[SOLVED] Upgrading CPU on an older HP Pavilion A6110N Desktop ?

Jared_38

Reputable
Feb 26, 2017
6
1
4,510
Hey all,

I have an older a6110n I got when I was in tech college and I just use it as a backup device for running a VPN or other things.

However,being that technology has changed to the point of almost being fruitless to upgrade, because for the past 20 years there has been a processor war between Intel and AMD and Intel dominated the business world with Dell HP/Compaq, International Business Machines, I stuck with what was affordable, but reliable.

This has an
Athlon 64 X2 (B) 4400+ 2.3 GHz (65W)
  • 2000 MT/s (mega transfers/second)
  • Socket AM2
I have taken great care of this and upkept it, believe it or not,it is running Windows 10 and I just thought maybe it was time to upgrade the processor when I upgraded the RAM,it can hold up to 8GB of PC 5300 or 5200 one or the other.

I have an older motherboard, I am just not sure what the maximum speed processor this board can take!

Has anyone tried upgrading a processor on an
  • Manufacturer: Asus
  • Motherboard Name: M2N68-LA
  • HP/Compaq motherboard name: Narra2-GL8E
I am just trying to find out the highest processor this board can handle.

Thank you in advance!!!

God Bless
 
Solution
Awesome you still have that system running. :)

Usually on an older system you can just search the system name and 'cpu upgrade' and get the answer pretty quick, but there wasn't much out there on your model unfortunately. The only other upgrade that was listed was basically the same 5600+:

The problem with upgrading this era of AMD processors is that there were A LOT of different models, and many of them wouldn't work. So unlike testing an Intel upgrade where there were only 1-2 chips you could try, there might be 6+ that potentially could work. There's...

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator
Hey all,

I have an older a6110n I got when I was in tech college and I just use it as a backup device for running a VPN or other things.

However,being that technology has changed to the point of almost being fruitless to upgrade, because for the past 20 years there has been a processor war between Intel and AMD and Intel dominated the business world with Dell HP/Compaq, International Business Machines, I stuck with what was affordable, but reliable.

This has an
Athlon 64 X2 (B) 4400+ 2.3 GHz (65W)
  • 2000 MT/s (mega transfers/second)
  • Socket AM2
I have taken great care of this and upkept it, believe it or not,it is running Windows 10 and I just thought maybe it was time to upgrade the processor when I upgraded the RAM,it can hold up to 8GB of PC 5300 or 5200 one or the other.

I have an older motherboard, I am just not sure what the maximum speed processor this board can take!

Has anyone tried upgrading a processor on an
  • Manufacturer: Asus
  • Motherboard Name: M2N68-LA
  • HP/Compaq motherboard name: Narra2-GL8E
I am just trying to find out the highest processor this board can handle.

Thank you in advance!!!

God Bless

This board is surprisingly competently documented for a proprietary board of this era.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01080282

HP says it can go up to a 5600+. I'm not sure if you'd really notice the difference though.
 
Awesome you still have that system running. :)

Usually on an older system you can just search the system name and 'cpu upgrade' and get the answer pretty quick, but there wasn't much out there on your model unfortunately. The only other upgrade that was listed was basically the same 5600+:

The problem with upgrading this era of AMD processors is that there were A LOT of different models, and many of them wouldn't work. So unlike testing an Intel upgrade where there were only 1-2 chips you could try, there might be 6+ that potentially could work. There's also the possibility that some of the newer chips that were am3, but am2 compatible might even work.

Personally, I have an HP 5750 that I've been looking to upgrade from stock, but in the sea of processors, only one seems to be a real upgrade and only a particular model number. I've just left it alone and upgraded the ram. :)
 
Solution

Jared_38

Reputable
Feb 26, 2017
6
1
4,510
Awesome you still have that system running. :)

Usually on an older system you can just search the system name and 'cpu upgrade' and get the answer pretty quick, but there wasn't much out there on your model unfortunately. The only other upgrade that was listed was basically the same 5600+:

The problem with upgrading this era of AMD processors is that there were A LOT of different models, and many of them wouldn't work. So unlike testing an Intel upgrade where there were only 1-2 chips you could try, there might be 6+ that potentially could work. There's also the possibility that some of the newer chips that were am3, but am2 compatible might even work.

Personally, I have an HP 5750 that I've been looking to upgrade from stock, but in the sea of processors, only one seems to be a real upgrade and only a particular model number. I've just left it alone and upgraded the ram. :)
Thank you all for the insight, I keep all my stuff as up to date as possible, even though stuff has changed as things got faster, the fundamentals of hardware /firmware, never really changed, they got faster and more compact, but I use this for server/vpn, so it doesn't have a whole lot of overhead to cause memory lag or a need for wearing out, but I wanted to try and upgrade to the best available for it's Era, even if it's not the fastest, I maintain and keep it running even if it can be considered an antique.

Used to have an Epson equity II, but the interfaces changed and the fact that a 1 Mb hard drive and a 5 1/4 floppy shrunk to a now obsolete drive, the floppy.

I try to keep things maintained in the case a person still has old equipment, I can use it to troubleshoot vs everything online, not everyone goes online, so many older people just use it for the grandkids and then it collects dust.
 

Jared_38

Reputable
Feb 26, 2017
6
1
4,510
Awesome you still have that system running. :)

Usually on an older system you can just search the system name and 'cpu upgrade' and get the answer pretty quick, but there wasn't much out there on your model unfortunately. The only other upgrade that was listed was basically the same 5600+:

The problem with upgrading this era of AMD processors is that there were A LOT of different models, and many of them wouldn't work. So unlike testing an Intel upgrade where there were only 1-2 chips you could try, there might be 6+ that potentially could work. There's also the possibility that some of the newer chips that were am3, but am2 compatible might even work.

Personally, I have an HP 5750 that I've been looking to upgrade from stock, but in the sea of processors, only one seems to be a real upgrade and only a particular model number. I've just left it alone and upgraded the ram. :)


https://support.hp.com/rs-en/document/c01701270

I found this website and it says that it is possible to upgrade to the AMD PHenom X4, I am just trying to get it up and running, I got the processor the thermal paste and all the goodies, but when I turn it on the fan shuts down and the monitor doesn't turn on, so maybe I need to go back to the old processor. It's strange, your right the processors back then were super finnicky and still are. I guess I will just have to keep troubleshooting
 
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https://support.hp.com/rs-en/document/c01701270

I found this website and it says that it is possible to upgrade to the AMD PHenom X4, I am just trying to get it up and running, I got the processor the thermal paste and all the goodies, but when I turn it on the fan shuts down and the monitor doesn't turn on, so maybe I need to go back to the old processor. It's strange, your right the processors back then were super finnicky and still are. I guess I will just have to keep troubleshooting
I think you ran into what many have when trying to upgrade these systems--the wrong processor model. Just to give you some idea just how many X4's there are out there, and this doesn't cover the Phenom II x4 or Athlon x4: :oops:
https://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/TYPE-Phenom X4.html

The best place to find out which processors will work with that HP in my experience is to check the HP community forums where someone must have posted about this previously and there might be an answer sitting there. :)