"hb" said:
I have a p4b533-e motherboard with a 2.2 ghz processor. According to asus
I can upgrade to a 3.06 ghz processor (if I can find one). Given I can't
upgrade the memory speed (currently 166 x 2 ? ) is it worthwhile to
upgrade, or should I save my money for a whole new motherboard/cpu/fast
memory ?
Any opinions ?
ps. Asus site says the motherboard will only take this CPU since PCB
1.02 - where exactly would I search for this info. I'm guessing its written
on the motherboard, but where ? ( So I don't have to remove too many cables
etc looking for it).
Look between PCI slot 3 and slot 4 here. At the end of the
"P4B533-E" in large letters, is a smaller revision string.
http://www.myhard.com/20020607/p4b533-e-2d.jpg
Your 3.06Ghz processor will run at 3.06Ghz, so when you are
compute bound, things will go a bit faster than with your 2.2GHz
processor.
In terms of bandwidth balance, a dual channel board balances an
a CPU running with the same clock. For example, a FSB800 processor
(64 bit bus) matches two DDR400 channels (each 64 bits wide). In
your case, you are comparing FSB533*8 MB/sec to DDR333*8 MB/sec,
which means the memory is satisfying more than half the FSB
bandwidth - 4.2GB/sec versus 2.7GB/sec.
The real question these days is - upgrade to what ? and at
what cost ? The best you could do is 3.8Ghz with a stock
processor, meaning a new motherboard and an expensive new processor.
I think you can get most of the benefit from your current system
with the 3.06Ghz. (It could be that revision 1.02 is adding support
for HyperThreading, which may or may not be of benefit to you.
Depending on what you do most, you may find mixed results with HT
enabled.)
If this computer is running 100% all the time (SETI, Folding,
rendering etc), you could make an argument for upgrading everything.
If the machine is not running 100% all the time, finding
a 3.06GHz might make a small difference. My rule of thumb for
upgrading, is to look for at least a doubling of the clock, but
the days of getting such an improvement now are behind us. Your chipset
is modern enough, that there aren't any serious compromises in the
way the chipset is built - in some older systems, the PCI bus
is a real limitation in system interconnect, and can limit the I/O
rate.
The toughest part may be finding a 3.06Ghz/FSB533/512KB 0.13 micron
part - a quick check is not showing them at retail anywhere. There
are processors that run at 3.06Ghz being offered, but some are
Xeon 3.06GHz (wrong socket), and some are 90nm processors, which
likely won't run on your board. If you cannot find the 3.06GHz,
then it is time to upgrade everything.
Paul
