SPCR

I am currently using a Celeron 2.0 but I'm forced to upgrade to a P4. The cheapest P4 I can get hold of is a 2.4 GHz with 533 MHz buss precott. Northwood seem to be hard to find. Will a prescott run cool enopugh or should I try to get hold of a Northwood?

From what I read on the forums the Prescott runs much hotter. I have the Northwood 2.4 myself, and with the Arctic Cooler Freezer 4 it's a breeze (!) to cool, CPUBurn usually give 55 deg C at moderate fan speeds. Anyway, I bought the CPU last August, and they were not easy to come by even then, but roaming the online stores should produce results - where do you live (US/EUR/AU/???). BTW, with my Mobo it's also undervoltable and - clockable.

HTH, datapappan

*EDIT*
pricerunner is a good place, found what you're looking for if you're in the US, link: http://www.pricerunner.com/computing/co ... 282/prices

I live in Sweden
Looking on Pricerunner and Buggy it seems that all reasonably priced ones are prescott

it's no northwood in terms of heat, but it's not THAT bad.

Why are you forced to upgrade from a Celeron to a p4?

Anyhow, if your mobo supports it, I would recommend a 800mhz FSB p4. The performance difference is worth it in every way. Not to say the prescott in question is sluggish in any way, it's still a very capable processer (especailly coming from the Celeron).

The 2.4ghz 533mhz fsb prescott isn't the coolest processer around, but it's far from being as hot as the notorious 3.0ghz+ prescotts on the market. I would still recommend trying your hand at getting a 2.8c northwood with 800mhz fsb, as it has a sweet spot for performance/heat. If not, the 2.4ghz prescott shouldn't be too problematic, unless you are going for fanless CPU solutions.

This is the only place I've seen some of those CPU's, but it seems like they never remove any older products from the list.

I don't know why you are forced to use a P4, but I think you should have a look at Celeron D as well, AFAIK they're considered being better than older Celerons.

You should tell us more, motherboard type, will you overclock, budget, what you're using it for. Can your current mobo support 800 MHz FSB or even a 1 MB cache P4?

If you don't mind second-hand goods, I'd recommend trying to find a used northwood that somebody is selling in order to upgrade. I would suggest eBay, but I don't know how big that is in Sweden or whether you want to pay for international shipping.

2.4 to 3.0 GHz Northwoods can certainly be had for 100 to 150 US$

You could probably save $20 and 20 watts this way