Cpu Upgrade

Morpheus

ok.......

heres the lowdown,

I want to upgrade from a PIII CPU to something a good bit faster.

Have any of you done this before and what CPU did u upgrade to?

what other extras did you fit to the system with the CPU or was it a straight CPU upgrade right into the existing system?

ive got a fairly recent motherboard, bout 18 months old, is it possible for me to buy a new CPU and fit it willy nilly, or are there considerations i need to think about???

ive a PIII 320mb RAM and a newish intel mainboard.

deckie27

You need to know what type of motherboard (exactly) you have.
You can then go to the manufactures site and check what is the fastest cpu the board will take

Dec

Morpheus

any way of finding out what type it is short of opening the case and looking?

deckie27

Try this package
SiSandra
This should tell you. (mainboard info.)

Dec

SouperComputer

TBH no PIII is economic to upgrade. Youll have to change the Mobo and CPU. Even if you get a PIII at a good price (hard to do!) you have reached the end of the line for your motherbard.

PIII chips are too expensive, and compare badly to the latest offerings from AMD and Intel.

Morpheus

ok, thanks,

maybe il wait a while and save some cash to get a new motherboard and CPU... i think il go ahead and get the geforce 4 64Mb card anyway. grab some extra ram too, least i can keep the card for the new mobo when i do get it.:ninja:

Matt Simis

Im selling some P4 CPUs for a good price over in the Forsale board (of all places).

Pair one of my CPUs to a good, cheap motherboard like this:
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&p=25150&t=1403&l=2&AvdID=1&CatID=10&GrpID=10&s=pl


and you have a fast and cheap upgrade.



Matt

leeroybrown

You could hold off on the RAM (PC133 SDRAM I presume) and save your money.

If you get a new motherboard (P4 /
Athlon) you'll be 99% sure of needing to buy new RAM anyway (probably DDR or maybe Rambus). THere is really n o point in slowing down a system with lower spec RAM.

RicardoSmith

Depends on the type of PIII. You can get PIII's up to 1.4ghz and these compare well to P4's of 1.4-1.6ghz. But it all depends if you mothboard can take a newer cpu. Powerleap do alsorts of adapters though they can be pricey.

Matt Simis

Thats true, but even a P41.6 is a bit long in the tooth these days. All modern P4 boards use DDR ram now, the more pricey ones use Dual channel DDR (so youd need 2 sticks instead of one).



Matt

Raz

What you'll need if you're going to upgrade,

Motherboard capable of taking an AMD or Intel Processor (socket A or Socket 478 respectively €80 to €200)
An AMD or Intel Processor!! (P4 2.4Ghz = €200ish)
New RAM (DDR PC2100 up to PC3200[depends on motherboard] €50 to €150)

The G4 graphics card would be fine but it's starting to get a little old. If you're not going to be playing a lot of games (especially not some of the latest releases) then you'll be fine.
You could keep everything else in your PC and be very happily upgraded with that!

Hope that helps a bit.

50Cent

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&p=27982&t=1403&l=2&AvdID=1&CatID=10&GrpID=10&s=pl

Id like to reccommend this board. I have it. its one of the best p4 boards ive come across. It also won loads of awards and got on pc pro A list in december...no i aint a geek, i jsut had to do a presentation on it the other day.

SouperComputer

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
Depends on the type of PIII. You can get PIII's up to 1.4ghz and these compare well to P4's of 1.4-1.6ghz. But it all depends if you mothboard can take a newer cpu. Powerleap do alsorts of adapters though they can be pricey.

tis true, but they are very expensive ($256 on pricewatch for a 1.4g!) and you have no upgrade path.

At least with socket A and 478 you are a little better off for the future.

Those tuatalins were flyers though. So much in fact that there is a lawsuit against Intel about the P4's lack of horsepower. That was a while back, must check and see how it went.

RicardoSmith

Some people have got a decent boost from a 1.2 or 1.4 celeron upgrade. These are essentially PIII's, so don't think they are rubbish. They are not bad little CPU's at all. Heres a link with some info. http://www.roberthancock.com/dell/

Morphéus - You say your machine is 18 months old. Well thats actually well out of date in computer terms. You'd really have to tell us which kind of PIII you are upgrading.

I know plenty of people with PIII machines that have 1ghz cpus, a GF3 card and 256-512mb of ram and they can play most stuff pretty well. You can upgrade to this level very cheaply.

Only the very latest very demanding games will really struggle. But if you are at this level already then the only choice is to replace the motherboard, ram and cpu all together. The AMD route can be cheaper, but the Intel route doesn't have to be that expensive though.

Something like a 2000xp or a 2.4 P4 would be a massive jump in performance and not too expensive. Forget 2800xp's and 3Ghz P4, though they are crazy money.

I went from a (1ghz AMD overclocked to 1.4ghz with a GF2ti) to a (P4 1.8 overclocked to 2.4 ghz and a GF4ti4200) and have to say I have yet to find a game I can't play. I got all the parts second hand and at a decent price.

Why a GF4ti4200. Well a GF4ti4600 is only fractionally faster, but a lot more expensive and a Radeon 9500/9700 would only be quicker if I was to play in Res above 1024x768 and used antialiasing in my games, which I don't.

I always buy at the trailing edge of technology not the bleeding edge. Much cheaper and not too much slower either.

One final point is that if you do go for a new motherboard, try to get one that supports all the latest cpus and even some of the older ones aswell. Then you can get a slower cpu, and upgrade to a much faster one when they have dropped in price in 6 months time.

Morpheus

good ideas there thanks,

wheres the best place to purchase stuff?? ive looked at klompett, its cool, what about the second hand option tho???

Raz

You could always try IT Direct on parliment street but there have been some stories of woe.
You could try some England based online stores (although I can't think of any off the top of my head!)
Peats, possibly Maplin though they don't really do Intel, more AMD stuff.
If you're willing then E-Bay is an option. Some people get results there.

Gerry

I'll sell you a powerleap adapter and p3-S 1.4ghz ( 512k cache, not a celeron) for 150 euro if you want...

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Morphéus
good ideas there thanks,

wheres the best place to purchase stuff?? ive looked at klompett, its cool, what about the second hand option tho???

Komplett isn't bad. UK places to try are:

www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk/
www.overclockers.co.uk/

Decent forums where you can get 2nd hand stuff are:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/
http://forums.theoverclockingstore.co.uk/
http://forums.hexus.net/

But make sure you follow the guidelines when buying via the forums. Theres the occasional scamster on them all.

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Gerry
I'll sell you a powerleap adapter and p3-S 1.4ghz ( 512k cache, not a celeron) for 150 euro if you want...

Nice upgrade, once your board supports it!