hi out there,
i´m thinking to upgrade to a p4, 1,7GHz on a asus p4t mobo.
has anyone experienced it with pulsar?
thanks in advance, felix
P4 1.7GHz
the pulsar-related performance of such a system is known to be nearly as good as the p3-i815 combo. but not better, so if you need the computer mainly to run pulsar and make music, i´d not talk of upgrading... 
of course, the current p3 (coppermine) is not taken much higher than 1000 mhz by intel, but the 'new pentium III' (tualatin) will travel as high as the current willamette-p4. its follower (? ) northwood (will also be named pentium 4) won´t fit into current mainboards, too - so it´s not worth to pay so much money for a p4 with a rambus-mobo now.
there are already a few tualatin-ready mainboards out, so take a look for these.
however, if you want 'bleeding edge technology'
and are willingly paying for it, get an asus a7m266 with ddr-ram and a c-athlon with 1,4 ghz.
have fun
Mo
of course, the current p3 (coppermine) is not taken much higher than 1000 mhz by intel, but the 'new pentium III' (tualatin) will travel as high as the current willamette-p4. its follower (?
) northwood (will also be named pentium 4) won´t fit into current mainboards, too - so it´s not worth to pay so much money for a p4 with a rambus-mobo now.there are already a few tualatin-ready mainboards out, so take a look for these.
however, if you want 'bleeding edge technology'
and are willingly paying for it, get an asus a7m266 with ddr-ram and a c-athlon with 1,4 ghz.have fun
Mo
To be honest, I would not suggest a P4 right now. The price premium for RDRAM is crazy out of this world compared to DDR SDRAM and the performance difference compared to an Athlon is not even close to justified by the price difference.
If you want the fastest machine for your $ right now I would not go with ANYTHING other than an ASUS A7M266 board with a Thunderbird (1.33Ghz or higher, but a 1.2Ghz Thunderbird can smoke a P4 in lots of realworld performance tests still!) The problem with VIA chipsets is avoided, as the A7M266 runs on the AMD760 chipset (see test results of this board <a href=http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pulsar-sc ... 81>here</a> and compare it to your 815... pretty close eh?).
Another reason NOT to buy the Intel, is that they are changing their Socket Pinout again, meaning that whatever motherboard you buy (I'd get the ASUS P4T if forced into a P4 now) will be obsolete within mere months! No upgrade path.
If you decide you still aren't convinced and want a P4, then I suggest you wait a bit longer until their DDR-supporting chipset comes out (and a good motherboard based on it), OR rDRAM drops in price by 50%, OR they change their socket design to a more "long term" pinout (less than a year is rediculous even for my geeky upgrade-frenzied taste..)
Just some suggestions here, educate yourself before you buy and see for yourself....
If you want the fastest machine for your $ right now I would not go with ANYTHING other than an ASUS A7M266 board with a Thunderbird (1.33Ghz or higher, but a 1.2Ghz Thunderbird can smoke a P4 in lots of realworld performance tests still!) The problem with VIA chipsets is avoided, as the A7M266 runs on the AMD760 chipset (see test results of this board <a href=http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pulsar-sc ... 81>here</a> and compare it to your 815... pretty close eh?).
Another reason NOT to buy the Intel, is that they are changing their Socket Pinout again, meaning that whatever motherboard you buy (I'd get the ASUS P4T if forced into a P4 now) will be obsolete within mere months! No upgrade path.
If you decide you still aren't convinced and want a P4, then I suggest you wait a bit longer until their DDR-supporting chipset comes out (and a good motherboard based on it), OR rDRAM drops in price by 50%, OR they change their socket design to a more "long term" pinout (less than a year is rediculous even for my geeky upgrade-frenzied taste..)
Just some suggestions here, educate yourself before you buy and see for yourself....
yes, should be so (i815 and i850 basically use the same architecture).
but i´d guess the northwood (the second p4) won´t be castrated the way they did with the willamette-p4. and i´d guess, intel still wants to be a step ahead with chipset-design (though they should get their ass up, and look at nvidia), so i could imagine that the p4 and its boards will be a great choice for making music again. remember the pentium pro, and the second one with its technology, the pentium 2. i´m still making music on a p2-system.
have fun!
but i´d guess the northwood (the second p4) won´t be castrated the way they did with the willamette-p4. and i´d guess, intel still wants to be a step ahead with chipset-design (though they should get their ass up, and look at nvidia), so i could imagine that the p4 and its boards will be a great choice for making music again. remember the pentium pro, and the second one with its technology, the pentium 2. i´m still making music on a p2-system.
have fun!