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Bill  All-Star Member  5334 Posts 6/00 |  Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 1:47PMI have a two year old Dell Intel Pentium D 820 (2.8GHz) Dual Core system. I'm thinking about upgrading to something faster/more powerful. Can I just upgrade the CPU to one of the current CPU's or do I need to buy a new system? Don't recommend that I build my own machine, that's just not going to happen. I have no idea what motherboard I currently have (I don't know how to find out), but are the new CPU's compatible with 2 year old motherboards?  [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 2:01PM For instance my board will only work with intel socket 775 chips. Not many are faster then then one I am using so if I were going to do any upgrading right now I would buy some ram. Anyway. I love problems like this I just want more information so I can make an informed suggestion. But to answer your question there should be new CPUs that will work with your board.  [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 2:09PM [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 2:16PM Open the side of your PC and look around. The model number is almost always next to the brand name. (the only example of the format I can think of right now is that I use an Asus P5ND2, it won't be called anything useful or memorable like an "Asus wolverine".) Don't worry about grounding or anything as you won't be touching anything inside. The worst you'll have to do is take something like a chopstick and push some wires or ribbon cables out of your way so you can see. Knowing what board you have is nice because you can do research and see how other people have set up their hardware to get some ideas of what upgrades would be best. There might be a better way to upgrade then CPU. For example your board may be DDR2 compatible but you aren't actually using DDR2 in it. Things like that can make a big difference and potentially be cheaper then a new CPU. Also if it's been a while since you updated your BIOS doing so could have very positive effect on performance. You'll be able to do that once you determine the make and model of your MoBo. Edited by - conquistador on 8/19/2007 2:20:05 PM [Link] |
| Redish Poetic Moderator Long and Cursive road to the Ivory Pagoda in the province of Loraine 4076 Posts 12/03 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 2:17PM [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 2:43PM Here's what is shown on the "System Configuration" page: 0 149DF INFORMATION, PREPARATION MATERIAL, DEVIATION, PRECISION WORKSTATION, INCREASE, #2 1 W9441 PROCESSOR, 80551, PENTIUM D SMITHFIELD FOR DESKTOPS, 820, SKT-T, MALE 1 J4628 KEYBOARD, 104, UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS, UNITED STATES, ENTRY, LEAD FREE, LITEON 1 W7751 MOUSE, UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS, 2BTN, LEAD FREE, ENTRY, PRIMAX ELECTRONICS LTD 2 F6761 DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE, 512, 533M, 64X64, 8, 240, 1RX8 1 X2749 MODEM, V.92, DATA FAX, INTERNAL, DONNY, DELL AMERICAS ORGANIZATION 1 D9404 ASSEMBLY, COMPACT DISK READ WRITE, 48X, HALF HEIGHT, SONY, CHASSIS 2005 1 D7191 ASSEMBLY, DIGITAL VIDEO DISK DRIVE, 16X, HALF HEIGHT, HITACHI LG DATA STORAGE, CHASSIS 2005 1 Y8365 CARD (CIRCUIT), GRAPHICS, X300, SERVER ENHANCED, MRMGA9A 1 6X215 HARD DRIVE, 250G, NATIVE COMMAND QUEUEING, 7.2K, 8M, LEAD FREE, MXT-SA 1 TC400 KIT, SOFTWARE, MCAF-SCTY, 6.0, COMPACT DISK DRIVE, ENGLAND/ENGLISH 1 CD940 KIT, SOFTWARE, WORDPERFECT, 12, PLUS-TRIAL 1 G6566 DISPLAY, FLAT PANEL DISPLAY, 19, DUAL VOLTAGE, E193FPP, MIDNIGHT GRAY, DELL AMERICAS ORGANIZATION [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 2:54PM I had a Gateway that I wanted to work on but the company made finding out what the actual hardware was rather obscure. I I couldn't find anything but general stuff on their web page (like the speed of the cpu which I was already well aware off). Turns out the only place I could locate the model number was on the board itself, under a sticker. It took me a while to get to that point. Edited by - conquistador on 8/19/2007 3:48:10 PM [Link] |
| willywilly Member Activated Member 662 Posts 2/05 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 3:37PM Everest It is free. I don't know how it will ID Dell motherboards - maybe they are something unique. With other motherboards, it seems to work. If it works on your Dell, you should be able to copy and paste the info back to here. Everest will give you a LOT of info about your system. You can also have it save a nice report to a plain text file. If you do that, when you search it for your motherboard info, don't stop at the first instance of "motherboard". There is likely more. [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 3:50PM It found: Motherboard ID 12/22/2006-C19MCP04-P5ND2-B-00 Which is true but totally confusing if I didn't already know to be looking for P5ND2. [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 3:58PM Field Value Motherboard Properties Motherboard ID Motherboard Name Dell Dell DXP051 Front Side Bus Properties Bus Type Intel NetBurst Bus Width 64-bit Real Clock 200 MHz (QDR) Effective Clock 800 MHz Bandwidth 6400 MB/s Memory Bus Properties Bus Type Dual DDR2 SDRAM Bus Width 128-bit Real Clock 267 MHz (DDR) Effective Clock 533 MHz Bandwidth 8533 MB/s Chipset Bus Properties Bus Type Intel Direct Media Interface Motherboard Manufacturer Company Name Dell Computer Corporation Product Information http://www.dell.com BIOS Download http://support.dell.com [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 4:02PM Bill: can you give the model number for the cpu you are using (if you did already I just didn't notice cause I'm dense like that). Like "Intel Pentium 4 630". So I can look at what processors could replace the one you have. Edited by - conquistador on 8/19/2007 4:05:37 PM [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 4:07PM [ invalid url ] [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 4:08PM Thanks for your help guys. Now I need to decide whether I really want to drop 2 grand on a new machine or not. Edited by - Bill on 8/19/2007 4:09:13 PM [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 4:09PM [Link] |
