CPU (ancient) upgrade

[Hal24]

Hello Gentlemen,

I need some advise from people who have a bit more knowledge than I have regarding the wisdom of upgrading an ancient MOBO (Gigabyte GA-M61VME-S2 REV.2.0) running an equally ancient CPU (AMD Athlon 64 X2
5400+,socket AM2, 2.8 gHz).
I saw recently on this site that AMD has released a low cost CPU (Athlon II X2 280 Dual-Core Processor, socket AM3, 3.6 gHz).
Would this be a worthwhile upgrade? It appears that the 280 is backward compatible with the AM2 socket. Are there any other traps I could fall into?. BIOS issues for example?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Hal

I probably should have put this info into the original post:

Mainboard : Gigabyte M61VME-S2
Chipset : nVidia GeForce 6100V
Processor : AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ @ 2800 MHz
Physical Memory : 4096 MB (2 x 2048 DDR2-SDRAM )
Video Card : NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
Hard Disk : Seagate ST380815AS (80GB)
DVD-Rom Drive : Toshiba-Samsung CDDVDW SH-S203N
Monitor Type : Asus ASUS VH198 - 19 inches
Network Card : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller #3
Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.01.2600 Service Pack 3 (32-bit)
DirectX : Version 9.0c (May 2010)

I use the machine for general work around the house, i.e. web browsing, e-mail, running flight and train simulators, etc.
The simulators cause the problem of slowing down the operation.

 

[blckgrffn]

Yes, you should make sure that the CPU is explicitly supported by your motherboard, which is likely doubtful.

 

[RU482]

Yes, you should make sure that the CPU is explicitly supported by your motherboard, which is likely doubtful.

CPU Support page: http://www.gigabyte.us/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=2439

 

[SPBHM]

if you can find a newer bios (F11C already supports 95w Phenom 1) it should support PII based CPUs,

but I'm not sure the Athlon II X2 is a great choice, maybe you can find some 95w PII like the 945, 925 or some Athlon II X3 or X4 for a similar price?

 

[Markfw]

With a triple-core cpu+motherboard for $120 and $40 for 8 gig ram (that includes the gpu on-die) why would you even try to upgrade that old crap ? See the link below

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1199324

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Seriously, unless you have a very good reason for hanging on to your system you would be very well served by just doing a core component upgrade (Cpu + Mobo+ Ram).

Even if you decided to go for a bottom of the barrel i3 processor, you'll end up orders of magnitude better off than anything you can use to upgrade your existing system, and for not too much more.

 

[crashtech]

If you really want to stick with what you have, it looks like the Phenom II X4 940 is the best bet for your mobo.

And with all due respect to a previous venerable poster, I believe the 940 kicks the snot out of the A6-3500.

Goes to show you have to be careful what you "upgrade" to, often with new lower-midrange parts, the gain is not worth the pain $$$.

EDIT: I read the chart wrong, the mobo will not support the 940. Sorry for my negative contribution!

 

[Eeqmcsq]

Can you describe what you do with this computer? Is there any specific reason why you want to upgrade? Are you budgeted only for a CPU upgrade? Would you consider buying the latest board + RAM + CPU? Do you have time to reinstall your OS and the apps? Are you doing this upgrade just for fun?

These are the questions to consider if an upgrade is "worthwhile" or not.

 

[NTMBK]

Seriously, unless you have a very good reason for hanging on to your system you would be very well served by just doing a core component upgrade (Cpu + Mobo+ Ram).

Even if you decided to go for a bottom of the barrel i3 processor, you'll end up orders of magnitude better off than anything you can use to upgrade your existing system, and for not too much more.

That motherboard can support all the way up to a Phenom II X6, which is not "orders of magnitude" worse than an i3, and in fact beats it in plenty of multithreaded tasks. Not to mention a single processor upgrade will be cheaper than replacing the whole platform.

As for the original question- it depends, as this is a very new processor. It is just a higher clocked version of the existing Athlon II X2s which are supported by your motherboard, so it _should_ work, and be a healthy upgrade. An Athlon II X4 might be a better choice though, if your budget will stretch to it. The Athlon II X4 645 has just had a price drop.

 

[Piroko]

Even if you decided to go for a bottom of the barrel i3 processor, you'll end up orders of magnitude better off than anything you can use to upgrade your existing system, and for not too much more.

That's pushing the difference by orders of magnitude. An Ivb i3 is about double the speed of an x2 280 in most tasks, but you're also comparing a ~180$ component change vs. a 50$ drop-in upgrade.

The x2 280 would give you about 30% more performance compared to the 5400+, which isn't bad for a drop-in upgrade. But compare it to an Athlon 2 x4 640 as well if your motherboard can handle that. Two additional cores with decent clocks would push it even further.
Anything above that and I would recommend a component change as well though. It simply isn't worth spending 100$ for your old system if you can get something new by spending 150$+.

 

[sm625]

I'm still using a gigabyte AM2 motherboard that's been upgraded to an athlon X2 and overclocked. If it was me I would not buy a cpu that isnt on that list. I would aim for more than 2 cores but also for 3.5GHz. Most of the slowness that the average user feels is when one thread drags down your whole pc, like scrolling lag on sites like ebay. That's caused by one thread not running fast enough.

 

[blckgrffn]

I don't even think the 940 is supported - bios supports says "N/A" and in my experience, that means no. There isn't a single 45nm CPU on the supported list.

"N/A = Not support" right at the top.

You could move to a Kuma core and get ~3.0Ghz out of that and maybe ~20% better performance with new FPU and extra L3 cache, but that could be more work than it is worth. What is the issue that drives you to upgrade at this point?

 

[pantsaregood]

You'd probably be better off going to a Phenom X4 than to an Athlon X2. And by probably, I mean see if you can find a 95W Phenom X4 9650 or 9750 for cheap.

 

[Hal24]

I am not sure that my power supply can handle the 95 w PCUs.

 

[Magic Carpet]

As someone mentioned above, the motherboard isn't likely to support any of the recent AM3 CPUs, unless you can get one for free to try it out, I wouldn't bother.

If you require more processing power, consider a complete upgrade. Dropping a solid state drive might be a feasible option for you as well.

 

[DominionSeraph]

It's probably best to sell that as a unit and get something new. A nice dual-core system still sells used for ~$200, and you can pick up an i3 system for a little over $300. Add a GDDR5 7750 for $90 after rebate and you've doubled your CPU power, quintupled your GPU, increased your storage by 10x, and gotten a new OS for ~$200.

 

[Jacky60]

Trying to upgrade vintage turds like that is a total waste of money and time unless you work in a museum. Just sell the whole unit (someone somewhere might pay for it) and get a modern cpu, mobo and ram. Even entry level i3 4 core will be so much better it'll be night and day difference. There's a very good reason why old computer stuff is almost worthless..it's because the cost of a far superior replacement is really cheap, possibly cheaper!

 

[DominionSeraph]

Even entry level i3 4 core will be so much better it'll be night and day difference.

Outside of CPU heavy tasks like his sims he'll see almost no difference.

 

[tweakboy]

Also don't forget to grab a SSD on your setup. It will feel like a jet even on your old CPU.... but ya, first you need new mobo and CPU and ram, then get SSD after that. gl