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Looking to upgrade the CPU only.

viperfx

viperfx

viperfx

Associate
Joined
8 Nov 2008
Posts
121
hi, im finding that my CPU is always the component that seems to be lacking on my system. It is a custom built system, all the parts are actually bought from OCUK. Im happy with my system, it suits my needs and was very cheap, however i think an upgrade is needed.

Here are the specs:
Cpu: Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5200 @ 2.50GHz, Socket 775 LGA
Mobo:EP43-DS3L
Chipset:
Northbridgem - Intel P45/P43/G45/G43 rev. A2
Southbridge - Intel 82801JR (ICH10R) rev. 00
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT
OS: Windows 7

I would appreciate some advice please on what is a good CPU to upgrade to that will be compatible with my system.
Thanks.
 
Hi there,

May I ask what you are doing where you are finding the performance of your system is lacking?

My first suggestion for an upgrade would be to try your hand at overclocking. The E5xxx series is well known for overclocking excellently due to its 45nm Core2 architecture and 800MHz FSB. Your board is not the best for overclocking, but I reckon you could give it a good go. I would try doing a simple (free) overclock using your stock intel cooler and seeing how far you can push the clockspeed before the max. load temps come near 70C. At that point, if you want to go faster you will want a better cooler -something like this would be ideal.

If you want more cores (many modern games are really starting to make use of CPUs with more than two cores) then buying a Q6600 CPU (G0 stepping) second-hand would be a good move. This is a quad core with loads of cache and overclocks well - coupled with the above Titan cooler you will be looking at a very nice CPU upgrade for not much more than £100 (less if you sell on your E5200).
 
My budget is about 100 pounds really, give or take about 20 pounds maybe. I find the performance lacking not in the general use of the system, but when I do minimum requirements for games. For example I just did a requirements test at canyourunit. It says that the only component that failed for the recommended requirements is the CPU, and the minimum requirements fails for the new call of duty.
RJC I have looked at that list, and I would be happy with any of the top 1/4 - 1/2 of the list.
The Q6600 would cost more than £100 wouldnt it?

The reason I do not overclock is because I only have a stock fan, and im scared I might end up frying the CPU or something extreme like that - im sure that is quite unlikely to happen?
Is there some programs I can use to show you what sort of temperatures and speeds the CPU is running at, so that you may see if it is actually safe for me to overclock the CPU?

I downloaded the gigabyte mobo utility program, maybe I can show some screens from that. I may have pressed some button without knowing really what they do - however I dont think I changed anything major. (The last screen is what im worried about the CPU fan always shows red - and I dont understand what is it exactly).

2aaB.jpg

2aaE.jpg

2aaG.jpg

2aaI.jpg

Thanks for the quick reply.
 
Use programs such as realtemp or coretemp to monitor the real temperture of the cpu. You can't fry anything really as the machine will simply crash or restart if you push it to far. I'd imagine you'd get to maybe 3Ghz pretty easy on stock cooling as long as the case cooling is'nt horrendous. And use something like prime95 to test the stability of the overclock.
 
Hello viperfx :)

viperfx said:
  • Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core E5200 (Stock Cooler)
  • Gigabyte EP43-DS3L (Intel® P43 + ICH10)
  • GeForce 9800 GT
Click to expand...

What DDR2 do you have? (speed and size?) . . . I'm looking at your board product page and a .pdf copy of the motherboard manual and it seems decent enough to allow you some overclocking . . .

example 33% overclock:

Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core E5200
  • 12.5 x 200 = 2.50GHz
  • 12.5 x 266 = 3.32GHz
Can you post up some CPU-z screenies please showing the [CPU], [Memory] & [SPD] tabs please!
 
Here are the screen shots, ok il have a look at the temps using the programs you suggested. - I seem to be missing the SPD section :confused:

2anG.jpg


Thanks.
 
Hey viperfx :)

viperfx said:
  • Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core E5200 (Stock Cooler)
  • Gigabyte EP43-DS3L (Intel® P43 + ICH10)
  • OCZ GOLD 4GB DDR2-800 CL6
  • GeForce 9800 GT
Click to expand...
Now we have your relevant system specs we can dabble in a little overclocking to get your DualCore running a bit faster . . . if the extra speed doesn't improve your user experience then it may well be the case you need to invest in a QuadCore . . . no harm though in your rolling up your sleeves and getting a bit of overclocking "basics" under your belt . . . what I'm thinking is a pretty straight forward overclock taking your Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core E5200 from its stock speed of 2500MHz up to 3325MHz with a few simple BIOS adjustments! :)

What would be handy to know before we start is what the idle & load temps are with the chip at stock and also what the idle & load vCore (CPU voltage) are . . . as well as what [VID] your processor is . . . here are the apps you need:

If you download all the above . . . run CoreTemp and tell me what it says is the processor [VID] please, close CoreTemp and load up Hwmonitor and leave running for a minute or so . . . then run Prime95 >> Torture-Test >> Small FFTs which will 100% load the processor . . . leave that running for 15-30mins and arrange CPU-z(CPU & Mem tabs), Hwmonitor & Prime95 into a neat arrangement and post a screenie so we can see how the system is running at stock . . . in the meantime I will work out the BIOS settings you need to adjust to increase the processor speed! :cool:
 
viperfx said:
What does that mean? Good bad ugly?:eek:
Click to expand...
Well in the land of the geek its not brilliant but certainly not a showstopper by any means . . . . CL6 at DDR2-800 gives 50% slower latency compared to the standard DDR2-800 CL4 . . . system latency affects every single operation your PC performs as the CPU and Northbridge have to wait that tiny bit longer to get the info they need back from the memory . . . in a worst case scenario gives a slightly "laggy" user experience when you open up programs and have a "slight" micro delay . . .
  • DDR2-800 CAS6 15.0ns (128-bit) 6,400 MB/s
  • DDR2-800 CAS4 10.0ns (128-bit) 6,400 MB/s
There's not much we can do about it atm but hopefully once you get the processor and FSB overclocked it may be possible to try and reduce the CL rating on the memory which along with the other "tweaks" will improve your user experience and make the whole process worth while! :)
 
I have a python script doing the Fibonacci sequence which takes like 50% of the CPU already. no harm to run it all right? :)
VID = 1.2125v
I will leave the tests running and post the results soon!
Thanks again
 
no probs . . . run the Fibonacci sequence + Prime 95 (Torture-Test >> Small FFTs) all together . . . just looking to see how the Intel® retail cooler is performing with the stock processor before any overclocking! :)
 
Ok sounds good. Also - I accidentally clicked reset min/max while I was doing the stress test - so im going to have to wait til the test finished - if it ever does?

here is what is happening so far
2aqC.jpg


haha you have caught on sir! Well yea my friend did build it for me, I helped :) He showed me where everything goes and how to replace. However I did not want to overclock it at the time, since I was quite happy with how it was doing.
 
Ok two things leap out at me straight away!

  1. Why is the processor showing up in CPU-z as 1.7GHz when the processor is fully loaded?
  2. Why is the slower-than-normal processor running at 68°C full load

:confused:
 
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