The Great Northwood Hunt! (hopefully)

[Wulfyn]

Firstly thanks to everyone who helped out with the choice of a mouse. I did plump for a mx1000 in the end, got it off http://wehavethings.com for about £45 including p&p.

But now I have another request for help, and this time it is a much sterner challenge!


Background: I bought my last computer about 2 years ago. At the time the choice of cpu I wanted was fairly clear cut, although actually based upon memory. The 'c' core Pentium 4 Northwood chips had recently been released, and at 800Mhz FSB I decided this was going to be the best performnce for my money. I bought an AOpen AX4SPE Max motherboard, and flashed the cash on some good components. 1Gb of ram for example, was a must in my eyes, as was a near top end gfx card (a 9700 Pro to take advantage of the big price drop from the 9800 release).

So when it came to the cpu I was wondering what to get. There were 3 models released at the time for the 'c' core, 2.4Ghz, 2.8Ghz, and 3.0Ghz. The 3.0 was extortionately expensive being the new top end chip, and the 2.8 was also pretty pricey as well as having a weird multiplier that just kinda put me off. "No matter", I thought, "I will just buy into the technology. They're bound to release a faster cpu in time, so get something that works for now, and upgrade in a couple of years".

Well that time is upon me. My 2.4 still runs happily along with no trouble, but I'm getting itchy for a performance boost. I've upgraded to 3Gb of ram, and so it's time the number crucher got a bit badder. The top end cpu socket 478 cpu's run at 3.4Ghz, and it's time I fulfilled my dream

However there is a twist. I don't want a Prescott. I just cannot convince myself to purchase something that is designed to run that hot. I can see the advantages, say if I needed an extra heat source of the central heating pipes freeze in winter, or I need to keep my coffee warm in those late night 42nd training sessions. But it's also the heat that it chugs out into the rest of the case. So I am after a Northwood. Most notable difference is that the onboard L2 cache is 512k not 1024k, but the architecture of the prescott makes the extra cache not so important a factor. Oh, that and it is the one that is not melting your skin from 30 feet away.


So basically does anyone know of a cheap-as-chips:

Intel Pentium 4 3.4Ghz socket 478 800FSB 'Northwood' core processor?


Best price I have found so far is £225. And that's only the best price because it is the only price.