x86_64 CPU for Asus P5GD1 Motherboard

[ohmster]

My best friend and myself built the best PCs we could from bare bones and installed the components we wanted. That was a long time ago, the oldest files on the PC are dated 11/07/2007. She gave me her PC and bought a new one. I want to make a better Linux PC than the one I have from it, using CentOS.

Motherboard: Asus P5GD1
Memory: 4 Gb DDR
CPU:
Name: Intel Pentium 4 630
Codename: Prescott
Specification: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Package (platform ID): Socket 775 LGA (0x4)

The CPU is strictly an i386, i686. NO 64 bit at all.

I am currently running an Intel Pentium 4 2GHz w/3Gb Memory. This "better" PC is 3 GHz, has 4 Gb RAM, a GeForce 6200 nVidia graphics card, and terabyte hard drive. But the new CentOS Linux is all x86_64 and will not run on these 32 bit CPUs. With this P5GD1 motherboard, there must be some, really cheap 64 bit CPU I can buy and install in it, isn't there? If so, then I could install my wonderful CentOS (I love CentOS because it is "Enterprise Linux" and does not EOL for many, many years.) v 7 and get rid of the old one. My old one has a hard drive with "Pending Sectors" issue, there is no repair for that, need a new hard drive like the gorgeous 1Tb drive in the better Pentium PC.

Can anyone please tell me what 64 bit processors are available that I can install on this Asus P5GD1 motherboard? Pretty please?

Thank you, I really need the help. 🙁

 

[Supernova1138]

You're going to need to find a Pentium 4 that supports 64 bit, your motherboard does support a few, you can see the CPU support list here. Look for a CPU that is labelled with 'EM64T', those are the ones that are 64 bit capable. If you're lucky maybe you can find one of them dirt cheap on Ebay or something.

 

[ohmster]

You're going to need to find a Pentium 4 that supports 64 bit, your motherboard does support a few, you can see the CPU support list here. Look for a CPU that is labelled with 'EM64T', those are the ones that are 64 bit capable. If you're lucky maybe you can find one of them dirt cheap on Ebay or something.

Oh this is exactly the kind of help I was looking for! Not sure it I can find what I need, but at least now I know where to look and what to look for. If I find any decent 64 bit CPUs and there are some of them on ebay, they would cost next to nothing. And that suites me just fine. Social Security barely pays the household bills, there is *never* any extra money. I promise I will come back and tell you what happened, although it might take a while. Thank you my friend. 😀

Oh that link you gave me, listing the CPUs that I can use on that board is exactly what I needed. There are 22 instances of EM64T on that page. At first all I was finding was "Celeron", yuck, NO WAY! So I did the "Highlight All" in Firefox Find and near the bottom of the page is where the good stuff is. Look at this:
P4-662 (3.6 GHz, 800 FSB, L2:2MB, EM64T, HT, revR0)

And there it is on ebay, with a $24 "Buy it Now" price or auction for it.
INTEL Pentium 4 P4 662 3.6GHZ 2M 800 MHz, Virtualization Technology,better P4 670

This is 64 bit, look at the specs and it will fit in my LGA775 socket.

I don't have "extra" money but I do work on computers for friends and do everything to perfection. This earns me the extra money I need for stuff like this. I am going to order this CPU right now and see how it goes. Not a LOT of money to risk.

As far as you know, all it would take is to replace the CPU only, right? Everything else should support this change. I would not have to replace the RAM or anything else, as far as you know? This is important, please give your best answer or "not sure" if you really are not sure. Thanks.

I downloaded the CentOS 7 DVD iso file, CentOS-7-x86_64-DVD-1503-01.iso and burned it to a dual layer DVD at 7Gb. This README.txt file shows all of the different iso files available to download. And they are ALL x86_64-DVD files, nothing for a 32 bit PC. I dropped in the x86_64-DVD and booted to it, it did begin to start up but froze right after the name of the disc and before it could start up the install environment. Anytime I downloaded an x86_64 rpm file, it would never install. Only the i386 or i686 packages would install. It is worth the $24 to upgrade the machine. I use this for my Dreamweaver test server. Thank you very much!

 

[Supernova1138]

You don't need to replace anything except your CPU. CentOS 7 is 64 bit only right now, with the last officially supported 32 bit version being 6.5. A quick Google search indicated some people in the community were working on a 32 bit version of CentOS 7, but it doesn't seem to have gotten off the ground.

