P4 CPU upgrade Question

[kennedy4121]

I know that I should get a new system, but I am tring to keep this going for another year. I have a P4 2.66GHz 533Mhz, 1GB memory, X1650Pro 512Mb AGP video card. I was wondering if it would be worth the $60.00 to change the CPU to a 3.06GHz. I have found some online and was wondering if I would see any difference in the performance of the computer. Some of the newer games need at least a 2.8GHz to run, they are about $40. What do you think? Thanks Larry

 

[eoinycroiny]

i dont think its worth it, Pentium 4's are absolite now. i cant imagine .44ghz will make any diferance at all except the extra 2-3 games you will be able to play.
new games now need dual cores and 2gb of ram at least to run nicely
Can your mainboard support dual or quad cores???

 

[kennedy4121]

I dont think it can. Its an FIC VI35L

 

[jay2tall]

Not worth it at all. You are really limited by the architecture and a single core. The extra few MHz is not going to allow you to accomplish anything more, to be honest. I'd save the $60, it could buy you a Hard Drive in a new build.

Save your case toward a total rebuild, no sense in beating a dead horse.

^ ok maybe not dead, but slow.

 

[kennedy4121]

I know what you mean, it is way past it prime, but that said with the economy the way it is and it still working I was just hoping the upgrade would be a little better!

 

[eoinycroiny]

nah new build is the only way to go, i think, just start saving.

 

[Guest]

I went from a 2.53ghz pentium to 2.8 with HT and there was a little diffrence, then upgraded again to the 3.0ghz p4, this chip overclocked very nicely to 3.6ghz stable in every possible way with a zalman cooler (£5 on ebay now) and there is a major difference between this and the 2.5ghz pentium, I still use it today with the 1950 pro and it runs most of the modern games including crysis albeit with reduced resolution and details. The problem comes with games that require large amount of Ai to be handled by the cpu, then it shows its age irrelevant of the details/resolution making games unplayable, but they are few inbetween, I have not been able to play NFS Pro Street, GTA4, Colin Mcrae Dirt, and a few other such titles, but it works beautifully with Lord of the Rings online and WOW and EVE so mmo,s are its main duties, also makes a great home server.

Check ebay as well as you can pick up the processor for far less than $60 on there for sure, best of luck

 

[mlcloud]

It's not cost effective to upgrade in that manner. You already have a set "cost" you already paid for that 2.66ghz, and then you'll have to pay that cost PLUS an additional premium for those extra clock speeds, meaning you're essentially doubling the cost for minimal performance increase.

Hence, we try to negate some of those "replacement costs" by waiting long periods of time before upgrading, and when we do upgrade, doing it right. If you were having other issues such as a weak GPU or low memory or hard-drive performance/space related problems, then fine, the upgrade makes sense

(I paid 600 for my barebone 3.0ghz pentium 4, used it or a year, upgraded to 256-512-1.5gb ram within another year, bought a 7600 gs within another year, and then used that for two years before upgrading to my current computer, a q9550 2.83ghz oc'ed to 3.83ghz and HD 4890 oc'ed)

 

[aford10]

I agree with jay2tall. There isn't much reason to blow that $60 for a minor upgrade to a working part. The benefit would be negligible. You can put it towards a new build. You could try to get that minor increase with a slight OC. When doing a build, do it once and do it right. An upgrade here and there and there can get costly real quick.

 

[jay2tall]

Just use the system the best you can until you can upgrade. Is there anything from the current system you could reuse in another? Honestly, what I would do is save for a completely new system. Then take your current system, reformat it and install the OS.. You could probably snag $100 of Craigslist from someone local looking for just an internet machine. I've done this several times from PC's people gave me and no longer wanted.

 

[kennedy4121]

Not much other than the 500w powersupply and the hard drive. I think I will start saving! Thanks