Comments on: CPU upgrades alone are a bad way to increase PC performance http://www.andybrain.com/qna/2008/06/13/cpu-upgrades-alone-are-a-bad-way-to-increase-pc-performance/ Computer and technology questions and answers from Andy Kaiser Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:01:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: Ken Latta http://www.andybrain.com/qna/2008/06/13/cpu-upgrades-alone-are-a-bad-way-to-increase-pc-performance/#comment-904 Ken Latta Sun, 28 Sep 2008 06:55:16 +0000 http://www.andybrain.com/qna/?p=142#comment-904 Well, to some degree you're both wrong on this. Many motherboards use a standard socket such as LGA775 which supports using a wide range of CPUs. As example, $175 MSI P7N Diamond motherboard. "Supports Socket 775 for Intel Core2 Extreme, Core2 Quad, Core2 Duo, Pentium XE, Pentium D, Pentium 4 processors and Supports FSB 533/800/1066/1333 MHz and up" So you've not only got a wide range of processors, for each processor type you have many speed options. Jumping from a Pentium 4 to a Core2 Quad is quite a leap. And since processors drop in price it is feasible to upgrade by going to a new cpu and faster (and larger) memory. Even in a very old (7 years) dual processor PIII Pentium machine, 5 years in I upgraded from 800Mhz processors to 1300 MHz processor that were dirt cheap. Of course your mileage may vary and reusing the cpu fan may be more of a challenge for the average user. Few even get as far as replacing their graphics card though that can be done in almost all PCs. And there are many (sometimes stupid) design tradeoffs when putting a $500 WalMart computer together which make it hard to affordably upgrade. She also missed adaptions to obsolencence like repurposing PCs, using older machines as file servers and routers when they are not longer fast enough to run the state of the art GUI. Post-Vista upgrades should free up a few machines for this! Well, to some degree you’re both wrong on this.
Many motherboards use a standard socket such as LGA775 which supports using a wide range of CPUs. As example, $175 MSI P7N Diamond motherboard.

“Supports Socket 775 for Intel Core2 Extreme, Core2 Quad, Core2 Duo, Pentium XE, Pentium D, Pentium 4 processors and Supports FSB 533/800/1066/1333 MHz and up”

So you’ve not only got a wide range of processors, for each processor type you have many speed options. Jumping from a Pentium 4 to a Core2 Quad is quite a leap. And since processors drop in price it is feasible to upgrade by going to a new cpu and faster (and larger) memory.

Even in a very old (7 years) dual processor PIII Pentium machine, 5 years in I upgraded from 800Mhz processors to 1300 MHz processor that were dirt cheap. Of course your mileage may vary and reusing the cpu fan may be more of a challenge for the average user. Few even get as far as replacing their graphics card though that can be done in almost all PCs. And there are many (sometimes stupid) design tradeoffs when putting a $500 WalMart computer together which make it hard to affordably upgrade.

She also missed adaptions to obsolencence like repurposing PCs, using older machines as file servers and routers when they are not longer fast enough to run the state of the art GUI. Post-Vista upgrades should free up a few machines for this!

]]>