upgrade CPU & mother ???

I have a Sony Vaio--xp media center--want to upgrade to faster procesor. Is it as simple as upgarding the cpu with a compatible MB and plugging them in?
system info:

3.20 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: ASUSTek Computer Inc. P4SD-VL
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 1005 10/01/2004
Drives Memory Modules c,d
835.68 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
745.20 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8162B [CD-ROM drive]
PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-107D [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

SAMSUNG HD400LD USB Device [Hard drive] (400.09 GB) -- drive 6
Sony UMH-U HS-CF USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 3
Sony UMH-U HS-MS USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 2
Sony UMH-U HS-SM USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 4
USB 2.0 Flash Disk USB Device (2.06 GB) -- drive 5
WDC WD2000BB-98DWA0 [Hard drive] (200.05 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WMAEJ1022598, rev 15.05R15, SMART Status: Healthy
WDC WD2500JB-00REA0 [Hard drive] (250.06 GB) -- drive 1, s/n WD-WCANKA608935, rev 20.00K20, SMART Status: Healthy 2048 Megabytes Installed Memory

 

835.68 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
745.20 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
The above numbers/specs make no sense. Regardless, the PC you currently have is a pretty high end unit. The only upgrade that I personally would think about would be a new motherboard with SLI support and a new PCIX video card (or two). Just be sure that if you buy a new motherboard, that it uses the same RAM and has the same CPU socket as your current setup.

hopperdave2000

 

those numbers refer to my two internal & one external HDs--belarc advisor must have added them together--
so a new motherboard might speed things up?

 

Really, no but not running all of the Sony crap will speed it up though.

 

Like Brownizs said, the new MB won't speed things up at all, but You'll have the option of adding 2 NVidia PCIExpress video cards in an SLI setup for maximum graphic power. If your PC is running slow, it's NOT because of you hardware. You may have a virus or too much stuff starting up with Windows. Take a look at the stickies in the Malware Removal forum, and see what happens. Also, check your startup menu for useless resource hungry applications that may be slowing you down. Click Start > Run and type msconfig and press Enter. Look under Startup tab and start unckecking stuff.
Again your PC should not be slow; your hardware is OK.... maybe post in the Software forum.

hopperdave2000

 

Thanks, I wouldn't say my PC is slow--I just thought ( maybe read too much advertising ) that it would be lightning quick with new CPU & MB.

 

I am not fully up on it, but from what you have written, and the other suggestions, the only way I can see you getting faster working pc, would be to configure a raid setup, where your data is written to , 2 , three , or, 4 hard drives, and giving you more speed , as your data is passed throgh the raid setup.- apparently, the difference is a lot.
You might want to read up on it, as I am no expert in that field, but someone like Studiot, is pretty conversant with it.

 

If you want to read up on raid, here is a link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks

 

What are you trying to optimise speed for?
You need to set various caching and prefetch options to suit your major application(s) to squeeze the last drop of speed.

Studio T

 

thanks all- I'm over my head here--I thought I was a majorgeek when I added an internal HD & got it to work I don't do much other than e-mail, surfing and downloading--sounds like I've got enough system for that.

 

It is always wise to use what you know, or, can pick up , to the extent that you can cope.
Studiots suggestion is a simple method of optimising your system, buy a few adjusments.
For example, to optimise for your programs, you can right click my computer, click properties, click advance,in visual performance, adjust for best performance. click performance settings, and you can click the perfomance for programs in both the proceesor schedling, and memory usage, to give your programs a boost.
In the last part, there - virtual memory, I usually specify one and a half times the Ram installed.
Four simple steps to help a little.
If they do not make the difference, you can always just let windows do its own thing, and revert back to the original settings.