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Intel Pentium D

Mista.Gee

Mista.Gee

Mista.Gee

Associate
Joined
18 Mar 2006
Posts
759
Cut a long story short.

Hiper Modular 580Watt PSU Type R.
Intel Pentium D 920 2.8Ghz Dual Core Presler Core.
ABIT AW8-MAX Motherboard uGuru.
2x512mb Corsair TwinX XMS2 PC5400 C4 DDR2.
Maxtor 250GB 16MB Cache SATA 2 Hard Disk.
Nvidia Geforce 6200 128MB Turbocache PCI-E.

Do you think this PC is still a good specification and up to the job of todays tasks such as game playing, what if i was to update the Graphics Card, add 2x1GB Memory and Vista Premium.
 
I was thinking of increasing the memory 2x1GB Modules, and maybe either 8800gts if not then a X1950 Pro. I was just wondering if the Pentium D was still upto the job of todays gaming.
 
The GPU is as important as the CPU and that's where your system is lacking. Slap an X1950Pro in there plus the extra GB of RAM and be happy....
 
It would do the job with a healthy overclock, methinks. A lot will depend on the graphics card you put in it.
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Aye it could really do with an overclock (especially if paired with an X1950 Pro/8800 GTS), even 3.2 / 3.4 Ghz would be much better than 2.8, you don't have to go for 4 Ghz :)
 
Tetras said:
Aye it could really do with an overclock (especially if paired with an X1950 Pro/8800 GTS), even 3.2 / 3.4 Ghz would be much better than 2.8, you don't have to go for 4 Ghz :)
Click to expand...
Better add a new CPU cooler to your list as well if you take the advice to overclock and have the standard Intel cooler. An Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro won't add a noticeable amount to your budget but will to your CPU's cooling ability.
 
Talking about overclocking, i would fancy raising it to say 3.0GHz if i can on the stock cooler, is it possible not being greedy on the overclock am i? Stock cooling should be ok for just a slight increase shouldn't it.

If so how would i go about giving it a slight boost.
 
Just try it and watch the temperatures. 3.0 shouldnt pose too much of a problem for the stock cooler, as you can probably do that on default voltage.

You have a 920, which is 65nm process rather than the older 90nm 820, the 9xx series chips while running hotter than the new Core2's was generally a lot cooler running than the 8xx's so you should be able to clock it up a little. Just be carefull and watch the temps.

Anyway your biggest bottleneck is the GPU, and 1Gb is only just ok for a good gaming setup these days. The CPU while being a little outdated wont really hold you back too much unless you like gaming at 800x600. A few odd games might still be slow (Oblivion for instance craves CPU power almost as much as it wants GPU power), but the majority of games will work perfectly.
 
How do i overclock, the motherboard is a AW8-MAX 955x Intel chipset with uGuru supposed to be the dogs nuts for overclocking.

I also have 2x512mb of Corsair XMS2 PC-5400C4 DDR2 Memory i know the gpu is a tad bad but i am replacing this next week, so how do i start to overclock what should i raise in order to get this started. The temps on my cpu at the moment at stock speeds are 29.0c.

Obviously going to replace the GPU for a HIS X1950 Pro ICEq model, and up the memory to 2GB.
 
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I would overclock that system till it dropped lol. I would really recomend you get a Arctic cooler 7 otherwise your whole system will bottleneck as i think mine was when my E6300 was @ stock.... But you could push for 3.3 maybe more and then get overclocking that graphics card.. i have a HIS card pretty sure yours uses the same cooler i can run mine 688/945 668 on the core 945 on the mem.. but dont forget X1950XT has a higher clock i think than a pro.. But if you overclock your system will be fine. Theres a sticky in the overclocking bit of the forum i would read that then you will know what to do :).
 
Will do cheers for that advice, i did have a 7900gt a few months ago which played oblivion with no problems at all until it died on me, so i though it would be a good idea to get a new card and start to tinker with some settings and get the most out of what i got.

Is it really worth upgrading to a core 2 duo if i change the memory and the graphics card and a tad bit of overclocking.
 
Just read the Overclocking Guide, very interesting is that all it is down to is raising the FSB by 5Mhz a time and running certain programs to see if it is stable? just raised to 205Mhz and it's running quite stable at 2.87Ghz not much of an overclock but it's a start.
 
I didnt exactley follow that guide. I raised the FSB by 50 and did so everytime till i hit 3.3 and it wasnt stable and kept hanging becuase the volts were too low... but you can probobally do the same as me. Just be prepared to reset the cmos once you hit a brick wall and remember your settings :).
 
Won't be going that far with it but i'm making small 5mhz increases, may stop around 210-215 to be on the safe said, i have to say that the uguru makes overclocking very easy.

Temps are still at 29'c to 31'c. Just want to hit 3.0GHz.
 
You should be able to hit quite a bit higher than 3ghz with your CPU if you stick on an artic freezer. The 9xx series were pretty decent clockers IIRC.
 
Yea i'm thinking of getting a bigger cooler at the moment with the stock cooler now. I've set it at 211 and its running at 2.94Ghz, temps are around 34'0c and 37'0c need a better cooler.
 
Corasik said:
You have a 920, which is 65nm process rather than the older 90nm 820, the 9xx series chips while running hotter than the new Core2's was generally a lot cooler running than the 8xx's so you should be able to clock it up a little. Just be carefull and watch the temps.
Click to expand...
I don't think he does have a 920 if it's 2.8GHz, it should be a 915 (or possibly an 820, depending on what's been read incorrectly). I'm just being picky. :p
 
Actually the 915 and the 920 are both 2.8Ghz . The difference between them is the feature sets. the 915 has EIST where the 920 doesnt, but the 920 has virtualisation. A full list can be seen on the intel site : ( hope this link works ):

http://indigo.intel.com/compare_cpu...878542,878543,881356&familyID=1&culture=en-US

As for overclocking, you should easily hit at least 3.6 with an upgraded cooler, my 930 has no trouble climbing up the 3ghz ladder at fairly good temperatures.

Rdgs,
Nomisf
 
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