Advise for upgrading Pentium 4 processor

[xhino87]

I want to upgrade my current Pentium 4 processor.

3.0 GHz
Prescott (90 nm)
1 GB L2 cashe
MMX, SSE(1,2,3), Hyper-Threading

I wanted to put in a dual core Intel T8300 which i saw online that had the same socket as my P4, but am not sure it will be compatible. Or even a 3.4 GHz P4.

So i guess my question is what is the best/ most powerful processor i can replace into my m/b ???



MY COMPUTER INFO:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...ct=408385#N500

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...product=408385



Motherboard

MB manufacturer: ASUS P4SD-LA PES revision 0.01
HP name: Oxford-UL6E


CPU

Socket 478 mPGA
Intel Pentium 4 up to 3.20 GHz
Supports Intel Pentium 4 HT processors
Supports Northwood and Prescott cores
Maximum approved processor: 3.40 GHz Pentium 4 HT processor


Chipset

Intel 848P (Breeds Hill)
MCH with Intel ICH5
Supports DDR 266/333/400 SDRAM
Supports Ultra DMA 66/100 IDE devices
Supports Ultra DMA 150 Serial ATA device


BIOS

American Megatrends Inc.
v 3.24
04/14/2004

 

[Snipergod87]

You cant put a Core 2 Duo / Quad or anything like that in there, that will only take very old Pentium 4's (not ever the newer ones) You will need to buy a new motherboard first.

The T8300 is PGA 478 not mPGA. The current processor you have is the almost powerful processor you can put in that motherboard. Putting in a P4 (Has to be mPGA 478 not LGA 775) @ 3.2 or 3.4 you wont notice any speed boost.

 

[icehawk940]

I would stick with the pentium 4. that mobo will do the 3.4ghz p4 but the one thing you wanna keep an eye on is the wattage of the cpu. I went searching for the max cpu wattage on your mobo and couldnt seem to locate it. The T8300 is i believe a mobile processor and you need to use extreme caution because it may fit in your mobo but chances are the wattage isnt gonna be right and you can blow out both the cpu and the mobo.

 

[buwish]

I agree with Sniper. You basically have the best chip out there for that socket, so if you do not have the cash to spend, stick with it for now. If you do though, you could look into building a new machine or perhaps purchasing a new one from a reputable manufacturer. Building your own would be cheaper though and give you a good learning opportunity if you have never built one before.

 

[damasvara]

^+1 for the DIY suggestion. Most, if not all, above Regular rank are all DIYers themselves. Learning by doing will significantly accelerate your knowledge basis increase.

 

[dEAne]

I still have a micron computer running at 3.2Ghz - Pentium 4. The fan is quite noisy and it heats up like a ref. Well I recommend you leave it as-is.

 

[xhino87]

thanks for all the replies, this place is great.....Im going to take your advise and stick with the my P4, theres nothing wrong with the comp and ive added a hdd and ram and it runs great and i dont want to ruin it.

I think in the near future im going to build my own, ive just started working and fiddeling with computer hardware and it seems pretty doable......


In the future could i just simply buy a new motherboard and processor and be able to plug in the same HDD i have now along with the CD/DVD drives and graphics card and PSU i have now? or would i need a more powerful PSU and compatible drives and hdd??

I would rather upgrade it slowly m/b and cpu first and then slowly upgrade everything else.....

 

[suteck]

You can start with the CPU and mobo. If you pick the right motherboard you will still able to use your current HDD and CD/DVD drives if they're connected to an IDE connector. If they're using the S-ata connectors no problem. You mentioned a video card in your last post but I didn't see what it was anywhere. The board supports the AGP style video card So I guess that's what you have? Depending on the upgrade you will probably want to get a pcie 2.0 card so that's not transferable. Other than those drives it looks like everything else will have to be upgraded. Your case might be sufficient but most likely it won't be large enough to contain all the new equipment and have an adequate air flow. And I'm sorry if I'm planning a larger upgrade than you were thinking about but I get carried away.

 

[xhino87]

I have a GeForce Fx 5200 and all the connections HDD and CD/DVD are IDE.

Im actually planning a very big upgrade, im looking at this setup of hardware:

Asus P6X58 m/b

i7-950 cpu

Patriot (2x4 GB) RAM

GeForce GTX-460

Seagate 2TB 6.0 GB/s HDD

Coolmaster 750W psu

Windows 7 / Ubuntu


what do you think?? This is my first time looking into building my own machine.

I checked all the prices out and with this setup i can get away with spending no more than $1200...which is why i want to see if i can just do the m/b and cpu first.


And by the way, do this all necessarily need to be in a computer enclosure? My computer is sitting in that "computer space" that all home computer desks have and i was thinking of closing off that space with plexiglass with holes for the fans and connections and only using the front part of the computer with the multimedia slots and cd/dvd drives.... that would definitely be getting ahead of myself

 

[suteck]

Looks like it will be a fun build. Make sure you get the 64bit windows system to take advantage of all memory available. Only thing(s) I would rethink is the 4 GB's of memory. That board supports triple channel memory so you might want to think about 3x2GB for 6GB's. Now when you check the QVL for the compatible memory pick some from the all six slots supported list, (dot in "D" column). That way down the road you can get another matching kit and get all 12 GB's working. And speaking of video cards - my favorites are amd/ati cards. Some people say they even work better with the intel builds but I couldn't prove it and it's a preference not necessarily always the better choice

If your planning on using that space for a homemade build that sounds great. But you better be real handy. The face of the comp is only for show, you will need the racks behind it that are riveted together with the case. That will be a big job but maybe alot of fun. Make sure you put plenty of holes in the plexiglass. The cooler you keep it the better and longer it will run. Take pics as you go and post them on the mod portion of Tom's so we can see.

 

[xhino87]

Im will take your video card recommendation into consideration, i dont know much about the different kinds so i guess ill do some more research on those...About the RAM you are right, i was thinking the system could handle 18 GB, but i think that only applies to the i7 6 core cpu....What kind of RAM would you recommended??...Ive never heard of Patriot but the price was good and they looked like good quality.


Im getting excited just planning it out, it should be a lot of fun. Im pretty handy so i think i can make it happen...I will post plenty of photos for people to see, i just think using a big space instead of a constricted computer case will allow more airflow and heat transfer than if all the components are so close to each other.