pentium 4 upgrade chip question?

[dibbers]

Chaps, got an old mb here, it's a 661fxm7 and had a little look for a p4 processor, i can see that i can take it too a Intel Pentium 4 a Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, and also a Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition D

i was thinking that it's a smaller board that i have than the gigabyte so would be better for me HTPC (i can get a htpc case maybe) and one day pray the lord i will get it built! don't want to spend a fortune on a dogs bollix pc that's just going to run media center, but since i got the parts, any way question was - i take it the D processor is better? daft questions this like (never been a Pentium guy) will any of them work with media center, some one says you need a dual core? and yes it's late had a hard day, the p4 will work OK with media center? they ain't slower than an AMD dual core athlon 64bit? (as have these parts lying about as well)i know the better the cache the better the processor etc

i can get a 3.0ghz p4 processor on ebay for about a tenner, lol, and also the 3.6 for about 25 quid....

mother board here



i think after a bit of research they look like the D is dual core! doh, i'll just grab me self one of them ones to make sure, should have a done a little more research i guess before being a post clocker! lolol....

 

[little_pob]

Yes, the D indicated dual core on the Pentiums.

I had a Pentium D940 on my old HTPC, it ran XP great but Vista ran like a bag of - with almost any video playback seeing the CPU at 100%, blu-rays were unwatchable. (Win7 hadn't been released before I retired it in favour of a media player.)

The Pentium 4s and Pentium Ds ran hot, so if you are still looking for passive cooling go for the AMD.

 

[dibbers]

ah thanks for that (again mate very helpful!) the AMD board is a large board and the Pentium board is a small one, that would fit nicely into a HTPC case or even it's original case that it's in now would be fine, i ordered one of the huge coolers but that for the Phenom that i ordered and that machine is built, so now have the left over

Pentium Board - x2 (1 small board and 1 large one)
AMD - Board x 1 (1 small board)

Ah so the P4's were hot then? dang not sure what to do now then! decisions, decisions! i was looking at a 3.6 GHz Dual Core P4 for it...so you think that wouldn't work it mate?

 

[little_pob]

The D940 was 3.2GHz, so the extra 400MHz might make a difference. Worst comes to worst you end up using XP MCE rather than Win7 HP/Ultimate.

The heat wasn't a problem provided you put adequate cooling on (i.e. stock HSF or better). Also the P4s were able to protect themselves by clocking down if they got too hot. If you can get it in the case, one of the Scythe Samurai coolers should see you good.

 

[ManofScience]

stick a ton of RAM in in, a pentium4 D 3.0 or 3.6 should run Win 7 ok i would have though....

 

[dibbers]

i was looking at some thing with a 4 meg cache on it, some thing along the lines off p4 chips ebay

 

[little_pob]

There is a Pentium D 960 on ebay at the moment: Intel Pentium D 960 3.6GHz Processor on eBay (end time 18-Feb-11 16:34:25 GMT)

Be careful which you buy from the list you've given, as the Pentium Dual-Core CPUs will not work in the 661fxm7 mobo. Which is a pity, as the Celeron E3300 or Pentium E5500 would be ideal for you.

 

[dibbers]

Sorry pob i thought the D was a dual core?

 

[little_pob]

The D does (did) stand for dual core. The Pentium D range were dual core Pentium 4s, and the Celeron D range were dual core Celerons. However the Pentium Dual-Core range was not another name for the Pentium D range, they were their successors but used the same socket.

Whilst some Pentium D era mobos were compatible with the Pentium Dual-Core CPUs, not all were...

It's confusing isn't it?!

As there isn't a BIOS update for your mobo, and there is no mention of the Pentium Dual-Core CPUs on the compatibility lists, I'd hate to advise you to get an E5500 and it then not work.

 

[dibbers]

ah thanks i got it, had to read that back and digest it a few times, but i follow now....thanks for that again matey....