 

[ohmster]

You don't need to replace anything except your CPU. CentOS 7 is 64 bit only right now, with the last officially supported 32 bit version being 6.5. A quick Google search indicated some people in the community were working on a 32 bit version of CentOS 7, but it doesn't seem to have gotten off the ground.

tomshardware.com has always been a credible source of information for me. Not like a lot of the other boards where more people "guess" or do not know. This is one of the better forums. It is so nice to not only be warmly greeted by intelligent members, but steered in the right direction as well. You guys know my situation and are very helpful about it. I did not even see the actual specs for the ebay product:
INTEL Pentium 4 P4 662 3.6GHZ 2M 800 MHz,Virtualization Technology,better P4 670
This will make the PC a true 64 bit PC. The machine is old but was build with the best of the best at the time and has the hardware to make this run well. I cannot even get Compiz working now, says I do not have "hardware acceleration" with my nVidia GeForce 6200 card. That has always worked on my CentOS 6.5 machine until I noticed just now. I download and build the nVidia kernel driver. I must use older drivers for that machine, NVIDIA-Linux-x86-304.117.run. The newer ones do not work, something new was added to the xserver that the drivers do not have. Not terribly important, but fun to play with Compiz. The better machine has a GeForce 6600 card. Same family but a better card anyway. But this CPU is a 64 bit Intel, fits my socket, and has the EM64T.

The condition:
Used: An item that has been used previously.

Has me a bit concerned. I did buy a used Dell PC and found out later that the guy had some contract to strip out a school or business and was selling pallets of old PCs that were good when purchased but had so very many hours on them that they were pretty much worn out.

There probably won't be a 32 bit version of CentOS, there are memory limits on 32 bit architecture that are not present in x64. CentOS is "Enterprise Linux", that is why I want it. Makes no sense to dumb it down to 32 bits for the new version 7. If one $24 chip makes this work with the new CentOS, I am all in! 😀

I love Linux and have had a running machine since Redhat 6.0 that my brother bought me for Christmas. Then Redhat dumped the free stuff to Fedora, then Fedora went into this insane EOL/Update schedule. New version and new install like twice a year! I needed more stability for my Dreamweaver temporary server with apache. A nice setup, I think.

I will pop for the $24 to see how it works and report here. I must test the CentOS 7 disc I burned from the 7Gb iso file. That was a 12 hour DSL download and the md5 is not matching up. I can tether my Verizon phone to the PC and get cable speed for downloading. I could not boot with this install disk ono the 32 bit machine. I got the title and when I tried to start it, I got like 8 square blocks and it froze right there. The only real 64 bit PC I have is my Windows Dream Machine. I hate to test a disk like that on this box, but am out of choices.

This CentOS-7-x86_64-Everything-1503.iso when burned to a dual layer DVD would not even run on the 32 bit PC. I did try it on my Windows 7 Dream Machine and had no issues booting to the CentOS disc. But this is clearly an install disc and I did not want anything to happen to my Windows 7 PC and pulled the plug right before it finished booting as it was saying "Starting installer". So the CentOS 7 x86_64 DVD is good to go. I also ordered the $24 64 bit chip from ebay. We will answer this once and for all when my stuff comes.

You have a very, very nice setup, Supernova but do not list your OS. Windows 7 or 8 or are you really running Linux, if I may ask?

Thank you very much, all very good advice. I will report here the final results to share with all. Thank you all very much!

 

[Supernova1138]

I'm currently on Windows 7 64 bit, I'm a big gamer and while things are improving on that front on Linux, the support just isn't there yet for me to consider leaving Windows entirely. I do have have some experience with Linux, though primarily in an academic setting and in a couple of IT jobs I have had, I don't use it at home currently.

 

[ohmster]

I'm currently on Windows 7 64 bit, I'm a big gamer and while things are improving on that front on Linux, the support just isn't there yet for me to consider leaving Windows entirely. I do have have some experience with Linux, though primarily in an academic setting and in a couple of IT jobs I have had, I don't use it at home currently.

Oh, you are like me. A Windows 7 x64 Power User and Gamer. I actually built this thing:
Build a Crysis 3 PC on a Budget

I did double the RAM, double the SSD size, and added a dual layer DVD burner. Cost me 2 grand in parts so I am not sure where Maximum PC is getting this word "Budget" from. But this is "My Baby" and not matter what I am doing, it never slows down or so much as hiccups.

