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Which processor: Pentium 4 2 GHz or Celeron 2.8 GHz ?
http://forums.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20256
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Author:  langelgjm [ Sun Aug 23, 2009 9:11 am ]
Post subject:  Which processor: Pentium 4 2 GHz or Celeron 2.8 GHz ?

I am in the midst of putting together a newer MBE with some cheap craigslist and eBay components. Still waiting on a motherboard, but I have a choice between two processors (I already have both).

Pentium 4 2.0 GHz (Northwood), 512 k L2 cache

Celeron 2.8 GHz (most likely Northwood), 128 k L2 cache

Obviously the P4 beats the Celeron in L2 cache, which has a big effect on performance from what I understand. However, there's a large difference in clock speed between the two, which is why I'm asking.

The machine will have 1 GB PC 2100 DDR RAM (could add more later). I have a PVR-150, so processor speed is not an issue for recording; however, I would like to start MythArchive to burn recordings to DVD more often, so there will be a lot of transcoding going on. The other major activity of the machine is handling torrents; I use torrentflux-b4rt, and the python scripts for it tend to overwhelm my current machine quickly if I don't control them. They do take up an appreciable amount of CPU time, but I'm not sure if there is some other bounding factor that is causing the problem.

Author:  graysky [ Sun Aug 23, 2009 10:58 am ]
Post subject: 

...dunno that I'd wanna use either of the CPU for serious transcoding. I think either should work for most MBE task, but probably not transcoding...

Author:  larrybpsu [ Sun Aug 23, 2009 8:14 pm ]
Post subject: 

Raw CPU speed is one thing....

What is the FSB (Front Side Bus) speed? A slower processor with a faster FSB will move more data than a faster clock at slower FSB. Most newer FSB's are 533, 800, 1033 or more.

My MBE runs a P4 at 2.4 GHz, but the FSB is only 100 MHz. It will play some 1080i video on a Nvidia 5200 AGP card, but I don't really use it for watching videos.

My SBE and FE are AMD boxes...so I'm not sure what the FSB is on those.

I'm also tinkering with a potential R6 system, running a P4 2.66 GHz with 533 MHz FSB. The problem is that it only has the Intel i810 video on it, and stutters with any HD video. It maybe a candidate for a Nvidia 8xxx PCI card!

Author:  langelgjm [ Wed Aug 26, 2009 5:19 am ]
Post subject: 

From what I can tell, both the P4 and the Celeron have an FSB of 400 MHz.

Author:  larrybpsu [ Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:47 pm ]
Post subject: 

If both processors are the same FSB, use the faster clock. (celeron)

The cache differences would be the only issue. The celeron may not have the cache that the P4 has, but it'll make up for it with speed.

Once you get the system built, you should be able to swap processors on the mobo, and see if there's any noticeable performance issues.

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