478 Pin Processor Question

[RitalinboyX]

I have a very limited budget right now and I would like to upgrade my processor from 2.26 to 2.8, if it's worth the money and effort. For $73.00 (newegg) I can upgrade the processor. I have already upgraded the Video card and I have 1GB RAM.

I have checked my old mb specs thru Intel and I believe the best I can upgrade to is 2.8. I believe the 2.26 processor I have is a Northwood.

Would this upgrade be worth it. If it is, how much effort is it? Will I have to do anything but physically change the processor? I have upgraded video cards, ram, optical drive and hard drives, but never touched a processor.

Thanks for any assistance

 

[Stumps]

you should get a reasonable increase, if you board will work wll accept on you should try to get a 3.06ghz(533fsb) or a 3ghz(800fsb) Northwood, they support Hyperthreading and give a lot better performance....IIRC all 800fsb Northwoods supported HT technology.

 

[Arkaign]

Get a faster hard drive and image over to it, it will make a much bigger difference than the cpu upgrade. A new 500gb ATA100/133 drive with 16mb buffer will run circles around older 80/120/160/200/250 etc, because of areal density. And because you have DDR1 memory most likely, if you do want to spend a little money, save a few more bucks and get a Sempron s754 + NF4 mobo, the combo of which will probably set you back under $100 if you shop smart, shop S-mart. This will give you the bonus of scoring a used s754 3500+ a64 or so down the road for cheap.

 

[AllWhacked]

As said before, you're better off getting a cheap s754 combo if you want to keep your ram and video card.

If you want to upgrade your video to PCI-express, have a 24-pin power supply and want to recycle your ram then go for a s939.

The Pros for jumping to A64 are:

1) It's 64-bit
2) The A64s are faster than their P4 counterparts
3) A A64 CPU + Mobo combo can be found for around $100.

Cons:

1) Have to reload your OS
2) More work upgrading

Anyway, check out this A64 3200+ OEM CPU. There is an option to buy it with a motherboard combo at a slightly discounted price. However, you can shop in the s754 section for a better board if you wish to overclock. If you get this deal, all you need is a 3rd party CPU fan and you're set.

And if you can spare the dough and want one of the non-combo boards, you can get a nForce 4 board that supports both PCI-express & AGP to support future upgrades.

 

[RitalinboyX]

Thanks for the replies. In about 6 months, I splurging for en entirely new computer, so I'm just looking for the least expensive upgrade possible to extend the life of my old computer.

 

[LouPoir]

2.26 to 2.8 is a worthy upgrade - for a small investment -