How Much Of An Improvement Is This Upgrade?

[Iron Woode]

I want to upgrade my GF's cpu for a more responsive system.

currently she has a P4 630. I have found an E8400 C2D for her.

just based on specs alone, the E8400 looks like it would make her system fly. Am I correct in thinking this?

Here is the motherboard:

Gigabyte G41MT-D3

http://ca.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3476#sp

and it has 2gb of DDR3 1333 ram.

any other things I should be concerned about? Does she need an new HSF?

thanks guys.

 

[2is]

E8400 is a much better processor. If you can swing an SSD that would turn it into a brand new system. In fact, for basic usage, it would be snappier than a new machine with a mechanical drive.

 

[Iron Woode]

E8400 is a much better processor. If you can swing an SSD that would turn it into a brand new system. In fact, for basic usage, it would be snappier than a new machine with a mechanical drive.

:hmm:

that is food for thought.

 

[crashtech]

Should be about 3 times faster, and should use the same cooler, with fresh TIM of course.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

That (8400) and an SSD.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

What OS? Has it had a fresh install lately? As I'm sure your aware, complaints about sluggish performance can stem from software rather than hardware. Could probably also use a couple more Gb or RAM.

 

[Iron Woode]

What OS? Has it had a fresh install lately? As I'm sure your aware, complaints about sluggish performance can stem from software rather than hardware. Could probably also use a couple more Gb or RAM.

she runs Win XP Pro. There is a fresh install on it. The system isn't super slow or anything but a P4 630 is not really powerful to start with. I figured a faster cpu would make things more snappy for her and this way I can put off making her a new system longer.

she does not like win 7 too much. If it were up to me I would put win 7 x64 on it and add more ram.

I will keep my eyes out for a ssd.

 

[Pheesh]

get a ~120-128gb SSD and put the OS on it - it should only run you around 80 bucks now if you find a deal. A SSD will make a system FLY, it's easily the biggest change you can accomplish, plus if you do a future build you can of course carry forward the SSD. Win-win!

 

[crashtech]

I have to think that anyone thinking a Pentium 4 is still a viable choice today hasn't used one lately. Ditch that sucker posthaste, and add an SSD if you can, but you were on the right track from the get-go.

XP will run well on 2GB for average tasks, and won't even see more than 3GB.

 

[Arkaign]

Do some research before choosing an SSD for XP, IIRC some have dramatically better software/firmware in dealing with XP and older SATA controllers. And of course don't defrag it lol.

But yes, the 8400 is a ludicrously huge upgrade from a P4.

XP though. She should really adapt and get on Win7. XP is getting really really hard to support.

 

[Essence_of_War]

she runs Win XP Pro. There is a fresh install on it.

It might be worth forcing an upgrade now/soon. Isn't MS ending all support for XP in April?

 

[tweakboy]

The E8xxx is soo much more powerful then that Intel P4. Its soo much more powerful actually. Also get her a 128GB SSD or 256GB if the price is right. thx gl

 

[monkeydelmagico]

. XP is getting really really hard to support.

+1

XP was great. So is 7.

Everyone is saying SSD but before you do that how much space does she have used up on her HD? If its more than 100gb or so then SSD's start to get expensive (for some folks). If it was a choice between Win7 OR an SSD I'd vote win7.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I have a desktop at work with an E8400 and it feels really fast in normal day to day usage. I dont game on it of course, but we do a lot of office tasks with fairly large Access data bases, and the machine never feels slow, except when the network holds it back.

I would definitely recommend Win 7 x64 and 4gb of ram. XP will not be supported by microsoft after sometime in 2014, I dont remember exactly when.

Are you using motherboard graphics or a gpu? If you have a PCI-E slot, it might be worthwhile to add a low end graphics card for gpu accelerated apps. I think some web browsers might take advantage of it.

 

[DooKey]

What's the budget? You could build her an IB Pentium G2120 build on an H61 board pretty cheaply.

 

[Essence_of_War]

I have a desktop at work with an E8400 and it feels really fast in normal day to day usage. I dont game on it of course, but we do a lot of office tasks with fairly large Access data bases

I have a similar experience. I have a E8400 w/ 16 GB of RAM at work, and it has never felt slow when there wasn't a network or i/o (500 GB HDD, close to 70% full) bottleneck.

 

[Ieat]

What's the budget? You could build her an IB Pentium G2120 build on an H61 board pretty cheaply.

I don't really see a point in that. A E8400 is plenty fast for everyday usage and runs about $25 these days. I'm not familar with that particular board but even some of the cheapest ones support some overclocking. So he might be able to get 3.3ghz out of it. I think the money would be better spent on a SSD. And it doesn't matter how big her current drive is. Since that can be used as a storage drive once the SSD is added. I'm fine with even a 60gb ssd. I only use 23gb of it. The rest of my stuff is spread across 6tb of storage drives.

 

[DooKey]

I don't really see a point in that. A E8400 is plenty fast for everyday usage and runs about $25 these days. I'm not familar with that particular board but even some of the cheapest ones support some overclocking. So he might be able to get 3.3ghz out of it. I think the money would be better spent on a SSD. And it doesn't matter how big her current drive is. Since that can be used as a storage drive once the SSD is added. I'm fine with even a 60gb ssd. I only use 23gb of it. The rest of my stuff is spread across 6tb of storage drives.

My thoughts are that his S775 board is getting OLD. They don't last forever and it might be worth it to get a new board and cpu if the price is right.

I agree though that an SSD would be a nice improvement for his GF.

 

[2is]

I don't know... They last damn close to forever most of the time. I've never encountered a board that went bad before the entire system was scrapped unless it was using an nVidia chipset.

 

[Iron Woode]

and now to summarize:

I am trying to get her to use win 7.

an SSD would be great but they are kind of pricey here. I will still keep my eyes open for deals.

the board has solid caps, sata II and PCIe x16.

she runs the onboard video.

the P4 630 was a cheap ass cpu I had kicking around so I made a cheap system for her to use. Other than the slow cpu the system has been rock stable.

thanks for the helpful advice. The E8400 looks to be a good investment for her.

 

[sxr7171]

XP can in theory go on a 32GB SSD but all environment variables need to point to a mechanical drive of larger size. 64GB is more comfortable.

 

[Headfoot]

SSDs and XP do not mix naturally and you have to do configuration. XP is going to be less and less supported and you are going to have to go and fix her computer more often because of things that do not work on XP (due to being designed for Vista+). It's a total waste to go with XP over 7. People need to get over the blind resistance to change. Windows 7 is an upgrade without caveats, Windows 8 I can see why you might not want it on desktop. But Windows 7 really has no legitimate downsides compared to XP. It's just better

 

[Blue_Max]

Beeeeyootiful upgrade! Such a modern 775 board but stuck with a P4? That's a crime!

What you might consider now is Win7 64-bit, another 4GB of RAM, and a SSHD (hard drive w/ SSD cache built in.) Like the Seagate Momentus XT (ideal) or the newer 5400RPM drives which are a little slower (but still likely better than her old drive) and dead silent. Booting and favorite apps are much quicker to load...

 

[hackerballs]

I have an old E7200 that will play games. All of them.

What you need is More Ram (4gigs), a GPU card and Windows 7(8) x 64bit

This will speed up your PC. A SSD should be the last thing you buy as it does nothing on the performance level, just the data transfers between folders and shortens your boot time. More Ram is more important.

and buy windows 7/8 for sure, be nice too her

 

[2is]

For day to day usage an e8400 with SSD will provide for a better experience than an i7 with HDD. You sound like someone who's never used an SSD.