NeilV

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Hi All :p
I have posted in other areas of your site as I have just upgraded my Grpahics card & Increase my memory, not a lot but all I could afford. I have now found out that the limiting factor for my system is the Processor, so here I come for some advice :wink:

System;
Celeron 2.4Ghz
ASROCK P4 Combo (with 478 & 775 Socket)
256mb PC2100
512mb PC3200 (running @ 166mhz because of the CPU)
Sparkle nVidia 7600GS 512mb AGP
Windows XP

I have checked with ASROCK & the P4 appears to support plenty of CPU's.

I develope Database S/W (VB & SQLSERVER), Play Fable, KotOR, NWN, NWN2 (& Oblivion from Saturday hopefully) and use the PC for uploading stuff to my phone.

I don't have loads of money to spend and am going to replace my 256mb with a 1gb stick when I can afford it.

What Processor do you suggest? :?

Thanks in advance for any help!!

NeilV
 

slicessoul

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Don't know exactly cos don't know exactly your budget.

You can go for some Core 2 Duo. If it's too xpensive to afford Proc and Mem, go down a little to P4D and get some 1 Gigs Mem.
or
Trade your 256MB mem if you can to another 512MB mem.
 

apt403

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whats the exact model number of that mobo? ive never heard of one that supports both 775 and 478. and it'll help us decide what kind of cpu you should get.
 

NeilV

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1Tanker

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Here's the board I think he's talking about...

http://www.asrock.com/product/P4%20Combo.htm

I'd never heard of this either, but it looks like a decent idea I guess.

Yes, That is the board. The CPU's is supports are listed here;
http://www.asrock.com/support/CPU_Support/show.asp?Model=P4%20Combo
but I am hoping that that is an outdated list because I don't think any of those CPU's are easily available now.

Thanks again for taking an interest. :D

Cheers
NeilVThat list should still be valid, as the motherboard isn't going to support dual-core, and not much has changed on P4's(except 65nm). The best you can probably get, without spending way too much, would be this P4. The 800MHz speed increase, combined with 800FSB and HT, will give you a nice performance increase(too bad it's the i848 chipset...not supporting dual-channel memory). If you go for this, make sure you replace that PC2100 stick with a stick of PC3200, as the PC2100 stick won't
reach 200(800)MHz. GL :)

P4 541(3.2GHz)-$91.99:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116231
 

NeilV

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1Tanker

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Thanks for your help 1Tanker. Could you just explain why the 541. I Have got about £80 ($130 ish allowing for conversion) and have seen
Intel Pentium 4 630 Prescott 3.0GHz LGA 775 EM64T Processor Model BX80547PG3000F - Retail

on new egg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Brand=1157&N=2000340343+50001157&Submit=ENE&Manufactory=1157&SubCategory=343

I know my MOBO supports EM64T, would I not benefit from the bigger cache

Thanks for the help
NeilV
You have to remember, that was in October..prices have quite likely dropped. The 541 is 3.2GHz/1MB-L2...the 630 is 3.0GHz/2MB-L2. The 541 might be a touch faster than the 630, but is $45 cheaper, and i thought you were on a tight budget. The added cache might help with your stated apps. GL :)
 

NeilV

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Thanks for your help 1Tanker. Could you just explain why the 541. I Have got about £80 ($130 ish allowing for conversion) and have seen
Intel Pentium 4 630 Prescott 3.0GHz LGA 775 EM64T Processor Model BX80547PG3000F - Retail

on new egg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Brand=1157&N=2000340343+50001157&Submit=ENE&Manufactory=1157&SubCategory=343

I know my MOBO supports EM64T, would I not benefit from the bigger cache

Thanks for the help
NeilV
You have to remember, that was in October..prices have quite likely dropped. The 541 is 3.2GHz/1MB-L2...the 630 is 3.0GHz/2MB-L2. The 541 might be a touch faster than the 630, but is $45 cheaper, and i thought you were on a tight budget. The added cache might help with your stated apps. GL :)

Hi 1Tanker.
In actual fact the price issue is going to be a bit confusing anyway as I live in the UK and don't have a credit card so I need to buy in GBP but I suppose what I was trying to say is that elsewhere on the site certain processors are on the "Avoid" list and I didn't know if the 630 was one of them. Also I am not really sure whether to look @ cache over Ghz, on paper X2 cache looks better than .2 Ghz but is this really the case? Although I do alot of different things with my PC, the only one which is really suffering from lack of power is the gaming, so as long as what I buy doesn't make the performance worse for any of the other things (unlikely I know) , I am really looking to boost my gaming performance as I enjoy 'Oblivion' & 'NWN 2' but both are a bit 'laggy'.

I appriciate all the help you have given me and anyone elses contributions will be appriciated.

Thanks in advance
NeilV
 

1Tanker

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Apr 28, 2006
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Thanks for your help 1Tanker. Could you just explain why the 541. I Have got about £80 ($130 ish allowing for conversion) and have seen
Intel Pentium 4 630 Prescott 3.0GHz LGA 775 EM64T Processor Model BX80547PG3000F - Retail

on new egg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Brand=1157&N=2000340343+50001157&Submit=ENE&Manufactory=1157&SubCategory=343

I know my MOBO supports EM64T, would I not benefit from the bigger cache

Thanks for the help
NeilV
You have to remember, that was in October..prices have quite likely dropped. The 541 is 3.2GHz/1MB-L2...the 630 is 3.0GHz/2MB-L2. The 541 might be a touch faster than the 630, but is $45 cheaper, and i thought you were on a tight budget. The added cache might help with your stated apps. GL :)

Hi 1Tanker.
In actual fact the price issue is going to be a bit confusing anyway as I live in the UK and don't have a credit card so I need to buy in GBP but I suppose what I was trying to say is that elsewhere on the site certain processors are on the "Avoid" list and I didn't know if the 630 was one of them. Also I am not really sure whether to look @ cache over Ghz, on paper X2 cache looks better than .2 Ghz but is this really the case? Although I do alot of different things with my PC, the only one which is really suffering from lack of power is the gaming, so as long as what I buy doesn't make the performance worse for any of the other things (unlikely I know) , I am really looking to boost my gaming performance as I enjoy 'Oblivion' & 'NWN 2' but both are a bit 'laggy'.

I appriciate all the help you have given me and anyone elses contributions will be appriciated.

Thanks in advance
NeilVThe extra 1MB of cache helps a little in some apps, but not enough to overcome the extra 200MHz of speed difference. Check-out Tom's CPU Chart's pitting the 630 against the 540(same CPU), and the 540 wins virtually everything. Considering it's quite a bit cheaper...i would say the 541...for sure. GL :) Run the 2 through all the tests, and see the differences(nice in some apps).


http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=457&model2=461&chart=188