Quick CPU Upgrade maybe? E2160 on Abit ip35-e

[itakey]

So i've been playing with the idea of upgrading my current computer. It currently has:
-Abit ip35-e motherboard socket 775
-Intel E2160 Dual-Core CPU
-4GB DDR2 800 MB RAM

Would a CPU upgrade using this same motherboard and ram be ideal?
I see NewEgg has the E6700 or the E6XXX's for under $100.

Would it be worth upgrading this CPU and that's it with Windows 7?

 

[emblem]

Maybe try and find a Q9300 or something like that for cheap?
If there's a microcenter close to you, see if they are still having their sale of a Q8300 for $90 and a Q9300 for $100

 

[Arkaign]

^^ Yeah the Q9300 would be a huge epic upgrade. E2xxx has 1MB L2, low FSB, low clock speed, and is just generally way outdated. E9300 has 6MB L2, extra cores, higher clock speed, higher fsb, and is waaaaaaaay faster. If you can score one for cheapish, it will bring that system up to a pretty good level without breaking the bank, and 4GB of DDR2-800 is still good, it's actually about as fast as DDR3-1066 due to the difference in latency.

 

[dbcooper1]

Maybe, but what do you use your computer for? Do you overclock? Unless you can make use of the additional cores and cache, you might be better off overclocking what you have.

 

[soccerballtux]

no not quad core on that motherboard, sell it. Those boards develop nasty vdroop as they age, to the point where SpeedStep is negated simply by vdroop.
I had one and had the option of going to a q9550-- but didn't in favor of my current rig.

If you can overclock to last you a year, do that.
edit: yeah you definitely should overclock. Keep your temps below 74C on that chip and play with the voltage while cranking the FSB. Those chips are a LOT faster at 3ghz than at 1.6 (I had an e2180 if you are interested, ran it at 3.4ghz with 1.48v (1.5 before vdroop)

 

[jihe]

So i've been playing with the idea of upgrading my current computer. It currently has:
-Abit ip35-e motherboard socket 775
-Intel E2160 Dual-Core CPU
-4GB DDR2 800 MB RAM

Would a CPU upgrade using this same motherboard and ram be ideal?
I see NewEgg has the E6700 or the E6XXX's for under $100.

Would it be worth upgrading this CPU and that's it with Windows 7?

E2***'s are begging to be overclocked. You are almost guaranteed 3.2G.

 

[nyker96]

hey I used to have a Abit ip35-e, love it, too bad abit went out of business.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Support list: http://www.abit.com.tw/cpu-support-list/mb/intel_p35_ip35-e.htm

If you upgrade, you should go quad core over dual core. But really, what are you doing that needs an upgrade?

no not quad core on that motherboard, sell it.

Wait, why not a 45nm Q9300? There can't be that much difference in power between it and and overclocked 65nm E2200.

If the motherboard is an issue, and he wants to upgrade, then a cheap AMD Quad + DDR2 mobo combo is one option.

 

[itakey]

Thanks for all the replies guys.
So it sounds like there are a few trains of thought going down.

I basically use it for every day work. I do lots of photoshop editing, and dreamweaver work on top of running firefox with a milliion windows at once, etc, etc. A little video editing but nothing crazy, mostly web based lower resolution stuff.

I considered overclocking and I did overclock it slightly when I first got it, then I reset it back to default because I didn't want to have to fuss with it too much since I rely on the machine being stable every day. But my last machine before this was an overclocked chip on air that served me well running crazy fast without needing any real adjusting.

I'm looking to upgrade the machine so it runs faster all around. I'm also considering selling off my 1X4GB chips for whatever I can get, and putting in 4X2GB so I can get a total of 8GB.

I don't game at all, so I basically want to either upgrade what I have to save money (Overclock current CPU and add some new RAM), Upgrade the CPU and RAM, or just build a new rig. I'd rather just upgrade what I got.

Anyone know the E2160 CPU Overclocking settings that would jump the chip up but keep it stable? I'll probably plan to re-set my heat sink just to be safe and then crank away.

