Upgrade CPU - eMachines T3638 w/Celeron 420

G

georgeberz

A few years ago I bought my 4 kids 4 eMachines running Vista, I upgraded the video to the 8900 gso w/512mb memory and installed 2 gigs of DDR2 RAM in each machine...

The machines are getting a little old for their game playing

I am wondering what I can do to cost effectively upgrade performance

I was thinking about just changing out the CPU do you think that will give a performance increase worthy of the time / trouble, I cannot afford to buy new motherboards and cpu's or a new OS.

I downloaded cpuz and here are some screen shots

George
 

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SSD for overall increase. But that won't do anything for gaming. I'd say your CPU needs an upgrade more than your GPU, but that runs into a couple more questions - I have no idea what that board supports other than LGA 775, for example, could you put a Core2Quad in it? The other question is what resolution are the monitors they are using? If you do another GPU upgrade you'll likely need a PSU upgrade as well...

Unfortunately for you (and for my desktop) DDR2 ram isn't very cheap compared to DDR3.

What is your budget? Perhaps recycling case, kb, mouse, monitor, possibly psu but doubtful, you could end up building new systems. I know you didn't want to do a new motherboard, but if we have a budget to work with that would help.
 
If that 945GCT-M3 is the board in his system then he can get a C2D in it, which as you know is far better than a Pent D.
 
I upgraded the graphics cards on day 1 to the GeForce 9600 gso w/512meg ram

So right now the bottleneck I believe is the CPU and RAM, I do not think I can add anymore RAM as both slots are filled.

But the CPU I just looked at the E6600 core 2 duo 2.4 ghz
It says its a 64 bit cpu? isnt my cpu currently 32 bit? would this mess up my operating system? would it just be a snap in plug in replacement?
 
Forgot to mention, Im underemployed struggling still want to help the kids get some kind of boost on the computers for Christmas, its been a rough year...

Budget, $30-60 per computer? Im looking for the most cost effective bang for the buck not the FASTEST possible.

Thanks

George
 
You could look at any one of a number of board manufacturers websites, to get a fix on which CPUs normally ran with that chipset.

However....., If the CPU you intend you use as the "upgrade", doesn't run under the same BIOS revision as the CPU that's installed, I'd say, "scrap the idea".

Because OEM computer manufacturers expect that any given machine will go to the grave with the original CPU, they normally don't update their BIOS, for every new CPU. A good rule of thumb is, if the machine shipped with a given CPU, then you could upgrade to that CPU.

I believe Intel 945, is 64 bit hardware. The last chipset that I'm sure was only 32 bit, was 915.
SNGX1275 said:
If that 945GCT-M3 is the board in his system then he can get a C2D in it, which as you know is far better than a Pent D.
Click to expand...
The Celeron 420 is already a "Conroe" core. So, under that circumstance, early C2D issue stand a better chance of working, than if the CPU were a "Celeron D".

Tell CaptainGrinchy, what you want for Christmas...
georgeberz said:
Budget, $30-60 per computer? Im looking for the most cost effective bang for the buck not the FASTEST possible.
Click to expand...
Speaking candidly, that's not a big budgetary jump up from stockings full of reindeer poop......
 
georgeberz said:
I upgraded the graphics cards on day 1 to the GeForce 9600 gso w/512meg ram

So right now the bottleneck I believe is the CPU and RAM, I do not think I can add anymore RAM as both slots are filled.

But the CPU I just looked at the E6600 core 2 duo 2.4 ghz
It says its a 64 bit cpu? isnt my cpu currently 32 bit? would this mess up my operating system? would it just be a snap in plug in replacement?
Click to expand...

Thought it was 8900 gso.. I am not super fluent in GPUs though, so lets go with your 9600. I think a 9600 is still acceptable for a lot of stuff if you keep the resolution at something like 1280x720 or lower.

CC - yeh, I did notice in his cpuz that it said conroe, so you make a good point that tossing another conroe in would probably work. Here is a list for George http://ark.intel.com/products/codename/2680/Conroe

I do think that with that limited of a budget your best bet for improving gaming is just to simply drop the resolution on the game to something lower.

As far as switching to 64bit from 32, there is no problem. 64bit is going to run all your 32bit fine. The only problem might be with your Windows license, it may detect you've made a substantial hardware change and fail to be an authorized copy anymore. But that should be fixable with a call to Microsoft.
 
