Is it worth it?

WingaWinga MrSouth Africa Icrontian
edited May 2007 in Hardware
I've just built a new computer for a friend and he gave me his old one.

It has a socket 478 Gigabyte 8S651M-RZ MB in it which supports a maximum FSB speed of 533MHz. It also supports Hyperthreading.

It had a crappy celeron chip in it, which I immediately discarded.
I was given a P4 2.4GHZ chip for nothing to replace the celeron with.
I have the option to buy a p4 3.00GHZ 800MHz FSB chip with hyperthreading.

Because the board is limited to 533 the clock is coming in at 133MHz which by my calculations is correct even though the chip is capable of 200MHz.
What I want to know from a performance aspect is whether to stick to the older Northwood 2.4 which i got for nothing, or shell out a bit of dosh for the 3GHZ Prescott which supports Hyperthreading and just live with the bottleneck?

Comments

  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited May 2007
    I vote for not spending money. Save up for a real machine.
  • QeldromaQeldroma Arid ZoneAh Member
    edited May 2007
    With the technology that is out there now, I'm not sure I would spend the power $ folding it. My 2.4GHz/533 (retired) did maybe +50ppd? My 2.8GHzP4C/800 (still in service) does about 150ppd.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited May 2007
    Save the dough.
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited May 2007
    I will most likely just use the machine to fold with, so thanks for the comparisons between the 2 similar machines and the ppd Qeldroma.
    Electricity in South Africa, albeit erratic is actually dirt cheap compared to world standards so the cost of power doesn't actually worry me.
    (I've got 10 machines folding and some of them are so old you have to crank them to get 'em started)

    My main rig is pretty up to date with the latest, so I don't need to save for a 'real machine'. Really it boils down to whether the 3GHz will give me any appreciable advantage over the 2.4?

    I have both chips in my possession. Is there software I can run as a bench to check the performance difference?
  • QeldromaQeldroma Arid ZoneAh Member
    edited May 2007
    I don't know how much you're paying for the 3.0G, nor do I know what the exact spec #s of the CPUs are. You can use This Table to make the physical comparisons with the spec #s.

    If you are going to turn this into a folder, I think you are going to want the CPU that has the most cache and GHz umpah. My experience- FSB rating will not affect folding as much. If my read on this (as mentioned above) is correct, you might get double or more the fold out of the 3.0GHz. I take advantage of hyperthreading on the 2.8GHz P4C machine and have been averaging 2-3x more production with it over the 2.4GHz/533/512KB cache machine.

    Hope this is useful.
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited May 2007
    Thanks Q that is precisely the feedback I was looking for.

    I have since negotiated with the guy who owns the chip that I do his tax return in exchange, so I've ended up paying no money for it (only about half an hour of my time). Fair exchange :D

    I'm folding with it right now and will swap it with the 2.4GHz chip when it's done around 50%. I'm very interested in seeing what the difference in folding time is between the two chips.
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