If I could get a new decent upgrade CPU worth buying I will, but I don't want to invest a ton into this system/board if it is going to dead end me sooner than later.

Decisions, decisions. Any more feedback now that you know my situation a bit more?

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you plan on going with a 45nm quad (which should NOT stress the PWMs like the 65nm Q6600s did), then you're going to have to look for an older stepping. Q8200 M0-step will work, Q9300 M1 stepping MIGHT work, Q8200/8300/8400 R0-step will NOT work.

Q9550 E0-step were never officially supported in any of the released BIOSes, but it might work with the newer BETA BIOS that was floating around.

You could get away with running a Q6600 not overclocked, probably, without degrading too much, but that's up to you. At stock speeds, the Q6600 is a tad bit slow.

 

[itakey]

NewEgg has the E6500 Wolfdale for $79.99. Would something like this slightly overclocked be better than the E2160 slightly overclocked, or is that not a worthy jump?

 

[soccerballtux]

NewEgg has the E6500 Wolfdale for $79.99. Would something like this slightly overclocked be better than the E2160 slightly overclocked, or is that not a worthy jump?

why don't you try overclocking your current first? If you're not going to overclock this, what makes you think you'd overclock the new CPU?

Do you have the stock cooler?




Download prime95, and speedfan. Start both up, let prime95 run on torture test for 5 minutes, record your temp.
Reboot, increase your FSB by 20mhz. Does BIOS post? Then prime95 it for 5 minutes, check temps, if prime95 fails, reboot and increase voltage 2-3 notches to the CPU and then try again. Keep voltage below 1.5v and temps below 74C, and just keep following this procedure till you find the max of your chip, be it frequency, or thermals that limit you.

I overclocked mine it was rock stable until the vdroop on the board got worse, went into bios and incremented voltage one notch and was good to go for another year. It's significantly faster once overclocked. If you got it to 3.2ghz your computer would completely CPU bound tasks in half the time.

I don't know why you're so dead set on spending money.

 

[Soulkeeper]

No problem with vdroop on my ip35-e ...
I really liked abit motherboards, shame they left.

I've been running my Q9450 at about 3.2GHz since it came out (when they cost $300)

I suggest you look for a used Q9450/9550 yorkfield, no point in paying a premium. Take your time and find some on the fsft forums or maybe ebay from someone that is upgrading to a different socket.

If you can get a quad under $150 I think it could be a good deal.

 

[bryanW1995]

hey I used to have a Abit ip35-e, love it, too bad abit went out of business.

I have 2 ip 35e's running dc 24-7. one has a q6600 @3.4, the other has a q9450 @3.0 (crappy zalman cooler!!). both are rock solid stable and have been for years.

 

[bryanW1995]

No problem with vdroop on my ip35-e ...
I really liked abit motherboards, shame they left.

I've been running my Q9450 at about 3.2GHz since it came out (when they cost $300)

I suggest you look for a used Q9450/9550 yorkfield, no point in paying a premium. Take your time and find some on the fsft forums or maybe ebay from someone that is upgrading to a different socket.

If you can get a quad under $150 I think it could be a good deal.

yeah, this is probably the best way to go.

@virtual larry: my q9450 works just fine, so I see no reason why a q9550 wouldn't. OP just needs to make sure that latest official bios is installed or a 45nm quad won't work. Why do you say that the 8x00 later editions won't work? I've never tried any of them, but it seems odd that the originals but not later editions would work.

 

[VirtualLarry]

yeah, this is probably the best way to go.

@virtual larry: my q9450 works just fine, so I see no reason why a q9550 wouldn't. OP just needs to make sure that latest official bios is installed or a 45nm quad won't work. Why do you say that the 8x00 later editions won't work? I've never tried any of them, but it seems odd that the originals but not later editions would work.

