I am going to upgrade my CPU (and mobo) to an E4300. Here are my current specs:
Socket A AMD Sempron 2800+
2 X 512 MB PC3200 RAM
256 MB 6200 GeForce (AGP)
Soundblaster Audigy 4
Other info: I use a wireless network card, 3-6 USB ports (3 are ALWAYS on), a front bay card reader. My current Power supply is 250W and has 14A in the +12V (not sure what it means but im sure its important).
Using http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp I went from 239 W (old setup) to 242 W (just changing proccessors). Would I need a new PS when I upgrade? I rather not spend the money, but if the computer won't run without upgrading I won't have a choice :x
Ill be using this mother board so i'll be sticking to my AGP card (I'm really cheap ) But I may end up upgrading in the near future to this card.
How big should the PSU be with that? I'm guessing somewhere around 450+W, but the specifics about how much to get on the +12v rail is a mystery to me.
I'll only be using this computer for 1-1.5 more years because I'll use a laptop in college so upgrading to PCI-E and DDR2 wouldn't be worth it; the benchmarks for AGP vs PCI-E and DDR vs DDR2 don't seem to far apart, and comming from my Sempron this c2d should be a vast improvement.
Thanks for the help, I can't believe I missed the sticky
Well I play farcry and oblivion alot, and oblivion is what causes my problems. Cpu is at 1.8Ghz 1.1V when I play that game and that solved the problem as far as I can see. Everything else so far I run cpu at stock speed but at 1.3V instead of 1.4V. Oblivion unfortunately is rather lagged at those speeds unless I remove distant land, even with an x1950 pro. My dads conroe system runs smoother often with an x800gto, but with 2gb RAM.
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