Author: Brian Lee Page: 5

Next component change.  The CPU.  The Celeron 1.1 Ghz is by no means a slow CPU.  It could have easily handled any load that could come across my huge 384k pipe (sarcasm should be noted).  However, since this computer was new, I thought that a Pentium III Tualatin chip would sound “cooler”.  I know, it's a retarded thing, but I’d rather tell people that my server is running a Tualatin rather than a Celeron.  Vanity?  Damn right.  Time to buy a new CPU.  Before we do that, let's take a look at the Celeron and included heatsink.

The included heatsink is a folded metal heatsink that provides a lot of surface area for heat dissipation.

As you can see in the pictures, the heatsink doesn't have much mass but still works very well in this situation.

On the bottom of the heatsink are little metal tabs that helps align the heatsink over the CPU socket.  Instead of thermal paste, Dell included a contact pad for heat transfer between the heatsink and the CPU core.

Here is the CPU with the heatsink removed.  What!  You've never seen a Celeron 1.1 Ghz CPU before?  Now you have.

Back to the P!!!.  Now, I didn't know which Tualatin chip to buy.  The Dell website says that it can handle the Tualatin chip, but for the 1.13 GHz and 1.26 GHz chip, there are two kinds, one with 256k of cache and one with 512k of cache.  Which one would my server take?  After searching through the support documents to no avail, I looked at the customer forums.  I posted a message.  No answer.  Posted another one, no answer again.  Finally, I emailed Dell Tech support.  They sent me some automated response which was basically the same stuff that I found on their website.  Next, I was emailed by a technician who sort of understood my problem.  After 4-5 emails back and forth, I was no closer to finding my answer.  Finally, I decided to call tech support.  I asked them my question and the two guys I talked to didn't even know that the Tualatin came with two different cache sizes.  They kept telling me that I could buy the proper CPU off their website and it would be guaranteed to work, but I wasn't about to pay 3x as much for the chip compared to an online vendor.  Finally, I was transferred to a guy who told me the Tualatin’s with 256k cache would work.  He was sure it would work and told me he was staring at an “internal document” that said this.  Okay buddy, I'll take you're word for it.  So I go online and buy the CPU from my favorite vendor and the chip arrives the next day.  Pop that sucker into the server and guess what?  I get an error message that the model Tualatin I bought has an incorrect cache size!  Great!  Shoulda known this would happen.  I was so pissed.  Finally, I figured that I would simply have to buy a new CPU.  So I bought a 1.13 with 512k of cache and guess what.  It worked.

This is the box and packaging for the original 1.13 P3 with 256k of cache.  I ended up using this CPU for something else, but you can take a look at the pretty pictures anyways.  It's not like you can see the cache or anything.

Here is star of the party, the new CPU, front and back shots.

The P3 1.13 Ghz w/ 512k cache side by side with a Celeron 1.1 Ghz w/ 128k of cache.

Here is the new 1.13 Tualatin plugged in and ready to go.  Notice  that I'm using the heatsink that came with the Tualatin and not the one that originally came with the server.  This is because the CPU thickness difference between the Celeron and the Tualatin chip is large enough where the Celeron HS  won't fit on the Tualatin CPU.  I was afraid that this OEM heatsink wouldn't work well in a duct cooling system, but after some more testing with Prime95, there was no problem at all.

Once I had the proper Tualatin chip, the next question that crossed my mind was: Is the Tualatin chip actually THAT much faster than a Celeron chip?  Or was my purchase just one of vanity?  I tested this by using Sandra Sisoft.  Well, here are the results.  You can click on the scores to see the actual screenshots.
 

Turns out that under Sandra Sisoft, the difference between the two chips is minimal.  Truly minimal.  However, this is only one benchmark and it is very likely that under different conditions, the Tualatin would pull away.  Also, the 512k cache on the Tualatin versus 128k on the Celeron would definitely be useful in server applications.  At least this is what I tell my pocketbook.
 

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