# Upgrade advice needed... CPU or Motherboard?



## xBruce88x (Nov 3, 2009)

Ok i know my system has a few bottlenecks, and i think the worst ones are the cpu and motherboard. but, which one will i see the biggest benefit from upgrading, the cpu or the motherboard? The motherboard is an AsRock 4CoreDual-VSTA and the cpu is an Intel Pentium D 915 2.8ghz 800FSB 2MB (OC to 3.5ghz, 1000FSB). Here are the cpu-z shots, gpu-z shots, 3dmark scores, and pc-wizard info, it's attached.


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## vaiopup (Nov 3, 2009)

If upgrading I would lose both and run a newer platform.
You should be able to find good secondhand stuff here with folk moving to 1156/1366.

Check out the for sale section


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## xBruce88x (Nov 3, 2009)

i only have enough money to do one or the other... i'm a full-time student and unemployed... so doing just one will take a while of saving up. I was thinking either a pentium dual-core e2220, q6600, or core 2 duo that my board supports... its very limited in options. either that or a board that supports all of my current hardware


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## vaiopup (Nov 3, 2009)

Then I would get the best cpu the board can support.
New cpu will run cooler than current one-a useful bonus


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## xBruce88x (Nov 3, 2009)

ok. i guess i should mention i was looking for sub $100 range. the only thing about the current motherboard is that its limited to pci-e 4x, only 2gb ram, and sata 1.5. Here's a link the the cpu support list if you know of one of them for under $100.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/cpu.asp?Model=4CoreDual-VSTA


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## BraveSoul (Nov 5, 2009)

thats a dual core u got ,, just leave everything the way it is it is a fine setup, but if u r desperate for improvement, quad core is the best for u,, look for a used one that ur mobo supports


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## JrRacinFan (Nov 5, 2009)

This would probably be your best bet if wanting to save a little bit of money..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116075


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## xBruce88x (Nov 5, 2009)

i think my pent d might be just a little better than the dual core celeron... 

but now something else has grabbed my attention...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133305&cm_re=8800gtx-_-14-133-305-_-Product

it lists that it requires 30A, my powersupply has 29A. Do you think it'd work anyway? its the fastest card this motherboard supports.

just for the heck of it... here's an image of my odd motherboard.


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## JrRacinFan (Nov 5, 2009)

I feel as though it will be approximately 15-20% faster.

If you can scrounge up another $10

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138142
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116074

or another $25
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.290477

Oh and 9600GT isn't much slower than the 8800GTX. Not enough to warrant $100 for it.


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## BraveSoul (Nov 5, 2009)

JrRacinFan said:


> Oh and 9600GT isn't much slower than the 8800GTX. Not enough to warrant $100 for it.


niceee  
   save up more money,, quad core is a must


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## xBruce88x (Nov 6, 2009)

yea i've really been thinking about getting a quad... wish i could get one for cheap lol


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## BraveSoul (Nov 6, 2009)

this AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6 is the cheapest, its a good piece of hardware,, check out all the motherboad combos 
"Athlon II X4 620 is relatively low on power given that it can stomp dual-core CPUs once the applications are optimized to take advantage of four processing cores"


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## xBruce88x (Nov 9, 2009)

o.o i think i might have found something better (budget wise). I stumbled upon this site that has an "unofficial" bois update for my motherboard. apparently it adds support for 4gb (2x2gb) of ram and the ability to use an e7600C2D or e6300Pent. Both of which should be better than my Pent D right? I mean even the e6300 has twice the L1 cache per core (but 1/2 the l2) and has Virt. Tech or w/e. I just looked on newegg and i can get the e6300 for about $80USD. unless someone here has one for cheaper? ... i also noticed DDR2 has gone WAY up. >.<

Does anyone here have a spare 4coredual-vsta they could try this on? this is the only "gaming" system i have other than my xbox 360.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, those are all very good products and i've actually been considering those... esp that combo with the athlon II


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## sneekypeet (Nov 9, 2009)

why is ur ram only at 187mhz instead of the 333 its rated for?


