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Upgrade Advice?

Silver_Wind

Silver_Wind

Creative Artist
27
Posts
14
Years
    • Hello. I'm planing to successfully upgrade my computer to be a bit more gaming and music production efficient. Looking for some advice.

    Specifications:
    Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHZ (Single Core)
    Video Card: ASUS AH3650 Silent 512MB
    Sound Card: Creative Soundblaster Audigy
    Ram: 1.5GB

    BTW:
    I'm on a budget, and not looking to put the most high end tech in this old Dell. Otherwise I would just buy a new computer.
     
    donavannj

    donavannj

    22,953
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    19
    Years
    • Does that Pentium 4 have hyperthreading? (indicated by "HT" on the Intel Inside sticker) If it doesn't, then that'd be a decent upgrade, since they have the same processor socket, if my memory serves, and hyperthreading emulates dual core processing somewhat (though it's not nearly as good as true dual cores).

    I'd also look up the hardware specs for your Dell on Dell's website, to see what kind of RAM it uses (DDR/DDR2/DDR3), and what the maximum amount of RAM it can use is.
     
    Silver_Wind

    Silver_Wind

    Creative Artist
    27
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • donavannj said:
    Does that Pentium 4 have hyperthreading? (indicated by "HT" on the Intel Inside sticker) If it doesn't, then that'd be a decent upgrade, since they have the same processor socket, if my memory serves, and hyperthreading emulates dual core processing somewhat (though it's not nearly as good as true dual cores).

    I'd also look up the hardware specs for your Dell on Dell's website, to see what kind of RAM it uses (DDR/DDR2/DDR3), and what the maximum amount of RAM it can use is.
    Click to expand...

    Yes, I do have HT.

    I'm pretty sure that my motherboard can only take about 4GB's of ram. [184-Pin DDR, DDR 400 (PC 3200)]

    I'm trying to find a good processor, that would work on my motherboard (Older Intel Chipset)at least better then a Pentium 4 then we're ok. If you can reveil that info, then I can take care of the rest.
     
    donavannj

    donavannj

    22,953
    Posts
    19
    Years
    • I don't think you'll be able to get anything better than a P4HT in there, though. I'm pretty sure most Intel Dual Cores use different sockets, but the only Dual Cores I've touched are ones fresh out of the box that I don't need to do any processor replacement on. What's the socket type? If you know that, go look up what Intel processors fit in that socket on Wikipedia. Who knows? There might be a Dual Core that fits.
     

    The 100 Mega Shock

    1,234
    Posts
    13
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    • Seen Mar 10, 2013
    Assuming you don't have 64-bit Windows then getting more than about 3GB of RAM will do either very little or nothing at all.
     
    Silver_Wind

    Silver_Wind

    Creative Artist
    27
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • donavannj said:
    I don't think you'll be able to get anything better than a P4HT in there, though. I'm pretty sure most Intel Dual Cores use different sockets, but the only Dual Cores I've touched are ones fresh out of the box that I don't need to do any processor replacement on. What's the socket type? If you know that, go look up what Intel processors fit in that socket on Wikipedia. Who knows? There might be a Dual Core that fits.
    Click to expand...

    Searched it up. Seems that I can go to at least a Celeron D (Dual-Core). If so that might be the alternative.

    @T100MS (The 100 Megashock), I'm running 32-bit Win7 on my computer right now at the moment.
     
    donavannj

    donavannj

    22,953
    Posts
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    Years
    • Silver_Wind said:
    Searched it up. Seems that I can go to at least a Celeron D (Dual-Core). If so that might be the alternative.

    @T100MS (The 100 Megashock), I'm running 32-bit Win7 on my computer right now at the moment.
    Click to expand...

    I am kinda iffy on Celerons, even if they are dual core, however, because they're pretty limited. I've had far better experiences with a P4HT and Win 7 32-bit than I have with a Celeron, in terms of performance. Make sure you check the clock speeds before making the switch, though. I'd rather use a 3+ GHz P4HT than a 1 GHz per core Celeron D, based on personal experience. And switching away from an Aero theme will help with overall performance.

    And the max you can use is 3.25 GB with a 32-bit OS, so if 4 GB is the only way you're going to reach that amount of RAM, then get 4 GB. Make sure you're aware of how many RAM slots you have, and what kinds of sticks you have. That'll determine what size sticks you'll need to buy.
     
    Silver_Wind

    Silver_Wind

    Creative Artist
    27
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • donavannj said:
    I am kinda iffy on Celerons, even if they are dual core, however, because they're pretty limited. I've had far better experiences with a P4HT and Win 7 32-bit than I have with a Celeron, in terms of performance. Make sure you check the clock speeds before making the switch, though. I'd rather use a 3+ GHz P4HT than a 1 GHz per core Celeron D, based on personal experience. And switching away from an Aero theme will help with overall performance.

