Front Side Bus vs Processor Speed

[emjohns]

My current motherboard is P5BW-LA from my Hewlett Packard m7650n. It only supports up to 1066Mhz FSB speeds, so it makes finding processors difficult. It seems like everything is 1333Mhz or 800Mhz. Does anyone know of a good 1066Mhz FBS processor for under $200?

The question I want to ask is would my current processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (C) DC 1.86 GHz 1066 MHz front side bus. I'm looking to upgrade it with: http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=1104
3.4 Ghz at only 800 Mhz. Would that still computer faster, and by how much even with the lower FSB speeds?

 

[Heligrin]

That new processor is a conroe... That is an old arcitecture that was very bad imho. Your E6300 is much better

 

[emjohns]

Quick edit to add another question to my above post. I read somewhere that a motherboard should auto adjust, so I should be able to use a 1333Mhz FSB processor? I ordered an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor 1333Mhz FBS Model from NewEgg and will be RMA it tomorrow or the next day. When I booted up my computer, all the fans and power turned on but my screen was blank. Is that the FSB not auto adjusting, or do I need to update my bios or something?

 

[Accord99]

The E6300 is a significantly faster processor than the P4 551, plus the E63300 has two cores. From here:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl...uo-e6300_11.html#sect0
you can see the E6300 crushing the dual-core 3.4GHz Pentium D.

Unfortunately, the 1066MHz FSB E6000 series CPUs have been mostly phased out and the CPUs that are available are overpriced. There is the E7200 which is a 2.53GHz/1066Mhz C2D CPU but as you have an OEM computer, it likely doesn't have BIOS support. I think the best option is to look on EBay or BST forums, there should be plenty of compatible 1066MHz CPUs for sale from people upgrading to quad-cores or 45nm C2Ds.

Originally posted by: emjohns
Quick edit to add another question to my above post. I read somewhere that a motherboard should auto adjust, so I should be able to use a 1333Mhz FSB processor? I ordered an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor 1333Mhz FBS Model from NewEgg and will be RMA it tomorrow or the next day. When I booted up my computer, all the fans and power turned on but my screen was blank. Is that the FSB not auto adjusting, or do I need to update my bios or something?

It's probably BIOS support. OEM systems typically don't receive the same compatibility updates as enthusiast motherboards do, plus the P965 chipset your motherboard is based upon doesn't have official 1333MHz support.

 

[emjohns]

Glad I asked! Thanks for the fast reply. Any idea why my new processor wouldn't work?

 

[emjohns]

From now on I'm going to start building my own systems with better motherboards, that I can actually update the BIOS on to get some performance upgrades.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: emjohns
Glad I asked! Thanks for the fast reply. Any idea why my new processor wouldn't work?

Your motherboard was made before the E8400 came out. It's entirely possible that it doesn't support the E8400 at all. At the very least it would require a BIOS update, but my guess is that the chip just isn't going to work.

What are you doing that's slowing down with your old processor? It's possible that your problem isn't CPU-related, it may be a question of your RAM, video card or hard drive.