Hello all. Over the summer I swapped my PC (Core 2 Duo 2GB, decent pc) for a PS3. It didnt take long before I decided I really needed a PC. So I built one on the cheap. Having lived with it for a few months now I can see its weaknesses. However as i dont really have the money to buy a better PC, I would like to just overclock the crap out of it and stick some RAM in it. It currently has a P4 1.7GHZ processor in it - I think it might be a Northwood which I have heard are able to overclock to 3GHZ easy? (at least the 1.6ghz ones i think)(Read it in CPC a few years ago). Now the problem is that I have an eMachines motherboard (foxconn) which doesnt allow me to overclock and when i try and use clockgen it mucks my pc up so i have to restart it. So I'm thinking about getting a new motherboard and was wondering what the best motherboard for the job would be? (Of which I can find easily, eg. On EBAY...) Or would it just be cheaper to buy the fastest CPU that would work with it? Also would going for 348mb of ram to 1GB make a huge difference? Tim (12modderz, aka. timothyw9 and his famous K'NEX tent making )
Looking on ebay upgrading the motherboard would be a bit expensive for S478. I could get a 3GHZ processor for about £10ish. However I am also considering getting a new motherboard and CPU altogther? (eg. S939) Would this be a better idea?
An upgrade to S939 would be ridiculous, if I remember righty the parts are expensive because the demand is so high. At least thats the case for certain DDR RAM. How much have you got to play with money wise? Also why did you swap a PC for a PC?
Not a lot really. I havent got any money at all ATM but I can make some available. Looking in to it the CPU would be the coster for the 939... Oops lol i meant PS3 hehe changed the 1st post. xD
Which initial upgrade would improve performance the most?: Upgrading the CPU to either a 2.8ghz P4 Processor (from a 1.7ghz P4) OR Upgrading the RAM to 1280mb (1GB + 256mb) from a setup with 348mb in it.
Imo if you're going to upgrade I wouldn't waste money on 939, as christmas is around the corner and you can make money availible go for the current offerings from AM3 or i5/7 (possibly i3 depending on the price/performance when it comes out).
I dont really want a proper upgrade like that (that seems more like a completely new build). I just want to spend say a tenner to make my computer a bit zippier, to be fair, it isnt too bad, just it isnt terribly good at video capture. Do you know which of the two specified above would be better to do first? bascially more memory or a faster cpu.
check ebay for a low cost Core2 (or Core2 based pentium dual core) or some sort of athon X2 on an AM2 socket. That'll give you a DDR2 platform (1GB is practically free these days) and room to upgrade the CPU in the future.
Back when I had a P4 I had an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe. That thing was a monster overclocker and was expensive as hell for the time. Looks like it hasn't really gotten much cheaper though =/. If you REALLY want to stick with your P4 look for an i865pe or i875 board. I doubt you'll find anything too cheap right now though, it might be more worth it to upgrade.