    And the max you can use is 3.25 GB with a 32-bit OS, so if 4 GB is the only way you're going to reach that amount of RAM, then get 4 GB. Make sure you're aware of how many RAM slots you have, and what kinds of sticks you have. That'll determine what size sticks you'll need to buy.
    Click to expand...

    H'mm I understand your problem with the Celeron's. They've been a disappointment in the past. But the Celeron Dual Core I had in mind is a, 2.5Ghz per core. I have read some comments saying it's no difference from the Pentium D's. It seems like they fixed all there problems when it comes to there dual-cores. Otherwise I was thinking if I was to over-clock it to at least a 3.0GHZ it will make up for a bit more speed.

    Otherwise, let me know how you feel on it now.
     

    locoroco

    Ginga Densetsu Weed ANIME PWNS
    251
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • Celerons in general are pretty bad, ive had horrible expiriences with them (one of them being that it cant keep up with win vista on my aunts crappy laptop with a celeron) id say upgrade to the highest speed available p4 i think it was 3.2ghz. I in general use win xp but like donavannj said turn of the aero. If your looking for more speed use gamebooster it works like a charm on my aunts win vista by turning off more than 40 proceses and relieving 376mb of ram. Thats all i can say to make your computer faster i hope i helped.

    Edit: Upgrade your ram to 4gb. If your using win7 it uses up to 3.75gb of ram if your using win xp it uses (without some reg editing) 3.25gb of ram.
     
    Silver_Wind

    Silver_Wind

    Creative Artist
    27
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • locoroco said:
    Celerons in general are pretty bad, ive had horrible expiriences with them (one of them being that it cant keep up with win vista on my aunts crappy laptop with a celeron) id say upgrade to the highest speed available p4 i think it was 3.2ghz. I in general use win xp but like donavannj said turn of the aero. If your looking for more speed use gamebooster it works like a charm on my aunts win vista by turning off more than 40 proceses and relieving 376mb of ram. Thats all i can say to make your computer faster i hope i helped.

    Edit: Upgrade your ram to 4gb. If your using win7 it uses up to 3.75gb of ram if your using win xp it uses (without some reg editing) 3.25gb of ram.
    Click to expand...

    Let me remind you, that this process isn't like the old celeron's. I know they have been unreliable in the past. But this one I was looking up on seems to be the key for older intel motherboards.

    From my knowledge, I've been hearing that the Celeron D's are pretty good compared to the Pentium D's out right now.

    Here's a link.
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116264

    Take a look, reply back on your opinion.
     

    The 100 Mega Shock

    1,234
    Posts
    13
    Years
    • Seen Mar 10, 2013
    How RAM works on a 32-bit OS

    Simply put, there is no exact limit to how much RAM you will be able to use on a 32-bit version of Windows.

    The space that a 32-bit OS can 'see' to allocate memory is 4 gigabytes. However, this space isn't occupied soley by your computers RAM. It also needs to be used for things like the system ROM, any PCI devices attached to or built into the system (eg: sound card, network controller), and the most noticeable part is graphics cards, which can have anywhere from 256MB of video RAM, to top of the line cards with 2GB of video RAM installed on them.

    When the system is started, the computer calculates the space each component needs and reserves that space for them to use, leaving whatever is left out of 4GB for the your RAM to use. In this case you'd have at least a limit of 3.5GB of usable RAM because you have a 512MB video card installed. In practice it'd be even less when you take the other parts of your system into account.

    A 64-bit OS can use far more space to allocate memory, with some really big number as the possible maximum (Although Windows 7 itself is limited to between 8 and 192 GB of RAM depending on what version you own)
     
    Silver_Wind

    Silver_Wind

    Creative Artist
    27
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • The 100 Mega Shock said:
    How RAM works on a 32-bit OS

    Simply put, there is no exact limit to how much RAM you will be able to use on a 32-bit version of Windows.

    The space that a 32-bit OS can 'see' to allocate memory is 4 gigabytes. However, this space isn't occupied soley by your computers RAM. It also needs to be used for things like the system ROM, any PCI devices attached to or built into the system (eg: sound card, network controller), and the most noticeable part is graphics cards, which can have anywhere from 256MB of video RAM, to top of the line cards with 2GB of video RAM installed on them.

    When the system is started, the computer calculates the space each component needs and reserves that space for them to use, leaving whatever is left out of 4GB for the your RAM to use. In this case you'd have at least a limit of 3.5GB of usable RAM because you have a 512MB video card installed. In practice it'd be even less when you take the other parts of your system into account.

    A 64-bit OS can use far more space to allocate memory, with some really big number as the possible maximum (Although Windows 7 itself is limited to between 8 and 192 GB of RAM depending on what version you own)
    Click to expand...

