** offers the available bandwidth of DDR266MHz main memory, coupled with a 533MHz or 400MHz system bus and Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connectivity for top performance.
The Intel® 845E chipset supports the latest AGP graphics cards, and high-bandwidth DDR200/266 SDRAM memory technology.

[JNav89GT]

Originally posted by Player0
I see on Tomshardware that the P4 3.6g is actually slower than the 3.06g with HT.

ROFL! Since when did Tom's hardware know anything about computers :p:stick:

[Player0]

Well, yeah...truth... :)

but sometimes they have a good nugget or two ;)