3.2 Prescott or 3.0 Northwood?

[Tommy Boomfiger]

They are both going for about $200 right now on pricewatch at reputible sellers. $199 for the E and $203 for the C, both shipped. This is probably obvious, but one of the biggest points for me is most speed for $, and the other is heat/noise.

I just bought an Antec Super Quiet SLK3700-BQE and have a Zalman CNPS6500A-Cu and a CNPS5100-Cu that I can use for the system. Hopefully one of those will be quiet enough. Now it's just come down to the CPU.

From what I've read, the P4E doesnt really offer much more performance over the P4C, but is the .2 ghz going to make much of a difference and how much more heat should I expect?

The two most intensive things I will be doing with this box is some video editing and gaming as soon as I can save up some money for a decent video card

[Daversinger]

They are both going for about $200 right now on pricewatch at reputible sellers. $199 for the E and $203 for the C, both shipped. This is probably obvious, but one of the biggest points for me is most speed for $, and the other is heat/noise.

I just bought an Antec Super Quiet SLK3700-BQE and have a Zalman CNPS6500A-Cu and a CNPS5100-Cu that I can use for the system. Hopefully one of those will be quiet enough. Now it's just come down to the CPU.

From what I've read, the P4E doesnt really offer much more performance over the P4C, but is the .2 ghz going to make much of a difference and how much more heat should I expect?

The two most intensive things I will be doing with this box is some video editing and gaming as soon as I can save up some money for a decent video card

i have a 3.06 northwood and it beats nate el bueno's amd 3200 on the cpu tests on 3dmark 03 if that helps, they don't overclock to well, i mean you can't really tell the difference. You can have much quiter cooling on a 478 northwood though. when i had a stock intel cooler on it i got 39C on average. I have a much louder one on it now and i get 36C on average. no doubt it is good at multi-tasking, I know this cuz i run a counter strike server, and i can play far cry, and run win media player w/o laging at all.

[nate el bueno]

that was my motherboad's fault...my cpu ownz yours. i got mine for 118 too heh.
i'd reccomend the 3.2, because i've heard that in terms of bang for buck, the stuff that gets much faster isnt worth it, and the extra clock speed i'm sure would be nice

[Bires]

If you are overclocking, get the northwood. If not, then get the prescott. At the same speeds, northwoods are superior. But at the same price, get the 0.2GHz.

FYI: My nw 2.4C can do at least 3.2GHz, and I have seen 3.00 northwoods do 3.8GHz with air cooling.

[DarkFury]

If you are overclocking, get the northwood. If not, then get the prescott. At the same speeds, northwoods are superior. But at the same price, get the 0.2GHz.

FYI: My nw 2.4C can do at least 3.2GHz, and I have seen 3.00 northwoods do 3.8GHz with air cooling.
I entirely DISAGREE with this statement...

If you are going to overclock... get the Prescott. The Prescott really stretches it's legs once you start clocking it up. And it definitely outpaces the Northwood once you get it up to the 3.6 GHz+ range (where the Northwood starts showing it's deficiencies). The Prescott just scales up faster than the Northwood.

Yes, the Prescotts run hotter than Northwoods... therefore if you are gonna overclock it, be sure to get a better cooler than the stock unit. Personally, I put a Zalman copper fan on mine and I've had it up beyond 3.6 Ghz running stable. (However now.. since the temps are warrming up... I have downclocked back to the standard 3.2, as it tends to get pretty toasty when the ambient room temp is already over 78 degrees).

There are several reports out there that tell you that Prescotts are better performers when overclocked... however if you weren't overclocking, the Northwoods are better "clock for clock" and cooler to boot.

From Anandtech...
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.html?i=1956

Here is the page where they compare the overclockablity of Prescott vs. Northwood: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=1956&p=24

Pretty much... since Northwood is phased out (and harder to find now...) just go ahead and get the Prescott. The 478 version of the Prescott is also being phased out as well... so your upgrade path is limited as it is. The newer P4s are all "Prescotts" on a different pin layout so you'll have to buy a new mobo if you wanna go any faster than 3.6 GHz (unless you wanna do some extreme overclocking with a Prescott. The Northwoods ain't even gonna go way up there reliably. :D