Upgrade CPU

firefox1956

Looking to upgrade my Intel Pentium E5300 CPU.
Getting confused by what I could upgrade to !!
Can any of you techno's point me in the right direction ??
As this is MSE I dont want to spend loads of money !!
:D

esuhl

To be honest, every time in the past I've considered upgrading my CPU, it's worked out very expensive for very little extra performance.

It might be cost-effective if you can sell your old CPU on eBay, and you buy a secondhand upgrade.

Anyway, if you check the manual for the motherboard, it should tell you which CPUs are compatible.

Cisco001

Download and run CPU-Z. Tell us what motherboard you have got.

firefox1956

Processor 1 ID = 0
Number of cores 2 (max 2)
Number of threads 2 (max 2)
Name Intel Pentium E5300
Codename Wolfdale
Specification Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5300 @ 2.60GHz
Package (platform ID) Socket 775 LGA (0x0)
CPUID 6.7.A
Extended CPUID 6.17
Core Stepping R0
Technology 45 nm
TDP Limit 65.0 Watts
Core Speed 1699.9 MHz
Multiplier x Bus Speed 8.5 x 200.0 MHz
Rated Bus speed 800.0 MHz
Stock frequency 2600 MHz

Cisco001

Can you go to mainboard tab please?

Also how much RAM have you got?

Any SSD?

firefox1956

4gb RAM No SSD
Can't copy & paste CPU-Z data but will this do ??
Northbridge
Intel G41 rev. A3
Southbridge
Intel 82801GB (ICH7/R) rev. A1
Memory Type
DDR2
Memory Size
4 GBytes
Channels
Dual, (Symmetric)
Memory Frequency
400.0 MHz (1:2)
CAS# latency (CL)
6.0
RAS# to CAS# delay (tRCD)
6
RAS# Precharge (tRP)
6
Cycle Time (tRAS)
18
Row Refresh Cycle Time (tRFC)
52
Command Rate (CR)
2T
Host Bridge
0x2E30

Cisco001

I suggest you grab Core 2 Quad Q8XXX or Q9XXX from ebay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/INTEL-Q8400-CORE-2-QUAD-CPU-2-66GHZ-SLGT6-/252691168329?hash=item3ad5913c49:g:uHYAAOSwawpXqeLO

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Core-2-Quad-Q9400-2-66-GHz-Quad-Core-CPU-SLB6B-/282293876196?hash=item41ba06b5e4:g:COUAAOSwA3dYVEXo

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_sop=15&_nkw=q9550&LH_PrefLoc=1&rt=nc&LH_BIN=1

You will need some rubbing alcohol to clean existing thermal phase on heatsink and apply new thermal phase when install cpu

If you got spare cash, consider a 120GB or 250GB SSD as boot drive.

firefox1956

Many thanks will have a look see.

SouthUKMan

I've upgraded quite a few PCs over the years for friends and family alongside running adult education classes on computers. In my experience, upgrading the CPU tends to have very little real world benefit, particularly considering a CPU can be the single most costly part of a PC. If a computer feels sluggish then it is far more likely to be an issue with the hard disk or Windows installation. Either way, upgrading to an SSD drive will often breath new life into an old PC - ideally with a fresh Windows installation, or if you don't want to go down that root - copy across the entire disc image onto the SSD.

Zeitgeist

SouthUKMan wrote: »

I've upgraded quite a few PCs over the years for friends and family alongside running adult education classes on computers. In my experience, upgrading the CPU tends to have very little real world benefit, particularly considering a CPU can be the single most costly part of a PC. If a computer feels sluggish then it is far more likely to be an issue with the hard disk or Windows installation. Either way, upgrading to an SSD drive will often breath new life into an old PC - ideally with a fresh Windows installation, or if you don't want to go down that root - copy across the entire disc image onto the SSD.

Very true, although you will notice a small difference going from dual core to a quad core.

Moon_Keh

At the beginning of the year, I took my late middle-aged desktop and gave it a makeover. I upgraded RAM (doubled, sold old components) and CPU (looked for best spec cheap component, bought that and sold old CPU). Both "new" components were second-hand. I then upgraded the optical drive with a second-hand one, escorted its failing predecessor to the dump. When investigating CPUs, I noticed that the motherboard supported SATA2: my hard drive wasn't a SATA2 drive, so I asked my father-in-law who gave me what I needed for nowt. The old component was destroyed before disposal (it was metamorphosing into a paperweight anyway). Finally, I bought a better wireless LAN card. I kept old one. Total cost about £30, taking into account both the purchases and sales involved. And £10 of that was a wireless LAN card that wasn't strictly necessary.

Up to this point I'd seen a small improvement with each change. However, I then changed my operating system. In this instance I swapped a reasonably recent Linux Mint MATE for Lubuntu. The difference was noticeable, although not as massive as I've got in the past when switching a PC from Windows to Linux.

If you can persuade yourself that it's possible to live without Windows (I found it surprisingly easy) then give a Linux distro a go. I've replaced Windows with Linux on a few PCs and in every case the performance improvement has been massive. Early days, Linux will give your brain a workout, but it isn't that bad, just different, as long as you stick to a popular distro. This approach doesn't involve dismantling anything either.