Get the best out of LLano socket motherboard?

[Simon Besozzi]

Hi,

I bought my PC (HP desktop, pre-built) 3 years ago, and over the years I've been upgrading the parts one by one (case, fans, heatsink, HDD, RAM (went from 4 to 32), GPU (got a GTX 550 Ti and recently a GTX 960) added a firewire PCi card. So basically the only original components are the motherboard and the CPU. Like most pre-built PCs, the motherboard is complete shit. It's a micro-ATX from a sketchy brand with a Llano CPU socket. It came with an A8-3850, which was fine for me at first, but now it's seriously bottlenecking my GPU.

I know I should change the mobo and then get a better CPU, but I don't want to go through the trouble of re-installing every single software I acquired during the last 3 years (a LOT, my guess would be about 500 different softwares)

What would be the best option? Is there any way I can squeeze more power from the components I currently have (besides overclocking, which i'm already doing) or is there a way I can make some kind of image of my hard drive so that if I change my mobo and CPU and make a clean Windows install, I can just restore it?

Thanks for your time!

 

[giantbucket]

the other option is to virtualize your existing OS, build new mobo/cpu, and then "unvirtualize" or mount it onto the new machine. in theory.

 

[Simon Besozzi]

the other option is to virtualize your existing OS, build new mobo/cpu, and then "unvirtualize" or mount it onto the new machine. in theory.

How would I do that? Can you point me to the kind of software needed to do that or some kind of guide? Because if that could work, it'd be perfect. If I do that, could I swap CPU brands (go for Intel) or would ''unvirtualizing'' my current OS cause driver issues?

EDIT: Would this method work (http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html)

 

[giantbucket]

i've not done it but discussed it with my office IT guy a few times as an option when our old server hardware was about to die and upgrades/repairs are too expensive or not possible if parts are long discontinued. (in the end, we just built a new system and managed to transfer settings before the old one died)

apparently there's a microsoft utility to virtualize your current working machine. i'd start with reading articles from this google search: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+virtualize+windows+7&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

since your machine is still working fine right now, there's time to read and learn and figure out if this would be a viable option in your case.

personally i wouldn't bother upgrading the cpu unless the model that's installed is the absolute bottom of the barrel. you might gain 10% or so, but the cost would be silly and it would still be behind any modern config.

a third option is to just build a new game-specific / video-processing-specific machine and keep the old one running for most of your programs that you'd rather NOT reinstall or re-setup. are most of your 500-plus apps ok with the current cpu/gpu setup?

 

[Simon Besozzi]

i've not done it but discussed it with my office IT guy a few times as an option when our old server hardware was about to die and upgrades/repairs are too expensive or not possible if parts are long discontinued. (in the end, we just built a new system and managed to transfer settings before the old one died)

apparently there's a microsoft utility to virtualize your current working machine. i'd start with reading articles from this google search: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+virtualize+windows+7&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

since your machine is still working fine right now, there's time to read and learn and figure out if this would be a viable option in your case.

personally i wouldn't bother upgrading the cpu unless the model that's installed is the absolute bottom of the barrel. you might gain 10% or so, but the cost would be silly and it would still be behind any modern config.

a third option is to just build a new game-specific / video-processing-specific machine and keep the old one running for most of your programs that you'd rather NOT reinstall or re-setup. are most of your 500-plus apps ok with the current cpu/gpu setup?

Most apps run just fine, but games that I should run at 60 fps (according to my GPU's benchmarks) lock at 25/30 FPS. My CPU's charge is 100% and my GPU, only about 45-50%. I have a high end GPU but it's bottlenecked by a low end CPU. Which kind of sucks considering I invested a lot of money in this build. I'll read into virtualizing my OS and decide wether or not it's a viable option, thank you! But my CPU is really the culprit in my performance issues, even when I overclock it a lot.