Upgrading processor

Hi there,

I currently have a Pentium 4 3.20GHz processor and would like to know if it is worth upgrading to either a 3GHz Core 2 Duo or 2.4GHz Core 2 Quad.

How noticeable a difference could I expect (if any) when using programs and games that weren't designed with Dual/Quad Core processing in mind?

Would there be much benefit while using run-of-the-mill programs such as MS Word/Photoshop and doing basic tasks (copying files, opening programs etc)?

Would like some help before spending £150+

Thanks.

 

First things first, your motherboard wont accept just changing cpu's. You will need new mb and probally new ram, but the performance would be great. ed

 

Both are socket 775. I'm planning on getting more ram but why would I need a new motherboard?

Also, would you recommend the 2.4 Quad or 3.0 Duo?

 

It's always worth upgrading to a dual/ quad core. But if you are running games not desighned to use dual/quad cores the differance will only be in the first core, but you should see some differance. Mainly the speed of that 1 core of 2/4 will be greater than the single core P4.

Running everyday programs like the ones you pointed out should run alot faster going dual/quad, but that depends on your RAM, mobo & HDD/s. If you could lay out yur specs maybe I could tell you :-D

As for copying files that is really down to two things, your OS and your HDD/s, a SATA2 160GB 10,000RPM HDD with 32MB cache will be off the chart comapared with an IDE 160GB 7200RPM with 2MB cache for exaple :-D

£150 will get you these Intel wise:

Core 2 Duo:http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/pi/40-...-Socket-775-1333MHz-bus-In-a-Box-Product-Info

Core 2 Quad:http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/pi/40-...-Socket-775-1066MHz-bus-In-a-Box-Product-Info

I can only apaologise for my online price finding skills using Uk sites, US wise I can take a look at Newegg or Tiger Direct and find great prices. But not Uk stuff I have no idea, the sad thing is I live in the Uk & can't find anything online LOL

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Good info, 2-Bit-Geek. BTW my specs are p4 3.2, 2gb DDR2 RAM, geForce 9600 GT, 320Gb 7200rpm HDD. (and I'm in the UK also...

I'm planning on upgrading my RAM to at least 4gb (current motherboard's max)

But what about tunered's talk of needing a new motherboard if I want one of these processors?

 

Ah I see I was beaten to the post LOL

I asure you I "started" posting first, thats why you should post your specs up so we can check compatability.

Edit: What is your mobo, manufacturer & model.

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

AIDA32 says my Motherboard Chipset is 'Intel Grantsdale i915' - The Motherboard Name is listed as 'Unknown'.

 

Hrm I google'd it and thats the Northbridge, you may need to take of the side pannel and look for the manufacturer & model number.

Mine for example is an ASUS M3A, look first for the manufacturer probably one of these:

*ASUS
*MSI
*Foxconn
*GIGABYTE
*intel
*EVGA
*Zotac
*Elite Group
*DFI
*ASROCK
*Biostar
*Jetway

Then look for the model number/name

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

I'll try and have a look tomorrow - probably wouldn't be able to see it with my tired eyes at the mo...

I'll post tomorrow, hope you can help then!

 

I suspect my ASUS M3A is bottlenecking my Phenom 9750 & my 4870 1GB GDDR5 :-o

Ah yes Everest, great idea. It seems fategue has worn me down again LOL

Yes mobo specs are needed :-D

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Motherboard specs from Everest:

Field Value
Motherboard Properties
Motherboard ID 63-0902-000010-00101111-061605-I915$A0155001_BIOS DATE: 06/16/05 12:03:40 VER: 08.00.10
Motherboard Name Asus P5GD1 Pro

Front Side Bus Properties
Bus Type Intel NetBurst
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 200 MHz (QDR)
Effective Clock 800 MHz
Bandwidth 6400 MB/s

Memory Bus Properties
Bus Type Dual DDR SDRAM
Bus Width 128-bit
Real Clock 200 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 400 MHz
Bandwidth 6400 MB/s

Chipset Bus Properties
Bus Type Intel Direct Media Interface

Motherboard Physical Info
CPU Sockets/Slots 1 Socket 775
Expansion Slots 3 PCI, 3 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16
RAM Slots 4 DDR DIMM
Integrated Devices Audio, Gigabit LAN
Form Factor ATX
Motherboard Size 240 mm x 300 mm
Motherboard Chipset i915P
Extra Features Asus Intelligence, Q-Fan, Stepless Freq Selection

Hope that helps. Thanks!

