right now i have a dell board socket 478 with a pentium 4 2.4GHz Northwood core (NO HYPER THREADING), and a socket 775 msi board with no cpu. i am considering getting a socket 478 pentium 4 3GHz Northwood core w/ hyper threading, or a socket 775 Pentium 4 530 3GHz Prescott core w/ hyper threading. i need to know if i would notice a significant difference in the new cpu compared to the one i have now, and if so should i stick with the dell socket 478 which supports duel channel memmory or the socket 775 which does not support duel channel memmory...mainly i want to see a difference in boot times and when i encode dvd files to mp4 using nero... thanks for your opinions

If your existing motherboard supports a 3.0GHz socket 478 processor, then I would go with that. You won't notice a vast difference between that and a socket 775 Pentium 530 and you'll save yourself all of the hassle of replacing the board and then finding that you have to re-install Windows because the hard disk controllers are different, etc.

A Pentium 4 2.4GHz to 3.0GHz upgrade is definitely worthwhile.

Hope that helps

thanks for the opinion about the better cpu @ 3GHz i dont know if i will be using the msi 775 board or stay with the dell 478 board i know that i dont really want to lose ability for duel channel memmory but with the 775 board i will be able to overclock a little and with the dell board i wont be able to and i really dont like dell and i really dont mind reinstalling everything...what would you do now that i know ill be upgrading to either 775 or 478 pentium 4 3GHz w/ HT....open to all who have an input...thanks