CPU Upgrade - need to re-install windows?

[yds]

Just upgraded my Celeron 1.8 machine to a P4 2.53 CPU. It boots up fine and shows the new processor. Just wondering whether to get the best performance I should consider re-installing Windows? It'd be a pain to go through reinstallation of all my apps, but I really do want to be able to take full advantage of this new processor. Perhaps a repair-install would suffice? Looking for opinions. :?:

[Coke355mL]

no action is required on your part.

[renhui]

Is the new processor hyperthreading-enabled as opposed to the old celeron? If so, you may want to reinstall the os in order to fully take advantage of two virtual processors, otherwise, it should be okay.

[goofball]

Is the new processor hyperthreading-enabled as opposed to the old celeron? If so, you may want to reinstall the os in order to fully take advantage of two virtual processors, otherwise, it should be okay.

P4 2.53 does not have Hyperthreading. the only 533FSB CPU that has HT is the 3.06.

You don't need to reinstall the OS.

[yds]

Is the new processor hyperthreading-enabled as opposed to the old celeron?

It's an older Northwood core, so I don't think it has hyper-threading (??).

[yds]

As an aside, I'm running 512MB of PC2100 for memory. Should I consider upgrading to PC3200? Will it give me a noticable improvement? I think I can get $512MB for about $70.

[Gee]

Re-installing would be pointless for you. Just leave it as it is. You probably won't notice the speed improvment unless you are doing tasks that are processor intensive.

Most tasks performed are I/O intensive, so you will see very little speed increase.

[Canadianpsycho]

Northwoods do like better memory bandwidth, although it depends on the memory ratios your board supports...

[yds]

You probably won't notice the speed improvment unless you are doing tasks that are processor intensive.

Most tasks performed are I/O intensive, so you will see very little speed increase.

I upgraded cause the kids games (NFS) and my new MS Flight Sim were tending to be choppy. I'm hoping that the 2.53P4 will make a difference!!

[Gee]

As an aside, I'm running 512MB of PC2100 for memory. Should I consider upgrading to PC3200? Will it give me a noticable improvement? I think I can get $512MB for about $70.

Since your CPU FSB is 533, you would benefit from PC3200 as it is rated at 400 MHz and effectively run at 800 MHz. But all you technically need is PC2700 which is 333 MHz but DDR (Double Data Rate) would effectively give you 666 MHz, which exceeds the CPU Bus speed of 533. The closer the RAM is to your computer's FSB the better. Although this is marginal, it will help. You have to decide whether it will justify the expense. Your current RAM is 266 MHz

I upgraded cause the kids games (NFS) and my new MS Flight Sim were tending to be choppy. I'm hoping that the 2.53P4 will make a difference!!

I am sure it will help, you would have been better off getting a Video card for Flight Simulator. But a faster CPU will DEFINITELY help.

[willy]

Since your CPU FSB is 533, you would benefit from PC3200 as it is rated at 400 MHz and effectively run at 800 MHz. But all you technically need is PC2700 which is 333 MHz but DDR (Double Data Rate) would effectively give you 666 MHz, which exceeds the CPU Bus speed of 533. The closer the RAM is to your computer's FSB the better. Although this is marginal, it will help. You have to decide whether it will justify the expense. Your current RAM is 266 MHz
You doubled the speed one step too further. PC2700 is 166Mhz DDR (=333Mhz) and PC3200 is 200Mhz DDR (=400Mhz).

Intel CPU FSB is quar-pumped so 533Mhz is 133Mhz x 4. To run the CPU and RAM in sync, PC2100 (133Mhz DDR = 266Mhz) is all that required. If your mobo supports higher FSB for RAM, you can use PC2700 or PC3200 to obtain higher memory bandwidth ... which should benefit P4 platforms.

[Gee]

You doubled the speed one step too further. PC2700 is 166Mhz DDR (=333Mhz) and PC3200 is 200Mhz DDR (=400Mhz).

Intel CPU FSB is quar-pumped so 533Mhz is 133Mhz x 4. To run the CPU and RAM in sync, PC2100 (133Mhz DDR = 266Mhz) is all that required. If your mobo supports higher FSB for RAM, you can use PC2700 or PC3200 to obtain higher memory bandwidth.

Sorry, you are right. Long day.

[yds]

Thanks guys. I've got a Radeon 9200SE 8X AGP card in it, so that should be decent enough me-thinks. Will look into upgrading the RAM if the kids continue to complain!!

[Coke355mL]

No wonder it's running a little choppy. That card isn't very good for graphic intensive games.

Thanks guys. I've got a Radeon 9200SE 8X AGP card in it, so that should be decent enough me-thinks. Will look into upgrading the RAM if the kids continue to complain!!

[yds]

Since installing the P4, I have been having quite a few crashes of the system when trying to play games (and sometime just doing things like browsing the internet). Wondering if this might be related to the upgrade? Perhaps I got a flaky chip? Should I try a reinstall of XP before I go back to the store with the processor (it was a used processor, but I trust the store I got it from).

Also, noticed that when I ran some benchmarking tests on the mobo/CUP/memory combo, my test results were consistently at the bottom of the benchmark comparisons. Again, possibly related to the upgrade?

Any advice appreciated.

[CARLiTO_]

It's probably overheating. I hope you are not using the same one that you used for your celeron. Do u have a proper heatsink?

I have never experienced a "Flaky" chip.

[willy]

Yeah, what are the idle and load temps ?

[yds]

temps are definately not an issue. I can'y give you precise numbers, but I know that they are not hot. sometimes it barely gets going before it crashes out.

[Badger]

Maybe your graphic card is overheating. I used to own a 9200se, and the GPU burnt out for some reason (stupid connect3d) while playing games. I did not overclock the graphic card, it could be the graphic card too.

[yds]

How can I check the graphics board temp? And would it cause a reboot if it overheats? (oh, and when I replaced the cely with the P4, I did change the heat-sink and fan to the one that came with the P4).

[CARLiTO_]

Is the fan on the graphics card working? When the fan on my geforce 3 ti500 died, it kept restarting.

[yds]

No fan on the graphics board. It's not a high-end baby, but I figure got to be better than the on-board graphics. Again, it's for my kids machine, so I'm not spending the big bucks on them ! :)

[frogeee]

Install speedfan (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download337.html)

It'll give you temp readouts for your cpu/mobo/PSU/hard drives.

[Blackjack]

Could you try enabling your on-board graphics?

[yds]

Since I never had crashing probs when it had the celeron as the processor (and the Radeon video card) can it really be the video card? It's crashing more and more frequently these days. Could it be something loose from when I installed the new CPU???

[Cafe_333]

Although I doubt it's a CPU related issue (because P4's throttle their speed down in case the heatsink ever fell off - technicially they'll work without one), try reapplying thermal paste and reseat the heatsink anyway. Your cpu may not be making a good enough of a contact with it. I've heard of people having similar problems and this fixed it for them.

If you continue to experience crashes, troubleshoot the videocard. To see if your videocard is the culprit, position a household fan blowing onto your videocard to help keep it cool. An overheated videocard will crash your computer. If you no longer experience crashes, then you know your videocard is overheating. If you still experience crashes, try running on the onboard video.

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