P4 3.2E VS Xeon 3.2, 533, 1mb

dancerdancer Blue Mountains, Australia
edited January 2005 in Hardware
Hi everybody.

I have a friend who purchased a motherboard for a cpu he has today, but he didn't realise he had a xeon untill after he got home.

He wants to swap a xeon 3.2ghz, 533fsb, 1mb cache (l3 i assume)
for a P4 3.2ghz Prescott.

He realises that the xeon is much more expensive but he doesn't seem to care.

What are the major diffs between these two cpu's.
And should i keep the xeon and get a mobo for it, or resell it to cover the costs of getting the prescott in stock?

P4 3.2 $290 ex tax and Xeon 3.2 $920 ex tax. (as a ref)

Thanks, Regards Michael.

Comments

  • madmatmadmat
    edited January 2005
    I'd have him get a P4 3.2c rather than the Prescott as it beats the Prescott clock for clock and as for the Xeon it has L3 cache, is built on a nocoma (I think) core which is basically the same as a northwood core except it supports SMT (officially).

    As to what to do with it, I would sell it, all the boards for it are dually boards so you'd want to get another to run it in SMT and unless you're going to sell it to someone wanting to shell out big bucks for a server it's just a waste really. They don't game as well as a standard P4 system does oddly enough and require ECC ram to boot.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited January 2005
    Like Madmat said, that xeon 3.2 is an m0 stepping proc, which means a nocona core. It has 1 mb L3 cache and is on a .13 micron process. This is the same basic core the EE P4's use, btw. Intel's s-spec finder only shows 2 s-specs for the 3.2/533 with 1 mb L3, the SL72Y and the SL73Q s-specs.

    As for what to do with it, I would sell it personally and spend the extra money on additional folding rigs. :D You could probably build 2 cheap folding rigs for what you could sell that xeon for. Plus, an 800 fsb P4 would process faster than a 533 fsb xeon (even with 1 mb L3 cache) IMO due to the higher bus frequency, and a P4 would be much cheaper to set up. Hell, just the motherboards for a xeon are pricey in the extreme; unless you have an actual need for a dual proc workstation or server I would sell that critter.

    As for which P4 to get (Presshot or Northie), it depends on what you plan to do with it. If you plan to run it on a socket 478 board, I would go Northie. If you plan to run it to the ragged edge, I might try an LGA775 Presshot and overclock the hell out of it to make up for that absurdly long pipeline the Presshots have. Up to around 3.4-3.6 GHz, the Northwoods actually are a little faster than Presshot for most tasks. After that, the Pressies seem to do better than the older design.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited January 2005
    Basically the ability to run more than one CPU and the extra L3 cache. Other than that there isnt much difference.

    And the Northwood advance decreases with clockspeed.
  • madmatmadmat
    edited January 2005
    Maybe so but a 3.2 northie is faster than a 3.2 Prescott...my 2.4C is running at 3245 and in sandra turns in higher numbers than the 3.4 AND 3.6 Prescotts. Yeah, I know it's just a benchmark and all that but I'm sure the numbers that are being shown are coming from somewhere (the CPU is doing a task of some sort to generate them...) and not just being pulled out of thin air.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited January 2005
    UHhh thats because you raise the FSB which does raise performance if if the MHz are the same. I mean stock speeds.
  • dancerdancer Blue Mountains, Australia
    edited January 2005
    Thanks.

    They were my thoughts also.
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