So £100 would give you how much more power than an old 3ghz P4?

[NeilF]

In direct reponse to the original question maybe the closest upgrade you can get for around £100 is to buy a 2nd hand P4 3.73GHZ Extreme Edition for about £130. It might go to 4GHZ with a decent cooler :>

Whether its worthwhile or not depends on what you do with your PC :>

Those run on an 1066mhz bus don't they? My MB uses a 533...

 

[NeilF]

CPU:http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-152-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=793
MOTHERBOARD:http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-011-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=205
MEMORY:http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-095-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=144

with that motherboard you can use your current graphic card in the apg slot, which has pci-e and apg.

the total is £128.33 save money by not getting a grahpics card and when you can save enough money in the future you can buy yourself a good pci-e card.

I've said over and over...

If I was going thru all the hassle of ripping out most of my machine and replacing it (free time being a major issue for me) I'd do it properly... (Including taking the opportunity to do a fresh install (which I'd have to) with Vista and on a new SATA hard drive (instead of my old IDE)...

I've added this up and it's about £400-£500.


Anyway, the HIS AGP is in the way to me and will be with me on Monday

ps: I've heard odd reports of those combi motherboards...

 

[NeilF]

The OP asked for a Modern CPU+Mobo in his post.

Quoted :

"So out of interest, in raw processing power, if I was to spend around £100 on a modern motherboard & CPU"

I intentually never replied till now as I was (1) lazy and (2) know anyone with a tad of knowledge knows any CD2 will poop all over any P4 (its not about MHZ).

The idea was to get an idea (out of interest) how much more processing power a modern CPU has (roughly) than my old P4, which unfortunately I never really seemed to get an answer to...

I'm sorry if your clearly better knowledge means my thread bores you. But thank you at least for providing me with the answer - I now know a modern CPU exceed the performance my CPU by a factor of 'poop'. Thanks! You really know you stuff That helps immensly and really contributed to the thread

I don’t get this thread? You posted in your OP asking how much raw power you would get from £100 the guy above posted an excellent system and you brush it off, what type of responses do you want.

You asked for raw CPU power but its turned into a GPU thread?

Sorry just seems a very confusing thread.

Well I was trying to gauge the solution to a problem... Not really getting an answer, I've gone down the simpler and cheaper route of attempting to solve the problem via a GPU upgrade.

 

[NeilF]

Ah okay it’s just very confusing to read

I would have personally gone the CPU & MB upgrade over the GPU one, just seem more sensible than spending money on older technology.

Yes, the thread has splintered a little... That can happen

As for going CPU & MB, absolutely... I suspect for some that is the right choice. It appears though - from looking around - I can get away with (hopefully) just a GPU upgrade meaning less money and more importantly less time/effort

I'll save a full upgrade for when I really need to...


I'd still be interested to know how much an average a C2D processor compares to my old fossil... I know like-for-like tests can give varying results, but is a E2180 (2Ghz) twice as fast on average? Four time? Ten times? Just interested to know how much things have come along...

 

[NeilF]

There is no cheapskate way to play mass effect. I built a half decent budget machine recently. My old machine was an AMD 64 3200 754 based system. Probably CPU wise fairly close to yours according to the benches. I tried upgrading the AGP graphics and got no where really. The CPU / HD and RAM were too much of a limiting factor.

My new machine comprises an E2180, 2GB Memory, Asus P35 mobo and atm an ATI 2400. Now as a base machine, I needed everything inc. case, PSU, HD etc, it came to just over £220 for the base system without GFX. I chose an Antec Sonata III for the case which pushed the budget up but the included PSU is worth it.

I did try a 3870xt in it (for a couple of days) which was brilliant especially on my 32” TV and would run what ever game I threw at it at a level of detail I was more than happy with. Overclocking of the CPU and GPU offered a good boost too.

Point is though, to get the whole system to a respectable level of gaming performance like for mass effect, the cheapest I could do it was £370 then so maybe £330 now.

So I threw the idea of the GPU out, chucked in the 2400 and have now bought a 360 on which I play Mass Effect and it’s great.

I think your at the point of either a full upgrade as cheaply as you can or get a console.

Bit confused... My P4 is over the the minimum suggested spec (for Mass Effect), and even the recommended one...? (Amazingly?) Unless the specs being release are not as I've understood them...

Just to answer the thread's title question directly: To put in in perspective, a 1.6GHz Pentium Dual Core (Core 2 Allendale core) performs roughly equivalent to a 3.4GHz Pentium D. £100 is about enough to buy a 2.66GHz E6750. That means that you'd want about a 5.5-7GHz Pentium 4 (depending on whether or not the application is multi-threaded) to keep up with a modern processor (in this case a Core 2 Duo) of £100.