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## xBruce88x (Nov 9, 2009)

I dunno i've been trying to figure that one out myself

would there be a significant improvement in performance if i could get it at 333, i think it has something to do with the cpu to ram ratio or w/e but i can't find a way to manually set that


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## sneekypeet (Nov 9, 2009)

not sure on the board, but if u can OC it as you have I assume there is a setting.

also is your board only rated for 4X on the PCIe X16 slot?


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## xBruce88x (Nov 9, 2009)

yea sadly, its a limitation with the chipset... some VIA thingy. i'm gonna restart and take some pics of the bios screens.


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## Fox34 (Nov 9, 2009)

ok man ima find you a new board...first thing I notice is the x4 PCI-E...Im taking a wild guess that its basically running off the same bus as the AGP which is like seriously bottle necking your system. Also, your memory is a huge factor here, the speed that ram is at is almost is half of what it should be and the timings do not really make up for the lost speed. What options in your BIOS can you change for your memory?

EDIT: This is a step forward Im talking about http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=775_motherboard-_-13-138-157-_-Product


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## xBruce88x (Nov 9, 2009)

*bios pix*

Ok here are some pics of the bios screens. I took them with my blackberry curve so sorry if its not the best quality.

ok seriously... the filesize limits are nuts...


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## Hayder_Master (Nov 9, 2009)

you can go for amd nice performance and cheap prices , like 770 mobo chipset and with this mobo you have two cpu chose  phenom II x3 720 and this one priced lwss than 120$ i think


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## Fox34 (Nov 9, 2009)

Alright here's a quick way to get some more performance out of that memory, all those "auto" settings in your memory, start setting them manually and see what you can get stable with


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## Hayder_Master (Nov 9, 2009)

here is some good performance and look cheap for this performance

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103649

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135233

and high class mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131368


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## xBruce88x (Nov 9, 2009)

that Asus is a nice one... it sucks being unemployed...


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## Fox34 (Nov 9, 2009)

ok pretty much if your looking at getting upgrades for your system your really looking at building a whole new setup..so before you buy stuff for it, start setting your memory, which is just the start from what I see from your BIOS settings. Once you can get it stable with tight timings and possibly a high frequency, we can go from there


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## xBruce88x (Nov 9, 2009)

there really isn't much to choose from as far as frequency... but according to cpu-z for the ram at 333mhz it should be set to CAS# 5.0, RAS to CAS 5, RAS Precharge 5, tRAS 15, tRC 19, v 1.8. i saw one or 2 of these in the bios menu but i can't find the others... i'm guessing they called it something different... but which is which? and how do i change the FSB : DRAM ratio, right now its stuck at 4:3

edit: i was able to set the command rate to 1T instead of 2T though






edit 2: shouldn't the ratio be FSB 3 and DRAM 4? making the ram run at 333?


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## driver66 (Nov 9, 2009)

JrRacinFan said:


> I feel as though it will be approximately 15-20% faster.
> 
> If you can scrounge up another $10
> 
> ...



This combo that Jr. found would ass stomp your system, good deal


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## xBruce88x (Nov 9, 2009)

*Ram Timings*

yea i'm still considering that.. just don't have the money atm.. but until then i'd figure i'd at least get this ram set right

I think i've got the timings right finally, but still don't see an option for the ratio...


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## Fox34 (Nov 9, 2009)

changing your 2T to 1T while keeping everything about the same and your system booting really shows your memory is really underclocked and such. Start setting your timings as low as you can and try to set that divider first to get some more MHZ out of the ram seeing you cannot unlock the FSB from the ram


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## xBruce88x (Nov 9, 2009)

ok i think i got it... had to disable "flexibility" option... as far as any ram settings in mhz goes the only thing it lets me do is set whether or not its DDR2 533 or 667. I think i got it now...






however its back at 2T, but that won't make much of a difference will it? I'm also thinking that if i push my overclock to 266fsb instead of 250 that is should bump the speed to full 333, if not faster.... first to check my current temps though lol

according to pc wizard 2k9, its at 122 at idle so i guess it can handle a little more abuse lol... btw this is my cooling system for the cpu...



