worth an upgrade from pent d?

F

Falls Included

I'm happy & gay too
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May 30, 2003
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i have a dell e520 that does htpc stuff right now. i was curious if it would be worth it to upgrade the chip. its got a 965 express chipset, lga 775. its a fairly up to date system. mainly i would be looking for something to run cooler than the pent d. its currently 3ghz.
 
That chip should be more than enough for any htpc tasks. The only reason to upgrade would be like you said, to run cooler, although that's going to have to be a personal decision for you. If the machine gets the job done fine as is, why spend money on something that doesn't really give you any benefits?
 
i just figured i might be able to pick up a core 2 for 50 bucks maybe. i was just wondering if upgrading to a core 2 would be worth the jump.
 
It would be worth it if you really want something that will produce less heat. It will also be much faster, although speed does not seem to be an issue for you.
 
not too concerned about speed, as you can tell. i just like to have cool and quiet, especially since this box is serving media to the tv... and i figure if i can get a chip for good price, why not.
 
Falls Included said:
i have a dell e520 that does htpc stuff right now. i was curious if it would be worth it to upgrade the chip. its got a 965 express chipset, lga 775. its a fairly up to date system. mainly i would be looking for something to run cooler than the pent d. its currently 3ghz.
Click to expand...

I did the jump from a pent D 940 (3.2ghz) to Q8200 [email protected]. I compiled openoffice in under an hour now versus an all day thing on my pentium D.

http://hardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1409394

the Q8200 was only 100 bucks at microcenter. that sale apparently over as its listed for 140 now at their site.

Even a Core 2 Duo should see at least a Double in speed from your Pentium D
 
thanks for the tip. i was thinking about spending half that though. 50-60 really. i don't have an issue staying dual core. i have a quad core system already anyway.
 
Well, you want to make sure if your motherboard can support the range of Core2 cpus. From a quick search, it seems you can only use the E4000 and E6000 series (didn't see anything about the Q6000 series) processors. The newer Wolfdales (E5000 and E8000) may not work for you unless Dell has a bios update supporting those processors.
 
although my gut says i can put the E5xxx into the g965 chipset, i didn't think to check that. i'll have a look around. thanks apcviewer.
 
looks like the e6600 is right in my price range. i'll probably pick that up and part with the pent d. thanks for the help guys.
 
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