Balanced System

[kpo6969]

Hello everyone,
I was just curious if I will exerience any bottlenecks with my system. I have a Dell E521 which I cannot overclock or modify (bios restricted) so it has to be run stock. I have upgraded what I can afford and the only other thing would be the cpu? here are my specs:
Anthlon 64x2 4400 brisbane 2.3Ghz
3GB DDR2 PC2 5300 @ 667Mhz
250 GB Sata II HD 7200rpm
XFX 8600GT XXX 256mb
Vista Home Premium

Would it be worth it to upgrade cpu to a 5200 if prices come down? I would want to keep the cpu to 65w. The 5000 and 5200 are both available in 65w and 2.6Ghz but the 5000 is 65nm and the 5200 is 90nm but has 1mbx2 cache and the 5000 is 512x2 cache. Thank you

 

[tifc8lraz]

Hello and welcome to TechSpot OpenBoards kpo6969 :wave: ! From what I can see, your CPU is indeed you only system bottleneck. The only question I have is what do you use your computer for? If you just use it for light to moderate gaming, I would say that it's fine. If you use it for extreme gaming/video applications, then yes, I would say to go for the 5200 . Good luck !

 

[JimShady23]

Agreed

With what you have for a video card (not in a bad way either) your probably not going to notice a huge FPS jump with a newer CPU if that is your intention. Instead of waisting your money on a New CPU maybe buy a motherboard that can overclock instead ? That would probably be your best bet as a overclock from 4400 speeds to 5200 speeds is not very significant when you look at it. 200mhz ? You can pick up a decent board that will fit into your Dell case for less then $100. You have done just about everything else with your upgrade.

 

[kpo6969]

With what you have for a video card (not in a bad way either) your probably not going to notice a huge FPS jump with a newer CPU if that is your intention. Instead of waisting your money on a New CPU maybe buy a motherboard that can overclock instead ? That would probably be your best bet as a overclock from 4400 speeds to 5200 speeds is not very significant when you look at it. 200mhz ? You can pick up a decent board that will fit into your Dell case for less then $100. You have done just about everything else with your upgrade.

Thanks for your reply. I think that would void my warranty though, just purchased in Nov 06 with 2yrs. My theory was that since I have the 4400 which is 2.3Mhz with 1mb level 2 cache, going to the 5200 2.6Mhz with 2mb level 2 cache would give me some boost and Dell configures this set-up with up to the 5600. I was just wondering if the cost would be worth the upgrade. Thanks again for the reply.

 

[JimShady23]

Nope

Bigger cache isnt really to much of a concern it just really helps with exactly that, precahing data, it helps with large files such as video rendering and animation, the only thing you may notice is that it would help load game maps quicker.....

Anyone correct me if I am wrong or missed somthing...

Also, mild overclocking, even though still a risk posses less chance then you may think. But yeah it does void your warranty although you would have to state to them "It fried while I was overclocking it" or are you talking about your dell warranty ? If you are speaking of the dell warranty isnt it void if you do any upgrades yourself to it ?

 

[kpo6969]

Bigger cache isnt really to much of a concern it just really helps with exactly that, precahing data, it helps with large files such as video rendering and animation, the only thing you may notice is that it would help load game maps quicker.....

Anyone correct me if I am wrong or missed somthing...

Also, mild overclocking, even though still a risk posses less chance then you may think. But yeah it does void your warranty although you would have to state to them "It fried while I was overclocking it" or are you talking about your dell warranty ? If you are speaking of the dell warranty isnt it void if you do any upgrades yourself to it ?

Thanks for the reply, that answered my question. I cannot overclock at all because the Dell Bios will not allow it. The only Dell's you can overclock are the new XPS 720's that just came out last week. Thanks again

 

[JimShady23]

No No NO

I was asking what warranty you think you will void if you overclock ?

Does your Dell have a Warranty or where you reffering to the CPU ?

Did the 4400 come with the Dell or is that an Upgrade also ?

 

[kpo6969]

4400 came with system. It's not the warranty issue that prevents overclocking, it is the bios that Dell uses on their system's that prevents you from manually changing system setting such as this for the cpu.