Looking for Pentium 4 531 (3Ghz) performance comparising

Nexu · December 12th, 2006, 02:36 PM

I hope anyone has a system with P4 531 here or knows URL where they have a performance comparising (speed, heat, power usage) with other Intel and AMD cpu's. I'm looking into a small "in between" upgrade.

My current system is atm suffering from memory bandwidth on the mainboard and just slow chip. I hope to get an Asrock 775Dual-VSTA so i can use my current DDR memory and VGA AGP card on it. Pop in a simple but decent chip on it with 64-bits and power managment features. Plus so i can at later time put a Core2Duo chip on it (E6600 i was thinking or maybe by that time a middleclass quad core).

Price picture:
CPU P4-531 3Ghz = 79 euro
FAN Zalman CNPS 9500 AT = 42 euro
MB Asrock 775Dual-VSTA = 55 euro
Total = 176 euro (prices from www.alternate.nl)

I want to go for a new system when the (eVGA) 8800GTX get c***** to the 500 euro range and ET:QW released. I'll be using it for ET:QW which seems to have added graphical enhancements for this card. Watched a HD-quality video showing ET:QW graphics ran on 8800GTX, very very pretty.

gen.Rage1991hrv · December 12th, 2006, 11:41 PM

531 is fast but its too hot
i cant finde normal info about this cpu

about mbo i have it
its good but i have some problems with audio drivers on it becouse they use High Definition Audio and under instalation of drivers your system will just restart (dont know why)
asrock knows about this problem becouse lots of users have same problem
i dont know will this mbo support 8800 grafics (they dident put it on thears PCI support list)

one more thing if this mbo support this grafic card:
mbo use pci express x4 (not x16) so you will not gain maximum performance from this mbo or 8800 grafic card

proGamerGT · December 31st, 2006, 06:40 AM

Extreme 2 is the best

wooptoo · January 6th, 2007, 06:09 PM

I have a 530 which is basically the same thing. The performance is really good, but it uses about 85 Watts when idle (i think it goes to something like ~130W on full load), and heat really is a problem, 50 degrees C in idle and 60 C in full load (with a 12cm system fan @ 1000 rpm in the back).
I would buy a Core 2 Duo, they have the same performance, they are cooler and use a lot less power.

IModIntel · January 6th, 2007, 09:12 PM

I've got the 530J and with my Zalman CNPS7700-Cu heatsink, it does something like:

Idle: 33C 100% Load (2hours): 51C

But like Gen_Rage said, that Asrock motherboard only supports a speed of 4x on it's PCI-E slot, so you won't profit of a GPU like a 8800GTX.

If I were you, I would just save my money and buy a Conroe.