Upgrade advice required

[SteveB]

I'm looking to upgrade my CPU. A link to the motherboard manual can be found
here:

http://www.fujitsu-siemens.co.uk/rl/servicesupport/techsupport/consumer/justparts/tbird/18047.htm

It's not obvious to me what type of CPU I would need to purchase to upgrade
the machine. Any help with selecting a suitable alternative would be
appreciated a lot.


Thanks

 

[Bob Knowlden]

http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/rl/peripherals/mainboards/cpu2.asp?Main=D1325

The above link gives a list of supported CPUs for the board. They are all
Socket 478, 400 MHz FSB (front side bus) chips. The fastest one listed is a
2.4 GHz "Northwood" model. (I'm a little surprised that a higher frequency
or two aren't listed. If memory serves, the 400 MHz Northwoods may have gone
as high as 2.8 GHz.)

You may have trouble finding one at retail, as they're now regarded as old.

I'm not sure whether I'd recommend the upgrade, even if they were easy to
find. The combination of a P4 CPU, the Intel 845 chipset, and PC133 SDRAM
wasn't a very happy one in terms of performance. (The P3 1 GHz Dell machine
that I had at work up until last January was faster than the P4 1.7 GHz/
845 chipset/ PC133 RAM machine on a neighbor's desk. The newer P4s with DDR
memory are much better, even the ones with the 845PE chipset.)

Sorry that I can't be more encouraging.


Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[dawg]

That's an odd motherboard. "reworked i-845". So,it looks like the fastest
478/400 FSB chip is the 2.8. Most likely it'll work in your system.But, you
won't see a lot of performance considering the rest of your system. The ram
is definitely a bottleneck. Still it's a tough choice.I'd rplace the whole
Motherboard,cpu AND ram.
For about $300 you can get a 3.2ghz w/mobo and 256MB ram. It's not the
greatest motherboard but it's a big step up. Check pricewatch.com.

 

[HenryNettles]

That's an odd motherboard. "reworked i-845". So,it looks like the fastest
478/400 FSB chip is the 2.8. Most likely it'll work in your system.But, you
won't see a lot of performance considering the rest of your system. The ram
is definitely a bottleneck. Still it's a tough choice.I'd rplace the whole
Motherboard,cpu AND ram.
For about $300 you can get a 3.2ghz w/mobo and 256MB ram. It's not the
greatest motherboard but it's a big step up. Check pricewatch.com.

I would recommend this combination as a very cost effective
upgrade.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157077

The ASRock nForce3 250 motherboard, socket 754, for $50.75
plus $2.99 for shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104237

And this cpu, The AMD Sempron 64 3100+ Palermo, retail box
with heat sink/fan, 256k L2 cache for $99 shipped.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820223009

And for memory, 512 megs of PC3200 DDR SDRAM, for $33.99 plus
$3.83 for shipping.

Thats $190.56 delivered, for a true 64 bit cpu, and very fast
memory performance.

 

[Tony Hill]

I'm looking to upgrade my CPU. A link to the motherboard manual can be found
here:

http://www.fujitsu-siemens.co.uk/rl/servicesupport/techsupport/consumer/justparts/tbird/18047.htm

It's not obvious to me what type of CPU I would need to purchase to upgrade
the machine. Any help with selecting a suitable alternative would be
appreciated a lot.

Here's the list of supported processors for your system:

http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/rl/peripherals/mainboards/cpu2.asp?Main=D1325


If you look closely you'll notice that it depends on what the revision
of the motherboard is. If you've got either the B11 or C11 revision
then you're limited to 2.0GHz P4 chips. If you've got the B12 or C21
revisions then you can go up to 2.4GHz. You can probably find the
revision either silk-screened right on the motherboard itself or
possibly listed somewhere in the BIOS.

As the others mentioned, it's probably not at all worthwhile to
upgrade the CPU on this system (CPU upgrades are rarely worthwhile at
the best of times). These old P4 CPUs are nearly impossible to find
new, though I suppose if you come across a used chip for cheap then it
might be ok. Otherwise I would just toss a bigger and faster hard
drive in and another 256MB of memory (if you haven't already done so)
and you'll see much more of a performance improvement then any
processor upgrade will give you, and they'll be a LOT easier to find
(and probably cheaper too).

 

[SteveB]

Thanks very much for all your responses. I think the best option is to
upgrade the whole machine.