Upgrading an old computer

But it's much higher of the 27W TDP that the Pentium M has, but that's not bad considering that those are two chips on one die, 32.5W TDP each core.
 
evolucion8 said:
Well, it doesn't matter if it's old as far as it performs reasonably well for the tastes, I know that my Platform is over 4 years old, my CPU is 3 years old technology, but still performing great, and since I hit a bottleneck with my CPU with this videocard, this will be my last upgrade, in Crysis and other benchmarks my score almost doubled, but in other games like Assassin Creed, the FPS barely increased, I just hope to be able to find a CPU with the same thermal envelope and low heat dissipation like this little CPU when I upgrade, still having nightmares with the TDP and Heat dissipation of my P4 EE @ 3.4GHz loll (109W)
Click to expand...
Well the Asus P4P800 has two SATA conectors on the mobo so you can even run RAID 0 with two fast Seagates ST3250410AS up to max.160 MB/s!!!
Even with a cheap aftermarket cooler you can control the CPU's heat and maybe even create some more headroom for OC.
(From memory the CPU doesn't OC that well maybe because it is a slightly hotter running one).
Upgrading your DDR2 ram is just insainly cheap so no complains there.
Run XP (Preferable a Light Version) and your P4P800 will just butterfly away :)
 
Youri Carma said:
Well the Asus P4P800 has two SATA conectors on the mobo so you can even run RAID 0 with two fast Seagates ST3250410AS up to max.160 MB/s!!!
Even with a cheap aftermarket cooler you can control the CPU's heat and maybe even create some more headroom for OC.
(From memory the CPU doesn't OC that well maybe because it is a slightly hotter running one).
Upgrading your DDR2 ram is just insainly cheap so no complains there.
Run XP (Preferable a Light Version) and your P4P800 will just butterfly away :)
Click to expand...

My mobo is the E deluxe version, the only difference is that the plain one doesn't come with the Promise Raid Controller which allows RAID 0+1 and Ultra DMA 133 RAID 0, no PAT, no Firewire, instead of Realtek Audio, uses ADI, lack of SPDIF etc, and I'm already using RAID 0, also I'm using the Zalman 7700Cu CPU cooler, which allowed me to extent my overclocking by 100MHz loll, but runs much cooler, and it cannot go further due to the motherboard''s limitation, people with the P4C800-E Deluxe can go as far as 3GHz with this CPU. Probably I can try sometime later to see how far I can push it, at least I know that it doesn't boot at 2.8GHz, so the overclocking margin is minimal, perhaps 2.75GHz.

My only concern is that Intel hasn't launched a driver update for my Intel RAID controller since 2005, but it works with Vista with no issues, in the Vista Score, everything scores 5.9 except my RAM that scores 5.2 and my CPU that scored 4.4 when it was clocked to 2.46GHz a year ago.

The P4P800 latest BIOS has the lock free CPU function, this one doesn't, since both motherboards are the same, I wish to know if there's a way to use it in my mobo so I can overclock better.
 
Well another DELL S478 P4 2,4 Ghz Northwood broke down and I put it on the MOBO:
AOpen AX45F-4DN with Two Corsair XMS CMX512-3200C2 3-3-3-8, Vidcard: Asus A9600SE 128MB.

I remember the exact CPU running on the P4P800 only up to 2,7 Ghz or somthing.
In the summertime had to OC down once if I recollect well?

I wouldn't run Vista but XP that will give more speed overall.
Always can put in a cheap Creative Live! soundcard or even the Audigy 2 for better sound.

Still should try faster HD's to make you rig feel faster like the 250 GB Seagate ST3250410AS 80MB/s (and that's for real). For only $65,- you getta whollota speed. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262

I think the HD as an upgrade, in speed and in noise, is underestimated especially when the option of an RAID 0 config are overlooked. The HD can often be the most fragile part of the chain concerning speed and overall computer experience.
 
darklcd said:
It's too bad you already upgraded, $280 is kind of steep to keep and older system running.
Click to expand...

Well, since I'm now waiting two years to do a full system build, $280 is a bargain to keep this old thing (bought it in 2003) running. That's a seven year useful life on a single computer. Don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty impressed with that.

The one thing that concerns me about this rig is that Dell hasn't updated the system BIOS for nearly that long. I'm wondering if Intel has some chipset utilities I can install to wring a little more performance out of their parts.
 
Well the Duocores produce less heat that's maybe one of the reasons they OC so well.
Take the E6600 for instance from 2.4 too 3.4 with even some more headroom is impressive.
But a single core running 3.0 + still can match up in brute force.
So I never would put away a good P4 especially not if you can get it around the 3.0 GHz.

Don't forget guys (do your research) that alottof proggies won't even utilise more than one core efficiently cause the Software geeks are not up to date... yet.
(Not even talkin about more than two cores)

Bottemline: I agree.
 
Beats me? Another mobo?
Maybe the $55,- Biostar P4M900-M4 Intel 478 Micro ATX?
It has onboard Audio & Video, 2 x SATA Connectors, SATA RAID: 0,1 and last but not least a 1 x PCI-E x16 Slot for another PCI-E Vidcard.

Donnow if that's worthy spending?
Otherwise leave the rig like it is and spend it on a fast very low noise $65,- HD like the Seagate 250 GB ST3250410AS.

(And better so 2x ST3250410AS in SATA RAID 0 :))

It's up to you now!

For less than 200,- you've got a wholelottof bucket full of oportunities :cool:

Originally Posted by enginurd
$68 - Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160 (or spend $22 for the E2200)
$67 - Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L
$38 - 2GB DDR2-800 T800UX2GC5
=======
$173 + tax and shipping

Stated FSB/4 = Actual FSB
Multiplier x Actual FSB = CPU Speed
2 x Actual FSB = RAM Speed

E2160:
Multi x Actual FSB, RAM Speed = Clock Speed
9 × 200Mhz = 1.8Ghz, DDR2-400 <<== Stock speeds
9 × 266Mhz = 2.4Ghz, DDR2-533 <<== Easy OC
9 × 333Mhz = 3.0Ghz, DDR2-667 <<== Good OC
9 × 400Mhz = 3.6Ghz, DDR2-800 <<== Excellent OC

E2180:
Multi x Actual FSB, RAM Speed = Clock Speed
10 × 200Mhz = 2.0Ghz, DDR2-400 <<== Stock speeds
10 × 266Mhz = 2.6Ghz, DDR2-533 <<== Easy OC
10 × 333Mhz = 3.3Ghz, DDR2-667 <<== Good OC

E2200:
Multi x Actual FSB, RAM Speed = Clock Speed
11 × 200Mhz = 2.2Ghz, DDR2-400 <<== Stock speeds
11 × 266Mhz = 2.9Ghz, DDR2-533 <<== Easy OC
11 × 333Mhz = 3.6Ghz, DDR2-667 <<== Good OC
Click to expand...
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1301425
 
Nope, not buying a new motherboard. That's too much work and expenditure for too little reward.

Guess I'll just stick with 2.8 Ghz.
 
Yep, yo better do.
I had the same conclusion in another thread
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1301425

Sometimes some little investments in an OL P4 can payoff when noise or heat make the rig feel old. A cheap aftermarketcooler or a cheap passive cooled Vidcard can make a rig running very quiet. The rig I refurbished you can not hear nothing at all which can be a rewarding task on it's own but not entirely without cost.
But what the heck if the rig can live another 3 years for realy quiet operating E-mail and office word processing. And even with picture rendering the 3.0 GHz won't let you down.
2 GB of RAM is usefull nowadays with high res scanning.

Good Luck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top