How much does it hurt?

[Sol]

Its getting to be time to trade in my processor on a newer faster model. Why? Is it running too slow? Is it unstable? Is it becomeing a bottleneck?

Well the simmple answer to all these questions is no. I'm just bored and my case light won't be available for another two months, so when the thoughbreds are released I'm there. I will be the first to admit that this is a stupid reason to upgrade but there you are.

In light of this descition, however, I kind of got to thinking on the things I have been doing to my PC of late and how they will impact its value.

My CPU is an AthlonXP 1700+ which has spent much of its life running at 2000+. Given that the temperature of the CPu itself rarely rises above 30C -Except when I forget to turn the fans on(50C) -what sort of impact would this have on the life expectancy and more importantly (since I'm not very likly to own a CPU long enough to wear it out) value of the processor?

 

[Buck]

Interesting question Sol. My first impression is that the CPU has a great deal of life left in it. Granted, you've run the CPU at above-specified frequency, but you've compensated for this negative impact by cooling the CPU below normal operating temperature. Wouldn't that theoretically lenghten the CPUs life? Either way, I'll give you US$50.00 for it.

 

[The JoJo]

Are you going to buy a new motherboard too? Or is you MB new enough to handle thoroughbreads?
There was a link to www.asuscom.de at amdmb.com. The page at asus was about which of their motherboards can handle TBs.

 

[CougTek]

Are you going to buy a new motherboard too? Or is you MB new enough to handle thoroughbreads?

At the temperature the Athlon usually run, wouldn't it be more appropriate to call them thoroughtoasts?

 

[i]

At the temperature the Athlon usually run, wouldn't it be more appropriate to call them thoroughtoasts?

How about, "Infernobreds."

 

[flagreen]

I think "Interbreds" is about right.

Sol - You should take a look at the new P4 533 mhz FSB, 2.53 ghz cpu. It's on top of the performance charts right now. You could probably OC it to over 3 ghz. Of course you'll have find an alternate vendor to procure one.

 

[time]

I know Sol seems free with his money, but I don't believe he is quite that happy to set fire to it, Bill.

 

[flagreen]

LOL!

 

[Buck]

Sorry Sol, the best I can do Intel-wise right now is a Northwood 2.4, but I'm sure that Tony can handle that too. And, oh my, they are ruinously expensive. I'd be embarrassed to quote for that CPU.

 

[Tannin]

... a Northwood 2.4, but I'm sure that Tony can handle that too.

Not sure that I could, actually Buck. At least I have not seen the 2.4GHz ones on any of my suppliers' price lists. (I haven't looked very hard though, I freely admit.) Either they are not available in Oz yet - which seems entirely possible seeing as Intel are having production problems again right now and you can't get Pentium IIIs for love nor money - or else the wholesalers figure that no-one would be stupid enough to buy one just yet.

I dare say I could track one down if I rang around for it, but I hate to think what the price might be.

Sol, if you really want a Pentium 4, I'll get you one. I'll fax the purchase order right away. Or right away as soon as I stop laughing at your determination to waste your money, anyway. Hey - I don't care what you buy, so long as I get to sell it. I'll get you a Cyrix III if that's what you really, really want.

But if you want a P-4 I'll make it a little sweeter. (Any speed P-4, not just the 2.4.) Here's the deal: you pay my exact buy price. Not one penny profit for me, and I'll even pay the freight as well. But you have to wait a week for it after it arrives with me. I get to play with it for seven days, then it's all yours, at slightly below cost.

 

[Sol]

I think I'll give the P4 a miss, although your offer is tempting in a way. I'd rather not face having to change my mainboard too soon, and my current one should take a thoroughbread.

Once you start messing arround with motherboards all sorts of issues crop up like, will the hoses reach the CPU? Will there be capacitors that get in the way of the RAM heat sinks? Will there be enough PCI slots and will I have to move the resevoir.
Too much to worry about at one time. It can all wait till the ClawHammers are released and I'm worring about how to get a GForce5 into the thing without burning out standard power sockets.

