3.4 North or 3.2 Prescott

[fluux]

Forgive my ignorance but I really cannot decide between these two chips atm.

I really wanna buy a chip that will cope until next year, for gaming purposes, I know there is a new socket ariving later in the year, so...

Buy the 3.4 even though it's expensive, but top of the range (almost) and will last for a fair while with new games..

or..

Buy the Prescott 3.2 and overclock, eventually when I buy a water cooling kit, things will be all good yeah? Also ofcourse it's a fairly cheap chip.

I dunno, currently I'm on a 2.4 p4 with 400fsb, overclocked to around 2.8 and it's not coping all that great with the games coming out lately.

(Needless to say I am saving for a x800 XT )

[althes]

3.4 NW isa aolt better chip.

[Assasin-uk]

Both are very fast chips.. and will overclock to similar standards..

The prescot is nice as it has some new instructions built in and more cache, but to my knowledge nothing utilises these extras yet.

Down side to it of course is the heat generated by the precotts..if you want to o/c to little over stock that water kit will be needed early on, either that or a noisey air cooled job

For me the northwood gives better bang per buck atm.. gives better o/c with less cooling and also is not out performed by the prescott unless its compared when doing video enocding etc..

For a games pc the northwood rocks..

Did i mention i run a northwood?

But you know that already..

[W4nK5ta]

I wouldn`t buy the 3,4 GHz NW - with the 3,2 GHz NW you get better oc results, because of the lower multi(if you dont`t have a compressor cooling unit). The 3,2 GHz Prescott is the perfect CPU, if you want to reach ~ 4 GHz with a water cooling unit.

[Kanavit]

i'd take the 3.4ghz Northwood, that chip is still very good imho.

[enzoR]

northwood... what can i say? its faster!

[W4nK5ta]

a lil`bit faster, but not better for high-oc.

[fluux]

Thanks for your advice.

I guess I'm gonna go with the Northwood, as all I have at the moment is air cooling, the water cooling kit won't come till atleast two months down the line.

Atleast I can overclock the Northwood just as far as the 3.2 version of the Prescott, in theory, well I know a person who has his 3.4 at over 4ghz anyway, so that sounds pretty good

I guess it's too close to call at the moment, only a few mhz here and there.

[Karnivore]

Originally posted by fluux
Thanks for your advice.

I guess I'm gonna go with the Northwood, as all I have at the moment is air cooling, the water cooling kit won't come till atleast two months down the line.

I would go with the majority and suggest Northwood as well, however I wouldn't bother spending the extra $$ for a 3.2 or 3.4, just as many 3.0C make 4ghz+ as its bigger brotehrs, and at a substancial savings, mine will do 3.9 no problem on air, 4.1 on water and under a Mach I the following...

[W4nK5ta]

Nice CPU !!! Is this the SL6WK or the SL6WU stepping and are these frequencies Prime-stable?

[Soulburner]

The 3.4's are the absolute top clockers but unless you have phase change as was mentioned, you will be stuck at a lower mem speed than a good 3.0 or 3.2.

[Karnivore]

Originally posted by W4nK5ta
Nice CPU !!! Is this the SL6WK or the SL6WU stepping and are these frequencies Prime-stable?

WK, and yes it was stable, 24/7 is throttled to 4.4 though, simply because I like to keep voltage down a bit from the screenie.

[Perc]

id say the northwood too. i have both the 3.0C and the 3.0E and even though my 3.0E will oc higher my 3.0C will still out perform the 3.0E no matter how high the E ocs too. my 3.0C at 3800mhz out performs my 3.0E at 3.8gigs plus the prescott runs alot hotter. now im sure a few people will dissagree with this but im just going by my experance between the two chips....

perc,