Is it worth to upgrade to a Pentium HT

Right now I have a 2.4ghz P4 with 512mb of RAM. I'm buying another 512 mb but is it worth it also to upgrade to a 3.4ghz HT or should I wait to get a 64 bit processor and 64 bit Windows. I do lots of gaming, graphic design and compiling so my comp gets maxed alot. Just post your thoughts please.

Personally, unless you need more power immedietly or have no problem with money then i would wait a little. I'm using a 2.8P4 and too have though of upgrading but everything seems a little volatile and unstable now, prescotts are running too hot, the new 775 socket sucks ***, 64bit is coming through and intel are a little worried! That added with pci express and the possible btx form factor, leaves me thinking that i'll wait until it calms down and buy something that won't be obsolete in a week
P.s. Have you thought of overclocking. With a little spent on some decent fans you could o'clock to 2.8 - 3ghz without too much of a problem

Just a clarification question: Which cpu do you have? The P4 2.4ghz with the 800mhz fsb has hyperthreading, or do you have the 400mhz fsb, or the 533mhz fsb (prescott core, brand new)?
I would probably agree with rizla, try to OC it and wait for the next generation hardware to sort out. The ram will help some (especially with graphics), upgrading the video card will be more of a boost in games, and OCing will help with the cpu intensive processes. Buying the new cpu would help with your graphics and multimedia some, but its probably not worth it to put in an older computer. Wait another 6-12 months for the new stuff to get the kinks worked out, then maybe consider a new build

Yah, well when I got this computer (about a year and a half ago). It was top of the line ($2,000). The 2.4ghz 400mhz fsb was the fastest processor and 512 mb was the most RAM people would put into it. I have the ATI All-In-Wonder Pro 9700 so i dont really need to upgrade the video card. I have dual 160 gb sczi hd's so thats not really a bottleneck (always defraged). But I am interested in overclocking. Right now there are 5 fans. one cpu, one for power, two fans in the back of the case and one on the side. Can anyone tell me how to overclock or give me some hints or links so I can figure it out. I want to get as much life out of this computer before I ditch it. I am thinking aout goin 64-bit and geting the 64-bit win xp (32 bit sucks). Actually, windoze sucks. I'm gonna search around on overclocking but if anyone has some tips or tricks please post! Thanks alot!

when i first heard about o'cing some couple years ago i figured it would very hard with soldering and getting undocumented jumpers and all that, so i never bothered with it. plus my bios didn't support o'cing. but now, it can usually all be done in the bios with either simply increasing the multiplier (most cpu's are locked now) or increasing the fsb(most common nowadays), usually 100, 133, or 200. that and upping the voltage by around 10%(also an option available in the bios) is pretty much all u need to do. if u already have adequate cooling with fans and such, or an air-conditioned room, then you might not have to do much else.

Yah i just read up on some stuff about oc'ing. Some peeps said it could ruin hardware and such but i dont care. I am gonna get a new fan/heatsink for the CPU (thinkin about the thermaltake A1254 and the thermaltake CL-P0025). Let me know which is better. I read all about upping multiplier speed and voltage but the articles were outdated (examples with a p4 1.7 ghz). So if anyone knows any good articles, post em. Also, I got a prog called softFSB but it is like 5 years old (dont know if its any good). Other than that, how would I go about upping the FSB. BIOS?? Anyways, I'm not a n00b so you dont have to explain everything. I'm just getting into oc'ing so if someone could just point me in the right direction please. Also, I read about oc'ing RAM?? That possible??

i was just explaining the basics behind overclocking, which u asked for what'd u think i was explaining well the articles may be old but the concept remains the same yes, you just go into bios and there should be settings there about increasing the fsb, depending on the make of ur mobo. u can o'c ram too, though i haven't gotten into that yet. but it's best just to keep the ram to the fsb ur cpu is set to, to run synchronous. even just having the quicker ram can create a bottleneck

Basically it works like this:
Your processer speed is calculated by your FSB (Front Side Bus, the bus which connects processer to main memory (ram)) multiplied by the multiplier. So in my case i have a P4 2.8ghz with a multiplier of 14 and a FSB of 200. Note that the 800mhz bus you might read about is the same - intel quad pump their cpu (4 x 200) unlike Amd who duel pump.
All Intel and most of Amd cpus have their multiplier locked so the only way to increase the cpu speed is by upping the FSB. This is usually done in the bios or with a soft utility such as gigabytes "easy tune", although i have never had much luck with software based o/c utils.
As the cpu speed increases, so it becomes more unstable, and so the computer has more chance of crashing. This can be overcome by upping the voltage. ( Note- increment smallest possible amounts) Upping the voltage though, increases the temperature - usually the limiting factor in overclocking.
Make sure, before overclocking that you have some way of monitering the temperature of your cpu. It will go up to 80 - 90 degrees but anything over 60 is too hot for my liking. You can download Motherboard Moniter 5 to do just that.
If you increase everything in small amounts then you shouldn't fry anything as long as you keep a look at the temps. Also, it would be wise to run a benchmarking util such as pcmark or 3dmark before overclocking and then a few times after to see if it gets too hot under continous load and what performance increase there is.
Have a look at:
www.overclcockers.com
www.extremeoverclocking.com
Hope that helps

Hey guys thanks for the response. Yah I googled it and read up alot about it. I have a P4 2.4 ghz on an Asus P4S333 with 512 mb of ddr 2700 RAM. I upped my fsb to like 146/37 (multiplier is 18 so its about 2.65 ghz). Not a big improvment but it was pretty stable (in the beggining). I ran a bunch of benchmark tests and it ran perfect. So I tried going up but anything past that and windows wont boot up. So I stuck with 146. After a while I started getting some memory errors and when I ran MEMTEST, it crashed almost immediatly. So I made my RAM ratio 1:1 and then 4:5. Still crashed alot. I am not sure how to figure this out. I know if I up voltage it will make it more stable (RAM included??) because the signals can jump the impurities in the silicon in the processor. Anyways, in the ASUS you can modify the multiplier but it has to be in non-jumper mode (???). Does anyone know what would be some good settings for this or am I pretty un-overclockable. I am not worried about damage. So if I can get it up to 3.0 or 3.2 ghz, that would be great (even if it only lasts another year).

I've been looking to buy a new fan for the mobo. I'm not sure about these heat towers with heat pipes or whatever. I do not care about noise, just maximum coolage. I could care less if there was a leaf blower inside my computer as long as the processor is cool. I have been looking at the thermaltake A2144. I'm not sure if anyone has used it and/or what they think of it. Anything the provides better heat disipation?? I dont want to get a water cooler or one of those refridgerating cases. I wanna spend $50 and under. Any thoughts??

I'd recommend the Zalman S7000 -CU. It's not too load and keeps my hotter than hot prescott cpu at 55 C when i o/c from 2.8 to 3.4 under load. It's also got a variable speed control so it can be turned down to near silent and still does a good job of keeping a non-overclocked cpu cool under load. If as you say noise is not an option you can go for the coolermaster jet style fans which are very effective but do sound like you live next to a military airbase! You might want to get some cooling for your north bridge too, if you're overclocking quite a bit, it should keep everything more stable
For the overclock, try increasing the cpu voltage a little _(watching the temp!) and maybe add a little to the dram volotage if possible. If you're sure it's the ram thats making the computer crash, you could try relaxing the ram timings if your m/b supports this.
Hope that helps
Rizla