Should I upgrade from 2.53 to 3.06?

[BroadbandGamer]

I can get the 3.06 for $230 and I can sell my 2.53 on ebay for around $100. This should bring my cost down to about $130 for the 3.06. This will give me about 500MHz plus HT.

So what do you guys think? I'm trying to squeeze some more life out of my current system. My plan it to upgrade my 9700 Pro as soon as ATI releases the R420 this summer. The 3.06 along with the latest video card should be enough power for another year don't you think?

Thanks,

 

[us3rnotfound]

no, and btw, nobody's buying a used 2.53 for $100.

save you $ hard, my sister's bf got a 2.8c upgraded from his 2.53, and he's not happy at all.

 

[BroadbandGamer]

So should I just wait for the new video card and skip the CPU upgrade? I thought the latest card would be held back by my 2.53 and a 3.06 would help. Maybe I should overlock my 2.53 a little. I have clocked it at 2.8 with no problems but decided I really didn't need to at the time.

 

[THUGSROOK]

overclock the 2.53

 

[jpetermann]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
overclock the 2.53

What he said...

 

[Soulkeeper]

i agree.

unless you are getting an extreme edition P4 or an extremely overclocked prescott then it won't be worth it
and even in those "extremes" (pardon the pun) many will argue it still ain't worth it

 

[slatr]

I disagree, buy the new cpu and sell me your old one.

Seriously, Hyperthreading is wonderful in practice on supported operating systems. If you like to multitask, it's great. I run two DAOC sessions on a 2.4c at 3.0ghz with 1 gig of ram and alt tab between em. I love it.

However if you are looking for a great performance increase running just one app or game, nah it aint gonna happen.

Does the p4 you may be selling come with a retail HSF?

 

[BroadbandGamer]

Originally posted by: slatr


Does the p4 you may be selling come with a retail HSF?

Yes

 

[Soulkeeper]

ohh yeah i forgot about HT and sse3 if you plan to use those features either now or in the future
good point too about selling it to cover the 3.06 expenses

 

[slatr]

I am interested in that chip.

PM or let me know what your gonna do.

 

[tallman45]

If the first 2 posters pass on the 2.53, let me know. I have a few systems around with 1.7 Celerons on 845 chipset mb's that I want to upgrade.

As to your benefit of going to a 3.06, if you were not able to OC the 2.53 then the higher clock and HT will be worth the upgrade of +/-$100 IF you have apps that take advantage of each, like Photoshop,etc

 

[Todd33]

I just ordered a 3.06 533 to replace my 2.4. People are paying around $110 for 2.4s on ebay. I got the 3.06 for $230 shipped, after the 2.4 sale the whole thing will have cost around $120, not bad for 600Mhz and HT. I do a lot of MT (nero, DVDshrink, IE, EQwin, etc.).

 

[caz67]

Hi.

I just sold my 3.06, it is still a very fast CPU.

The HT is definitely and advantage over 2.53.

I would buy it.

I could of sold ya mine..lol

 

[SuperStrokey]

Oc the 2.53 and if you dont get anywhere with that then consider getting a new chip

 

[bf2004]

I too have a P4 2.53 cpu and also want to upgrade to the 3.06 because of the HT (and 500mhz increase). Where did you see that $230 price? Lowest on pricewatch was $260 last I checked.

What do I need to consider with this upgrade. I have an intel lexinton mobo on my Gateway 700XL. Will I need to flash the bios? Will I need to re-install XP to take advantage of HT? Anyone up to giving me a step by step? Your help is apreciated.

 

[Todd33]

Pricewatch is down to $220, I forgot which place I ordered mine at. I picked a place out of state to avoid tax and had cheap shipping. It was delivered in maybe 3-4 days and was a retail 3.06, just what I wanted. It took 2-3 minutes to install, great fast upgrade.

 

[bf2004]

Thanks Todd.

What motherboard do you have?

What process did you have to go through to upgrade besides switch the new chip, ie. flash the BIOS or reformat XP etc...???

 

[Todd33]

I have an Asus... P4BE? Their standard 845E 533 board. I just stuck the chip in and it booted with HT on, XP found new hardware and had to reboot. Once rebooted it showed up as two processors and works great. Good bang for the buck. I checked the Asus website to see if I needed a new BIOS, but their chart showed the 3.06HT compatible with all BIOSes, so I didn't bother.

 

[EarthwormJim]

Originally posted by: Todd33
I have an Asus... P4BE? Their standard 845E 533 board. I just stuck the chip in and it booted with HT on, XP found new hardware and had to reboot. Once rebooted it showed up as two processors and works great. Good bang for the buck. I checked the Asus website to see if I needed a new BIOS, but their chart showed the 3.06HT compatible with all BIOSes, so I didn't bother.

How much of a difference have you noticed with your upgrade? I've been thinking about making a similar upgrade, to get HT and possibly faster overclock speeds.

 

[BadThad]

I'm going to do the same thing for the same reason. I want HT so I can run two SETI processes. Right now my PC spits out ~8 wu/day. With HT @ 3.06GHz+overclocking I'll be seeing ~15-17/day.....nearly DOUBLE the wu's! :Q

I have a lot of dough invested in my 533MHz FSB i850 mobo, this will extend it for quite some time. I say do it.

 

[bf2004]

Exactly how will you go about the upgrade cpu process with your intel 850 mobo?

FYI, i have about 13300 seti units so far...