SNGX1275 said:
As far as switching to 64bit from 32, there is no problem. 64bit is going to run all your 32bit fine. The only problem might be with your Windows license, it may detect you've made a substantial hardware change and fail to be an authorized copy anymore. But that should be fixable with a call to Microsoft.
Click to expand...
georgeberz said:
But the CPU I just looked at the E6600 core 2 duo 2.4 ghz
It says its a 64 bit cpu? isnt my cpu currently 32 bit? would this mess up my operating system? would it just be a snap in plug in replacement?
Click to expand...

I'm apparently mistaken about most of the s*** I just posted. Ignore me, I'll probably go away peacefully. Newegg's page lists the Celeron 420 as 64 bit, ("EM64T"). However, Intel lists it as 32 bit. One supposes that the "decision of the judges is final", in this regard.

I'm going to continue under the assumption that the 945 chipset is 64 bit all, since it will run any one of a number of 64 bit CPU SKUs.

In conclusion, "Christ, even the Cedar Mill P-4s and Celeron Ds were 64 bit"!
 
georgeberz said:
But the CPU I just looked at the E6600 core 2 duo 2.4 ghz
It says its a 64 bit cpu? isnt my cpu currently 32 bit? would this mess up my operating system? would it just be a snap in plug in replacement?
Click to expand...
captaincranky said:
Newegg's page lists the Celeron 420 as 64 bit, ("EM64T"). However, Intel lists it as 32 bit.
Click to expand...
Looks like Intel list the Celeron 420 as 64-bit to me.

Yes, it would be a simple plug in replacement. :)
If anything it would deactivate windows and require you to reactivate. As mentioned above that may involve calling Microsoft, if on-line activation fails.
 
Update - results

Kids got new CPU's for Christmas!

I purchased 3) C2D core 2 duos E4500 2.2 GHZ for my kids machines what an improvement, they just plugged in, same heatsink and fan more CPU's to be ordered for the house!

Overall cost $30 per CPU and vista's system rating for processor went from a 3.2 to a 4.9.

Game performance in starcraft 2 went from 3-5 FPS to over 40

They are very happy with the upgrade and I am very satisfied with the costs.

Now since changing the CPU can the OS be changed to a 64 bit OS? and what about the 2 gig RAM former limit on the motherboard. was that dependant on the CPU / OS or is it a motherboard specific issue?

George
 
The 2GB limit is a physical motherboard restriction, as per the specifications.

To be honest, there's little to no point in upgrading to 64bit in your case. You won't benefit from larger memory addressing capabilities since you can't even install 4GB or more, and even if you did choose to upgrade, you'd have to backup existing files and re-install all applications and drivers since transitioning from 32 to 64 bit requires a clean installation. This can be a real time waster if you don't already do routine backups.
 
The computers had vista home premium 32 bit, I just tested ubuntu 64 bit and fedora 64 bit both worked fine, never tried that with the ole celeron.

so the 2 gigs RAM limit IS a limitation on the motherboard and not software then?
 
georgeberz said:
I purchased 3) C2D core 2 duos E4500 2.2 GHZ for my kids machines what an improvement, they just plugged in, same heatsink and fan more CPU's to be ordered for the house!

Overall cost $30 per CPU and vista's system rating for processor went from a 3.2 to a 4.9.
Click to expand...
30 bucks a pop is a good price for those Allendales. Those were great cost effective alternatives to their contemporary, the Conroe C2D E6300s, (& higher), which sold for about $186.00 at the time.

In an endeavor to maintain my status as a swarthy killer of buzzes, I looked up the CPU performance numbers on my 2 Win 7 machines.

#1, 32 bit Win 7 Home Premium, w/ E6300 (2.8 Ghz) Pentium Dual Core puts up a 6.2...

#2, 64 bit Win 7 Pro, w/ Core i3-530 (2.93 Ghz ), puts up a 6.9.

OK, the E6300 and i3-530 are at the bottom of their respective food chains, so those numbers really are just telling us how far Intel's CPU's have come since the P-4 era.

I would think it would be hysterically funny to run the Windows performance index on the P-4 519, (3.06 Ghz), in my eMachines T-5026. Although, it surely wouldn't worth the trouble....:rolleyes:
 
captaincranky said:
OK, the E6300 and i3-530 are at the bottom of their respective food chains, so those numbers really are just telling us how far Intel's CPU's have come since the P-4 era.

I would think it would be hysterically funny to run the Windows performance index on the P-4 519, (3.06 Ghz), in my eMachines T-5026. Although, it surely wouldn't worth the trouble....:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I have a Pentium 4 2.4Ghz machine. It scores a 3.0 on the WEI for CPU.
 
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