| willywilly Member Activated Member 662 Posts 2/05 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 4:16PM Even if you don't need it right now, it is nice to have it around. Someday, it will come in handy. If nothing else, the price is right. [Link] |
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| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 4:34PM If this is something you don't feel comfortable with then buy something new and pre-built. But if you want to learn about computers and save some money then there are practically limitless resources out there to help. [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 5:19PM [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Aug 19 2007 : 5:30PM [Link] |
| Bob All-Star Member 5516 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Aug 20 2007 : 12:32AM On another note, "Tom's Hardware.com" has an [ invalid url ] with a series of benchmark tests. There's also a price/performance rating. It gives you some sense of the bang you'll get for your buck, especially depending on the kinds of tasks you generally use your computer for. [Link] |
| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 | Posted - Aug 20 2007 : 2:14AM [Link] |
| Bob All-Star Member 5516 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Aug 20 2007 : 2:21AM Have you considered just buying another 512MB to 1GB of RAM? [Link] |
| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 | Posted - Aug 20 2007 : 6:45AM [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Aug 20 2007 : 7:33PM I'm converting a lot of video to DVD. Video compression is using up relatively little RAM, but 100% of my CPU and the process takes longer than I would like. [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Aug 20 2007 : 7:38PM I'm not a big gamer. So I'm not all that concerned with the Video Card. [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Aug 20 2007 : 7:48PM Remember that you can spend less money filling your computer case with fans and get a bigger boost in performance then buying any real hardware. I don't know how your Dell case is ventilated but my Gateways have been put together badly. Adding extra fans had boosted performances for many of my factory model machines. Edited by - conquistador on 8/20/2007 7:48:57 PM Edited by - conquistador on 8/20/2007 7:52:06 PM [Link] |
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| Bob All-Star Member 5516 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Aug 20 2007 : 8:04PM [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Aug 20 2007 : 8:29PM When comparing my current processor on Tom's Hardware, the Quad 6600 averages about 1/2 the time as my current processor does to perform each of the tasks being tested. [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Aug 20 2007 : 8:44PM [Link] |
| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 | Posted - Aug 21 2007 : 1:34AM [Link] |
| jonfr Member 12 Posts 2/07 | Posted - Aug 21 2007 : 1:42AM Edited by - jonfr on 8/21/2007 1:42:56 AM [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Aug 21 2007 : 7:30PM CPU: (Quad-Core)Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz 1066FSB 8MB L2 Cache 64-bit MOTHERBOARD: (Quad-Core FSB1333) Asus P5N32-E nForce 680i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)4GB (2x2GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD Microsoft(R) Windows Vista(TM) Ultimate (64-bit Edition) Thanks for everyone's help. [Link] |
| conquistador Deactivated User Hellhamster. 2947 Posts 10/03 | Posted - Aug 21 2007 : 7:49PM [Link] |
| Bob All-Star Member 5516 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Aug 21 2007 : 8:06PM [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Aug 21 2007 : 8:53PM [Link] |
| Harri Patel Senior Member #SDNY he's all yours. -- Michael Steele 5110 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Aug 21 2007 : 9:25PM Is this a name-brand machine, or are you having it put together for you by someone? [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Aug 21 2007 : 10:31PM I got an e-mail back from them tonight telling me that they were removing the fax modem from the machine because the motherboard doesn't have enough PCI slots. I need to be able to fax with this machine (it's the reason that I went with Vista Ultimate rather than Vista Premium). So, it appears that I'm going to have to remove the sound card instead. It was a low level sound card (Sound Blaster Audigy SE) anyway and the audio from the motherboard appears to be decent. [Link] |
| Bob All-Star Member 5516 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Aug 22 2007 : 12:58PM [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Aug 22 2007 : 8:18PM It's kind of like the new high definition DVD players. While they can play Blu-ray discs or HD DVD's, they can also play standard DVD's. [Link] |
| Fausty Member 19 Posts 8/07 | Posted - Aug 24 2007 : 3:38PM Peace, Fausty & Friends. [Link] |
| jonfr Member 12 Posts 2/07 | Posted - Aug 26 2007 : 1:59AM [Link] |
| RandomPrecision Senior Member Enjoy! 8175 Posts 3/06 | Posted - Aug 26 2007 : 8:53AM If you really need something better, I think you can get a USB sound card so you don't need a slot. [Link] |
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