CPU Upgrade

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indapie2000

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#57350 10-Feb-2010 15:56

I currently have an oldish Compaq Presario with AMD Sempron 3100+ processor, I want to upgrade this as it's just getting too slow for me, and some applications I want to run wont't due to slow speed.

Looking on the Compaq/HP site and my motherboard's info ( http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00257657&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=nz&lang=en&product=460242 ) it says maximum approved processor:

Socket 754

Supports the following processors:
- AMD Athlon 64 3700+ processor (Clawhammer, 2.4 GHz)
- AMD Athlon 64 3400+ processor (Newcastle, 2.4 GHz)
- AMD Sempron

Reading around, I find these processors are pretty much out of production.

My question is, should I upgrade it, and where could I find one, or is it worth it upgrading the motherboard to a newer one that supports socket 939?

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#297702 10-Feb-2010 16:19

Socket 754 has been out of production for years! I would not recommend upgrading to a socket 939 board, this is just as obsolete as your 754! Socket 939 was obsoleted a couple years after 754, after that came the Am platform, then AM2, and now we are at socket AM3! As you can see things have come along way since your machine.
Basically it all depends on what you want to do with your pc. You could find a cheap 2nd hand 754 processor on trademe and chuck some more ram in it too, however its not going to give you a major speed increase.
If your wanting more speed, the only way forward really is a new mobo, cpu and ram.. For a reasonable amd machine you could get all this for under $600 (when i say reasonable i mean, office reasonable, not a gaming machine).

indapie2000

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#297798 10-Feb-2010 21:56

See this is what I'm trying to suss out, whether or not its worth upgrading the one I've got now, or get new motherboard, or brand new PC all together.
I guess if I got a new motherboard, there would be more options to what I can do with it (possible future upgrades etc) and keep all my files/settings.

Would a new MB be easy to source? (Trademe or Pricespy) and easy to install? Or may leave to an expert to get that done for me

Regs

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Snowflake

#297800 10-Feb-2010 21:57

perhaps the money you save buying AMD cpu comes back to bite you in the a55 if you want to upgrade later. intel seems to keep to the same socket for a bit longer than AMD.

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garvani

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#297816 10-Feb-2010 22:37

Regs: perhaps the money you save buying AMD cpu comes back to bite you in the a55 if you want to upgrade later. intel seems to keep to the same socket for a bit longer than AMD.

Sorry but that is simply not true..

Am2 was released mid 2006, with am3 being released early 2009.. A three year life cycle is not bad.. You can still buy am2+ boards easily enough too. At the moment there is two sockets that fits all amd consumer desktop processors (New processors go into the am3 boards however, with legacy products still availbe from suppliers for am2 platform).
AMD are far less likely to change sockets as often as Intel.. Just look at the core i7 and core i5's.. two different sockets for those chips, whose smart idea was that.

Ragnor

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#297829 10-Feb-2010 23:33

It's not worth upgrading something that old in my opinion, in addition usually it's quite troublesome to upgrade a package "whitebox" system like HP and Dell.

browned

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#297870 11-Feb-2010 09:22

One upgrade that will speed things up for you is a decent Solid State Drive, SSD. Cost is high but performance is increased by a large amount. Just check you have free SATA ports on your motherboard.

You can also move the SSD to any new system you may get in the future if needed.

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indapie2000

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#297974 11-Feb-2010 15:13

Ok so from reading around, I think it's best to upgrade the motherboard, and so then also CPU. It should hopefully future proof for a few more years and keep it going.

For MB's I'm looking at Asus M4A785TD-M EVO http://pricespy.co.nz/product....
And for CPU I'm looking at AMD Athlon II X2 240 2.8GHz Socket AM3 http://pricespy.co.nz/product....

Not looking for anything too expensive, but like I said future proof it. Looking at bluray drive a little down the line too

Thoughts?

garvani

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#297978 11-Feb-2010 15:22

You will also need some shiney new DDR3 ram for that too.. there is more to consider. is your powersupply able to supply enough power? if its a 250watt then id say no. Not as relevant but does your case have enough ventilation?

indapie2000

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#298005 11-Feb-2010 16:10

Noob question, but how can I check if the power supply is good enough?

garvani

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#298015 11-Feb-2010 16:33

open the side of the case.. On the side of the powersupply there will be a total output watts.
This idealy needs to be 350watts or more.

indapie2000

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#298022 11-Feb-2010 16:46

It says 250w
So guess I need a new power supply too. Or is there a motherboard that can work with it?

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garvani

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#298024 11-Feb-2010 16:57

No unfourtently you will need to upgrade it, no way around it. a 350 will do it, dont cheap out on your power supply.. get a Antec, thermaltake etc etc..

Regs

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Snowflake

#298102 11-Feb-2010 20:58

garvani:
Regs: perhaps the money you save buying AMD cpu comes back to bite you in the a55 if you want to upgrade later. intel seems to keep to the same socket for a bit longer than AMD.