 

[flagreen]

http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2002q2/pentium4-2.53/index.x?pg=1

 

[CougTek]

I have the feeling that Thoroughbred will see its name be massacred just as badly as the one of Tualatin. I've seen them all : Tulatin, Tulatain, Talatin, Tuluatin, etc. At least for Thoroughbred, people have the excuse that it has a lot of letters.

 

[Sol]

In the paper today I saw an add from Dell. They have a P4 2.26Ghz with an optional upgrade to a 2.4Ghz for $599.
I'm not sure how expensive this make the board and processor combo but wouldn't a dual XP be cheaper?

 

[LiamC]

Sol, if you really wanted to get rid of the Athlon, I'd be interested, and I'll cop shipping to Canberra - email me if interested

 

[NRG = mc²]

. I've seen them all : Tulatin, Tulatain, Talatin, Tuluatin, etc. At least for Thoroughbred, people have the excuse that it has a lot of letters.

True.... the most ridiculous one is Tulation... go figure. What makes it more difficult than Thunderbird or Coppermine? I guess those are made of well known words.

 

[Tea]

And here was me thinking that they were made out of cooked up silicon. But whenever i look at he spelling of that word we pronounce "thurahbred" I despair for the chances of anyone trying to learn to spell. Whar a stupid language.

 

[Tea]

Though I have to admit, the two that really get to me are the verbal rather than the written ones. I've lost count of the number of people who used to come in and ask for a "Pentnium" - where do they get that "n" from? And possibly even worse, the "Selearion" as in "sell" + "ear" plus "eon" - how do they get that from "Celeron". Where is the "i" in "Celeron"?

What the hell. I still take their money.

 

[Tea]

And just in case no-one has noticed yet, I see that my typing paw is making bludners again.

 

[Sol]

The one that gets me is Aluminum. Entirely off point I know and I'm very sorry but really. At least there isn't some idiots heritage dictionary which proudly lists the Tulipton.

The other two that bug me are cup-o'-chino, and its derivative mug-o'-chino (what am I buying a suit? Can I have a bucket-o'-chino for a real caffeine kick?)
And antianalysing.

Also I looked up some hardware prices and I was right. A dual XP1900+ system would be just about on a par price wise with a P4 2.4Ghz.

I wonder if it would be too much to ask to get a spellchecker for posts...

 

[James]

Sol,

I can almost guarantee you'll be disappointed with a dual system (Intel or AMD). Why? Because whatever your expectations are, the system won't achieve them (I have a dual XP 1700+ box). To all intents and purposes, it behaves like a single system except when :

1. I do some very complex filter in Photoshop. The performance improvement then is about 20-30% over a single system - not much.

2. I DivX encode a DVD movie. The performance improvement is about 80+% over a single system. That's pretty noticeable.

Trouble is, I do a complex filter on Photoshop at best once a week and I encode DVD movies - after a big run at the beginning when I was encoding my whole collection - perhaps once a month. That's it.

There is perhaps a slight benefit to the OS having an extra CPU to play with at times, but you have to be looking for it to notice. If you have some 64bit/66Mhz PCI cards, great - but otherwise you might well be better off with a V-Link based VIA motherboard or an nForce one if all you want is more bandwidth between the north and south bridges.

The negative of the dual CPU side is occasional (and I mean occasional!) incompatibilities with apps - which can usually be worked around - and twice the fan noise.

As I said earlier, the only current config out there that tempts me is overclocking a 1.6G P4 on a 533Mhz FSB using a board based on one of the new SiS645DX boards. That shouldn't cost too much money, unless you want to wait for the latest Intel chipset, which looks like it might be a bit of a performer? (I forget the name, but Coug posted a thread on it recently.)

 

[Sol]

Double the fan noise becomes an entirly different issue in a water cooled system. There are no cases even available with the kind of space that would require.
I don't really want a dual system. But if it came down to it I don't think a P2.4 would make a huge diference where a dual XP wouldn't, if that makes any sense.
I really do plan to hang out until the Thoughbreds come out though so it probably doesn't matter.

 

[LiamC]

Sol, the way that t'bred is going, Hammer will be out first