Is a faster FSB worse than a matching FSB speed? \ VOGONS

Is a faster FSB worse than a matching FSB speed?

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First post, by VanillaFairy

Posted on 2026-04-14, 12:52

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I'm planning on upgrading the parts from an old Sony VAIO I have (the whole thing is disassembled but I would like to keep the motherboard which is an ASUS P4S533-VX) to make a retro gaming rig, and my options for a CPU upgrade that I can find evidence of existing on both eBay and The Retro Web seem to be around a 3 or 3.2 Ghz Northwood Pentium 4 at a 800 MHz FSB speed, or a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 at only a 533 MHz FSB speed.

Since the motherboard only supports Northwood chips (according to The Retro Web, although I don't have a Prescott P4 (or any P4 really) to test it with) and has a 533 Mhz front-side bus, would the lower-clocked P4 with a matching FSB speed run better or should I instead get the higher clocked northwood chip?
(also in a similar vein, would trying to get a GT 720 in the PCI slot with a bridge adapter (since its power draw is low enough) be a better choice than trying to find a probably more expensive AGP card to fit in?)

Currently the CPU installed is a 2ghz Celeron 4 (so any upgrade would probably be a great one tbh for it) and the GPU it has is a Radeon 7000

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Reply 1 of 10, by Fish3r

Posted on 2026-04-14, 13:05

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The 800mhz chip will run at a lower clock speed if the board only supports up to 533

Reply 2 of 10, by Kruton 9000

Posted on 2026-04-14, 14:22

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I think Intel Pentium 4 HT 3.06 is the best you can use in this motherboard. Though it is power hungry.

Reply 3 of 10, by VanillaFairy

Posted on 2026-04-14, 14:47

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Kruton 9000 wrote on 2026-04-14, 14:22:

I think Intel Pentium 4 HT 3.06 is the best you can use in this motherboard. Though it is power hungry.

Oh right, power draw... I'd assume a modern PSU wouldn't work so well with older chips, since they provide most of their power as 12V now?
(And, cooling all of that powerdraw too... couldn't find any evidence anyone's made a bracket or something for newer coolers on LGA478.)

Just a silly lil person in a very big world.

Reply 4 of 10, by st31276a

Posted on 2026-04-14, 18:12

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I think a 2.8/533 Northwood will run very nice on there.

800FSB chips will run slower on 533 due to lower multiplier.

Reply 5 of 10, by dionb

Posted on 2026-04-14, 20:52

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VanillaFairy wrote on 2026-04-14, 14:47:

Kruton 9000 wrote on 2026-04-14, 14:22:

I think Intel Pentium 4 HT 3.06 is the best you can use in this motherboard. Though it is power hungry.

Oh right, power draw... I'd assume a modern PSU wouldn't work so well with older chips, since they provide most of their power as 12V now?

Take a look at that board - it has ATX12V so feeds the CPU off 12V like modern ones. That was introduced by Intel with the first P4 and AMD moved to it in later Athlon boards.

(And, cooling all of that powerdraw too... couldn't find any evidence anyone's made a bracket or something for newer coolers on LGA478.)

So478 brackets were pretty specific. Stil, the cooling solutions designed for them could handle the power draw - at least if you got one designed for the 3.06GHz beast. Look for a copper core in the heatsink.

Reply 6 of 10, by VanillaFairy

Posted on 2026-04-14, 21:38

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dionb wrote on 2026-04-14, 20:52:

So478 brackets were pretty specific. Stil, the cooling solutions designed for them could handle the power draw - at least if you got one designed for the 3.06GHz beast. Look for a copper core in the heatsink.

Looking online I'm struggling to find one, to be honest... The only non-passive copper heatsink for socket 478 I can find thus far on Ebay is a Titan TTC-CW7TB and it feels a little small?
Maybe it's just because the first PC I built has a big tower cooler, but I'm not so sure about if it could cool a part with a 110w tdp without sounding like a jet engine in the process.

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Reply 7 of 10, by Fish3r

Posted on 2026-04-14, 22:43

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VanillaFairy wrote on 2026-04-14, 21:38:

Looking online I'm struggling to find one, to be honest... The only non-passive copper heatsink for socket 478 I can find thus far on Ebay is a Titan TTC-CW7TB and it feels a little small?
Maybe it's just because the first PC I built has a big tower cooler, but I'm not so sure about if it could cool a part with a 110w tdp without sounding like a jet engine in the process.

That's on the higher quality side for 478 due to the amount of copper, it should do fine if you're putting it into a case with good airflow. I have a 2.8Ghz northwood with the crappy aluminium stock cooler and it sits in the high 50s under load in a late 00s case that has a 120mm exhaust fan.

If you want an alternative to look out for, Scythe kept making 478 compatible coolers well into the 775 era, with those you'll get heatpipes and quieter fans.

eg. the Shuriken rev. b

top right is the pentium 4 bracket

Reply 8 of 10, by dionb

Posted on 2026-04-14, 23:23

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VanillaFairy wrote on 2026-04-14, 21:38:

[...]

Looking online I'm struggling to find one, to be honest... The only non-passive copper heatsink for socket 478 I can find thus far on Ebay is a Titan TTC-CW7TB and it feels a little small?
Maybe it's just because the first PC I built has a big tower cooler, but I'm not so sure about if it could cool a part with a 110w tdp without sounding like a jet engine in the process.

I wasn't even referring to aftermarket coolers, just Intel's stock coolers. The ones for >3GHz had a copper core:

If going for aftermarket stuff, copper isn't necessarilly needed/better, just check reviews from back in the day whether a particular HSF was able to keep a 3GHz P4 cool enough not to throttle under load.

Reply 9 of 10, by melbar

Posted on 2026-04-18, 08:03

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Fish3r wrote on 2026-04-14, 13:05:

The 800mhz chip will run at a lower clock speed if the board only supports up to 533

Interesting.
I have also an 2.8 northwood. 533Mhz FSB. And it's running with that speed on AUTO setting with my mainboard.
The chipset is: intel 845 (brookdate). Only official suport: 400Mhz FSB.
Only these brookdale's have official support for 533Mhz FSB: 845E / 845G / 845GV / 845GE / 845PE (acc. to wiki 845GL not ??)

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Reply 10 of 10, by st31276a

Posted on 2026-04-18, 09:55

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I have seen 845G chipsets run 800FSB Prescotts… HP DX2000 units.

Correction: it seems to be 865… facepalm.

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