Mythbusters just had a special on video games, showing Doom 3 and how can you run through the game, picking up weapons, medkits, and ammo boxes and not have it slow you down. Well that is just plain stupid so instead, I went through my game collection and reinstalled Doom 3 again and am playing on hardened veteran mode. Gosh, it creaped me out a few times because these nasty monsters come out of everywhere and the darkness keeps you guessing. Much more fun than watching a Mythbusters show about Doom 3. 😀

I always like to have a fully networked Linux machine in my home. I put it online so I can run apache and bought a cheap domain from GoDaddy and free DNS from ZoneEdit. I can reach this Linux PC from anywhere for web server (Great Dreamweaver testing server), FTP, network storage, and to play and learn. I learned most of the Linux stuff in Usenet from the pros. Those guys are sysadmins, network engineers, and everything else. The wrote me a lot of terrific scripts that I use to this very day. Since it took me YEARS to get this Linux setup so well, I could not stay with Redhat then Fedora with their ridiculous 6 month releases. I actually got so bold that I dared to mention "Pirating RHEL" and instead of being blasted, these guys understood and steered me to CentOS because CentOS IS Red Hat Enterprise Linux without the support. Man, that made my day! CentOS 6.5 does not go EOL until November 2020. So there is no rush to v 7. I also like the rpms and yum to get around the dependencies issues.

One thing I have been hesitant about is the new CentOS 7 system. For one, it is totally 64 bit, meaning you cannot use "totally ancient" hardware with it. Linux has *always* been good to bring new life and purpose to old computers. Even if you do not use the X desktop, the various servers and CLI work just fine. Not happening with CentOS 7. I have a LOT of system tweaks, mods, settings, and scripts that I have collected over the years and I bet hardly any of it will work on the new system. The daemons have changed, the system has changed, and it is not like the traditional Linux that I know. Since I have already pulled the 7Gb "Everything" iso, I think now I will pull the 1Gb Gnome Live iso so that I can try it out, get my feet wet, and see just how bad I really want this. My current 6.6 system will not EOL for another 6 years. It is not like there is any rush. Yep, pulling the Live Gnome iso from MIT mirror now.

So I've got this really nice PC from many years ago, build with the best stuff available at the time, and Linux is great for recycling old computers. I cannot sell a single core Pentium computer, who would want it, but it will make a grand Linux server for me. Thanks for the help and nice talking to you, Supernova! 😉

 

[ohmster]

ACK! I could not get the big, 7Gb CentOS-7-x86_64-Everything-1503.iso file, when burned to my last dual layer DVD, to work on the older 3GHz Pentium 4. One drive did not read it at all, and the other one did, partially. It showed several "boxes" and froze there. When I put the same disc into my big 64 bit Windows 7 rig, it did boot, the "boxes" were actually Linux Penguins. Linux boots with a LOT of information on the screen. One of the last things I saw was starting installer and pulled the plug, I was not expecting this disc to begin installing at boot.

I checked the MD5 on the 7Gb iso file and it did not match what is written in the md5sum.txt on the MIT Mirror download CentOS 7 website. Hmmm, flaky DVD, MD5 sum does not match. Not good. I then downloaded the 1Gb CentOS-7-x86_64-LiveGNOME-1503.iso file and checked the MD5 sum on that download, it matched. So, it is possible that the huge "Everything" downloaded iso file is bad and the disc I burned it to is also no good. I will have to try another download and see if I can get an MD5 match. The download took over 12 hours on ADSL, and I can tether my Verizon phone w/unlimited data to the PC and download it MUCH faster. Verizon G4 is almost cable modem speed, well over 20 Mbps v.s. the 4-5 Mbps I get with DSL.

One thing I do not understand is this "x86_64" terminology. At face value, it seems to me that one can use this on a 32 bit (x86) OR a 64 bit (64). But anytime I tried to install an rpm file on my running Linux 32 bit machines, the "x86_64" rpm files would never install, wrong architecture. But the i386 or i686 rpm files would install and work just fine.

BTW, the CentOS-7-x86_64-LiveGNOME-1503.iso file, when burned to a DVD did indeed not only match MD5, it worked perfectly, on the same 32 bit Windows machine I could not get the install disc to run on! I have CentOS 7 running a Gnome desktop on it ritht now from a LIVE DVD. I see there are 70 updates available but of course you cannot update a Live Optical Disc OS.

I still think that the $24 for the 64 bit INTEL Pentium 4 P4 662 3.6GHZ IC is worth it. Not only will it give me 64 bit operation, it will give me an extra 600MHz in CPU speed I do not have now. I am going to seriously make a really good Linux computer out of this thing. Now I have to download that huge iso file again to recheck the MD5. I cannot trust it anymore so that disc is trash and I have to buy a small pack or individual dual layer DVD to burn a good copy, when I get one.

It is kind of funny that this thread is marked "Solved" when really it isn't yet. Well, the main question is answered so it is solved in that respect. I asked a question and got the answer that I was looking for. Solved. But there is so much more to this...