Couple of questions about upgrading with my motherboard

[Guest]

Hey guys,

I've decided I want to get back in to pc gaming but need to upgrade my pc a little, but am not too knowledgeable about upgrading.I'm not looking to spend a lot of money or play the latest games just get a little performance boost.

I'm currently at university so don't have the exact specs of the pc on hand, but I found these details online for the desktop I bought about 4 years ago.

Motherboard - Foxconn® RC4107MA-RS2

CPU - Intel® Pentium® 4 641 Prescott (3.20 Ghz)

Memory - 1GB DDR2 PC2-4200

Hard Drive -80GB 7200rpm UDMA

Graphics - Not sure as I purchased it separately, but it was a mid range geforce card in 2006.

Anyway, the two questions I want to ask is.

1) Firstly on the motherboard specs (http://www.foxconnchannel.com/product/Motherboards/detail_overview.aspx?id=en-us0000151) it says "Single channel, DDR2 533/667, x2 DIMMs". I'm not sure what single channel means, but I read on a review of the motherboard, that "There are only two DDR2 memory slots with a single memory channel. This means you don't get the performance boost when installing two sticks of memory that you'd get with two memory channels." Could someone explain what this means?Is it better to get another 1 gig of ram to make 2 gigs in total, Or buy 1x 2gig of ram to replace the 1gig I currently have.

2) Under supported processors, it says "Intel® Pentium® D, Pentium® 4 Prescott, Celeron D, Socket T (LGA775) processors". Upon searching for Socket T, it says Core 2 Duo processors are supported. Does this mean, for example, I could use the Intel E7400 Core 2 Duo Processor? Or do other things need to be taken into account?

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Plz don't double post

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/269725-30-couple-questions-upgrading-motherboard

 

[Guest]

Plz don't double post

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/269725-30-couple-questions-upgrading-motherboard

sorry new to the forum and wasn't sure where it belonged.

 

[joefriday]

Hey guys,

I've decided I want to get back in to pc gaming but need to upgrade my pc a little, but am not too knowledgeable about upgrading.I'm not looking to spend a lot of money or play the latest games just get a little performance boost.

I'm currently at university so don't have the exact specs of the pc on hand, but I found these details online for the desktop I bought about 4 years ago.

Motherboard - Foxconn® RC4107MA-RS2

CPU - Intel® Pentium® 4 641 Prescott (3.20 Ghz)

Memory - 1GB DDR2 PC2-4200

Hard Drive -80GB 7200rpm UDMA

Graphics - Not sure as I purchased it separately, but it was a mid range geforce card in 2006.

Anyway, the two questions I want to ask is.

1) Firstly on the motherboard specs (http://www.foxconnchannel.com/product/Motherboards/detail_overview.aspx?id=en-us0000151) it says "Single channel, DDR2 533/667, x2 DIMMs". I'm not sure what single channel means, but I read on a review of the motherboard, that "There are only two DDR2 memory slots with a single memory channel. This means you don't get the performance boost when installing two sticks of memory that you'd get with two memory channels." Could someone explain what this means?Is it better to get another 1 gig of ram to make 2 gigs in total, Or buy 1x 2gig of ram to replace the 1gig I currently have.

2) Under supported processors, it says "Intel® Pentium® D, Pentium® 4 Prescott, Celeron D, Socket T (LGA775) processors". Upon searching for Socket T, it says Core 2 Duo processors are supported. Does this mean, for example, I could use the Intel E7400 Core 2 Duo Processor? Or do other things need to be taken into account?

First of all, don't worry about single vs dual channel memory. Dual channel memory offers a slight performance advantage over single channel, however, the motherboard and memory both have to support dual channel in order for it you work. Hence, even if you replaced the memory, you could never get dual channel b/c your mobo doesn't support it. Remember, it's a very SMALL performance increase, so you're not missing out on much.

Secondly, you are completely wrong about Core 2 Duo being able to work on that board. You have a lot to learn, and I'm not going to spend the time to teach you, but just know this: what foxconn says is supported, is the only CPUs that are supported. Don't buy a core 2 duo, quad, and even a pentium dual core or Celeron dual core, or even a Celeron 400 series and expect them to work, because they won't. Stick with P4, Celeron D, and Pentium D, as that's the only things that work. That being said, your P4 641 is a decent P4, being built on the cooler-running 65nm process. The only real upgrade to you would be a pentium D 900 series CPU, which are quite affordable on Ebay.

 

[Guest]

Ok thanks a lot for the detailed reply, will probably just get some extra ram and consider upgrading the motherboard in the future.

 

[apache_lives]

new build - easier, that P4 is just a sloth compared to anything on the market today