Upgrading an old 775

[Eureka]

So, I have an old PC with the following specs:

Intel Pentium E2140 Allendale 1.6GHz
Rosewill RCX-Z2 7 blades 80mm reverse ball bearing fan CPU Cooler
ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA LGA 775
Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300)
ATi x850xt
APEVIA X-Dreamer ATXB3KLW-BK/420W Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ATX 420W power supply for AMD/Intel Power Supply

I recently added an OCZ Vertex 2 SSD to bring it back to life... now I'm thinking what else I could do to spruce it back up.

Will I see a noticeable difference by putting in another core? Would a E7500 be worthwhile? How about a Q6600? Would these be bottlenecked by the memory? By the motherboard? Do I need to increase cooling/power for a Core 2 Quad?

I'm thinking I only want to upgrade the CPU, and ram if necessary. It's basically going to be used as a light use computer, for web browsing, a lot of flash applications, and minecraft/ other lighter games. Would just dropping in a Q6600 alone be enough?

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

The problem with questions like this comes from two things. First is what are you going to be doing with the system. If you are going to be doing internet, word processing and not much else than you are going to fine moving up to the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E7500. However if you are try to game with it you are going to find while it is a big step up you to move to the Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 moving up to a new system would yeild better performance and value. Even at the same speed a 3rd generation Intel Core i3 would perform 30% + better then the an old Intel Core 2 Duo E7500.

You can pick up an Intel Pentium® G860, ASRock H77M, and 4GB of DDR 3 1600 for about $160. Which would be a faily major updade

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

The other problem with buying older components is that you limiting yourself on future products a great deal.

 

[Eureka]

Well, I already have a new i5 system for myself, this is an older spare computer which mainly the kids use. I know for one thing that heavy flash games bog down the system.

I think I should rephrase the question... how much of an upgrade in Minecraft/other low performance games should I see between an E7500 and a Q6600. And would my other parts limit this upgrade?

Thanks for any and all replies!

 

[OlafSicky]

It's not worth upgrading but if you want to, the only thing i would buy for it is a celeron e3400 or whatever the number for it is. You won't have to worry about psu and heat issues. These dial core celerons are cheap and should be much faster than what you have now.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Get a modern core i3 or amd APu

 

[VirtualLarry]

I saw recently on the FS forum someone had some 775 CPUs, including an E7400 or E7500 or something for like $32 shipped. Might want to check that out.

 

[Eureka]

That was actually what sparked it. I'm just not sure if I'll get enough of a boost from my E2140, and if it will be bottlenecked by my motherboard or RAM.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I'd go so far as to suggest you get a low-end AMD APU (A4-5300 or A6-5400K) + new MB (A55-based ones are dirt cheap) + DDR3 RAM instead. You'd get the benefit of both a fully modern CPU and GPU. Which for this kind of light use would feel like a bigger upgrade then an E7500.

A6-5400K performance is ~2/3rds (depending of benchmark) of A8-5600K performance, so its certainly competitive...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/676?vs=87

But that's just my 2c of opinion...

 

[Eureka]

Whoa, I never realized APU combinations were so cheap.. I'm finding a6 combos for under $80 at Fry's. But I have none of that near me... newegg retail prices pushes it over $150. A drop-in used 755 can cost me less than $50, easily.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Just a wild thought, but I assume your motherboard is PCI-E? Maybe you could drop in a modern low end GPU like a GT240 or HD6570. Don't those support Flash acceleration, and I believe most of the browsers are GPU accelerated now as well.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Just a wild thought, but I assume your motherboard is PCI-E? Maybe you could drop in a modern low end GPU like a GT240 or HD6570. Don't those support Flash acceleration, and I believe most of the browsers are GPU accelerated now as well.

I think that the majority of flash acceleration handled by video cards is for watching online video sites like YouTube and Hulu. I'm not really sure how much they accelerate flash games. Maybe some screen blitting, but so much of flash games is scaling and rotation and vector graphics, and video cards don't accelerate those things. (They are raster processors, not vector.)

So the OP would definitely be served better by upgrading the CPU, IMHO.

 

[Hubb1e]

Your sig says that E2140 is running at 2.4ghz. You may not get that much upgrade from another dual core, but a Q6600 would be a good upgrade. But, then you are still limited by your ancient graphics card and 2GB of DDR2 memory which is expensive to upgrade.

My suggestion for a light gaming box for the kids would be to go AMD FM2, drop in an A8 5600K and 4GB of 1866 memory and let the kids game on that. It will cost a bit more, but you get the graphics card and CPU upgrade all in one, plus you're on DDR3 memory which is dirt cheap. You may also find an FM1 A8 K model for super cheap as well and that could be a good option if you get it cheap enough.

 

[Symcy94]

You said about maincraft ... if I'm right, that game use kinda much RAM
So I would sugest you to upgrade motherboard +cpu + ram.
Ofcourse it cost more, but in future, you will be able to put in i3/5/7 (if you buy G630 + 1155 motherboard).

Making some upgrades on 775 socket is rly bad ... I had 775 before aswell with E6600 3,06GHz. It wasn't bad for single aplication use. But when it comes to multitasking ... it rly sux -.-

So my suggestion is to move on 1155 socker + other components.

 

[SPBHM]

for what you described the overclocked e2160 should be enough!?

but the x850 is quite old, doesn't support flash and video acceleration properly, and doesn't even support DX9C, so I think buying a lower end DX11 card would help (let's say a 6570)...

 

[TekDemon]

Unless you get the old intel CPUs for essentially free it makes no sense to perform any of these upgrades. I'd just wait for one of those $100 or less AMD combos to roll around if you don't mind not being on the cutting edge or just save up and get a 3570K combo if you have a microcenter nearby.

