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upgrade a P4 3.2 for HTPC?

oneloosecrank

oneloosecrank

oneloosecrank

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Joined
3 May 2011
Posts
20
Location
Nottinghamshire
hi guys, I'm currently midbuild of an HTPC (just ordered a new case), using an old workstation as a starting point. It will be used for light gaming - currently runs COD and SupComander nicely (geforce 9800oc) but mainly, it will be used for file sharing duties (windows home server) and to back up our two laptops. It powers iPlayer and movies (DVD and xvids) to our TV and when we can afford a better TV I'll put a blu ray drive in.
My question is; should I upgrade to a C2D? The ATI RC410 mobo only has an 800mhz FSB so there's limited scope for upgrading the CPU really. My biggest concerns would be having a cooler and quieter system - my 3.2ghz P4 is rated at 84w, the 2.5 C2D I've seen at 64w. Will a 2.5ghz C2D appear slower than the P4 for the above and would it be noticeably cooler so I can run the fan slower?
oh - and will it be compatible?! The only thing I've checked are the socket (both 775) and FSB (both 800mhz). I saw today I might have xxnm clashes but I don't know what this is.

Hate being a first-post-questioner, but you have to start somewhere :rolleyes:
 
Hi there,

Is this the motherboard? It it is then unfortunately is only supports pentium 4 and pentium D CPUs (I would strongly recommend against getting a pentium D).

To answer your question about the Core 2 Duo - these CPUs use a different architecture than the P4 and are MUCH faster, even at much lower clockspeeds and power draw.

If your current motherboard can't take Core 2 Duo and the system is mainly for use as a HTPC and file server then I would have a look at the AMD fusion boards. These boards use a fusion APU which is pre-installed (the APU combines the CPU and GPU onto one package) and can decode 1080p video including blu-ray and it is powerful enough to run HD streaming video like youtube in 1080p.
 
hmm not sure, doesn't look quite the same... I've got the board specs - Chipset
ATI RC410 (Northbridge), ATI SB450 (Southbridge) from here. I've got an great GPU now so I wouldn't be too concerned with onboard graphics, i'll just keep what I've got if I were to upgrade - I suppose it will handle gaming better. Upgrading the mobo would happen with a bluray upgrade, but possibly a cpu in the meantime to hush the thing down some.
 
Aye, its a similar board with the same chipset - it looks like that board just won't support a Core 2 Duo CPU (that spec sheet you linked to also only mentions pentium 4, Celeron D and Pentium D CPUs) and considering it is board from a pre-built PC then it is very unlikely to work with CPUs they haven't mentioned.

You could try installing a new CPU cooler to reduce the noise of the CPU cooler - like this one.
 
Damn it. The limitations of working with a free 10year old office workstation... Well I'm using a Zalman 9900 atm - a big vertical flower tunnel and fan arrangement. But the HTPC case isn't big enough for it so that's being swapped out for something more discrete. This was partly my reason for asking - if I could get away with an as powerful but cooler cpu and a fanless cooler.
Thanks for the help. It'll be a new mobo and cpu when I've got the money for another overhaul.
 
P4 + HTPC does not compute. My old p4, from something like 4 years back, doubled as a heater and jet engine.
 
You could buy a new case that accommodates the larger (and hopefully quieter cooler). This one is good, but I would recommend buying a few quiet 120mm fans for it.

Both the motherboard and the included PSU conform to ATX, so will fit in a standard ATX case like the one above.

Out of interest, are you running the geforce 9800 graphics card off the original 250W PSU?
 
nope, a 500w. The Antec Fusion comes with a pair of case fans so I'll see how they stack up - thanks for the link though, if the present ones are noisy I might just give them a try :) Ordered the replacement Zalman flower today for the reduced head room above the CPU.
 
If you are using the Antec Fusion Remote case - then the best CPU cooler to get is the Sycthe Mini ninja. This fits and is a pretty effective cooler considering its size. If you are running the standard antec tricool fans - then they aren't great for quietness tbh - going for those Sharkoon 1000rpm golf ball fans would be a big step up.
 
ah, I've ordered my Zalman now. Hopefully it'll do the job. I'll definatly monitor those case fans then and look to the sharkoons if they are too noisy for the atmospherics of weekly Dr Who.
 
