Upgrading to a P4 - Do I also need to upgrade the heatsink/CPU fan?

eatingrich · May 8, 2008, 06:50 AM

Hello,

Probably an obvious question but whenever I've got a new CPU in the past it's come with the fan/heatsink or hasn't been so much of a massive upgrade for it to occur to me, but:

I'm thinking of upgrading to a Pentium 4 CPU, and currently I have a Celeron 2.66mhz, if I upgrade to a P4 3ghz that's going to potentially double it's power - will I need to make sure I buy a CPU with a heatsink/CPU fan coming with it, or will the one I currently have still suffice?

Muchos gracias in advance!

eatingrich · May 8, 2008, 06:56 AM

Just to elucidate, the stats I have in my sig are from my current tower, I was given a new one with the Celeron in it! I shall be using a 256MB NVIDIA 7300 card in it, if it will make any difference (don't see why it would, hence not mentioning it in the first place!).

IvanV · May 8, 2008, 06:59 AM

It depends on the cooler you currently have, but I'd suggest getting a CPU with a fan as the last P4s produced a lot of heat.

CDsDontBurn · May 8, 2008, 06:59 AM

that all depends on if your motherboard supports the p4 chip. if this p4 chip is a prescott core, then you might need to update the motherboard's BIOS if you haven't done that already. if it is a northwood core, then it should work right off the bat. if it is a northwood core, then you wouldn't really need to upgrade the cooling.

also, is this machine that your getting, is it free, or are you buying the parts and building it yourself?

eatingrich · May 11, 2008, 09:35 AM

Thanks for the replies, well I got a tower off a mate after he got a laptop, but I've just upgraded the graphics card (the one he gave me didn't work anyway!).

The mobo is a P4S800 by ASUS. On the site for it it says it supports the Prescott CPU.

According to the list here my BIOS (1009) will take right up to the 3.4ghz, though it doesn't say which would be Prescott and which Northwood. Is there a particular way you can tell if its Prescott or Northwood?

Can I ask, is PCB (from the link where it say 'Since PCB') Printed Circuit Board?? And if so, how do I tell what mine is? I used Belarc Advisor to figure out the BIOS easily.

Thanks for the help everyone.

CDsDontBurn · May 11, 2008, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eatingrich

Thanks for the replies, well I got a tower off a mate after he got a laptop, but I've just upgraded the graphics card (the one he gave me didn't work anyway!).

The mobo is a P4S800 by ASUS. On the site for it it says it supports the Prescott CPU.

According to the list here my BIOS (1009) will take right up to the 3.4ghz, though it doesn't say which would be Prescott and which Northwood. Is there a particular way you can tell if its Prescott or Northwood?

Can I ask, is PCB (from the link where it say 'Since PCB') Printed Circuit Board?? And if so, how do I tell what mine is? I used Belarc Advisor to figure out the BIOS easily.

Thanks for the help everyone.

i say you use CPU-Z. that will answer all that information that you are asking about

oh, an PCB does mean "Printed Circuit Board".

eatingrich · May 11, 2008, 11:34 AM

Thanks for the link, that program is a bit more in-depth than Belarc Advisor for various things.

I'm still not sure what my PRB is though. It says my model is P4S800 1.xx - will the '1.xx' be the PRB and as such on the CPU list I should only with the CPU's that will fit all boards?

RoyBatty · May 11, 2008, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eatingrich

According to the list here my BIOS (1009) will take right up to the 3.4ghz, though it doesn't say which would be Prescott and which Northwood.

"P4-3.40 GHz (800 FSB, L2 cache:512KB, HT, D1)" is Northwood and "P4-3.40E GHz (800 FSB, L2 cache:1MB, HT, 90nm)" is Prescott. The PCB version should be printed somewhere on the board, probably near the "P4S800" label.