Want to upgrade Pentium D CPU

Hello everyone,

I currently own a Pentium D 940 and a P4m900-m7 fe motherboard. I know my processor sucks, and my mobo kinda does too, so I'm wondering what upgrade options are there? I'm a casual gamer, so I'm not going to be needing a core i7 cpu. I'm looking at a core 2 duo e7500 for around $120. Would it be better to upgrade not just the cpu, but the motherboard as well? Should I think about upgrading my motherboard and switching my processor brand to Amd instead of intel? I'd just like to upgrade from my hot, power hungry Pentium D. I'm fairly new to CPU upgrades, so I could really use some help. Thanks!

BTW, I have a generic ATX 450 watt PSU. Should I upgrade that as well?

-In response to your posts:
My mobo can run DDR2 Memory
I have 3 GB crucial memory
The Pentium D has 800MHz FSB
My video card is a 8500gt (yeah it sucks)
The budget for a CPU is about $150
My mobo can support up to 1066MHz FSB

Yes my video card is bad, I know. I'm looking to upgrade to an HD 4770 or 9800 GT. I just wasn't sure which I should upgrade first: the CPU or GPU?

I'll try to post a benchmark of my system by the next day.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question!

Message edited by lawmon on 09-20-2009 at 02:06:43 AM

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Upgrading to a new motherboard with that same E7500 won't make the system much faster. You can also upgrade everything and get a new AMD CPU, a new motherboard, new memory, new video card, etc. It all depends on your gaming requirements.

Message edited by GhislainG on 09-19-2009 at 10:52:08 PM

Reply to GhislainG

Just get the E7500, no need for a new motherboard.

------------------------------ CPU: Intel Core i7 920 @3.2Ghz, MOBO: Asus P6T SE, RAM: 3x 2gb OCZ Platinum OCZ3P1600LV6GK, GPU: Sapphire HD 5870, PSU: Corsair HX520W, HDD: Seagate ST31000528AS 1Tb 32mb, COOLER: Scythe Mugen (S775 version), CASE: Coolermaster CM690
Reply to Gulli

The Via chipset isn't going to set the world on fire, but if the system is doing almost everything you want, then the E7500 might be the way to go. As you've probably found out, the E7600 or E5400 are about as modern a processor as you can go on this board. After that and it's a cpu+mb upgrade.

Now, I say "might be the way to go" due to the 3.2GHz processor you already have. It has a lower FSB speed and higher TDP than the E7500, but fps on most games could be very similar.

Can you provide a benchmark of your system? 3DMarl06 score (total/sm2.0/sm3.0/cpu) and PCMark05 score would be excellent.

What graphics card are you using? I ask this because if you have a low-end card, then the cpu upgrade will be money poorly spent for gaming. I'm assuming you're not struggling with the on-board Via Chrome graphics.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to seabreeze

seabreeze wrote :

The Via chipset isn't going to set the world on fire, but if the system is doing almost everything you want, then the E7500 might be the way to go. As you've probably found out, the E7600 or E5400 are about as modern a processor as you can go on this board. After that and it's a cpu+mb upgrade.

Now, I say "might be the way to go" due to the 3.2GHz processor you already have. It has a lower FSB speed and higher TDP than the E7500, but fps on most games could be very similar.

Can you provide a benchmark of your system? 3DMarl06 score (total/sm2.0/sm3.0/cpu) and PCMark05 score would be excellent.

What graphics card are you using? I ask this because if you have a low-end card, then the cpu upgrade will be money poorly spent for gaming. I'm assuming you're not struggling with the on-board Via Chrome graphics.

The E7500 will wipe the floor with the D 940, they're not even in the same league, completely different architectures...

------------------------------ CPU: Intel Core i7 920 @3.2Ghz, MOBO: Asus P6T SE, RAM: 3x 2gb OCZ Platinum OCZ3P1600LV6GK, GPU: Sapphire HD 5870, PSU: Corsair HX520W, HDD: Seagate ST31000528AS 1Tb 32mb, COOLER: Scythe Mugen (S775 version), CASE: Coolermaster CM690
Reply to Gulli

If its within the OP's budget, I would much rather ditch any Intel effort and switch to the AMD Athlon X4 620 and an AM2+ board. Also, isn't the P4m900 chipset only capable of running DDR RAM? Perhaps DDR2 and the above motherboard+CPU would bring him more performance and less power consumption and heat at a very low cost.

Reply to Snow_Patrol

What video card? This a big concern. Upgrading your Pentium D isn't go to do a thing for games if you are still running something like an old 7800 series video card.
It may indeed be far better to start from scratch with something from AMD depending on the rest of your hardware, if you want to run modern games.
Give us the details of your system, or you may end up spending money because of someones uniformed advice, and being disappointed with what you end up with.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by jitpublisher on 09-20-2009 at 01:15:31 AM

Reply to jitpublisher

jitpublisher wrote :

What video card? This a big concern. Upgrading your Pentium D isn't go to do a thing for games if you are still running something like an old 7800 series video card.
It may indeed be far better to start from scratch with something from AMD depending on the rest of your hardware, if you want to run modern games.
Give us the details of your system, or you may end up spending money because of someones uniformed advice, and being disappointed with what you end up with.

Actually, considering how crap the Pentium D series is now, compared to what's available, just a CPU upgrade would be enough in most cases to gain extra performance. Even if its an older card like a 6800GT, a new processor would work wonders.

Reply to Snow_Patrol

A board and cpu upgrade is recommended but go ahead for the cpu and there is also a new bios is out so it may work and if not you got an excuse for a new toy.

Reply to nforce4max

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