P4 1.6 to P4 2.4 would it be worth it?

[BenjaminC]

I currently have a Win xp pro w/ P4 1.6 gig processor and my motherboard supports up to 2.4. I've never had aproblem with my ASUS P4b266 motherboard. Do you think the Pro Tools performance would improve that much w/ a 2.4 processor to warrent the upgrade from the 1.6?

Benjamin

[SKI]

You could get a nice bump from a 2.4 "BUT" you would still have to change MOBO's to get it.
Any P4 option for increased performance you look to go to would require that you go with the 533 BUS regardless of whether or not it's a 2.4, 2.8 etc.
The 533 Northwoods are the P4's turning the performance numbers.
They make higher speed P4 but they have the slower bus speed which doesn't give the kind of performance you are after.

[dans]

My suggestion is not to upgrade unless you can change the motherboard.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Am I misreading this? That is the opposite to the way I think. I encourage any upgrade as simple as dropping in a new CPU. I always buy new mobos with whatever "slow" processor I can find that is compatible (within reason). My most recent mobo upgrade was to a P4B533-E and I got a Celeron 1.7 for about $90 which is much faster than my old PIII/700. I'll keep this mobo until it maxes out, which right now looks like it will be at 3 to 4GHz. I'll probably upgrade once to a P4 2.something Ghz and then max it out a year later.

I'd say to definitely get the 2.4 if you need the extra power. If not, wait a few more months. The price will drop to $150 or so.

[Antonio Tarantino]

Any CPU upgrade of course it will boost performance. I agree on that. Expecially if you don't have the extra bucks to spend. Makes a lot of sense and that's what I said before.
In general a CPU upgrade will always improve performance.
Then a motherboard with faster bus speed and a top performance CPU will improve performance even more by maximizing the PRO TOOLS performance. It all depends on how happy you are with your system performance and how much money are you willing to spend, and how many track you are getting and how many do you need, plug-ins, etc...
My idea is also not to buy the last processor that just come out in the market, I think is a waste of money. I always buy the one below and save a lot of money.

In conclusion you can get a speed bump going to 2.4Ghz. But in order to use all of the P4 2.4GHz capabilities you need a new Mobo with faster Bus Speed.

Ciao,
Antonio Tarantino

[BenjaminC]

I was only thinking about the 2.4 cause I thought I wouldn't have to change motherboards. I was thinking the least expensive way to upgrade would be to buy a new processor and keep the same motherboard.

Benjamin

[Antonio Tarantino]

Hey BenjaminC if you look a this link you can have a better idea on how much system performance will improve.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030217/index.html

Ciao,
Antonio Tarantino

[Nitronick]

Originally posted by BenjaminC:

I was only thinking about the 2.4 cause I thought I wouldn't have to change motherboards. I was thinking the least expensive way to upgrade would be to buy a new processor and keep the same motherboard.

Benjamin

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I just went through that crap. I went from a P3 866mhz getting 13 on the DaveC test, to a P4 2.0ghz getting 22 on the DaveC. I had a motherboard sitting in the closet.
Yeah, you will see a jump in performance. It won't be what you expected or wanted. [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img]
I just checked newegg.com. The P4-2.4 in either 400mhz FSB or 533mhz FSB is $162.00. No difference.
Allen has listed 3 different motherboards on his thread. All are made to work with the 533FSB and are from $80 to $100.
So, for less than $300 and a little setup time, you could have one of these machines that are getting 32+22 on the DaveC test [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] That's nothin' to sneeze at!
Whatever you decide, have fun!
Mitch

[Sinbad]

I went from a P4B266 1.6 P4 to a P4PE533 2.4 P4 and was very happy indeed! I haven't done a Davec test, but i haven't yet managed to max out protools.

1.6 i think was just not quite enough for my needs, but it still performed well!

cheers
Phill

[SKI]

The problem still is that if you don't go with the 533 the P4 will not give performance that you can easily get for a small amount of money.
The first generation of P4's were not capable of giving performance anywhere near what AMD was doing, the 533 changed that.
PT 5.3 (and soon PT 6.1) open up a lot of capabilities but your system has to be up for the job.
Any computer upgrade should always be the maximum that you can afford.
A P4 533 2.4 or higher w/ 2700 DDR is anunbelievable performer, if you go with anythingless you should go AMD, at least that way you can still get excellent performance.
Bottom line we are still only talking abouta few hundred dollars for top-notch performance on PT.

[vocalvoodoo]

I went from a P4 1.4 to a P4 2.4 (533) and the ASUS P4PE mobo recently and the performance jump is incredible! I would highly suggest it if you have the dough. Plus I can overclock my P4 to 2.8 and it's stable if I so choose.