upgrade from e4400- recommendations please

[uk_unbeliever]

Hi, looking to upgrade the 2ghz e4400 in my mum's PC. Problem is that it is a PC shop standard PC- unrecognisable motherboard and no overclocking.

Current CPU is the Intel e4400 dual core, by all accounts a reasonable overclocker but overclocking is not an option. So, without being able to find a CPU list as the MB is a P.Bell generic job (I've tried to google the part numbers), can anyone give me an educated guess as to an upgrade that should work.

I'm stuck with guessing that an e4700 is the best safe bet, which I assume to be the same chip but running at 2.6ghz. would a different series 65nm dual be the next best bet compatibility wise?? I'm guessing 45nm is a no-no as is a 65nm quad.

Any advice much appreciated!

 

[gamesaregood]

What does CPUz show the motherboard as?

 

[uk_unbeliever]

Iit's a packard bell PT890-8237A which I think is made by FOXCONN. There's a few bits via google relating to homemade bios flashing but I don't want to kill it! I can't find it listed on the Foxconn support pages, so thought about just trying a CPU that is likely to work based on the current CPU which definitely works. Not very imaginative I know.

 

[Vipernet]

It's a via p4m890 chipset based board. It will take any conroe processors up to a 1066fsb. A Q6600 would be good upgrade or a dual core E6XXX would be better than your E4400.

 

[uk_unbeliever]

great, thanks. Is it likely that any bios release for this board would support a q6600? cpu-z reports the bios release to be PBSANFMB.0500.

 

[Vipernet]

Found a screenshot with a q6600 and your board running the .04 bios dated 19/11/07 so pretty sure it'll fine.

 

[uk_unbeliever]

thanks for the help, I'll look out for a q6600- they're not hard to shift it it doesn't work

 

[KelDG]

Check your power supply can handle the extra that the q6600 will need, its a thirsty chip compared to your old one. 105w compared to 65w