Upgrading my P4

[rb56]

Hi all,

I have a P4 2.8 on a Asus P4C800 E MB with 1GB of Muskin PC3200 memory. The USB has been giving me trouble and I have been wanting to upgrade anyway. See my other Thread here.

What I would like to do is replace my MB and CPU (memory if needed), get a 20 to 25% increase over the 2.8 for now, and then build a complete new system with Conroe when they become available. As in the last thread, AMD or Intel doesn't matter as long as it runs cool, quiet, and gives my system a little more speed. Ideas?

Thanks
rb56

 

[akshayt]

better wait for conroe if you have HT

 

[rb56]

Originally posted by: akshayt
better wait for conroe if you have HT

I not sure what you mean. Is there nothing that can give me a 25% increase currently available?

 

[secretanchitman]

he's saying that if your CPU has hyperthreading (which im sure it does), then you should wait for conroe next month.

you could upgrade to faster ram (dual-channel PC4000), bigger/faster hard drive, etc. how's your video card?

i agree with akshay, im holding off until conroe comes out next month (see my sig for exactly what im getting).

 

[rb56]

I agree with the idea of going to Conroe but I will be keeping this system for internet, office apps, financial software and do use usb for bluetooth, external storage, etc. Therfore I would like to upgrade it also. The new built will be used for photoshop and video encoding. I guess I wasn't clear enough, sorry.

rb56

 

[snoturtle]

so you want to upgrade this one and than build a new one when conroe comes out?

That way you would have 2 computers

 

[rb56]

That's correct

 

[snoturtle]

Pentium D 940 or 950 on an Asus board
if your going to do mainly video/photo work get something like a x1600 for a video card
2 gigs of DDR2

I would recomend getting a good cooler for it
something like the ninja

 

[bob4432]

wait on the m/b

Unfortunately due to changes in the VRM requirements for Conroe, no current LGA-775 motherboards will work with the new processor.

 

[rb56]

I will wait on the MB for the Conroe, I need and new one now though for the upgrade that I am doing to the current system that I have along with a new CPU, until Conroe is available. As I stated in the first post of this thread I want to upgrade this current system by about 25% to use as a second system for general apps. Then when Conroe is released and available I will build another system with it for photoshop and video encoding. I was thinking about a AMD system for the time being so that I could use my current ram. I could go Intel but that would mean differnt ram also.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: rb56
I will wait on the MB for the Conroe, I need and new one now though for the upgrade that I am doing to the current system that I have along with a new CPU, until Conroe is available. As I stated in the first post of this thread I want to upgrade this current system by about 25% to use as a second system for general apps. Then when Conroe is released and available I will build another system with it for photoshop and video encoding. I was thinking about a AMD system for the time being so that I could use my current ram. I could go Intel but that would mean differnt ram also.

my rig in sig was an upgrade from a 2.8c and i got a good upgrade for cpu intensive task. my opty 144 @ 2.5GHz is ~ = to a P4 @ 4GHz

 

[Ika]

check out a 3200+ or 3500+ venice. they run quite cool, and give you overclocking overhead if you want it.

 

[rb56]

So if I went with a venice or even the Opteron does anyone have a suggestion for a MB?

Thanks

 

[Tsuwamono]

ABit KN8 Ultra is good.. i have the KN8, i like it. Good utilites and i found when i actually wanted to OC(not the OC in my sig) it was quite versitile

 

[stevty2889]

If it's only the USB thats giving you trouble, why not get an add in USB card, and overclock? You have one of the best overclocking socket 478 motherboards there is..shouldn't have much trouble getting that northwood to 3.4 or 3.5ghz, which is about equal to a 3.9ghz Prescott.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: rb56
So if I went with a venice or even the Opteron does anyone have a suggestion for a MB?

Thanks

i really like the gigabyte i am running - plenty of o/c options in the MHz dept, but but V is kind of limited, which to me is not big deal as i won't push stuff hard V wise, and it is cheap

 

[Rockhound1]

Originally posted by: stevty2889
If it's only the USB thats giving you trouble, why not get an add in USB card, and overclock? You have one of the best overclocking socket 478 motherboards there is..shouldn't have much trouble getting that northwood to 3.4 or 3.5ghz, which is about equal to a 3.9ghz Prescott.

I would have to agree with stevty. Just buy a new USB card. The 2.8 GHz you are using is plenty for what you are proposing to run - general apps. You say you want to see a 20 to 25% increase in performance with the upgrade? If you are running general apps, I don't know that spending a lot of money on a new motherboard and faster processor is really going to make a noticeable difference in the speed of your word processing, speadsheet management or Web surfing. You would have to be running CPU-intensive applications (or gaming) to see an appreciable difference in performance.

