• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

CPU Upgrade Help

pointy shadow

pointy shadow

pointy shadow

Associate
Joined
27 Dec 2002
Posts
774
Location
Beyond the Ultraworld...
I currently have a 3.2 P4 with 2GB of DDR2 667 RAM and an Abit IL9 Pro motherboard and was looking to upgrade my CPU without having to buy other components if possible.

The motherboard itself has a CPU Support List which suggests that the fastest CPU it will take is the Core 2 Duo E6700 but I take it if I wanted that I would need to purchase some new RAM to match its speed. Is this correct?

If I need to upgrade me RAM I think I will go for the 800mhz Core 2 Duo E4500 instead as that is the highest chip that I think my memory will allow.

Does anyone have any experience of any of these chips and if I were to go down the E4500 route will I notice a major difference in general Windows use and extracting rars etc compared to my 3.2 P4 chip?

Finally, will I be able to use my current heatsink (see sig) with the dual core CPUs?

Thanks in advance. :)
 
Your RAM is fine, it can even do 1:1 with the 1333Fsb cpus as its running at 333MHz, yes the AC7 should be fine for that cpu.
 
Yes.. however do you overclock any? The lower speed E4500 might give you 3Ghz easily (@ 266FSB/1066) with little or no voltage bump and cost a whole lot less.
 
Thanks JustinTime.

I have not overclocked since I bought my 1.4 Athlon from here and joined the forums way back in 2002 so I would prefer to use my CPU at stock speeds plus the motherboard BIOS doesnt have any way of increasing the FSB due to it being fanless I think.

So, now that you have answered the techie side of things will I notice a major difference between my current CPU and the E6700 in terms of general Windows use and using rar files etc?

Many thanks once again :)
 
Yes, you will. The P4 architecture is really pretty inefficient so each core of even a slow C2D will be better. You might consider going for an E6600 rather than an E6700 and putting the £40 saved towards a new mobo next time round.
 
Thanks for that Snapshot.

TBH if I ever have to upgrade again I will probably go for the quad core CPUs which will require a new CPU/MOBO/RAM so I will just go with the E6700 when payday comes :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom