Pentium 4 cpu upgrade

[YES1976]

I am trying to decide what to do with my Dell 8400 to increase CPU speed to run games like Starcraft. The original CPU is: C3831 Processor,80547,Pentium 4 Prescott Dt,560,SKT-T . Is there a CPU upgrade available that will boost performance by over 50% or what size, type motherboard / CPU can I upgrade to?

 

[unknown_13]

Well, a 130$ CPU+MB combo would give you a great performance increase over the museum platform that you have now.

Like an Athlon X2 250 + MSI 870-G45. That's ~130$.

And add 4GB DDR3 RAM - 180-190$ overall for a nice budget platform.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Ok a couple things that need to be pointed out. The system that you have right now is running a socket 775, Intel® Pentium® 4 processor. In this socket and board most likely the fastest processor that was release was an Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.4 GHz (can be overclocked), I don’t have the information where Dell would have enabled the 1066 FSB Extreme Edition processors to work on it, but the Intel Desktop Board D925XBC wouldn’t support that faster FSB. You could go up to the Intel Pentium 4 660 which would give you 2MB of cache but that isn’t a major improvement.

Also since this is a Dell computer the OS that you are using is an OEM and most likely wouldn’t work if you were to change out the board. So you will have to get a new OS which will take up $100 of the cost of your budget right there.

In the end the best advice that I can give you is to take a look at some of the refurbished computers out there or entry level computers at Walmart would most likely be the best value for your money but you are still going over your budget.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[hang-the-9]

Post your full system specs, CPU speed, RAM amount, video card, motherboard, power supply wattage.

You will most likely see a greater speed increase in games by getting a new video card and increasing RAM than you would with a new CPU unless you have a 2.6 or less one.