Official BIOS 18 had support for M0 step (maybe M1, not sure how different they are), and beta BIOS added support for E0 step, but I don't think that any of the IP35-E BIOSes support R0 step.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=164549&page=18

 

[ummduh]

OC that thing pronto. I'm running an e21x0 (don't even remeber what it used to be! ) @ 3.0GHz just by upping the FSB, stock cooler. Haven't even touched the voltages.
I believe I upped it from 200 FSB ( 800 ) to 333 FSB ( 1333 ) first thing I did, and it's been 100 % reliable for a few years now. I'm even using my OEM compaq ( !! ) psu that was in the case I'm using. Stock cooler, has never gone about low 60's temp.

 

[bryanW1995]

Official BIOS 18 had support for M0 step (maybe M1, not sure how different they are), and beta BIOS added support for E0 step, but I don't think that any of the IP35-E BIOSes support R0 step.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=164549&page=18

gotcha. I lost the upgrade bug once I got them both on quads.

 

[cparker]

What a great thread!!!! It's given me a boost, some new motivation. I've had in my closet a complete brand new ip35-e/e2160 set of components (ram, video card, power supply, drives, etc.) that I just never got around to putting together. (Too many things happened after I got the components, other builds, no space, etc.) I think I'll give it a go and finally put it all together, play with overclocking that chip, and have some fun.

 

[itakey]

THANKS For all the tips and info everyone!
I think i'm going to overclock this chip once more and see how much I can get out of it in a stable setting.

If I can get this machine to stretch another year or until Windows 8 hits the streets that would be perfect.

Going to follow your overclocking setting guidance and get to it this week. I'll post back what I get my chip too.

Question, I might run Windows XP Pro on this particular machine, doesn't XP only know how to utilize up to 4 GB?

 

[RobDickinson]

I've a 2160 running at 3ghz on the stock cooler for 3 years!

On an Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L /2gig mem.

Looked at a cpu upgrade but going with a new SB build.

 

[itakey]

why don't you try overclocking your current first? If you're not going to overclock this, what makes you think you'd overclock the new CPU?

Do you have the stock cooler?

Download prime95, and speedfan. Start both up, let prime95 run on torture test for 5 minutes, record your temp.
Reboot, increase your FSB by 20mhz. Does BIOS post? Then prime95 it for 5 minutes, check temps, if prime95 fails, reboot and increase voltage 2-3 notches to the CPU and then try again. Keep voltage below 1.5v and temps below 74C, and just keep following this procedure till you find the max of your chip, be it frequency, or thermals that limit you.

I overclocked mine it was rock stable until the vdroop on the board got worse, went into bios and incremented voltage one notch and was good to go for another year. It's significantly faster once overclocked. If you got it to 3.2ghz your computer would completely CPU bound tasks in half the time.

I don't know why you're so dead set on spending money.

Wow, this chip is going to get another chance at life I guess. I just went into the bios after not being in there for many years and it was all stock. I tried to up the FSB to 333 and raised the VCore one notch and it booted and ran normal, but didn't do any stress testing.

Question, which tests should I be running with Prime95? The Small FFT's, In-Place Large FFT's, Blend, or custom? Which is most ideal. Another question, anyone like Orthos or is Prime just as good?

Do I need to up the Memory Voltage and memory speed at all? In the past I recall setting the memory to 1:1.00. Do I need to do any of that? If I can get the chip overclocked a bit and stable i'll be happy. Would be more than happy with 3.0GHz at this point until I'm ready to upgrade to a new rig.

Any old school Overclocking feedback appreciated

 

[jihe]

Wow, this chip is going to get another chance at life I guess. I just went into the bios after not being in there for many years and it was all stock. I tried to up the FSB to 333 and raised the VCore one notch and it booted and ran normal, but didn't do any stress testing.

Question, which tests should I be running with Prime95? The Small FFT's, In-Place Large FFT's, Blend, or custom? Which is most ideal. Another question, anyone like Orthos or is Prime just as good?

Do I need to up the Memory Voltage and memory speed at all? In the past I recall setting the memory to 1:1.00. Do I need to do any of that? If I can get the chip overclocked a bit and stable i'll be happy. Would be more than happy with 3.0GHz at this point until I'm ready to upgrade to a new rig.

Any old school Overclocking feedback appreciated

small fft. Set memory 1:1 so that you are not overclocking your memory.