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Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz Review
Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz Review - PCSTATS
If you want top end Intel performance it's about the only option you have because while the Northwood P4's have been announced, they're still in short supply.
Filed under: CPU / Processors Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Intel Feb 15 2002   C. Sun  
Home > Reviews > CPU / Processors > Intel Pentium4 2.0GHz

Pentium 4 2.0 GHz Review


While we were generally unimpressed with the performace of the 1.5 GHz Pentium 4,it does offer quite a bit of value because it is priced economically and offers and easy upgrade path to other socket 478 Pentium 4 processors like the 2.0GHz chip we are looking at today.

This particular Pentium4 2.0 GHz uses the Williamette core and fits into the Socket m478 formfactor. At the time of this review, the cost of this chip alone is comparable to the cost of your average whitebox system. With a street price of about $620 CDN now, this processor obviously isn't for everyone. If you want top end Intel performance it's about the only option you have because while the Northwood P4's have been announced, they're still in short supply.

As we all know, with the introduction of the Pentium4, Intel introduced quite a bunch of new technologies such as the 400 MHz FSB, SSE2 and what they call Netburst Architecture. Don't be fooled, Netburst won't make your internet any faster or more vibrant, but it will speed up every application which is written for it. What happened with the P4 architecture is that the pipeline was been extended from 10 stages in the Pentium 3, to 20 stages in the Pentium 4.

Why was the pipeline extended? Wel, it allows Intel to ramp up the clock speed of the Pentium 4 processor on a faster scale than before. What is the disadvantage here? Instructions Per Clock (IPC) have decreased, so what Intel has done is decrease the overall work the CPU does per clock cycle (measured in MHz). So in effect the chip is doing less work, not more.

Intel make up for this decrease in IPC by having the CPU set to a higher clock speed to balance off things. For a more detailed explanation on the Pentium 4 architecture and all its glory, please read the introduction of out Pentium 4 1.5GHz review.

The 2.0GHz Williamette

Compared to the Pentium 4 Socket 423 the newer (and not obsolete) socket 478 formfactor is much smaller. The smaller formfactor saves money on packaging and is the only form that the Northwood Pentium 4 processors will come in.

The first thing someone would notice about the Pentium 4 chips is that large heat spreader. It's there to protect the die of the actual processor from damage. Since the Pentium 4 is still built on FC-PGA technology, Intel calls this packaging FC-PGA2.

While Intel never really had the problems AMD had with their flipchip cores getting cracked or crushed, it was nice to see that Intel took the next step and added some extra protection. Under the nickel plated copper slug lays the 2.0 GHz Willaimette P4 core with 8KB L1 cache and 256KB L2. The core is built on 0.18 micron technology.

Overclocking the Pentium 4

So how high were we able to push this little Pentium chip? Since all retail Intel CPU's are multiplier locked, the only way to overclock them is via FSB adjustments. The highest we could push it to was 108 MHz FSB which equals a clock speed of 2.16 GHz.

This speed is not really that surprising since everyone knows that the 0.18 micron P4's hit the wall at around 2 GHz. Funny, a 160 MHz overclock is lousy these days! =)

test system specs:

computer hardware:

processor: intel 2.0ghz pentium 4
clock speed: 2.00ghz
motherboard: msi 845 ultra-ru
chipset: intel i845- d
videocard:

msi geforce 3 ti500 (ms-8850)

sound card: c-media 8738 (onboard)
network card:

dlink de-528ct

memory:

256mb corsair pc2400 cas2 ddr

hard drive: samsung sv6004h 5400rpm udma100 60gb
cdrom: panasonic 48x cd-rom cr-594-b
floppy:

panasonic 1.44mb floppy drive

heatsink: avc sunflower
powersupply: enermax 431watt
software setup windows 2000 pro + sp2
intel inf's 3.10
DetonatorXP 22.80
DirectX 8.1
Benchmarks SysMark 2001
Business Winstone 2001
Content Creation 2001
SPECviewperf 6.1.2
POVRay
Super Pi
SiSoft Sandra 2002 Pro
3DMark2001 SE
Quake III Arena

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Contents of Article: Intel Pentium4 2.0GHz
 Pg 1.  — Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz Review
 Pg 2.  Overall System Benchmarks
 Pg 3.  Sandra and Gaming Benchmarks

 
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