 

Can anyone recommend which processor to go for out of these two?

3GHz Core 2 Duo or 2.4GHz Core 2 Quad.

Which will be the best option?

Thanks.

 

I'd say quad, but as I know nothing about Intel I don't know if it's any good :-D

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Well I may be able to lend an opinion here and step into 2BG's shoes even if just for a moment

I upgraded my boys pc from almost exactly the same setup as yours, the P4 3.2, 2gb ram etc to a Quad 6600 and 4gb and I can tell you that the difference is phenominal, day to day progs are 10 times faster and the more modern games (although we've had some graphics issues) are being handled extremely well by the cpu and ram, load times are super fast by comparison to the P4.
I got the DG31PR intel board, Intel Quad 6600 and 2x 2gb sticks of 833mhz ram for $450 canadian, very impressed and now they are even cheaper. I got them from Tiger Direct (which as 2BG has recently taught me are actually pretty expensive place to buy from)

So in short, yes you will notice a huge difference, progs like Photoshop now open almost as fast as My Docs used to with the P4 and Word is pretty much instant for opening and saving etc, and having had some experience with the duo's I would recomend the little extra money for the quad any day. Oh and a restart with all the normal start up proccesses like anti virus, firewall, ATI CCC etc from hitting the restart button to fully loaded is approx 60-75 seconds.

 

Something else, I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that your current motherboard even though it supports socket 775 wont support a core duo or quad due to the FSB only being 800mhz where the quad is 1066 or 1333, there are a few cheap duo's it might support but you'd be better to save up the extra money I think, not to mention that it only supports 400mhz ram. Like I said, one of these more knowledgeble guys may correct me on this but personally I would reccomend a full upgrade, mobo, cpu and ram, obvioously more expensive but worth it.

These are the items I bought which I see are now much cheaper lol

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121323&Tpk=DG31PR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017&Tpk=quad 6600

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134844

My mistake, the ram was 667 but those links show you that the cpu, mobo and 4gb of ram would cost $320 CAD, now obviously I'm not telling you to buy these exact things but for price reference you can see how much you get for your money now and going to the above from what you have now will make you wet your pants.

 

Thank you for that information Nedlamar! Your set up sounds pretty good and I'm thinking about replicating it.

I already decided on upgrading my motherboard anyway, I found out that the 2GB RAM I have now is only DDR, so I want DDR2/3 compatibility. I'll look into the motherboard you purchased and make up my mind.

Thanks! :clap

 

Oops I thanked, I meant to reply (dam cold).

Technically the mobo will support a core 2 duo or core 2 quad, but it will be bottlenecked quite badly. My mobo supports 5200MT/s FSB but my Phenom 9750 has an FSB of 5400MT/s, so it's being bottlenecked a bit :-D

But I would also suggest a new mobo & RAM with a new CPU.

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Thanks everyone for all your help.

Here is what I am planning on buying:

* Asus motherboard P5KPL-AM
* Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
* OCZ Memory 4GB Kit (2x2048) Platinum Edition Dual Channel DDR2 PC2-8500 1066MHz CL 5-5-5-18 Memory Platinum XTC Heatspreader
* Seagate OEM 1.5TB Barracuda 7200.11 Internal Hard Disk Drive (7200RPM, 32MB Cache)
* Windows Vista Upgrade (32 bit)

Future proofing aside - is the 2.4GHz Quad core better than the 3.0GHz Duo Core overall? I know each have their plus points but I want to know which is the best to go for right now.