 

[gramboh]

I have a P4 2.6C (Northwood) on a P4P800, have been running it for over 3 years now (built May 2003). I am able to clock to 3.25GHz no problem, you can probably do at least as much with decent RAM (I use a divider so RAM is at 200). I recently upgraded to 2GB RAM and honestly, for desktop use a P4 Northwood @ 3.25 with 2GB dual channel 2-3-3-6 RAM and a few fast hard drives is fast enough, not much of a difference when I use friends modern PC's (Opterons/A64). Yes they are faster, but they don't feel 25-35% faster.

I'm waiting for

1) the 1st or 2nd revision to Conroe supporting mainboards
2) Vista w/ DX10
3) Video cards that truly support DX10 at a good speed

to build a new system which will then be very fast.

 

[rb56]

I agree that if it was just office apps that this setup would be fine and when Conroe is available that will be what it is used for. But in the mean time I am using it for encoding and photoshop. My thought is that it would be good to upgrade now to get the benifit until Conroe and then have a faster backup machine if I needed it. Besides any excuse to upgrade right! ;-)

 

[bob4432]

after further thought, i would do either a opty 165 or x2 3800 and o/c it. i am more than happy with the m/b i am running and wouldn't hesitate to buy another, although it is a agp board.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: rb56
I agree that if it was just office apps that this setup would be fine and when Conroe is available that will be what it is used for. But in the mean time I am using it for encoding and photoshop. My thought is that it would be good to upgrade now to get the benifit until Conroe and then have a faster backup machine if I needed it. Besides any excuse to upgrade right! ;-)

Enocding would greatly benifit from a dual core, and photshop is a ram hog, and certain versions are SMP aware as well, so again a dual core would be a good choice.

Not sure how much you want to spend, but you could go with a 3800+ X2 or opty 165, the Asrock 939 dual motherboard, which has AGP and PCIe, so you could use your current video card, then upgrade to PCIe later, and also re-use your DDR. That would probably be the most cost effective upgrade, that would give you a nice boost for encoding and photoshop. Going to 2gb of ram would also be benificial for photoshop.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: stevty2889

Originally posted by: rb56
I agree that if it was just office apps that this setup would be fine and when Conroe is available that will be what it is used for. But in the mean time I am using it for encoding and photoshop. My thought is that it would be good to upgrade now to get the benifit until Conroe and then have a faster backup machine if I needed it. Besides any excuse to upgrade right! ;-)

Enocding would greatly benifit from a dual core, and photshop is a ram hog, and certain versions are SMP aware as well, so again a dual core would be a good choice.

Not sure how much you want to spend, but you could go with a 3800+ X2 or opty 165, the Asrock 939 dual motherboard, which has AGP and PCIe, so you could use your current video card, then upgrade to PCIe later, and also re-use your DDR. That would probably be the most cost effective upgrade, that would give you a nice boost for encoding and photoshop. Going to 2gb of ram would also be benificial for photoshop.

ps since well before ver 6 was smp aware....

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: stevty2889

Originally posted by: rb56
I agree that if it was just office apps that this setup would be fine and when Conroe is available that will be what it is used for. But in the mean time I am using it for encoding and photoshop. My thought is that it would be good to upgrade now to get the benifit until Conroe and then have a faster backup machine if I needed it. Besides any excuse to upgrade right! ;-)

Enocding would greatly benifit from a dual core, and photshop is a ram hog, and certain versions are SMP aware as well, so again a dual core would be a good choice.

Not sure how much you want to spend, but you could go with a 3800+ X2 or opty 165, the Asrock 939 dual motherboard, which has AGP and PCIe, so you could use your current video card, then upgrade to PCIe later, and also re-use your DDR. That would probably be the most cost effective upgrade, that would give you a nice boost for encoding and photoshop. Going to 2gb of ram would also be benificial for photoshop.

ps since well before ver 6 was smp aware....

Cool, thanks, don't use it myself, but I knew there were some versions that were SMP aware, just wasn't sure which ones.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: stevty2889

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: stevty2889

Originally posted by: rb56
I agree that if it was just office apps that this setup would be fine and when Conroe is available that will be what it is used for. But in the mean time I am using it for encoding and photoshop. My thought is that it would be good to upgrade now to get the benifit until Conroe and then have a faster backup machine if I needed it. Besides any excuse to upgrade right! ;-)

Enocding would greatly benifit from a dual core, and photshop is a ram hog, and certain versions are SMP aware as well, so again a dual core would be a good choice.

Not sure how much you want to spend, but you could go with a 3800+ X2 or opty 165, the Asrock 939 dual motherboard, which has AGP and PCIe, so you could use your current video card, then upgrade to PCIe later, and also re-use your DDR. That would probably be the most cost effective upgrade, that would give you a nice boost for encoding and photoshop. Going to 2gb of ram would also be benificial for photoshop.

ps since well before ver 6 was smp aware....

Cool, thanks, don't use it myself, but I knew there were some versions that were SMP aware, just wasn't sure which ones.

no probs