Shopping for a P4....

[Lord Blackadder]

I need to run this application for my graduate work. For those too lazy to click the link, it is a suite of GIS software (somewhat related to CAD with a healthy dose of database). I already have a PC, but it is very minimalist - a socket 775 with a Celeron D 326. It works fine for my current very basic needs but if I need to run the GIS software on it I will need a P4. I may end up getting a MacBook Pro and doing the dual-boot thing depending on how much driver support the Mac hardware attains under Windows. I'll be getting a MacBook either way but if the dual-boot doesn't work out for me I'll still need my PC - RAM and video card are fine but I need to get that Celeron outta there.

I was thinking about getting a 3.0-3.2GHz Prescott P4...any other suggestions? Price isn't necessarily a huge issue but I'll probably only need to run the software for two years or so, after which I'll hit another Blackadder Hardware Upgrade cycle and get a new desktop machine (which by then will hopefully be a maxed-out Mac tower with Leopard, Linux and Vista triple-booting... ).

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Shameless bump.

One question I forgot to ask - has anybody had personal experiences with the Pentium D as an alternative to the P4? Help me out here people.

 

[wonga1127]

Definatly get a Pentium D if you can. D stands for Dual-Core, so they're going to be able to do more processor heavy work than a Celeron. Try and find a decent clock speed for a Pentium D (2.5-3+Ghz) and at least a 800Mhz FSB. If you;ve got the bucks, find a Pentium Extreme Edition 840 (low-end) or 955 (High end, 1066Mhz FSB, Dual Core, Hyperthreaded, the monster of Intel chips).

Newegg.com supplies all of those processors.

 

[homerjward]

if you go for a pentium d make sure your motherboard supports it--only the newer ones like the 945, 955, 975, nforce 4 sli intel edition, etc. do
it seems to me the sweet spot of price/performance is the low end 6x0 series pentium 4's--64 bit extension, 2mb cache, 800mhz bus, hyperthreading. the 3.0ghz version, the 3.2ghz version or the 3.4ghz version would probably fine, and above 3.4ghz the price begins to increase a lot faster. beware though of the new 65nm cedar mill pentium 4's--the 6x1 series because most motherboards don't support these.
630 (3.0ghz): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116198
640(3.2ghz): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116197
650(3.4ghz): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116196



of course, if you didn't have the other components i'd say you should get an athlon 64

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Thanks for the replies....suffice to say the box I have is a low end barebones system. I am actually pretty impressed with the amount of features it does come with for so cheap....the integrated video is pretty awful but I have a decent video card so no worries. Built in SATA is nice. It's a bit noisy but what can one expect for 80 bucks?

I'm pretty sure I can handle any of the 800MHz FSB Prescott P4s but am a little less sure about the Pentium D compatibility.