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Subject: retail box part vs. OEM
Name:
 ludicrous
Date: 11/2/2001 2:51:41 PM (GMT-7)
IP Address: 138.67.48.22
In Reply to: Joe average can tell the difference between a tractor or a sports car... posted by
Celstk855
Message:
"Retail Box" CPU parts generally come with a manufacturer-supplied fan and heatsink regardless from which manufacturer you select. The part is usually adequte to keep the processor running but rarely the best. The OEM P4 heatsink is huge but that adds to the up-front cost of an already expensive part.
Also remember that the Athlon XP is the Palomino core, not the Tbird, and consumes roughly 20% less power clock-for-clock which equates to less power draw.
OEM CPUs don't ship with heatsinks, just the bare processor.
The peak power draw of a P4/2.0 is somewhere in the neighborhood of 70W, if I am correctly discerning the data in the Intel product data sheet. There was a fiasco about that a few months ago IIRC b/c in its press info Intel likes to report average power draw whereas AMD has always reported peak -- so you have to go search out the actual peak value for the P4 in order to make the comparison.
As for "adding $20" to the cost of an Athlon system...that's only true when you're talking with hardware enthusiasts becuase they specifically look for performance, and consequently the majority are buying and talking in terms of Athlon systems right now -- not P4s.
If the P4 was a better-performing processor, more enthusiasts would be building and modifying P4 systems -- but it isn't, and they aren't 
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