Trying to ring last bit of performance out of oldish PC

Rotty · 4 Aug 2009 at 20:25

My PC has a Asus PTGD1-LA Motherboard

recently it has been struggling a bit, running XP with 2Gb RAM so prob not much to be gained with more RAM, or is there ?

Been looking to see what CPU upgrades I could fit, at present it has a P4 3.0HT but really struggling for definitive information

anyone any info that may help ?

Rotty · 6 Aug 2009 at 12:55

and I thought you folks knew everything :rolleyes:

Happy · 6 Aug 2009 at 12:59

You could try having a look in MM etc for a Pentium D chip, but I'd start afresh. If you aren't into gaming (I'm guessing you aren't

) then you could get something much better and have change from a couple of hundred. Something like this plus an OS, and you would be away

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-187-OK&groupid=43&catid=1078&subcat=

Bennal · 6 Aug 2009 at 13:01

That board is limited to supporting DDR memory. The standard is DDR2 now, if not DDR3. It looks like it only supports SATA, not SATAII. Realistically any money spent upgrading that PC is going to be wasted, just get some cash together, and get a current generation setup.

Rotty · 6 Aug 2009 at 19:48

The cost of a new PC is not a problem, I just can't be arsed with a reinstall

Happy, did you find anything conclusive to say the PentiumD is supported ?

Thanks

oh and no, I am not into gaming

Happy · 6 Aug 2009 at 22:07

I'll have a look now

Well according to Intel's site, the 915p chipset can't support any dualcore Pentiums. I might be missing something, but the list is here:-

http://ark.intel.com/chipset.aspx?familyID=5724

If you have a 3.4GHz in there already, then you are basically at the top end of what can fit in the board.

Rotty · 6 Aug 2009 at 22:47

3.0 at moment

is the 3.8ghz pentium 670 a possibilty ?

Happy · 7 Aug 2009 at 12:46

I don't see why not, although I doubt you would find one for a practical price. Also I couldn't even find the motherboard on Asus' website so the info is lifted on a shop's site.

Hairybudda · 7 Aug 2009 at 13:01

Is this the board? http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf-JAVA/Doc/images/c00208790.jpg

Happy · 7 Aug 2009 at 14:07

Hairybudda said:
Is this the board? http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf-JAVA/Doc/images/c00208790.jpg

That looks the same.

Rotty · 7 Aug 2009 at 14:08

yes , thats the one

Hairybudda · 7 Aug 2009 at 15:06

You really don't have a lot of give, short of sticking another couple gig of ram in there, stripping down unneeded processes and sticking a 3.4 P4 in it you're out of luck. Could you not stick another drive in there, copy any data you need over, use nLite to stip XP down to its bare essentials and then leave it to do an unattended install while you get on with other things?

What are you using the machine for? Do you have your paging file set on another physical drive (preferably on a seperate controller)?

Rotty · 7 Aug 2009 at 15:35

only for web, basic apps and occasional watching videos

think my page file is on main disk

Hairybudda · 7 Aug 2009 at 16:00

How old is your XP install? Have you run CCleaner on it recently and given it a good defrag? Can you post a list of running processes so we can see what needs disabled? Are the apps light (like music players and office tools?)? What browser you running?

Really I don't think you need new hardware, you need either a flatten and reinstall (with a stripped down copy of XP) or a good spring clean, try setting a fixed paging file of 3gb on another physical drive before the defrag as well.