CPU Upgrade

[Majik]

Right now I have a 2.4 gig P4. I built this computer myself probably around 2 years ago. I want to upgrade now. I was thinking of doing a motherboard/cpu combo from frys, but then it hit me that I already have a p4 motherboard. Does it make sense that I can just pop a 3.2 or 3.4 gig CPU in there? I realize socket types have changed lately, so is that the only hurdle that I am looking at? The main thing I need to look at is Agp graphics, because I just bought a new apg card. Any tips or hints?

[channelmaniac]

It all depends on what CPU speeds and what pin configuration of P4 your motherboard supports. There are different front side bus speeds and different physical packages that can make it difficult to install a newer CPU.

RJ

[TheChadVIII]

If you want to pop in a 3.2 or 3.4Ghz P4 they're gonna use a socket LGA775, which is doubtful that you have if you built the computer two years ago, unless you went crazy top of the line~ But if you do then you're in luck. Pretty much every Pentium made from a year and a half ago till now, Pent 4 and Pent D, use LGA775 sockets. The highest front side bus they get up to is 800Mhz, since Intel doesn't use the 2000Mhz Hypertransport system some of the AMD's use, but they can still keep up in preformance. So you don't have to worry about anything if you have the 775 socket.

I'd highly advise this dual core pentium if you do have 775
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116001
only $145 with $2 shipping! You won't be able to beat that if you're on a budget.

If you're going to upgrade the motherboard too if you don't have a newer socket I'd rather go AMD for the chipset (socket939, that'll make upgrading later easier since its the newest) and motherboard, usually you can find better deals on them and I've had better luck with them, especially for gaming. (4 of our 6 computers are AMD, but my best one is a pentium /shrug)

What kind of graphics card did ya buy?

[Majik]

Well since it is doubtful that I have a socket 775, since I went frys combo last time it looks like I need a Mobo too. I have no prob going AMD. So an AMD mobo with socket 939? Also are they still making boards with AGP slots? I guess since I did just buy the card I could take it back and switch for the pce card. Would that be advisable? Especially since I am probably going to upgrade within the week. I got a Geforce 6600gt overclocked.

[TheChadVIII]

Socket 939 seems to be the way to go nowadays, increased Hypertransport bus over the 754, and they even remade all of their lower end CPUs on 939, and they use it all they way up to their FX-60, so you have a wide selecton of anything from a regular 3000+ to the big dual cores. I did hear that they are soon moving on to a new high end socket, named Socket AM2, with 940 pins (ooo 1 more makes all the difference) and support for faster DDR2 RAM.
But I wouldn't be too concerned with it, they always come out with something new to make you buy.

If you can, I'd DEFINATELY advise going PCI-E. The bandwidth on that slot is /so/ much higher, there is such a noticeable difference, and again, if you ever wanted to upgrade later then it'll make it much easier. Plus getting a PCI-E board is no more expensive than an AGP.

If you bought that video card at fry's or a retail store around here, you probably got ripped...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130263
Thats a retail eVGA Geforce 6800 for $120 with a $20 rebate = $100 for a 6800! Which is crazy better preformance than any kind of 6600.
(newegg is probably one of the best computer dealers out there as anyone can tell ya)

[Majik]

Socket 939 seems to be the way to go nowadays, increased Hypertransport bus over the 754, and they even remade all of their lower end CPUs on 939, and they use it all they way up to their FX-60, so you have a wide selecton of anything from a regular 3000+ to the big dual cores. I did hear that they are soon moving on to a new high end socket, named Socket AM2, with 940 pins (ooo 1 more makes all the difference) and support for faster DDR2 RAM.
But I wouldn't be too concerned with it, they always come out with something new to make you buy.

If you can, I'd DEFINATELY advise going PCI-E. The bandwidth on that slot is /so/ much higher, there is such a noticeable difference, and again, if you ever wanted to upgrade later then it'll make it much easier. Plus getting a PCI-E board is no more expensive than an AGP.



