P 1.4ghz upgrade?

[A503]

Let me start off by saying I use my computer for games like Doom3 and HL2. I have an intel P4 1.4Ghz w/ 512 megs of ram and an ATI Radeon 9800 256 meg video card. I want to upgrade my CPU, but I am somewhat out of the technology loop. Would I be able to place another P4 into my MB or would that require purchasing a new MB? I was looking at getting a P4 3.2 ghz. Whats with the Athlon 64s are they better than the P4? If I had to get a new MB, would that require new ram as well? How about power sources, would a faster chip require an improved supply? Any help is much appreciated, I'm not sure where to turn.

 

[Spitfire_x86]

You can upgrade upto 2.8 GHz (400 Mhz FSB) P4. If your mobo is socket 423, then you'll need a powerleap socket 423 -> socket 478 adapter.

If you want to get better P4 or Athlon64, then you will need new CPU and RAM (guessing you have RDRAM). Since you want to upgrade for games like Doom3 and HL2, then you Athlon64 is the best for you. <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2275&p=10" target="_new">Here's benchmark results to prove this</A>


------------
<font color=orange><b><A HREF="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox" target="_new">Rediscover the web</A></b></font color=orange>

 

[A503]

The Athlon sounds good, do you have any recomended websites to purchase a cpu/mb combo from? I usually use pricewatch, but sometimes its unclear as to what MB you are getting...Would it be worthwhile to investigate overclocking my P4 1.4ghz? Could I squeeze much more out of it?

 

[HardWareBoss]

In the states NewEgg.

 

[HardWareBoss]

You do alot of gaming buy the AMD setup.

 

[addiarmadar]

Well you are already looking into a new mobo/cpu/ram option so it just a matter of if you want P4 platform or a64platform. If you are into gamming then go for the a64platform. You wont miss the PCIe till next year anyways.

<i><font color=red>Only an overclocker can make a computer into a convectional oven.</i></font color=red>

 

[Spitfire_x86]

P4 1.4 Ghz won't overclock much, and performance gain won't be good enough to have an impact on your gaming experience.

------------
<font color=orange><b><A HREF="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox" target="_new">Rediscover the web</A></b></font color=orange>

 

[A503]

I'm looking into the AMD setup, can anyone recomend a good new MB? Should I stick w/ 512 or go for a gig of RAM? Whats the deal with this PCIe stuff I keep hearing about? Sorry if these questions are redundant, I used to know a lot about this stuff !
thanks for the help

 

[Ned_Flanders]

is you current RAM RDRAM? If so, you can't use that with AMD systems. DDR is the way forward

_______________________
<A HREF="http://www.moviewavs.com/MP3S/TV_Shows/Simpsons/flanderssong.mp3" target="_new">Audio Sig</A>

 

[endyen]

For socket 939, <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-128-263&depa=0" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-128-263&depa=0</A> is nice, for socket 754 <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-512&depa=0" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-512&depa=0</A>.
939 will use dual channel ram, so 2 X 512 is best. With the s754, you could start with 512, and see if you need/want more.
PCIexpress is a new format, to replace pci, and agp. You can not use your R9800pro on a PCIexpress mobo. PCIexpress will do nothing for graphics, unless you go SLI.

 

[A503]

Thanks for the help so far. I have one last question, I took a look at the MBs you listed and I am a little confused. What is the diff b/w 754 and 939, I would assume 939 supports the newer/faster AMD CPUs? I also noticed both MBs boast a NVIDIA NForce3 ultra chipset, does that mean its a graphics card incorporated into the MB?

 

[endyen]

Nforce is a chipset. It has nothing to do with graphics. The chipset is the interconnect between the chip, and the other parts of the mobo.
S939 has dual channel memory, thats what the extra 185 pins are for. It also has faster hypertransport (whoever he was). For someone who wants to reuse an agp card, s939 isn't that big a deal, though the 90 nano winchester chips are cool. The fastest chip that amd will make for the s754 is only an A64 3700+, but judging from your old system, you dont upgrade the cpu too often.
The next time you buy a graphics card, you will probably have to buy a new mobo, because most of the high end graphics will be in pci express format.

 

[A503]

So would you recomend getting a MB that supports PCIe or just holding off on my upgrade ? If you would recomend a PCIe MB what model/brand would you go for? thanks

 

[Spitfire_x86]

I would recommend holding off your upgrade for a while, since nForce4 based PCI-Express mobos are so near to arrive.

At stock speed, among equal rated "Newcastle" Athlon64 (socket 754) and socket 939 Athlon64s, socket 754 A64s are slightly faster due to higher clock speed. But recently released 90nm socket 939 Athlon64s runs cooler and overclocks much better making them better choice than socket 754 in every way. Socket 939 is also more future proof, but since you don't upgrade often, it's not a problem for you. And current socket 754 CPU will take long time to become obsolete for gaming.

So my recommendation:

If you don't overclock: A64 3400+ (socket 754, 2.4 GHz, 512k L2 cache) + nForce3 250 baed mobo (available now, no pci-express) or nForce4 based mobo (going to be available very soon)

If you overclock: 90nm A64 3200+ (socket 939) + nForce3 Ultra based mobo (available now, no pci-express) or nForce4 based mobo (going to be available very soon)

------------
<font color=orange><b><A HREF="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox" target="_new">Rediscover the web</A></b></font color=orange>

 

[endyen]

Since you already have a 9800pro, I would suggest you get the gigabyte 939 board. If you then want to upgrade your graphics, you will be able to re-use the ram and chip, but will need a new mobo, and graphics card.
I would not suggest you be stuck with that old mobo, and chip another day.