 <- hyperlinked image 

EDIT: Looks like this is the best its gonna get, it didn't like the 266fsb setting at all lol


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## xBruce88x (Nov 9, 2009)

well looks like that along with a slight overclock of the factory overclocked 9600GT has helped my 3dmark06 score a little.

the left is with the gfx at its stock 700 core, 900ddr mem, the right is with the gfx set to 725 core, 933 mem. both of these have the system ram running at the 187.






This is with the ram at 312, and the gfx at 725core, 933ddr mem.


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## JrRacinFan (Nov 9, 2009)

@Bruce

1T does help but at such a low bandwith for your ram you won't benefit. Remember Intel netburst/C2D chips LOVE memory bandwith over tighter timings.


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## xBruce88x (Nov 9, 2009)

yea the cpu is showing its age with the netburst lol, in the new Medeval Total war it really slows down in the ship battles, and in World in Conflict as soon as the nuke goes off it gets to like, 5-8fps lol. i know its the cpu because even when i lower settings in WiC I still get the same fps.


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## francis511 (Nov 9, 2009)

You can`t really oc much on that board , so look for 800 mhz fsb for easy overclock or high clock on the chip. That leaves you with e6700 , e4700 or q6600 if you go with quad. Those are the cheapest chips that are compatible with your board. I don`t THINK an 8800 GTX will work tho`


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## xBruce88x (Nov 10, 2009)

haha yea me neither, if anything i could get an HD 4670 for the agp slot i guess but i dont think that would be any improvement over my 9600GT.

I think the best thing for me to do would be to get one of those combos that someone listed, but I just don't have the money

I also saw a site that had an "unofficial" bios for my motherboard that "adds support for 4gb (2x2gb) of ram and the ability to use an e7600C2D or e6300Pent". Do you think it would be worth the risk to try the modded bios and get an e7600 ($145USD free shipping) or the Pentium Dual-Core e6300 ($81USD free shipping)?


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## francis511 (Nov 10, 2009)

Dont know. I have an asrock dual vsta running a pentium 2180. I use it for a download box. It overclocks from 200 fsb to 266 fsb which is O.K. A q6600 is also a good chip in my experience.


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## KingPing (Nov 10, 2009)

forget about upgrading the gpu with that board and cpu, do wahtever you can to upgrade the mobo and cpu, or leave it until you can afford both of them. I use to have a pentium D925 3.0Ghz with a 8800 GTS 320Mb and the D925 was a huge bottleneck even at 3.7Ghz. I have the GTS with a Pentium E2180 as a secondary system and its far better than the old D925.


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## lemonadesoda (Nov 10, 2009)

Bruce, if your board can take it, get a Q6700. They are (often) cheaper than the Q6600's and have a higher multipler for your relatively low FSB board.

My 3dmark06 is 11500+ using Q6600 and AGP 3850. I dont know how your GPU compares, and 11500+ is poor compared to a 5xxx series... but it would be a "fun" and low budget upgrade.

I got my q6600 off ebay cheap.


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## xBruce88x (Nov 10, 2009)

in the bios is allows me to set up to 340mhz as the bus speed, but i guess the pent.Ds just don't like that (or266) but i looked at q6700 and q6600 prices and the q6700s were higher, but not by much. the lowest i saw on ebay was around $120, just doing the quick search where it says used from, etc.

I've really been thinking about doing an ait crossfire setup later on, not real high end cards but 2 mid-high cards i guess you could say and maybe a phenom II x2/x3. Of course i'd start off with just one gfx card and add the 2nd one later.

thanks for all the advice and help with the board guys, i'll definitely keep this in mind when buying  my new parts. Now to hopefully get to Gamestop before the effects of Ida (tropical storm) get here >.<


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