I saw a llano A4 bundle for $69 the other day including the mobo and CPU. If you overclock it to 3Ghz it'd be roughly equivalent to an E8400 at approximately 3Ghz (roughly) and I'm pretty sure it's cheaper to obtain.

 

[2is]

The difference between an e2140 and a e7500 is quite large, and Q6600 even larger. Problem with the Q6600 is the VRM's on that board are extremely anemic, not sure how it would handle it. THe other problem, that board is, in general, is pretty bad. Support both PCIe and AGP as well as both DDR and DDR2 is never a good thing. I personally would not spend any time or money trying to upgrade it.

 

[SPBHM]

Unless you get the old intel CPUs for essentially free it makes no sense to perform any of these upgrades. I'd just wait for one of those $100 or less AMD combos to roll around if you don't mind not being on the cutting edge or just save up and get a 3570K combo if you have a microcenter nearby.

I saw a llano A4 bundle for $69 the other day including the mobo and CPU. If you overclock it to 3Ghz it'd be roughly equivalent to an E8400 at approximately 3Ghz (roughly) and I'm pretty sure it's cheaper to obtain.

A4 at 3GHz wouldn't be as fast as the e8400... also overclocking the A4 is not so easy, in some boards it's actually almost impossible, also investing on FM1... doesn't seem like a great idea... maybe if he can find one A6 or A8 for a low price... but... also with $100 he can buy a 1155 MB + Celeron G540 (which is much faster as CPU than the A4)...

The difference between an e2140 and a e7500 is quite large, and Q6600 even larger. Problem with the Q6600 is the VRM's on that board are extremely anemic, not sure how it would handle it. THe other problem, that board is, in general, is pretty bad. Support both PCIe and AGP as well as both DDR and DDR2 is never a good thing. I personally would not spend any time or money trying to upgrade it.

q6600 is great when you can overclock, on this board he is probably limited to 2.4GHz... but still, it would be a nice upgrade, if he can find one for $60 or less (if the MB allow you to undervolt, my old 65nm quad could run at 2.6GHz with some pretty low voltages, it should help with the VRMs), that's why I think a VGA is a good buy, it will help with gaming, flash video... and since you can easily use on another build later... while 775 stuff and DDR2, not really...

I'm pretty sure his MB only supports 65nm CPUs.

 

[dbk]

Yeah if you up the CPU to a e7500 and pick up a HD6450 or something.. you should be fine. A used c2d + video card should run you less than $100

I'm still on the s775 train myself...q6600 @ 3.2ghz, ep45, 2 SSDs, HD5870, 8GB DDR2, Blu-Ray.. Runs the latest games at an adequate level.. skyrim, far cry3, bf3, etc. I don't really have any urges to upgrade

 

[Arkaign]

I have no idea why so many would want to go through the hassle of a major upgrade for a box that will work great with the E7500. That chip used can be found for cheap, you don't have to mess with a complete platform upgrade including ram/mobo/OS reload/etc. You can also probably find 2x2gb DDR2 fairly cheap as well used, which will be another nice boost. Top it off with a cheap used PCIe video card and you'll be better off imho compared to going through a complete upgrade.

Let's say you order on newegg. FM1 mobo ~$65 for a cheapish one. Another $30ish for 4GB DDR3. Another $75 for a midrange A6. Then you have to deal with full OS reload with such a gigantic platform change.

On the used route : (prices from various recent posts in our FS&T section)

E7500 $35 shipped
4GB DDR2 $25
4850 $35 shipped'

So $95, and I guarantee you an E7500 w/4850 will be more robust for gaming than an A6 with the integrated 6530D, which isn't that great even when you pair it with expensive 2133 ram, and is pretty mediocre with 1333 or 1600 ram. All for a good bit less $.

 

[2is]

CPU/RAM/GPU... You're getting mighty close to a whole new platform as it is. I think that's why so many people would go through the the hassle... You're just one component away.

 

[Arkaign]

CPU/RAM/GPU... You're getting mighty close to a whole new platform as it is. I think that's why so many people would go through the the hassle... You're just one component away.

For a primary gaming computer that makes sense to me, but seems overkill for the description in the OP.

CPU, RAM and GPU are all things that can be done in a few minutes. Going to a platform upgrade would be a much larger hassle, particularly if someone doesn't do it regularly. And then you have OS/drivers/apps/customization aspect to faff about with. To add to that, to really do better than a ~E7500/4GB/4850 build would cost a good bit more than $95, even if OP had a non-OEM version of Windows he could reuse.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Invest that same cash into a more modern system, IMO.

 

[Denithor]

I gotta say, really don't like that motherboard you have there, a real Franken-board kinda thing. Used two of them back in the day for customer rebuilds, both failed within about 18 months.

That said, if it's still chugging along, I would go the upgrade route laid out by Arkaign, but look for an e8400 on eBay. I've picked them up recently in the $40 shipped range. It's an excellent chip still for basic duty. Add a used 4850/9800GT and you'll be in business for quite a while for the stated uses.

 

[Eureka]

Thanks for all the help guys. I think I'm going to try and pick up a cheap CPU off the FS/FT section. I found out my friend probably has at least a gig of DDR2 RAM, so that'll bring me up to 3GB.

Would it matter to move past 667 RAM for an E7400/7500/8400/8500?

And why the video card upgrade? Is the x850xt worth upgrading to a 4850?

I've been using Passmark's benchmarks to compare all these choices, too. The 7500 scores about 1800 stock. A6-5400K scores about 2200. I can't really justify going from a $30 CPU to an entire A6 board setup for $90, and the E7500 is definitely faster than an A4-3400 which scores a 1700. But to be sure, how relevant is Passmark to what I'm look at?