 

I can put it simply 3.0GHz x2 (dual core) = 6.0GHz, where as 2.4GHz x4 (quad core) = 9.6GHz, & the fact that there are more cores doing the work is always a good thing

It looks good to me :cool

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Yeah, what he said ^^

And I've done some work on several peoples puters with dual 3.0's but until I got my boy the quad 2.4 I didn't realise quite how different they are, as 2BG said, not only do you have more power but the more cores you have the more the workload is spread, simply put......it's like having 2 trucks carry 5 ton of bricks or 4 trucks carrying 5 ton of bricks, there will be less pressure on the 4 trucks than the 2. The Quad 6600 runs with FEAR 2 running at a nice 38C and please bare in mind thats with the worlds worst colling system (2BG can vouch for that lol) it idols at 34c.
I think you'll like your new setup, especially going from the P4 setup you had, you wont be able to click fast enough lol

 

I also purchased a Coolermaster CM-590 case so it should definitely stay cool then.
I'll let you know how I get on with the set up in a month or so. Thanks everyone for the help.

 

No problem, enjoy

 

Nedlamar, it's not the worst cooling method, i'm sure there are worse. Your problem is most likely dust & bad cooling LOL

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

How do you get that quad to idle at 34 and run an intense game at 38??

 

I don't get it to do anything, thats the temps it runs at. I think FEAR 2 is more graphic intesive than CPU as opposed to something like the Sims 2 which needs low end graphics but uses quite a bit of CPU. On my rig (AMD 64 3400, 1gb 2700 ram and a 512mb x700) Fear on low settings runs fairly well, maybe average of 20-25 fps on combat sections, where as Sims 2 runs on medium settings but when it gets busy it drops to maybe 8-12fps. Now take into account how old Sims 2 is and how much better FEAR 2 looks. I usually run the sims 2 on low/medium settings and when it gets busy like having a party or in a store it probably runs at around 15fps, I put FEAR 2 up to low/med and it still runs half decent, around 15-20. Having said that, I did test the Sims 2 on my boys rig out of curiosity and ran it mostly on full settings, stuck a shed load of people locked in a room with loads of lights and set fire to it so it was chaos, on the Quad 6600 it ran virtually flawlessly, easily holding 30+ average, probably quite a bit higher, but I didn't check the temps.

@2BG.... Well I figure it's winter so the dust helps to keep it warm :-D

 

Heat is the last thing it needs, if you want a game that really gets your PC working, GTA IV is a very CPU, GPU & RAM intensive game :-D

I need to buy a whole load of new stuff to get that running well & when I do get a job again I will be doing just that. £50 on more Kingston Hyper 1066MHz DDR2 RAM, a new MSI DKA790GX £116 & maybe a new AMD Phenom II 940 3.0GHz Quad core £206.20 or the black edition £229.94. Then If I run into anymore trouble graphics wise I can crossfire my 1GB 4870

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Really? GTA 4 is that heavy? I figured Crysis is the benchmark game but I have GTA 4 on PS3 , I might grab a copy just to see.

 

GTA IV is made using "future tech in mind", basically they made it to run on the yet to be made nVidia & ATI cards, yet to be made AMD & Intel's & maybe DX11.

I figure my problmes may be the fact that I have an AMD CPU & and ATI card. Take a look at the back of most PC game box and you will see Intel is the first in the CPU list & so are nVidi, also games like Mirrios Edge not only say "nVidia theway it's meant to be played" but also run specifically with PhysX which is an nVidia technology. I just wish they would make uo their minds, I remember when games used to be optimised to run with ATI cards :confused

A small factor could also be that my mobo is bottlenecking my CPU by 200MT/s & I need another 500MB of RAM to meet reconmended RAM specs :-D

:major2-Bit-Geek:major