Processor help

Kido

As the motherboard in my Dad's computer has failed, I'm looking at the options for upgrading it. At the moment he has an AMD 2.41Ghz Dual Core processor and I'm thinking of changing it to an Intel in the region of 3ghz. My question is are the i3 processors better than the Intel Dual Core as the Dual Core's are a lot cheaper. We're not after anything special, Dad only plays basic games, although some do have graphics on them. His old computer was perfectly capable of running them fine.

fwor

There are improvements in the later models but TBH I doubt for his use he would perceive any improvement.

When I last updated one of my PCs earlier this year I deliberately chose an older design of processor (the Core 2 quad) because it was massively cheaper and had only slightly less performance than the equivalent i-series.

rrf494g

a new motherboard will bring more questions than just which processor. Just in case you haven't yet thought of it, when buying a new motherboard it's best to check . . .

Do I have IDE discs/dvd players or SATA to connect?
Do I need USB 3 capability? or USB 2?
Do I have a graphics board that I need to use- is so is it AGP,PCI or PCI express.
Do want a combined processor/ graphics chip?
What power supply do I have (eg atx 24 pin) ?

sorry if this is already covered.
regards

visidigi

the other question to ask is did he buy his last PC off the shelf from a branded company? If so are any of the current parts only compatible witht he current 'dead' motherboard - e.g. propriatary fittings and plugs etc.

Kido

Thanks for all the advice.

We're planning on doing pretty much a full upgrade. At the moment he's got a bits and bats computer. Whatever my brother and I have had left over from upgrading ours over the years.

He's currently got, 2GB Memory (not quite sure which kind), an AMD 2.41ghz Dual core processor, motherboard to match processor, IDE DVD & 2x IDE HDD and a 500w ATX PSU.

Looking at our local computer shop where my brother and I have always bought our bits from we've pretty much decided that we're going to replace the CPU with an Intel Pentium Dual-Core, E5700, S775, Wolfdale-3M, 3.0GHz, get a motherboard to match (probably a Gigabyte GA-G41MT-S2P as that's what they've put together on their bundles) 4GB DDR3 SDRAM, a new 500GB HDD and DVD drive, both of which are SATA.

Hopefully this lot should give him a few more years of worry free computing.

visidigi

Yep good call for his needs by the sounds of it...