Upgrading Northwood 2.6GHz for ~$40

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
A

asuh

Golden Member
Sep 7, 2002
1,059
2
91
My budget is super low, the lower the better.

I see lots of 3.2 and 3.4 Prescotts out there so I could go with this, but will I REALLY see any good advantages over my 2.6C? I know I won't see a HUGE performance increase with these chips but something is better than nothing.

In this day and age, is there a significant difference between the 3.x Northwood and 3.x Prescott chips? Will I even *notice* a difference between the 2.6 and 3.x?

Why upgrade so minimally? I just upgraded to Windows 7 RC and I do lots of photo editing in Photoshop. No gaming at all but some movies, music and lots of web designing. So multitasking could benefit from this upgrade as well.

FYI: About to upgrade to Crucial 2GB (1GBx2) PC3200 CL3 and 1TB Hitachi Deskstar 0A38016.

Specs:
P4 2.6C Northwood
Asus P4P800-D
1GB (512x2) PC3200 400MHz Corsair ValueRAM
160GB Seagate 7200RPM
430W Antec PSU
 
VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,348
10,048
126
Originally posted by: geokilla
Save your money till you have enough to buy a new rig.
Click to expand...

Ditto. For the price that the top-end P4s are still going for, you are better off getting a dual-core CPU, probably an AMD around 2.8-3.0 Ghz, and the money that you were going to spend on 2GB of DDR memory, spend that on a decent AM2+ or AM3 motherboard, something with DDR2 memory slots, and then just pick up some cheap DDR2 to go with it. You will be much happier in the long run.

Originally posted by: asuh
Will I even *notice* a difference between the 2.6 and 3.x?
Click to expand...
Probably not. I overclocked my friend's 2.8 to 3.2, and the only thing that was noticably faster was the SeventeenorBust output number. Subjectively, it was basically the same.

You WILL notice a difference if you throw a dual-core in there.
 
A

asuh

Golden Member
Sep 7, 2002
1,059
2
91
Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm afraid of upgrading to a faster CPU. I found a used 3.2 for like $25 on eBay and was/am tempted but I'm hesitant. I don't have money to get the anything else though.
 
Arkaign

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,377
126
$100 should get you an X2, a respectable mobo, and either 2gb or 4gb of ddr2.
 
F

faxon

Platinum Member
May 23, 2008
2,109
1
81
we have combos at frys regularly for cpu/mobo for under or around $100. sometimes they are for sempron chips, but occasionally you see e2200s or e5xxx chips for $120 with mobo (usually only open box left) and ram is cheap as shit. if you dont mind IGP you could reuse the rest of your system after that lol
 
A

asuh

Golden Member
Sep 7, 2002
1,059
2
91
Haha, ok ok, I get it! Don't bother upgrading and just go for the gold.

Arkaign, where do you find a combo like that?! That seems a little unbelievable.

Anyone wanna donate their old hardware?! hahaha
 
A

asuh

Golden Member
Sep 7, 2002
1,059
2
91
Nice. It's too bad I live in CA because there's tax and shipping. Ugh.

Well, if anyone has any old hardware they just wanna get rid of, look me up! I'm POOR.
 
Y

Yukmouth

Senior member
Aug 1, 2008
461
0
0
One day, when you can afford a baller system, you will ball; HARD. For now, max that b*tch out or be happy!
 
R

Rhoxed

Golden Member
Jun 23, 2007
1,051
3
81
try overclocking? the asus p4p800 was one of the best P4 board to OC on, i managed to get a 2.4 P4 to 3.6 on stock cooling
 
S

swanysto

Golden Member
May 8, 2005
1,949
9
81
Tell you what... you come up with a motherboard and RAM, I will send you my spare E8500 for the price of shipping. I might have an old Abit IP35-e around here somewhere, not sure if it is still working or not though.
 
A

asuh

Golden Member
Sep 7, 2002
1,059
2
91
Rhoxed, I tried OCing it several years ago but gave up as I saw absolutely no subjective difference when I got it up to the 3.x+GHz range. It really didn't feel faster at all. Funny though, that was totally my intention when I originally bought the board! Life just took me in different directions.

swanysto, are you serious about sending me your E8500 for the price of shipping only?! Shoot, that's crazy awesome if you're serious.

I could just settle for a Micro-ATX and 2GB RAM for ~$80 if you send me that CPU!! Please PM me if you're serious. Also, if you DID find that Abit and don't want it, I'm yours!!
 
I

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,118
58
91
asuh do you pay your electric bill or is it covered for you by someone/something else?

I only ask because if $40 is the budget for a cpu then in all likelihood you are going to spend even more than $40 in the next 12 months from just the extra electricity your rig is going to consume by overclocking it or by putting a stock prescott in it.

If you are on a hardware budget that is of the same order of magnitude as the annual electricity expense of the hardware then you really need to be prioritizing performance/watt in your upgrade or performance enhancement (overclocking existing rig) options.

For example my Q6600 @3.3GHz costs me $15/month and that is without a gaming GPU or monitor (it is a headless crunching box that I remote desktop into).
 
A

asuh

Golden Member
Sep 7, 2002
1,059
2
91
Idontcare, I don't pay for my electric bill b/c all bills are paid! However, that's a good point for people who do. Overall cost might not seem tangible to realize in the short-term but it really does matter.

So if your Q6600 only costs $15/mo, I wonder how much my P2.6 costs. Hmmm...
 
I

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,118
58
91
Originally posted by: asuh
So if your Q6600 only costs $15/mo, I wonder how much my P2.6 costs. Hmmm...
Click to expand...

It probably costs about the same, just you get far less performance despite using the same amount of electricity so your performance/watt will be significantly lower.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom