Processor question.

Hellrazer

Wonering if someone can help me with a small upgrade issue.

Currently running a p4 2.8(c-i think-no HT-socket 478) at 3.2 fully prime 95 stable.Ram is 1gig pc3200.

Ive just found out that my mobo can support 800fsb Northwood/Prescott P4s with HT through "overclocking" according to Gigabytes site.Im assuming that I stick in the new cpu,up the fsb to 800 in the bios and that should be it??


Anyway question is this: Should I go for a higher cpu as in 3.6+ or would I see any gain in this upgrade.Bearing in mind that Im still using a board with AGP,should I go all out and go for new mobo,graphics card etc.

Thanks
Richie.

julius

Go all out and get a new setup.

As Mobos are so cheap get the CPU which suits you and not your mobo.

Personially I'd say that 2.8GHz is fine for most things includeing games as GFX cards are the bottleneck in that department these days.

BloodBath

You won't notice any difference beteen 3.2 and 3.6 tbh. Stick with what you have unless you want to upgrade the other parts.


BloodBath

Hellrazer

I didnt really think that 400mhz would make much difference tbh,I was more concerned with the Hyper Threading being a bit better.

So onto my next question--Graphics card is currently a 9700PRO all in wonder clocked at 380mem/350 core (I think--arctic cooler fitted)--Recommend me an upgrade to this.

Is there much difference between this and a 9800pro or should I go down the road of a 6600/6800 gt in agp?

Forgot to add I use this mainly for gaming and Im usually able to run most games on High settings with AA/AF turned off or on low AA/AF settings(AA/AF doesnt really bother me tbh once I get a decent frame rate and no lag online)

Thanks again,
Richie

BloodBath

I wouldn't bother with a 9800 pro or a 6600gt over a 9700pro. There will be little difference. If your going to upgrade the card get a 6800gt or an x800xl. The x800xl is a great buy for around 300e. You could wait a couple of months for the new cards to come out which will drive the prices down if you don't dancy spending 320e or so.


BloodBath

Darwin

Hi..I had a 9700pro and 9800pro in two different machines, you won't notice much of a difference between them. If you're budget won't stretch to a 6800GT, this months PC ZONE rate the (silent) Gigabyte 6600GT with heatpipe configuration over the BFG 6600GT.

gline

Hellrazer wrote:

Ive just found out that my mobo can support 800fsb Northwood/Prescott P4s with HT through "overclocking" according to Gigabytes site.Im assuming that I stick in the new cpu,up the fsb to 800 in the bios and that should be it??

.

Im assuming ur current cpu isnt 800mhz bus, id say you would notice a good difference in getting a faster prescott like mine, they are good, get a 3.2ghz and oc it good and proper, hehehe

dubdvd

only problem i,d have with your current cpu is that if your running more than one app you can notice the system slow down and frezzing up in some cases ...if your running something like a heavy video-encoding job which uses up 100% useage your other apps will be at a snails pace as with the HT its alot better for multitasking ...

as with all upgrade quetions its all down to what you are going to be doing with your system ??????

gline

dubdvd wrote:

only problem i,d have with your current cpu is that if your running more than one app you can notice the system slow down and frezzing up in some cases ...if your running something like a heavy video-encoding job which uses up 100% useage your other apps will be at a snails pace as with the HT its alot better for multitasking ...

as with all upgrade quetions its all down to what you are going to be doing with your system ??????

well this p4 is hardly an upgrade, just a media centre i built for listening to music and watchin video and an occasional arcadey game

Hellrazer

Its mainly a gaming system.I leave my dvds encoding overnight so dont use more than one app at a time.System is running fine and like I say Im not sure which upgrade route to go.I reckon I could probably get 3.6 on this with water cooling so that might also be an option.Im getting 3.2 on standard heat sink fan setup.

So from what Im reading so far my Cpu is fine(unless Im running multiple tasks,which Im not) and the graphics card may be the route to go down??
Cheers
Richie

gline

Hellrazer wrote:

So from what Im reading so far my Cpu is fine(unless Im running multiple tasks,which Im not) and the graphics card may be the route to go down??
Cheers
Richie

unless its going to be a x800 or 6800 then no point in upgrading, i would seriously think of a cpu upgrade too

Hellrazer

gline wrote:

unless its going to be a x800 or 6800 then no point in upgrading, i would seriously think of a cpu upgrade too

Ok so what Processor would you recommend??Its a socket 478 board and will support all 800fsb cpus.

gline

Hellrazer wrote:

Ok so what Processor would you recommend??Its a socket 478 board and will support all 800fsb cpus.

yeh id say a 3.2 or 3.4 prescott or if u have tonnes of cash go for an EE, socket 478 is still not a bad system, no need to go the whole hog and upgrade to a new socket, it will see u until dual-cores are here

BloodBath

yeh id say a 3.2 or 3.4 prescott or if u have tonnes of cash go for an EE, socket 478 is still not a bad system, no need to go the whole hog and upgrade to a new socket, it will see u until dual-cores are here

Until dual cores outperform singles in more than multi-tasking


BloodBath