Will this CPU work? Some help please!!!!

[Cartho]

Hi All
I am interested in buying a Pentium D 945 3.4 GHz to replace my old Pentium 4 3.00 GHz.

I dont want to dop a totaly motherboard upgrade, and so just want to get me a moderately decent Dual Core processor.
I know it is not in the same league as a C2D or Athlon 64 in terms of sheer grunt, but as I said I dont want to do a motherboard upgrade..

My motherboard is socket LGA 775 and the chipset is:
i945P/PL/G/GZ

will this run the pentium D 945?
Just how much of a performance increase will I see going from a 3.00 GHz P4 to a 3.4 GHz Pentium D (which has 4 MB of L2 chache)?

 

[Cartho]

You mean I can run a core 2????
*faints with excitement*

My motherboard model number is:
0X8582

I thought that Core 2 was only for 965 / 975 chips...

I googled it, my chipset seems fine!
However apparently you need something called VRD11 support on your motherboard, which is a special thing for the low voltage used by Core 2....

Not sure wheither I have that....

 

[Cartho]

Yeah that is what I think.....

So for the purposes of gaming, will I see much of an improvement over a 3.00 GHZ Pentium 4 by adding a Pentium D 3.4 GHz?

 

[Cartho]

I need to dispell some myths here
It is a Dell 9100
These use a new system. NOT BTX
It uses a STANDARD ATX set up.
I have already upgraded the PSU in it, replacing the standard Dell one with a Cooler Master Real Power 550

I intend to purchase a 7950 GT 512 MB and get another 1GB of RAm, taking me up to 2 GB.

Upgrading it is not really a problem. With the 9100 + series they have removed a lot of the proprietary Dell parts and replaced them with standard ones.

As a gamer, I will mainly be using it for games, and so with newer games coming out Like UT 2007 and Supp Comm which all like Dual Core processors, will I be better going for the Pentium D 945?
It is faster in terms of what I have already, but I suppose my other alternative is to get a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.8 GHz, but these are highly expensive....

The Graphics card is coming first, should get that in a couple of months, then the new RAM, so the CPU is the last thing I am gonna be upgrading....

 

[Cartho]

Well the PSU is standard ATX so I assume that the MTB is ATX too...

 

[Cartho]

Yeah I too hate them.
This was my first PC you see, and I did not know that much when I got it.
Suffice to say I would never buy a Dell again.
even changing the PSu was a pain in the ass, I had to totally unscrew the CPu heatsink just to get at some of the wires...

To be honest the best thing to do would be to buy a new case, a Core 2 Motherboard and a Core 2 CPu. Then just take all of the other stuff (RAM, GPU, PSU, Optical drives HHD etc from my current rig and put it in...
However I dont really want to do that yet.

I think I will buy the 7950 GT and the RAm, then see how I go from there....