P4 3.2 Prescott

[MacRaider4]

I have a P4 3.2 Hyper Threaded Prescott processor in my current PC and it runs less than desirable. Would upgrading to a true dual core or even a quad core 2.2 or so be that much of an improvement? I've been out of the "business" for way to long to keep up with everything going on now.
For example I'm running Age of Empires (yes the original one that ran fine on my 233 MMX processor) and now I'm getting pauses thorough out the game every 30 - 45 seconds.
Thanks in advance for everything...
I also have Win XP and 2 GB of Memory installed...

 

[jsc]

What kind of motherboard? Is it compatible with the Core2 CPU's.

 

[MacRaider4]

What kind of motherboard? Is it compatible with the Core2 CPU's.

I'd be getting a new board, memory and video card...

my previous board broke (clamps for heat sink snapped) so I now have a Asrock or how ever it's spelled... had same issue with my Asus board though...

 

[LePhuronn]

We need to know your budget, and honestly you'd want to get an entirely new machine - using existing IDE hard drives will slow the new system down and I doubt your existing case will be sufficient to handle the heat potentially generated by a modern system.

 

[MacRaider4]

We need to know your budget, and honestly you'd want to get an entirely new machine - using existing IDE hard drives will slow the new system down and I doubt your existing case will be sufficient to handle the heat potentially generated by a modern system.

Actually the power supply is new I think it's 550 watts?.?. (though I can check when I get home) and I'm running 2 120mm fans in it. I'd like to get away with under $500 as I really don't do as much with my PC as I used to, I just want it to run smoothly Maybe be able to play EQ2 again or something similar.

 

[LePhuronn]

550 will be plenty for a simple system, but around here we're always wary of cheap units - who's the manufacturer. Also, will it have the required plugs on it? My Prescott-compatible PSU has the 4-pin ATX power plug, but it doesn't have any PCI-E power plugs, so Molex-PCI-E converters are required. Also bear in mind PSUs lose efficiency as they get older.


If you're looking at something simple, you can't go wrong with an Athlon II on an AM3 motherboard and 4GB DDR3 RAM

I'd suggest:
Athlon II X3 425 (triple core running at 2.7GHz)
Asus M4A785TD-M Evo Micro ATX motherboard
4GB 1333MHz (CAS7) or 1600MHz DDR3 RAM (CAS8) - OCZ and Patriot are good and well-priced brands
ATI Radeon 5770 graphics card so you can play a few games nicely
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB hard drive
Whatever optical drive you need - LG, Sony, Sansumg are all good, add Pioneer to that list for Blu-Ray

If you're getting a new case you can't beat the Antec 300.
If you're getting a new PSU after all the Corsair CX400 is perfect for this


I'm running pretty much the same system downstairs for my housemate's Warcraft box - Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition (dual-core at 3.1GHz) and 4GB Patriot Sector 5 Viper II 1333MHz RAM - and it's great. Runs nicely at 1920x1080 60Hz on my 50" TV over HDMI, and all in it cost me just a touch over £500 (including PSU and a more expensive case), so with the equivalent dollar prices should be right on budget.

 

[MacRaider4]

550 will be plenty for a simple system, but around here we're always wary of cheap units - who's the manufacturer. Also, will it have the required plugs on it? My Prescott-compatible PSU has the 4-pin ATX power plug, but it doesn't have any PCI-E power plugs, so Molex-PCI-E converters are required. Also bear in mind PSUs lose efficiency as they get older.


If you're looking at something simple, you can't go wrong with an Athlon II on an AM3 motherboard and 4GB DDR3 RAM

I'd suggest:
Athlon II X3 425 (triple core running at 2.7GHz)
Asus M4A785TD-M Evo Micro ATX motherboard
4GB 1333MHz (CAS7) or 1600MHz DDR3 RAM (CAS8) - OCZ and Patriot are good and well-priced brands
ATI Radeon 5770 graphics card so you can play a few games nicely
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB hard drive
Whatever optical drive you need - LG, Sony, Sansumg are all good, add Pioneer to that list for Blu-Ray

If you're getting a new case you can't beat the Antec 300.
If you're getting a new PSU after all the Corsair CX400 is perfect for this


I'm running pretty much the same system downstairs for my housemate's Warcraft box - Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition (dual-core at 3.1GHz) and 4GB Patriot Sector 5 Viper II 1333MHz RAM - and it's great. Runs nicely at 1920x1080 60Hz on my 50" TV over HDMI, and all in it cost me just a touch over £500 (including PSU and a more expensive case), so with the equivalent dollar prices should be right on budget.

