Author Topic: P2.4Ghz -> P3.06 + HT Upgrade worth it? (Read 430 times)

JCLerch · « **on:** December 13, 2004, 08:36:29 PM »

Greetings All,

Just looking for some opinions, Will I even notice a $200 CPU upgrade on my Del Dimension 4550.

Currently I have:

P2.4 Ghz 533fsb
1 Gig DDR-Sdram (PC2700 / 332MHZ data rate?)
Nvidia FX 5900XT AGP
2x internal Seagate 75Gb Drive
2x External Ultra Scsi 15K RPM 36gig Drives
Windows XP Home Edition.

My main goal is to try and squeeze in a few addition FPS in AH2.. Other than that I'm happy with the system, and not really inclined to build another just yet..

The main attraction to the P3.06 upgrade is the Hyper Threading "Hype" plus the extra 600mhz clock rate..

My only concern is I won't even notice the upgrade.

And yes, I've already done everything I can think of to tweak the OS (Including using FSautoStart..)

Thanks In advance.

Kaz · « **Reply #1 on:** December 14, 2004, 11:36:38 AM »

This is just opinion here because I'm not speaking from firsthand experience. I went from a 1.5Ghz Willamette P4 to a 2.4C Northwood w/ hyperthreading.

There was a performance increase and I can play AH2 with no problems but while noticeable (I'd guess that I got maybe a 25FPS increase in furballs to nothing in sight type flying).
I doubt you'd see the gains that you're looking for going from a 2.4B to a 3.06 w/ hyperthreading.

Really wish I got the 2.8C instead of the 2.4C it was only $20 more!

Gunthr · « **Reply #2 on:** December 14, 2004, 11:44:37 AM »

Have you considered overclocking? That cpu will overclock very nicely by raising the Front side buss speed.

Three or 400 mhz more speed is easily attainable, and should give a noticible increase in frame rate - for free.

JCLerch · « **Reply #3 on:** December 14, 2004, 12:26:05 PM »

Kaz,

Thanks for the info, I'm still debating, but I think your right, I doubt I'll notice the difference.... But then again.....

Gunthr,

No Joy with overclocking this Mobo, it Proprietary Dell stuff and doesn't give any controll over FSB speeds... I could replace the Mobo, but then I might as well just get another case and build a whole new system...

mipoikel · « **Reply #4 on:** December 14, 2004, 12:47:52 PM »

I changed from 2.4 to 3.0 and it helped a lot. Both are fsb800 with HT.

wombatt · « **Reply #5 on:** December 15, 2004, 02:34:30 PM »

I got a 2.4 overclocked to 3.0 w/ 1000 FSB .
Make sure your motherboard will let you

WhiteHawk · « **Reply #6 on:** December 18, 2004, 11:01:47 AM »

Not an expert here but, a RAM upgrade with some CPU overclocking would make a bigger diff than just a 400mHz CPU increas

Ive got my 2.6p4 Clocked at 3.2gHz. I can get it up to 3.3, but it crashes occasionally.

SkyGnome · « **Reply #7 on:** December 18, 2004, 12:49:53 PM »

Wait a month or two and get a new vid card. The CPU upgrade will probably be very small, and HyperThreading will probably slow the game down. In a month or two the newer vid cards in AGP should be around $200, and offer a much greater performance increase than the CPU will.

WhiteHawk · « **Reply #8 on:** December 18, 2004, 07:44:25 PM »

Yea, no doubt about the vid card upgrade. I went from a 9600 pro to a 9800 pro and got about a 10% increase in benchmark.

4786 witht eh9600 on pcmoark2004
5212 with the 9800 pro on the same. It makes a big difference oin smoothing things out.

JCLerch · « **Reply #9 on:** December 19, 2004, 11:51:27 AM »

Thanks Gentlemen

I can't over-clock what I've got as its a Dell Mobo, with no Clock control options.

Already have a gig of memory.

Added two external Ultra Scsi 3 15K 36Gig disk drive, and moved AH to one drive and Win-Swap and Temp files to the other drive. This helped alot...

My Video card is fairly recent, Nvidia FX 5900XT, which is over clocked...

I guess I'll just sit on what I have, and wait for the day when its time to build a new machine....