CPU bottleneck test?

[Grits]

My current rig is a socket 478 P4 3.0 2gigs DDR400 and a 128m GeForce 6800 AGP vid card. I am thinking of getting one more video card upgrade before I build a new rig but I want to toss out a few questions.

#1 Would a 7600GS or GT be wasted on a P4 3.0?

#2 Is an E2xxx Allendale CPU a worthwhile step, with the intent to upgrade later or should I go straight to a Conroe? How much of an upgrade is an Allendale over my Northwood P4?

#3 When you wipe a drive and start over is there any way to save, not just your files, but your desktop and stuff too?

[OOZ662]

Your desktop is at C:\Documents and Settings\%account%\Desktop

I have the same system you do. Everything on it is outdated. 478 has passed (was on the way out when I built mine 3 years or so ago). AGP is at the wayside. DDR400 is "crawling."

Personally, I'd save for a whole new modern system rather than nickle-and-diming a dead horse.

EDIT: However, if it's an AH-only machine, you SHOULD be able to max out all of the AH settings just fine. If not, get out the optimizers.

[Balsy]

My current rig is a socket 478 P4 3.0 2gigs DDR400 and a 128m GeForce 6800 AGP vid card. I am thinking of getting one more video card upgrade before I build a new rig but I want to toss out a few questions.

#1 Would a 7600GS or GT be wasted on a P4 3.0?

#2 Is an E2xxx Allendale CPU a worthwhile step, with the intent to upgrade later or should I go straight to a Conroe? How much of an upgrade is an Allendale over my Northwood P4?

#3 When you wipe a drive and start over is there any way to save, not just your files, but your desktop and stuff too?

TEST:

1. Open cover of CASE.

2. Look for broken beer bottlenecks.

3. Drink any complete beer bottles found.

4. Shut Case.

Test completed.

PS... This TEST works just as well checking your refrigerator.

[Krusty]

DDR400 is not crawling. In a side-by-side test using a Conroe chip, a dual-memory motherboard, shows that the DDR400 holds its own with DDR2 800. The major difference is in overclockability, which isn't an issue for most folks. There are other differences too, but the performance isn't so far off.

The Socket478 is a pretty slow interface. Even if the chip is 3.0GHz, the FSB is only 533MHz. I had a P4 2.6GHz running at 533MHz FSB and it was a big bottleneck for AH until I upgraded to a Conroe chip.

The 6800 GS *should* be able to run AH okay with slightly reduced settings. Medium-quality visuals, but it'll run. A 7600GT will blow away a 6800 GS, but if you're in AGP they're hard to find and much more expensive than PCIe counterparts.

I hear they're releasing the ATI HD3850 in AGP. I don't know if it's out yet (I think it might be), but this would be the top dog end-all of AGP cards. However, your CPU really wouldn't be able to handle it.



478 is a dead end. Your RAM proabably is DDR233 or at most DDR333, not even DDR400. You probably have an AGP4x port, not an 8x. My sister has a socket478 I tried to upgrade, and the CPUs don't go much higher than what you already have. The video card choices are limited unless you want to spend a lot of money, and the RAM was picky, slower, older, and it was limited to 1GB max on the board.

Then you run into problems of the power supply being inadequate, if you DO upgrade.

My advice is to save up. Just save up. Put money from your checking into your savings account. When you have enough, get a newer system. Get something that can be upgraded in the future! That way, even if you get a medium-speed system, you can get faster parts when you can afford them later.

[Krusty]

#1 Would a 7600GS or GT be wasted on a P4 3.0?

#2 Is an E2xxx Allendale CPU a worthwhile step, with the intent to upgrade later or should I go straight to a Conroe? How much of an upgrade is an Allendale over my Northwood P4?

#3 When you wipe a drive and start over is there any way to save, not just your files, but your desktop and stuff too?

Sorry, I get side tracked sometimes. To answer your questions explicitly:

1) No! It's a good card. GT even better

2) Even a E6200 at 1.8GHz will outperform your old P4 Socket478. The new architecture has a faster FSB and is far more efficient, to the point that it gets more done with less MHz. Not to mention several times the transistors as your current chip. The Allendale chips are the low-end C2Ds, but they still perform very well, and they overclock almost 200% in some cases on stock cooling, if you are so inclined.

3) Your desktop is just a directory on your hard drive. Find the directory and you can back up the shortcuts there. However, if you restore the desktop after the wipe, none of the icons will work, because you have to reinstall all your applications anyways. I back up major files and leave all the icons. They will come back when I reinstall everything anyways.

[OOZ662]

Krusty, I have a Socket 478 at 800mhz, 8x AGP, and DDR400. Motherboard model is a Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 Pro-G.

[Grits]

Top end 478 motherboards and processors were 8x AGP dual channel DDR400 and 800FSB.

[Krusty]

Ah, good to know! Only ones I've had experience with are 533 FSbs, and my P4 2.66GHz was at 533 as well, didn't really expect they'd go down from 800 to 533 on a new chipset.

Still, the Allendale chip will be better than what you've got, I'm fairly sure. It's not just the FSB, but the overall efficiency of the chip itself is leaps ahead.

[Grits]

Yeah, my first 478 board was 533FSB and non-dual channel. I was happy with this setup, but as time has gone along and AH has gotten more detail I need something more. I have decided to wait and build a Conroe system instead of buy another AGP card.

[Krusty]

If you're upgrading to a Conroe system, and you don't want to spend an arm and a leg, I would strongly suggest the following:

ASRock Dual775-VISTA motherboard. ~$65
E6420-or-so (something along this range) ~$160-$180

This board will allow you to use your current AGP card, DDR1 RAM, IDE hard drives (also supports SATA), and legacy components, so that you can upgrade 1 component at a time. This is what I've done. It supports Conroe chips with 533/800/1066 MHz FSB.

If you can't find this mobo, there's no doubt a more modern equivelant (I think they support 1300 MHz FSB now too) but it will have "Dual" in the name.



Just make sure your PSU can handle any new vid cards you put in, in case it's an old 225W or something, and your card requires 350+

[Grits]

Thanks Krusty, that MB is exactly what I need. I can use all my current hardware (RAM, HD, Vid card) and get a big boost in CPU horsepower. I know its not as good as a top line Dual Core MB with 16x PCI-e and DDR2 but even as a compromise it will be far better than what I have now.

[Krusty]

What I like is that it covers a wide range of FSBs. I had the aforementioned P4 2.66GHz 533FSB chip, and wanted a conroe later. I didn't want to get a mobo that supported only 533/800 and then would have to get another later that did 800/1066.

That was quite helpful.

The PCIe slot is technically 4x, but accepts the 16x cards (not the 2.0 16x, I asked ASRock tech support). On benchmarks for this mobo that meant only a loss of about 10-15% or so compared to a full 16x slot. Acceptable loss IMO. It's 4x because it shares the AGP slot resources, or something.