With the Hard Drive, case and PSU I'm looking at about $650 USD. I'll probably just get the basics for now, then upgrade the HD, Case and start with 2 GB then go up... Thanks for your help..

 

[LePhuronn]

With the Hard Drive, case and PSU I'm looking at about $650 USD. I'll probably just get the basics for now, then upgrade the HD, Case and start with 2 GB then go up... Thanks for your help..

As silly as it may sound you probably won't find 2GB kits of RAM now, or at least they won't be that much cheaper.

In that list the thing that will take up your money is the graphics card. The motherboard I listed comes with onboard Radeon 4600 with 128MB dedicated Sideport memory - it has DVI and HDMI out on it so if you're not playing anything too intensive you'd get away with using the onboard video and dropping the graphics card for now - there's a $180 saving right there, which will bring you back under budget.

 

[theonerm2]

Consider your other components before you go and get a new system. Do a virus scan, defrag the hard drive, check the hard drive for errors, ensure that you have enough RAM for your running programs, use task manager to close RAM intensive programs if you are not using them, use task manager to see if your cpu seems to be maxing out for no apparant reason, check what version of DirectX you are running, upgrade to directX 9c or later if needed, see what kind of graphics card you are using, ensure that you have a good enough graphics card to run certain games, look at game system requirements and make sure you at least meet the reccomended requirements, try to disable hyperthreading as some older games will not take advantage of it and end up slowing the system down.

Try some or all of those suggestions and if none of it helps then you may need a new computer. Some good budget processors are the Pentium E5000 series, the Pentium E6000 series, and the AMD Athlon II X4 models. Get 4GB of RAM at minimum sense you are a gamer, and get at least a Radeon 4790.

Before you go upgrading to a new system just make sure your current system is running the way it's suppossed to. The Pentium 4 3.2GHz Prescott is still a pretty decent cpu for a lot of things unless you are a heavy gamer or very heavy multitasker.

 

[MacRaider4]

Consider your other components before you go and get a new system. Do a virus scan, defrag the hard drive, check the hard drive for errors, ensure that you have enough RAM for your running programs, use task manager to close RAM intensive programs if you are not using them, use task manager to see if your cpu seems to be maxing out for no apparant reason, check what version of DirectX you are running, upgrade to directX 9c or later if needed, see what kind of graphics card you are using, ensure that you have a good enough graphics card to run certain games, look at game system requirements and make sure you at least meet the reccomended requirements, try to disable hyperthreading as some older games will not take advantage of it and end up slowing the system down.

Try some or all of those suggestions and if none of it helps then you may need a new computer. Some good budget processors are the Pentium E5000 series, the Pentium E6000 series, and the AMD Athlon II X4 models. Get 4GB of RAM at minimum sense you are a gamer, and get at least a Radeon 4790.

Before you go upgrading to a new system just make sure your current system is running the way it's suppossed to. The Pentium 4 3.2GHz Prescott is still a pretty decent cpu for a lot of things unless you are a heavy gamer or very heavy multitasker.

Tonight I'll put together what I have... I've been through the defrag and virus checks... My Board is currently maxed out at 2 GB (yeah I know) but after my last one died it was the only Socket 478 board I could find. I've basically had nothing but problems with it for the last 2 or so years. Even when I had 3 GB of Memory...

 

[MacRaider4]

I've decided I'm going to go with what LePhuronn said for a system and I'm going to turn my old one into a Linux File server. It should be more than sufficient to run that without any major issues.