Help w/upgrade

[maxshot]

Hello, im thinking of upgrading my pc
and im not sure if i should just get a new Motherboard
or if this one can handle a faster processor.

thanks.


HP AMD Athlon xp 2600+
2.13 Ghz
448 Mb Ram


* Manufacturer's name - ASUS A7N8X-LA
* HP/Compaq name - Explorer 2

Motherboard Supplier ASUS
System BIOS Supplier ASUS/AMI
Form Factor uATX
Processor Brand AMD
Processor Socket Type Socket A (PGA462)
Processor Family AthlonXP (Barton, Thoroughbred, Palomino)
Processor FSB Frequency 266/333 MHz
Chipset Name NVIDIA nForce2
Chipset 'Northbridge', Revision/Stepping IGP, A03
Chipset 'Southbridge', Revision/Stepping MPC2, A04
Super I/O, Revision/Stepping ITE, 8712F-A
Flash BIOS Device 4 Mbit
Memory Type DDR
Memory Speed PC2700/PC2100
Memory Sockets 2DDR DIMM (184-pin)
Maximum Memory 2 GB (PC manufacturer's maximum memory may differ)
Graphics Supplier NVIDIA nForce2
Graphics Configuration On-Board
Onboard Graphics Memory UMA up to 128 MB
Graphics Connector AGP 8X
TV-Out Device No
TV-Out Configuration No
Audio AC'97 On-Board
AC'97 CODEC Device Realtek ALC650
Audio Jacks Microphone, Line-In, Line-Out, Speaker, MIDI/Game
External Audio Connectors Microphone, Line-In
Ethernet 10/100 LAN Supplier Realtek 8201BL
Ethernet Configuration Integrated, On-Board
IDE UDMA Modes ATA-133/100/66/33
Expansion Slots AGP 8X, Three PCI
USB Ports Six USB 2.0 (2 front, 4 back)
External Ports One Serial, One Parallel, One Floppy, PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse, One 1394 (front)
Serial Port Front Chassis Option No
Available Manufacturer On-Board Options Graphics, Lan, 1394, 6 Speaker Mode (Dolby 5.1)

[redwudz]

The first question is: What do you want to do with the computer? If it's encoding/transcoding, A CPU speed increase would be helpful. If you are using it or gaming, a separate AGP card may help.

You should be able to upgrade the CPU to something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104216 But make sure the MB accepts a Sempron CPU.

Here's a link to some info on the motherboard:

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1341

I would also upgrade the CPU cooler, those Bartons tend to run hot and need a fair amount of cooling.

It's actually a good motherboard. It can be overclocked for a little extra performance, but then good cooling is even more important.

I should mention socket 462 (A) CPUs are getting harder to come by. You may be able to find faster CPUs that would work with that MB, but the 3000+ should give you a good boost. I would also add some more RAM. Another 512Mb would be plenty. DDR2700 or DDR3200 would work fine.

[Ken vs Ryu]

Another upgrade to consider would be an 8xAGP VGA card.

Not only would this enhance the visual appearance/performance but you would also claw back a further 64MB of your physical memory that the current shared graphics are using up.


Ha-do-Ken