pentium 4 ~VS~ celeron

Dillan500

Dillan500

New Member
this is a processor to go in a budget gaming rig alongside a 6600xt. they are socket 478. i thought pentium 4 would be the better choice, but this gives contradicting results.


INTEL PENTIUM 4 2.4GHz
-sl6pc
-512kb L2
-130nm
-northwood

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

INTEL CELERON D 2.8GHz
-sl7nw
-256kb L2
-90nm
-Prescott

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BENCHMARK via Passmark performance test 7

total CPU score; cel-18%better
cel-389
p4-329

integer math; cel-18.3%
cel-56.7
p4-47.9

find prime #'s; p4-4.3%
cel-116.7
p4-121.9

multimidia instructions; cel-41.1%
cel-.37
p4-.26

compression; cel-22.9%
cel-849
p4-691.1

encryption; cel-107%
cel-3.86
p4-1.87

physics; p4-2.9%
cel-25
p4-25.7

string sorting; p4-3.1%
cel-433.2
p4-447
 
I'm not sure, but I don't think the Northwoods have hyper-threading, where as the Celeron D is a dual core. So therefore, the celeron would perform better.
 
If possible, I'd suggest getting rid of both those processors and getting something better. Those processors are getting down there in the list with Pentium IIIs.
 
Rit said:
If possible, I'd suggest getting rid of both those processors and getting something better. Those processors are getting down there in the list with Pentium IIIs.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but I'd also like to second the fact that a Celeron D is NOT a dual-core. The Pentium D is, but not the Celeron D. Either way, though, I think that the Celeron D 2.8GHz is just slightly faster than the Pentium 4 2.4GHz. The Celerons are slower than their pentium counterparts at the same clock speed, but in this scenario, the Celeron is faster.

EDIT: Also, I'm pretty sure the Northwoods do have hyperthreading, or at least some of them. Also, I'll add, just to prevent confusion, that you don't have a Pentium D, you have a Pentium 4, which only has one core.
 
Last edited:
Assuming you can find one and that your motherboard supports them, one of the Prescott core Pentium 4 HT models would be your best bet. You can see the different models here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Pentium_4_microprocessors#Prescott_.2890.C2.A0nm.29_2
Note that only the first few are socket 478.

Of the ones you have, however, it appears that the Celeron is the way to go, especially if you're overclocking it. Northwood cpu's don't like to be overclocked. I'd have thought that the P4 would at least match it, but t appears that Prescott's support for SSE3 and its updated pipeline give it an advantage.
 
Last edited:
Celeron is 90nm prescott, much better than 130nm northwood. The cache size hurts, but the extra clock speed makes up for it and then some.

Depends on what board you have, make sure it even supports hyper threading before spending money on an HT chip. And honestly, those HT chips are pretty salty. It wouldn't even take $100 to get a dirt cheap socket 775 mobo and an E3300 celeron dual core which would blow ANYTHING socket 478 so far out of the water it's not even funny.

CPU-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116264&cm_re=E3300-_-19-116-264-_-Product

motherboard-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138142

But of course you'd be needing some DDR2 ram with that. But thats not even $90 there.

Here's the ram you'd need-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148163


Thats all like $130 total, and would be insanely crazy unbelieveably faster than any socket 478 setup.
 
Last edited:
87dtna said:
Celeron is 90nm prescott, much better than 130nm northwood. The cache size hurts, but the extra clock speed makes up for it and then some.

Depends on what board you have, make sure it even supports hyper threading before spending money on an HT chip. And honestly, those HT chips are pretty salty. It wouldn't even take $100 to get a dirt cheap socket 775 mobo and an E3300 celeron dual core which would blow ANYTHING socket 478 so far out of the water it's not even funny.

CPU-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116264&cm_re=E3300-_-19-116-264-_-Product

motherboard-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138142

But of course you'd be needing some DDR2 ram with that. But thats not even $90 there.

Here's the ram you'd need-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148163


Thats all like $130 total, and would be insanely crazy unbelieveably faster than any socket 478 setup.
Click to expand...



here's the motherbord i'm getting: http://3btech.net/asp4so47853p1.html


keep in mind i already have the 478 processor, 2gb ddr ram, and a 6600xt agp video card +the above motherbord = $37.00 total

your setup; celeron dual $52 + mobo $35 +DDR2 ram $47 + no video card?, so i'll be running Intel GMA 3100 = 134 +tax =total
 
Dillan500 said:
here's the motherbord i'm getting: http://3btech.net/asp4so47853p1.html


keep in mind i already have the 478 processor, 2gb ddr ram, and a 6600xt agp video card +the above motherbord = $37.00 total

your setup; celeron dual $52 + mobo $35 +DDR2 ram $47 + no video card?, so i'll be running Intel GMA 3100 = 134 +tax =total
Click to expand...

How did you get 2gb of ddr ram for that cheap? 2gb of ddr ram is worth $50+ alone.

That onboard video is probably just as good as the 6600xt. Point being, you won't be able to do anything you couldn't do with the 6600xt. They are both DX9, and they both suck LOL. So buy this now, sell the stuff you have for maybe $60 and save up for an actual video card thats decent and does atleast DX10 if not 11.
Newegg doesn't charge tax, and shipping is free on those items I listed.

Dillan500, I wouldn't waste your money on old Socket 478 hardware in my opinion.

If I were you I would go the setup 87dtna suggested minus the motherboard (I would go with a GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L motherboard). Celeron D Processors very likely won't be useful in a few more years but a Celeron E3300 Dual-Core Processor will be.

GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L Motherboard - $53
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-357-_-Product
Click to expand...

I went with the biostar because it was super cheap and had 4 slots for ram. I like gigabyte myself, but thats $20 more and I'd rather see him get a G41 motherboard if he's gonna get something in the $50's range.

This is actually a decent board-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157165

And it has the GMA x4500 onboard video which would definitely be way better than the 3100 and/or the 6600xt.
 
Last edited:
i think i am being misunderstood... i am not trying to build a completely new system, i am simply trying to use the parts i have in order to construct a budget friendly system. i am not too interested in investing any more money than necessary. this is simply a backup/stationary home pc.
 
87dtna said:
That onboard video is probably just as good as the 6600xt. Point being, you won't be able to do anything you couldn't do with the 6600xt. They are both DX9, and they both suck LOL.


And it has the GMA x4500 onboard video which would definitely be way better than the 3100 and/or the 6600xt.
Click to expand...

my bad, its an XFX GeForce 6800 XTreme 256MB DDR3 AGP

is it still as bad as the GMA 3100 or x4500?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top