I'm going to revive this with another Q -
I have done the wonderful thing of breaking my arm and so HAVE THE WEEK OFF WORK! So, between putting out the washing and emailing out student revision material... I managed to cook the computer with a bit of F.E.A.R. Turns out P4s really are hot. It's not fooked, played fine, just overheated.
So back to my original issue... Can you recommend a cheap enough board+CPU+Ram bundle that will sit at a lower temp than what I have, but doesn't need to be much more powerful? I've been told that my system will handle blu-ray fine in the future so the power I have is fine. It's just the heating. From my own browsing, it seems the AMD ranges are less preferred to C2Ds? Needs to be microATX form for the case.
 
If you want to re-use your DDR2 RAM then this board and this CPU would be a good upgrade for a small price. This CPU's power rating is 65W, so it should kick out a fair bit less heat than a 84W Pentium 4.

Does the Zalman cooler you ordered support AM2 sockets?
 
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RE Streaming HD video to TV

The P4 3.2 will not do this, it will do the lower quality iPlayer videos however. I use to own a early 1.86 Core 2 thats a good 50% quicker than this P4, and that would not quite stream HD iPlayer videos.
 
hmm well it'll go up for sale that's for sure. Maybe I'll just stick it's earnings in the ebay charity box.
So the AMD dual core 3.0ghz is going to be considerably more powerful than the 3.2 P4? Maybe you can bust another myth for me; that gaming only used one core so a single more powerful one would be better for this process than a less powerful dual core. Dual core would be best for two application running simultaneously like burning and playing back a media file.

Oh - and I think I'm going to take you up on that recommendation and order the CPU and mobo this morning :D good work
 
oh actually, I do need to know one thing before I go ahead and change the mobo - I have winXP MC currently and the installation CD. Will Microsoft allow me to use this Windows on the new mobo? If I go ahead and change over all the components and HDDs to the new mobo will I need a new OS?
 
one loose crank said:
So the AMD dual core 3.0ghz is going to be considerably more powerful than the 3.2 P4? Maybe you can bust another myth for me; that gaming only used one core so a single more powerful one would be better for this process than a less powerful dual core. Dual core would be best for two application running simultaneously like burning and playing back a media file.

Oh - and I think I'm going to take you up on that recommendation and order the CPU and mobo this morning :D good work
Click to expand...

Yes, it is indeed a myth these days, modern games are all made to make full use of dual core CPUs, while some can even make use of triple and quad core CPUs. So going for a dual core is going to be faster than a single core in pretty much all application.

Also, please bear in mind that just one of the cores on a 3.0GHz Athlon II is faster than the 3.2GHz pentium 4 - so it will be faster in all applications - even ones that can only use on core.

Have a look at this page - it compares an Athlon II X2 that is slightly faster than the one you got (3.1GHz vs 3.0GHz) and a Pentium 4 that is faster than your current one (3.6GHz vs 3.2GHz). This gives a pretty nice visual representation of the performance difference.

one loose crank said:
oh actually, I do need to know one thing before I go ahead and change the mobo - I have winXP MC currently and the installation CD. Will Microsoft allow me to use this Windows on the new mobo? If I go ahead and change over all the components and HDDs to the new mobo will I need a new OS?
Click to expand...

It really depends what type of license you have and what type of disk it is.

If its a retail disk then you will have no issues - the install will work and the license will be valid.

If it is a standard OEM disk then it will install, but technically it will be being used outside of license as the OEM license means it should only be used with the first motherboard it is installed on and not transferred (which is what the retail license is for).

If it is an OEM disk from a prebuild PC comapany like Dell or HP then it may not install at all - since these disks often check if the motherboard is from the correct company before installing.

one loose crank said:
I have trusted your judgement on this one and ordered the mobo and CPU :cool: Thanks for the advice.
Click to expand...

Nice one, best of luck - it should be a nice step up. Cooler and better performance :)
 
Well it may be time just to spend the money and fully update the system; fingers crossed XP will transfer, if not Win7 it is. I've had issues with sharing folders between our three computers (xp, vista, win7) so an os update on the htpc wouldn't be hard too swallow.

And I've been looking for a comparison chart of hardware to see how things stack up - i'll bookmark that link. Cheers again :)
 
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