Want to speed up my setup, what chip do I buy?

Tsai Shen · #1 02-23-2006, 04:12 PM

Hey,

this might sound goofy but I'm running a relatively sluggish 1.6 gb celeron or something like that. Need to speed it up. Don't want to buy a new PC, so what do I do? Do I need to buy a chip or a chip and a new motherboard? Then what? Is this a bitch to install?

wonderwes · #2 02-23-2006, 04:55 PM

You need to find out your motherboard model number. You can then look at the specs and see what processors it will allow. That should give you your answer. Also is this a dell or a self made computer? I say this because you want at least a 350W power supply for a higher end pentium chip.

If you can get anytype of faster p4 chip for your machine then it will make a difference. Also if you dont have 1gig of ram, this would be the time to get some more.

Tsai Shen · #3 02-23-2006, 04:58 PM

It's an HP. We're buying more RAM too, my wife is on me hard about that.

Is it hard to switch chips?

wonderwes · #4 02-23-2006, 07:22 PM

Well an HP board still should have a brandname motherboard in it. If you could get the model of it that would help.

Yes, it is a pain to switch out a processor. You have to pull off the heatsync fan which is tricky to get on and off, then pull out the processor then put in the new processor and reattach the fan. All while having to do this in the narrow space you have room for in the case.

Since it is an HP, I bet they probably make it difficult as possible to do that. It just might be better to get a cheap $300-400 dell and just devote that machine for poker.

Plus you need to find the exact type of RAM that is in your machine because you have to use the same type of RAM. And if it is an older box, it will be harder to find outdated RAM.

Terry · #5 02-24-2006, 01:51 AM

Your computer is just to old to spend money on. Nothing you can add to it will make it run as fast as even a very cheap new one.

Tsai Shen · #6 02-24-2006, 01:57 AM

I take it back, it's an Athlon XP 3000+ 2.1 Ghz with 512 ram and a 160 gb hd (with another internal and a 140 gb external.) Sweet dual dvi video card too. So if I throw in another gig of ram and maybe do something to the chip how bad could it be?

Terry · #7 02-24-2006, 03:54 AM

Well that's a whole different story ... that's the same as mine, except I have 1GB RAM. Adding the second 512 made a difference but not a great one.

You could probably upgrade the 3000+ a little but it wouldn't make enough difference to notice, so probably not worth the money.

I'd suggest more RAM and a thorough house-cleaning; spyware check, defrag, and if you're using Norton get rid of it and try AVG.