If you bought that video card at fry's or a retail store around here, you probably got ripped...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130263
Thats a retail eVGA Geforce 6800 for $120 with a $20 rebate = $100 for a 6800! Which is crazy better preformance than any kind of 6600.
(newegg is probably one of the best computer dealers out there as anyone can tell ya)

Sweet, well I can always take this card back to frys. Looks like Im gonna. I have the 6600 and I noticed that my clock speed for my card is much higher than the one you linked to. Is that a big difference? This is the card I got, obviously for a better price. Either way I have no problem taking it back and getting a PCI-E card from the net. If you dont mind would you pick out what you think is one of the better deals for a AMD 3000+ or 3200+ mobo/cpu combo. I get lost with all of the numbers and what is better with a bigger number and what is better with a smaller number. Lets say 300 is my budget, but cheaper is always better. Thanks for the help so far.

[TheChadVIII]

Clock speeds on video cards really don't mean much, unless you're dealing with the same kind of video card, like a 500Mhz 6600 will be much faster than a 400mhz 6600, but it won't neccesarily be faster than even a 350mhz 6600GT. That 6800 with 256mb of its sped up ram and improved processor will out preform any 6600 out there. (but fyi my setup with an AMD 3500+ and 6600GT will run /anything/ I throw at it, quake 4 or whatever at 1023x768 with everything cranked flawlessly, so a 6800 could be considered overkill unless you're a stickler about those kind of things).

Now onto the price findings!
Man this is wanting to make me get a new setup haha.

Ok, here's a crazy price for a $214 AMD 3700+ which kicks nards. Comes with heatsink and thermal compound.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103539

If thats too rich for your blood then heres a well priced, at $170, 3200+ that should be able to keep up with most of your needs~
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103535

And NForce4 Ultra chipset motherboard by Abit for $95 with a $15 rebate = $80 that caters perfectly to both chipsets with their 1Ghz bus speeds, with PCI-Express, built in gigabit LAN, and that NForce Ultra really makes a difference.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813127222

I'd just get that motherboard, I've had great experiences with Abit so far, unless you want to go SLI... (dual video cards, it basically just has 2 PCI-Ex16 slots)

If you do, I'd reccommend these thingies called GeForce 6600LE they're the most price effective dual setup to get
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125208

along with this motherboard priced $20 more than the Abit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128301

If you get that one with that Gigabyte motherboard, you even get at least one of the video cards for $65 not sure if you can get both. So max you'd be spending $145 on both video cards instead of that $100 single 6800.
SLI mode can work in games to either have one card render one frame while another one renders the next (like a two cylinder engine!) or one will take over the top half of the screen and the other the bottom half.
Most of the newer games out are starting to support it really good, not all games use it, but it works /soooo/ good when they do. But I wouldn't really advise going that route unless you like to constantly fiddle with settings and what not.

However there is a company called Aegia, who had their own booth at last year's quakecon, who is developing something along the lines of a seperate add-in card that will take up one PCI-Express slot and handles only physics (the biggest cause of slow-down in games). As well as another handful of prospective uses for the second PCI-Express slot other than just dual video cards. So thats something to gnaw in your skull while you decide too!

[SilverToy]

I'm missing something, do you have a 478 board? If you do I would suggest a 3.4GHz, 1MB, 800MHz FSB, Socket 478 - SKU: BX80546PG3400E. It is in your price range, they are great overclockers, It would give you a BIG performance boost while your saving for a killer system. How much ram do you have? Alot of this depends on if this is your main computer or a second.
(Little off subject)--->Personally I'm a big fan of overclocking. My gaming rig, a 3.4, runs at 3.8 for gaming and will benchmark at 3.9, but that was after watercooling. It ran at 3.6 on air cooling for over a year.
It's like a good car; sometimes a little tweaking goes a long way; Then you keep saving for that supercharged Miata! My little piece of advice would be to take your time, heck, there talking about quad core within three years. Right now prices on big 478's are dropping like crazy.

