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General discussion

Processor help

Mar 21, 2005 1:03AM PST

If i currently have pentium 4 3.0 ghz no ht technology and want to upgrade it what would i have to do? Cuz i want to upgrade to the new 64 bit Pentium 4s. Currently the processor uses LGA778 slot. So do the new 64 bit Pentium 4s. so do i just get the processor and just install it?

Discussion is locked

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New motherboard...
Mar 21, 2005 1:15AM PST

You would have to get a new motherboard that supports 64bit.

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Unlikely.
Mar 21, 2005 1:16AM PST

Your motherboard determines this.

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you mean
Mar 24, 2005 11:46AM PST

it's LGA775 (just to help you out)

and the 64-Bit Pentium IV uses the LGA 775/Socket T interface

i would suggest consider Athlon64
as it's a faster chip overall (they will smoke Pentium IV's in any benchmark, with possibly the exception of PCMark)

you would need a new motherboard, new RAM (if you want DDR2) and a new CPU

which would be around $800 due to the cost of Pentium IV 6xx chips

i would personally suggest the Athlon64 3800+, a good nForce4 Ultra based motherboard, and you can probably use all your existing components (your RAM, hard drive, probably the video card (maybe not, it depends if you buy a PCIE or AGP board)

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Why?
Mar 24, 2005 12:28PM PST

It's a P4 3Ghz, why spend all that money upgrading?

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because
Mar 25, 2005 5:53AM PST

Pentium IV 6xx and 5xx are slow like a granny, compared to the Athlon 64..

to upgrade from your northwood 3GHZ non-HT to a Pentium IV 6xx you'll need:

new mobo
new cooler
new CPU
new case (to improve cooling performance of the case, 6xx series are HOT compared to NW's)
new PSU (probably)
new video card (since your 3GHZ NW isn't running in a PCIE system, and the 6xx series runs in a PCIE system)
new RAM

if your going to the Athlon64 3800+ you'd just have to get:
new mobo
new CPU
new cooler
possibly new case

and you should be fine


but one thing i'd like to go with (seeing the other way dagger could've meant his post, and knowing dagger's love of low cost, it's probably meant this way)
your wanting a new 6xx series chip because your thinking it'll give you some huge performance boost or something to get 64-bit

just to clue you in:

A) the Pentium IV 6xx chips aren't a large boost over the 5xx chips (except for EM64T...but i'd take AMD64 over EM64T any day of the week)
B) HT doesn't give a performance boost in games (it actually hurts performance)
C) a 3GHZ Pentium IV is fast man...it's gonna last you until you need a new OS (at which point neither A64 nor Pentium IV 6xx will work for it...Longhorn in '06, wont' run on either from what i've read (it will require tons of stuff...A64 is just premature, Intel followed suit so they could become what they were a year or so ago...marketing kings)


i would keep what you got and be happy
it won't give you a noticeable boost to upgrade to a 3GHZ P4 6xx or 3.2GHZ P4 6xx

and it won't give you an advantage over any other system

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As others indicated..
Mar 24, 2005 5:02PM PST

Well, like others said you need another motherboard.
You could get by with a $148 Asus motherboard P5GDC Deluxe i915P chipset, and the $237 P4 630 (3.0GHz), or the $288 P4 640 (3.2GHz), CPU's with the 64-bit technology (EM64T).

http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-7586-0.html?forumID=68&threadID=92886&messageID=1066192

Other things to think about when making that kind of change:

Will the power supply need to be upgraded to larger wattage, especially if you may need a upgrade in the video card.

Will the case need to be changed out for better cooling or compatibility of the new mobo.

Since building a PC before (?) have a little skill.