swappin' out a prescott cpu

[Ksyder]

Working on a Dell Dimension 9100 for the neighbors. They got the computer for free from a friend and I'm upgrading it to Windows 7 for them.

Specs

2.99 ghz Prescott cpu
Intel 945 chipset
bios from 2005

Since the Prescott is such a power hog/slow, Can I dig out a Celeron 430 (Conroe) and have it work? I think that chipset would be compatible with that cpu but obviously the bios is still too old for it. Could it just work and be "unknown processor" or does the bios need steppings and such for the voltages, etc.

There is a newer bios for '06 for that computer but I haven't upgraded it b/c i don't have any floppy drives. I could probably do it from a flash drive if I can find out how to do it.

 

[exar333]

I doubt the Dell will support a Conroe, but I would be pretty optimistic that you could throw in a 2.8-3.2 Pentium D and have a much quicker system. Any way you go with re-using ther machine will not yield a very power efficient computer, but it would get the job done.

How much RAM does it have?

 

[Ksyder]

1 gb of ram, unfortunately... but I'll get them 2 x 1gb kit soon enough once the computer is installed and set up for them.

I used to have a pentium d but sold it....would be nice to have right about now.

Looks like I'll probably have to just stick with the p4 then... the upside is that the S3 standby mode seems to work fine, so that should cut down on overall power usage.

If you have a suggestion on a proc that works, maybe I can grab one off ebay for cheap.

These people are still using a dell with p3 with 1 gb of sdram and 40 gb hdd in it so even the p4 (with ddr2) will be a big improvement.

Although I don't want them to have much dough into this box as it is a BTX formfactor and not much of it is salvageable other than the cpu/ram etc once the mb goes bad.

 

[zsdersw]

Pentium D 9xx would be the way to go. Presler is cooler and draws less power than Prescott, plus it's dual core.

 

[Ksyder]

Pentium D 9xx would be the way to go. Presler is cooler and draws less power than Prescott, plus it's dual core.

thanks, looking into that. Can find a pentium d 915 on ebay for $42. Cheapest I can find. Not sure if it would be worth it over what is in there. Would this be considered throwing good money after bad in this case? After all the S3 does work so that will save lots of $$$ on power. They don't need much in the way of cpu anyway since they just do office stuff, upload pics and surf the 'net.

 

[exar333]

You could post in the FS/FT forum and see if anyone has one to sell. I would bet someone has an extra 8 or 9 series Pentium D sitting around you could probably get for $20-30. Worth a shot.

 

[bobross419]

You could post in the FS/FT forum and see if anyone has one to sell. I would bet someone has an extra 8 or 9 series Pentium D sitting around you could probably get for $20-30. Worth a shot.

This, folks will dump these for pretty cheap in FS/FT. You can ask for the little code (don't know what it is called) and look up the specs on Processor Finder to compare for lowest Ws. IIRC from my searching, the 9x5 procs are the most energy friendly of the bunch.

 

[Ksyder]

do you mean the processor finder on intel.com? Looks good but too bad they don't list TDP on there.

Thanks guys!

 

[zsdersw]

Presler (65nm) was as good as Netburst got, after Northwood.

 

[bobross419]

TDP = Thermal Design Power... right?

Thats on there... Most of the 775 90nm are 84W

You can also look at VID volts which could help the system out too..

And I was mistaken about the 9x5... what I really meant was the 6x1 65nm series lol... (Fighting a cold and super tired so brain isn't working all that great)

http://processorfinder.intel.com/List.aspx?ParentRadio=All&ProcFam=483&SearchKey=

Anyways...

Here are the Pentium Ds:
http://processorfinder.intel.com/List.aspx?ParentRadio=All&ProcFam=2112&SearchKey=
Most are 95W with a few 130W sprinkled in.

I had two SL95X for sale at $35 and no one bit for quite a while. You should be able to find something cheap