Can anybody please tell me , if any , the difference between a "Pentium 4 515 (2.93Ghz)" and a "Pentium 4 516 (2.93Ghz)" processor ? does the 515 & 516 make a difference?

Lee, October 2009

I used to know a lot about computers but now I know next to sod-all....

From what I can gather the 515 is 32 bit addressing and the 516 is capable of 64 bit addressing - this means the 516 can cope with much a larger memory and a much larger disk array - very good for a large database machine in a commercial environment for instance - to use the 516 the motherboard's BIOS will need to be 64 bit compliant as will the OS and device drivers etc.

If it was me I would shoot for the 515 - but I know virtually nothing and you probably know the value of free advice....

Search around for articles on 64 bit computing...
Wikipedia has this...quite good article...
From here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit

1961: IBM delivers the IBM 7030 Stretch supercomputer, which uses 64-bit data words and 32- or 64-bit instruction words.

2004: Intel, reacting to the market success of AMD, admits it has been developing a clone of the AMD64 extensions named IA-32e (later renamed EM64T). Intel also ships updated versions of its Xeon and Pentium 4 processor families supporting the new instructions.

2006: Microsoft releases Windows Vista, including a 64 bit version that retains 32 bit compatibility. All Windows applications and components are 64 bit, although many also have their 32 bit versions included for compatibility with plugins.

You can see that Intel are 43 years behind IBM and Microsoft 49 - how much Memory and disk space do I plan to have? Will I need to do "heavy" floating point processing? These are the questions to ask yourself - and you need to run a 64 bit OS and have the 516 else the 515.

I used to work on systems with 12 bit architecture - a little smaller than today's 64 bit...

Continuing good luck....

P, October 2009

HI Peccavi , how can I tell if I need to replace a 515 or 516 , I cant see any of these numbers on the present processor , can you tell by the motherboard ? I have a GA-8TRC410MNF-RH motherboard

Lee, October 2009

http://processorfinder.intel.com/Details.aspx?sSpec=SL7YV

http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL8J9

The 515 has a bus/core ratio of 22
The 516 has a bus/core ratio of 21.8

Bus/Core Ratio: The ratio of the system bus speed and the operating (core) frequency of the processor. This information is needed by most motherboards when setting up the BIOS for a new processor.

The 515 has a VID voltage range of 1.25V - 1.388V
The 516 has a VID voltage range of 1.25V - 1.400V

VID Voltage Range: The voltage range set by the VID signals as a reference to the VR output voltage to be delivered to the processor Vcc pins.

The 515 has these supported features
# Enhanced Halt State (C1E)
# Execute Disable Bit 1
# Intel® Thermal Monitor 2

The 516 has these supported features
# Intel® EM64T 1
# Enhanced Halt State (C1E)
# Execute Disable Bit 2
# Intel® Thermal Monitor 2

Intel® EM64T (516) requires a computer system with a processor, chipset, BIOS, operating system, device drivers and applications enabled for Intel EM64T. Processor will not operate (including 32-bit operation) without an Intel EM64T-enabled BIOS. Performance will vary depending on your hardware and software configurations. See http://www.intel.com/info/em64t for more information including details on which processors support Intel® EM64T or consult with your system vendor for more information.

Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software.¹ Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Intel® 64 provides support for:

* 64-bit flat virtual address space
* 64-bit pointers
* 64-bit wide general purpose registers
* 64-bit integer support
* Up to one terabyte (TB) of platform address space

Hope this helps...

Good luck...

Peccavi, October 2009