Aha! Very interesting! Thanks! So a E6750 is rougly twice as fast as my old fossil! (Very roughly) - Thanks! I was expecting more TBH!

 

[NeilF]

Er, it may be over minimum specs but it would be one of those "close but no cigar". My AMD 3200 still meets minimum specs with a DX9c graphics card but it can't play anything modern for toffee at anything over a 640res on minimum detail.

I chucked a ati 1950 AGP for LOTRO and even then, although I could get decent detail settings at low res the fps was useless. This is where the system and CPU will be hugely limited. Looking at Mass Effect on my 360, there is no way I could get it to run like that on anything old.

As for benchmarks and checking your performance, have a look on tomshardware at the CPU charts and download Sandra Lite and bench your machine then compare it to the benches of the Core 2 Duos, Quads etc. I think you will find it falls well behind.I think you will find that yours is a fair bit slower than 2xs the E6750

Well, I'll just have to hope as regards Mass Effect, the fact that, (a) I'm above minimum CPU requirements, (b) I'm above recommended CPU requirements, (c) I (now) have the fastest AGP GFX card on the planet, means I can play it reasonably well...

I'm not after uber duper performance, just average OK playable speed... Fingers crossed!

 

[NeilF]

Just thought I'd jump in here as I own a very similar system to the O/P for instance P4 3.0e Prescott in an Intel 865 mobo with AGP and i also own an e2160 Asrock 4core Dual/vsta system which can use AGP or pci-e graphics. I have an AGP nvidia 7600gt in both systems.
The Asrock mobo suggested by Phatzy which is the successor to mine supports your current IDE hard drive having 2 ide headers although Overclockers description fails to mention that for some reason. Click the image and you'll see them on the expanded pic.
Also your current memory (2 gigs pc3200) will work extremely well with that board, equal in fact to DDR2 performance. Your current gfx will also work fine.
So there you have it, your upgrade as requested for £100.
As a user of both systems I can only say the core2duo wipes the floor with the old P4. Yes games will still play on the P4 but many newer titles are a slideshow at anything above 800x600 low to medium settings whereas the increased processing power of the core2duo easily handles 99% of games at higher res and settings.
My e2160/Asrock combo runs a very very easy overclock to 2.6ghz, I'd be happy to advise the OP if he decides to go with it.
There are obviously some titles like Crysis which need some detail reducing to play nicely but thats true even on my overclocked to 3.4ghz e6600 core2duo with 8800gt gaming rig i have also.

Interesting! If you could just plug in the new MB and CPU and XP Pro (corporate) would just carry on as normal that would be great. But I suspect it would require a fresh install

 

[NeilF]

I thought you mentioned earlier that you were on vista? With xp corp you'd probably get away with doing a repair install from the xp disc over your present o/s then just add the via hyperion drivers for the new Asrock mobo.

No... I said earlier if I had to change the MB/CPU then I assumed I have to do a fresh install, and if I was to have to do that then I'd so it properly and take the oppportunity of putting Vista on a new (SATA) HD.

 

[NeilF]

uninstall all drivers, use driver cleaner, swap out hardware, boot into XP, install new drivers.

It is that simple, no need for a fresh install

Even with a complete MB/CPU change?

 

[NeilF]

indeed, I've done it a few times when I was feeling lazy

As long as you remove the mobo drivers before swapping out your hardware, it'll be fine.

Just don't leave any drivers on.. I once went from a NF3 board to a newer NF3 board, and left the drivers thinking it'd be fine - what with them both having the same chipsets - but it BSOD'd constantly on windows load

But anyhow.. remove all drivers before a Mobo swap, and you'll be fine

OK... Well you've given me another route to possibly look at...

If my 3850AGP doesn't tide me over a year or two, I can either just do a full upgrade (£400-500), or do what you've suggested (£100).... Thanks!

 

[NeilF]

Interesting! My old P4 3Ghz is actually above average according to Valve's latest survey, which suggests the most common/popular CPU is a single core Intel CPU @ 2.3 Ghz to 2.69 Ghz...

 

[NeilF]

Good luck with Mass Effect anyhow, hope it runs OK on your antique *cough* sorry, Pentium 4

Thanks! My spec is above the minimum and recommended spec so fingers crossed!

I also agree on the 'strip off all drivers, shut down, new board, reboot and re-install - its worked for me when doing diagnostics between dodgy motherboards! Still a cheaper option, as a SATA disk can always be added in later on.

Useful to know! Cheers!