Sorry but that is simply not true..

Am2 was released mid 2006, with am3 being released early 2009.. A three year life cycle is not bad.. You can still buy am2+ boards easily enough too. At the moment there is two sockets that fits all amd consumer desktop processors (New processors go into the am3 boards however, with legacy products still availbe from suppliers for am2 platform).

ok, fair enough. i know that I bought a socket 939 processor less than 3 years ago, and at the same time socket 754 processors were also available. Also AM2 (although they were expensive then). You cant buy CPUs for any of those sockets anymore. The intel LGA775 socket was also available then - and has been since 2004. You can still buy CPUs for the LGA775.

AMD are far less likely to change sockets as often as Intel.. Just look at the core i7 and core i5's.. two different sockets for those chips, whose smart idea was that.

Now that I disagree with.... excluding mobile and server sockets, intel has been much more consistent than AMD.

AMD:
462 - 2000
754 - 2003
939 - 2004
AM2 - 2006
AM2+ - 2007
AM3 - 2009 (still current)

Intel:
478 - 2000
LGA 775 - 2004 (still current)
LGA 1366 (i7) - 2008 (still current)
LGA 1156 (i5) - 2009 (still current)

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browned

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#298293 12-Feb-2010 10:46

Regs: ok, fair enough. i know that I bought a socket 939 processor less than 3 years ago, and at the same time socket 754 processors were also available. Also AM2 (although they were expensive then). You cant buy CPUs for any of those sockets anymore. The intel LGA775 socket was also available then - and has been since 2004. You can still buy CPUs for the LGA775.

Now that I disagree with.... excluding mobile and server sockets, intel has been much more consistent than AMD.

AMD: AM2 - 2006, AM2+ - 2007, AM3 - 2009 (still current)
Intel: LGA 775 - 2004 (still current)

LGA 775 support should be listed using chipset and CPU manufacturing process, that dictates which CPU was actually supported by the socket 775 motherboards. Not even looking at the RAM side of things moving from DDR, DDR2 and now DDR3.

Pentium4, PentiumD started in 2004
Core2Duo support started in late 2005 (down to 65nm only)
Core2Quad support started in early 2006 (down to 65nm only)

So socket 775 has had as many changes to it as AM2, AM2+ and AM3.

Note: that AMD AM3 processors are backwards compatable with AM2 and AM2+ motherboards. So upgrading an AM2 processor can be done.

Back to the OP.
I don't think upgrading is the way to go. The motherboard suggests to me that you have a IDE based Hard Drive and CDROM, although these are still available on some motherboards most of these connections have been removed so you should really look at a full system upgrade.

EDIT: On looking a second time I so see 2 SATA ports so it my well be possible to upgrade your motherboard to something better M-ATX AM3, Athlon II X2 253e (45w), DDR2-800 or DDR3-1066 memory. But I would still go with a new PC for ease.

If you get a PC with Windows 7 on it then the migration software on it will do the rest for you when it comes time to move you data to a new PC. I see you can get a Hewlett Packard Compaq Presario CQ3140AN for about $850. That would do nicely.

Ragnor

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#298529 12-Feb-2010 23:56

What's your budget?

As an example for ~$600 you could get an upgrade box ie new: case/psu/cpu/ram/motherboard/dvd reader/hard drive that would be a lot faster than what you have now.

Example:

Intel
CPU: $95.00 Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.6GHz LGA775
Mobo: $115.00 ASUS P5G41T-M LE Intel G41 ICH7 DDR3 LGA775 VGA & HDMI mATX
RAM: $89.00 Corsair 2GB (1x2GB) DDR3-1333 CL9
Case: $124.00 Cooler Master Elite 333 Mid Tower ATX Case with 400W PSU
DVD: $65.00 Samsung/Asus/LG/LiteOn 22X SATA Dual Layer DVDRW
HDD: $80.00 500GB Western Digital Caviar SE SATA II 7200RPM 16MB Cache
= $568.00 Total inc gst, ex shipping

AMD
CPU: $95.00 AMD Athlon II X2 240 2.80GHz AM3
Mobo: $125.00 MSI 760GM-E51 AMD 760G Socket AM3 DDR3 HDMI/DVI mATX
RAM: $89.00 Corsair 2GB (1x2GB) DDR3-1333 CL9
Case: $124.00 Cooler Master Elite 333 Mid Tower ATX Case with 400W PSU
DVD: $65.00 Samsung/Asus/LG/LiteOn 22X SATA Dual Layer DVDRW
HDD: $80.00 500GB Western Digital Caviar SE SATA II 7200RPM 16MB Cache
= $578.00 Total inc gst, ex shipping

Reference to:
http://www.gpforums.co.nz/thread/302905/

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