    I know "How ram works". I pretty much figured everything out about space and memory used exclusively on my motherboard. I'm just trying to work out the new processor, I should purchase.
     

    locoroco

    Ginga Densetsu Weed ANIME PWNS
    251
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • That celeron is kinda ok. The thing is being that they dont have enough L* cache so that makes em slow. If you want to go with a celeron d go for it. Id recommend a p4 but that celeron looks nice.
     

    Archer

    3,956
    Posts
    17
    Years
    • Silver_Wind said:
    Let me remind you, that this process isn't like the old celeron's. I know they have been unreliable in the past. But this one I was looking up on seems to be the key for older intel motherboards.

    From my knowledge, I've been hearing that the Celeron D's are pretty good compared to the Pentium D's out right now.

    Here's a link.
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116264

    Take a look, reply back on your opinion.
    Click to expand...
    Celerons are still lot slower, especially if you are doing music encoding and gaming. If it's a 478 socket, I don't know how much luck you'll have with a Pentium D. Not sure if they came in 478 versions, but there's a bigger problem: the Dell motherboard. You can't use processors that the BIOS doesn't support and you can't overclock it. If you can get a Pentium D that is supported, you should, though.

    You're at a tough spot. You really need a new Mobo for better CPUs, but that also means at least DDR2 Ram. You might want to look at an upgrade or focus on streamlining the Windows install by stopping all the rubbish that runs in the background. Upgrading an old machine is usually a bad idea. You're pouring money into something that will not be updateable any further. The graphics slot is likely AGP, which means you can't use new cards. The Ram is DDR1, meaning that it's slow and will not get better. The CPUs are NOT 64-bit compatible, which will make them useless for the next version of Windows, if Microsoft is to be believed about dropping x86-64.
     
    Silver_Wind

    Silver_Wind

    Creative Artist
    27
    Posts
    14
    Years
    • Archer said:
    Celerons are still lot slower, especially if you are doing music encoding and gaming. If it's a 478 socket, I don't know how much luck you'll have with a Pentium D. Not sure if they came in 478 versions, but there's a bigger problem: the Dell motherboard. You can't use processors that the BIOS doesn't support and you can't overclock it. If you can get a Pentium D that is supported, you should, though.

    You're at a tough spot. You really need a new Mobo for better CPUs, but that also means at least DDR2 Ram. You might want to look at an upgrade or focus on streamlining the Windows install by stopping all the rubbish that runs in the background. Upgrading an old machine is usually a bad idea. You're pouring money into something that will not be updateable any further. The graphics slot is likely AGP, which means you can't use new cards. The Ram is DDR1, meaning that it's slow and will not get better. The CPUs are NOT 64-bit compatible, which will make them useless for the next version of Windows, if Microsoft is to be believed about dropping x86-64.
    Click to expand...

    Yes. I believe so.

    I recently was on a search. So now I'm looking for a new motherboard. This old one is not going to satisfy my needs.

    So, what I found was a motherboard with, AGP and PCI capabilities. Also with old and newer hard drive slots. And also DDR 400 and DDR2 capabilities too.

    I have the celeron ordered. And now have a plan on getting this new motherboard.

    Here's a link the the motherboard:
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157115

    I have confidence in this one. And believe I made a the right choice but still need closure so I can make the transaction. So more opinions on this motherboard would be helpful.

    BTW:
    Thanks for all the info thus far.
     

    Archer

    3,956
    Posts
    17
    Years
    • Silver_Wind said:
    Yes. I believe so.

    I recently was on a search. So now I'm looking for a new motherboard. This old one is not going to satisfy my needs.

    So, what I found was a motherboard with, AGP and PCI capabilities. Also with old and newer hard drive slots. And also DDR 400 and DDR2 capabilities too.

    I have the celeron ordered. And now have a plan on getting this new motherboard.

    Here's a link the the motherboard:
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157115

    I have confidence in this one. And believe I made a the right choice but still need closure so I can make the transaction. So more opinions on this motherboard would be helpful.

    BTW:
    Thanks for all the info thus far.
    Click to expand...
    Why did you go with a Celeron D if you ordered a proper 775 board? I'd be cancelling that order and going with a Core 2 Duo or Pentium Dual-Core (not Pentium D) straight away.

    Pretty cool board, though. AGP and PCI-E, DDR and DDR2.
     

    Archer

    3,956
    Posts
    17
    Years
    • locoroco said:
    Nice choice with asrock but i would try this 1 its an asrock but a much better version of it The link of which you are reading now and i probably was done typing it hours ago. it has 2 x16 pci-e 2.0 ports it supports dual channel ddr3s. See it and tell me what you think.
    Click to expand...
    They OP does NOT need a P45 board. They're meant for overclocking and dual-card setups; they are rarely cheap. There's no point wasting that much money on something that is already outdated. For a budget board? Sure.
     
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