My gaming/overclocking/blow-it-up-every-couple-of-months computer:
3.40GHz Intel Pentium 4 Runs at 3.8 or 3.9
ABIT IC7-MAX3
Radeon X850 XT PE (AGP)
Water Cooling:2x120mm Innavotek
1GB Patriot DDR PC4800XBK
2x74GB WDRaptors Raid-0
600W SilverStone STRIDER
SB X-Fi Xtreme
ViewSonic A110 21"
CMStacker: (Nicer paint job than my miata)
Windows XP Home (SP-2)
Logitech Mx 518 / Z-Board

[altiain]

Trying to read this thread makes my head hurt...

[TheChadVIII]

If he does have a socket 478 board from around two years ago then it would be a 400/533Mhz FSB model, that wouldn't like that 800Mhz FSB pentium 4.
Also if you stay socket 478 you're /going/ go have an AGP card, its just older technology.

Altiain: Thats how I feel when I read some of the more intricate car-related forums, unfortunately. hahah

[channelmaniac]

Trying to read this thread makes my head hurt...

HAHAHAHAHA!

That's how we feel sometimes when you have a moment!

[SilverToy]

We need to know what board he has...Then we can spend his money!
3.06GHz, 512KB, 533MHz, Socket 478 Intel - BX80532PE3066D
then pick up a old 9800 Pro and OC the heck out of the CPU & GPU while saving to get a killer rig...It would run most any game fairly smooth, Thats the combo in my "house" computer. OR just suck it up and max out the Frys card well maybe not, thats still a sore spot in our home with the little---->

(TheChadVIII, Have you seen the quad SLI set up in this months MAXIMUM PC...I better stop)

[SilverToy]

I'm such a geek

[Majik]

Altiain I am feeling your pain. Thats why I said pick me out some stuff. The problem Silvertoy is that I know this is an old board. I could probably put a new CPU in, but I dont know how to OC a computer, and blowing stuff up doesnt sound like alot of fun. I have no clue how to water cool a computer either. I like to play with my car, but I like my computer to run normally. I really like the link to that 3700+ that TheChad posted. I want something I can put in and run fairly stock. I am probably never going to have a top of the line killer rig. In two-three years Ill just upgrade a little bit again. I am too much of a cheap bastard to buy the top of the line newest stuff.

[SilverToy]

That 3700+ is an excellent choice! It will wake up your puter' like you won't believe, and there is nothing worse than losing info, family pictures, whatever, by overclocking. It's not something you want to do to a computer with anything important on it.

[TheChadVIII]

That quad SLI getup is just downright mean, no way I can go out and afford more than two 7800gts... or just one as a matter of fact.

I'm saving up for a ECS PF88 and the A9S SIMA card. Hybrid card



No more arguing if AMD or Intel is better cause I'll have both! (socket 939 and 775)

[Majik]

Ok one last question. I have a 1gb stick of pc2700 ram. While this motherboard says the ram standard is pc3200. Will my stick still work for now, even without optimal performance?

[TheChadVIII]

You betcha.

(looks like the $15 rebate sale on it ended...)
still good price though.

[Majik]

Ok so I ordered that motherboard, CPU, and the video card. I just need to take back my old card now. I made a mistake though. I bought a new case from new egg too. I made sure it had a 400w PSU, but I didnt pay attention to the main connection. The new motherboard is a 24, while the new PSU is a 20. Am I out of luck? I got a new case mainly for the powersupply, also to add a 120mm fan and hopefully keep it cooler than this piece of junk case I have now. Id rather not trash the brand new PSU in the new case. Any ideas?

[TheChadVIII]

All motherboards have a 20pin main power connection be it ATX or Micro-ATX or whatever, but the bigger boards also have this little extra 4 pin connector thats usually up closer to the processor. All powersupplies will come with this too, thats where they're getting the 24 on the motherboard, and only listing the 20pin on the power supply.



So you should be good to go!