Curse

Messiah O F Light · May 20, 2007, 02:34 AM // 02:34

i have a Pentium 4 2.53 GHZ and i was wondering, is it possible to upgrade to a better processor, or do i have to buy a whole new computer or motherboard or w/e...?
thx

j_unit66 · May 20, 2007, 03:02 AM // 03:02

you have to check what your motherboard excepts.

tijo · May 20, 2007, 05:30 AM // 05:30

You can change the processor, but you are limited by your motherboard. Each processor requires a certain socket type that it uses to connect to your motherboard. The socket is determined by the processor brand Intel or AMD and the processor generation. So check what socket type your motherboard has and then you can find out which processor fits into it. If you want a processor with a different socket, you'll have to change your motherboard.

nagisaki · May 21, 2007, 07:48 PM // 19:48

There's also the issue of the motherboard Chipset, which can only accept a certain range of processors. If you have a P4 2.53, I'm going to take a guess you have an old 8xx chipset with a 478 socket. Technically, this can probably be upgraded from your current setup if you wanted, but not by much (I think 478 went up to like 3.2ghz... maybe more, maybe less). The performance increase you would see from upgrading your processor would likely be negligible, especially without being able to go to a dual core processor (like the corone/core series).

I personally would suggest to save up some money and buy a newer system. If you give a price range to aim for, the people here can even give you some recommendations.

Tachyon · May 22, 2007, 12:24 AM // 00:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Messiah O F Light

i have a Pentium 4 2.53 GHZ and i was wondering, is it possible to upgrade to a better processor, or do i have to buy a whole new computer or motherboard or w/e...?
thx

I'm sorry, but if you have to ask if you can upgrade your CPU then it's probably not advisable for you to attempt to do so.

Dex · May 22, 2007, 12:32 AM // 00:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by nagisaki

I personally would suggest to save up some money and buy a newer system. If you give a price range to aim for, the people here can even give you some recommendations.

I agree with this. Unless you can get a used processor really cheap the upgrade in clockspeed isn't going to be worth the money. You'll need a new motherboard, which might mean you'll need to memory and possibly a new video card unless the one you have is PCI-Express 16x. It's more money, but a clockspeed upgrade to your current machine won't be very noticable.

Messiah O F Light · May 22, 2007, 04:33 AM // 04:33

thanks for the info. Next year when i leave for college i'm going to buy a laptop. it won't be primarily for gaming, but i want a fast one with lots of storage, RAM, decent video card, the works.
my price range would be from $1500-$2000, any ideas?

Poison Ivy · May 22, 2007, 04:43 AM // 04:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azagoth

I'm sorry, but if you have to ask if you can upgrade your CPU then it's probably not advisable for you to attempt to do so.

Indeed, one wrong snap and the mother board can be ruined.

Div · May 22, 2007, 05:53 AM // 05:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poison Ivy

Indeed, one wrong snap and the mother board can be ruined.

One wrong snap and the computer could catch on fire :O

nagisaki · May 22, 2007, 03:01 PM // 15:01

if you're buying a laptop next year, it's nearly pointless to give recommendations now :-P Nearly all technology that's out now will be outdated and less expensive by the time you head out to college. It'd be a very good idea to ask this question again a month or two before you actually order the thing

tijo · May 22, 2007, 11:21 PM // 23:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Messiah O F Light

thanks for the info. Next year when i leave for college i'm going to buy a laptop. it won't be primarily for gaming, but i want a fast one with lots of storage, RAM, decent video card, the works.
my price range would be from $1500-$2000, any ideas?

nagisaki is right, recommendation at this point would be useless. But in your price range there are now and probably will be in a year some decent models that are good enough for gaming.

FlameoutAlchemist · May 23, 2007, 01:26 AM // 01:26

I've found that HP's nx9420 laptop actually makes a really decent jack-of-all-uses laptop.