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Jul - Computers and Technology - Any sense upgrading CPU alone? New poll - New thread - New reply
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xdaniel
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Posted on 02-14-13 01:08:49 AM Link | Quote


>>ESTABLISHING LINK...DONE.    >>FETCHING POST DATA...DONE.    >>EXECUTING POSTDISP.BIN...


My main desktop's performance is becoming less and less sufficient, with the Brisbane core in its Athlon 64 X2 being around five or six years old by now, I believe. If I could afford it easily, I would just get myself a new mainboard, CPU and RAM, but as it stands right now, I don't think I'll be able to anytime soon.

The board's a simple ECS GeForce7050M-M V2, the current CPU an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2.2 GHz, RAM being 3 GB DDR2 - tho I still need to check that other 2 GB stick I have here, see if it's not broken and I can get it to work without stability issues, so it's potentially 4 GB RAM. The video card is a relatively recent, albeit low-end Radeon HD 5450 with 512 MB RAM.

Keeping the cost in mind, I'm thinking of a later AM2+ Athlon X2, like an Athlon X2 7550 or 7750 with 2.5 GHz or 2.7 GHz, respectively. Those can be had for around 30€ on eBay here, while a new board, etc. would be at least 150€ or so. Those two in particular are also the fastest Athlon X2 my board can support.

So, would it make sense to invest a bit of money into a new CPU alone? Or is that just money down the drain?


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Posted on 02-18-13 05:27:00 AM Link | Quote
I'm not too familiar with AMD sockets, but if the chipset and socket are compatible, a 6yo CPU is something you could benefit from replacing, yes. That said, as far as performance goes you're honestly far better off saving up and purchasing fully new hardware. You'll see a far better bang for your buck (and Watt) than merely by upgrading your CPU.

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Posted on 02-18-13 11:26:05 AM Link | Quote
Post #4983 · Mon 130218 072605
Before you upgrade the CPU, you should set up some programs to monitor CPU and memory usage while you work. Unless you're doing heavy number crunching, CPU speed usually isn't a big factor in performance; usually the CPU spends most of its time waiting for the disk. Especially if you're low on RAM, paging things in and out of memory will bring any CPU to a crawl.

If your CPU usage is usually high, the first thing I'd do is look at what's hogging it. Often it's just a crappy program running amok. If it really does seem to be just too damn slow, then upgrading it is not a bad idea, but you might be better off waiting until you can afford to upgrade CPU, RAM and mainboard all at once.

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Posted on 02-18-13 01:24:08 PM (last edited by Bagel at 02-18-13 01:27:04 PM) Link | Quote
I just upgraded *from* a 7750BE in December. It's ... a reliable processor but it's not really going to be a huge upgrade in speed; it was a bottleneck even for an nVidia GTX 460. It's still a five-year-old CPU. You could overclock the 7750 since its frequency multiplier is unlocked but only if your motherboard supports it and your power supply has the capacity to do so. In short it's probably not worth the upgrade. The AM2+ socket has been phased out for quite a while and you would definitely be better off waiting until you can get a whole new system.

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xdaniel
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Posted on 03-14-13 03:46:59 AM Link | Quote


>>ESTABLISHING LINK...DONE.    >>FETCHING POST DATA...DONE.    >>EXECUTING POSTDISP.BIN...


After long deliberation, I've decided to upgrade CPU, board and RAM all at once. I'm saving up, looking at the finances, etc. and am now planning to get one of the many upgrade bundles available on Amazon here soon-ish.

There's two bundles in particular I'm interested in: both feature an Athlon II X2 250 (Socket AM3, 3 GHz) and have 8 GB PC1333 DDR3-RAM in two modules of 4 GB each, while one comes with a Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 and the other with an Asus M5A78L-M LE mainboard. The Gigabyte-based bundle is 139€, the Asus-based one is 149€.

I'm leaning towards the Gigabyte board because it has 4 RAM slots as opposed to the Asus' two, so I can simply add more memory if needed instead of having to replace the existing RAM. The Gigabyte only has one PCI slot compared to the Asus' two, but I only have one PCI card in the system for WLAN, which I'm probably going to take out anyway and get some cables laid down instead. Other, lesser factors for the Gigabyte are 2x USB 3.0 vs. apparently USB 2.0 only on the Asus, as well as - as minuscule as it may sound - the 10€ price difference.

I realize that both aren't anywhere near a high-end system, but either should still be a good upgrade from my current one, right?


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Jul - Computers and Technology - Any sense upgrading CPU alone? New poll - New thread - New reply


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