P4 motherboard and CPU

[Autoeng]

I'm getting ready to build my first system (owned several and can work on them but have never built one from scratch). I keep up with computer news as best I can but I need some advice for selecting a P4 motherboard and cpu. The current socket being used for P4 is 478, correct? CPU's offered in this socket run from 1.7 to 3+, correct? What I am thinking of doing is buying a lowend cpu (1.7) but need to know if I can upgrade later to the 3+? Is there some break in the socket 478 series that I need to start with a certain series of motherboard or a higher CPU in order to get up to the 3+ cpu's? Also, what is the future of the 478? What is the prediction of how high I will be able to upgrade to until the form is changed?

Thanks for the advice,
Autoeng

[Budfred]

478 is the current pin count and is likely to be for a while. I believe the highest right now is 3.04Ghz. The ultimate upgradeabilty of your motherboard will depend on the motherboard and which direction CPU development goes. It is likely that CPUs are reaching the upper limit with the currenct technology and they are working to develop new technology. Both Intel and AMD are working on a 64bit chip and AMD says their's will be released soon. Others will say more.

Budfred

[saphalline]

478-pin P4's generally come in two "flavors" or core architectures: the P4A's and the P4B's. The A version has 512KB L2 cache on a 400MHz bus with a 0.13 micron process. The B version is the same except for the 533MHz bus. The next core architecture will likely increase the L2 cache to 1-2MB, support a new 800MHz bus, and use a 0.09 micron process. This next core architecture will not be compatible with current chipsets but won't be released until late this year, and even then B versions will still be made up to a point (I'm thinking 3.5-4GHz).

On a side note, the P4-based Celeron so far uses the old 400MHz bus and 0.18 micron process, but the real performance killer is its pathetic 128KB of L2 cache! :eek:

There are several chipsets that support both the P4A & P4B, the fastest being those that use RDRAM. However, since RDRAM has lost favor with Intel (they have no plans involving RDRAM for at least the next year), the RAM of choice is back on DDR RAM. More specifically, chipsets using dual-DDR (meaning 2 DDR sticks will be required just like RDRAM right now) will be released in the next month or so, but will probably be expensive at first.

Current P4 users are buying mobo's based on the i845PE chipset, because it's cheap and uses DDR RAM, and so can be used as a "throw-away" mobo until dual-DDR mobo's are released and come down in price (and you can keep using the same DDR RAM). The i845PE chipset is no slouch, tho, and can take up to 2GB of DDR333 RAM as well as having all the usual specs - ATA/133, supports hyper-threading (in the P4's above 3GHz which is only one right now :p ), supports USB 2.0, etc. In short, the i845PE chipset will probably take every P4 that uses a 533MHz bus (which is up to 4GHz in my prediction). My preference: MSI makes good mobo's for cheap.

The cool thing is that since socket 478 won't be retired for a long time, you can actually buy a mobo a year from now and still be able to use a lowly 1.7 in it, if you so desire. The other way, you keep upgrading your P4's as high as your mobo will allow, then just buy another mobo with a new P4. Once that's done, you still have your "old" P4 & mobo (and probably RAM) which is the start of a secondary PC. ;) :D