Help, Can I upgrade to quad core?

[R1CHY B]

Hi,

I am hoping I can find someone who is better technically minded than me. I currently am running intel dual core pentium and wish to upgrade to quad core.

Is there somewhere I can check if my motherboard supports this feature? I currently have a gigabyte board.

Many thanks

[system7]

Hmm...tricky. :D

You need to identify the exact board and maybe do a bios update. I reckon that means Intel G31 chipset upwards.

Gigabyte model number should be marked on the board. See what you can find out and come back. It usually is something like GA-xxxx-d2l.

[Yorkshire_Man]

You could also use some software to identify the motherboard model number, PC Wizard is one programme that should be able to do this.

[Blowfish]

Although I agree that some software can identify your mobo, you can't beat having the sides off and using your eyes (and possibly a torch).

[R1CHY B]

OK thank you, I shall open her up when I get home and see if there are any markings or clues as to the model number.

Being only one year old I would hope it would be capable

[mrbungle]

Google CPUZ and run it, go to the motherboard tab and it will tell you what the motherboard is.

[RJC]

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

[Yorkshire_Man]

Although I agree that some software can identify your mobo, you can't beat having the sides off and using your eyes (and possibly a torch).
I agree with this too, although programmes such as CPUZ and PC Wizard are usually accurate, the most accurate way will be to look at the writing on the actual board and make a note of the number.

[R1CHY B]

I used the program and checked my mobo and it is a Gigabyte P31-DS3L

[system7]

Ah, Rock'nRoll! :razz:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=2615

You might need a bios update, but that looks very good. :cool:

Curiosity, what have you got at the moment?

[R1CHY B]

Thats looking promising :)

My current CPU is CORE 2 DUO E6300. Runs very well but since installing Vista I feel a little more punch is required

[Yorkshire_Man]

Thats looking promising :)

My current CPU is CORE 2 DUO E6300. Runs very well but since installing Vista I feel a little more punch is required
Out of interest how much RAM have you got in the PC?

For quad-core i would suggest either a Q6600 or Q8300 for around £150/£160.

[system7]

Good pickup on memory size, Yorkshire_Man. 2 GB of RAM would be right for XP, but 2-4 GB will help with Vista. Certainly 1 GB might be very sluggish.

A basic graphic card would help too, both to free up memory and improve display ability.

The E6300 isn't the fastest CPU on the block around 1.9 GHz, but a Quad isn't going to speed things up because of the 4 cores, more because it clocks higher.

My personal approach would be to look at memory upgrades and do a little overclock with a better CPU Cooler, but would understand fully if you don't fancy the overclock complications.

CPU-Z will tell you the all-important bios version and memory size here.

[R1CHY B]

I have 3gb of RAM and am on an Nvidia 9800 gt - The quad core i was hoping would improve my gaming experiance more than anything else

[system7]

In point of fact, the only game currently that benefits from Quad is GTA IV, mostly the faster duals are doing the business as in this very CPU dependent benchmark, X3 Terran Conflict:
http://forum.novatech.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5314

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/2356/tc23012008cw0.jpg

The cheap solution is to buy a better CPU cooler like a £16 Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro and bump that CPU up to FSB 1333 which is a quicker 2.4 GHz with memory set at 1:1 FSB: DRAM ratio and 5-5-5-18 manual timings on typical memory at DDR2-667 speed.

Otherwise, with bios support, an E7200 at Nova's current bargain £68 could be cost effective, but a Quad may have more legs in the long run, of course.

[Yorkshire_Man]

I have 3gb of RAM and am on an Nvidia 9800 gt - The quad core i was hoping would improve my gaming experiance more than anything else
Ah ok, forget the idea of more RAM helping then. Still seems like a good setup to be honest, a quad core wont be a cheap or necessary upgrade.

[R1CHY B]

Thank you very much guys, I shall look into these solutions to see what I am capable of acheiving

[R1CHY B]

I had a look at the suggested options and as I am clueless with overclocking the new dual core E7200 looks like a safe option.

The only thing I am confused about are graphics, is it solely down to what card you have as I was under the impression that the combination of RAM, processor and graphics card would affect the perfomance of a game.

Crysis for example on XP i could run on high, now with vista and DX 10 I can only run on medium. If I kept the same processor but bought a better card would this improve the performance?

[system7]

The only thing I am confused about are graphics, is it solely down to what card you have as I was under the impression that the combination of RAM, processor and graphics card would affect the perfomance of a game.

Crysis for example on XP i could run on high, now with vista and DX 10 I can only run on medium. If I kept the same processor but bought a better card would this improve the performance?
That slowdown in Crysis may be because Vista is a memory hog or DX10 may be using higher settings. Hard to say.

I would commend you join in the fun benchies here and get a feel for how different games respond to various factors: http://forum.novatech.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=43

But I do suspect your processor clock is probably letting you down a bit here overall.

[Sally-Novatech-Technician]

Good pickup on memory size, Yorkshire_Man. 2 GB of RAM would be right for XP, but 2-4 GB will help with Vista. Certainly 1 GB might be very sluggish.

A basic graphic card would help too, both to free up memory and improve display ability.

The E6300 isn't the fastest CPU on the block around 1.9 GHz, but a Quad isn't going to speed things up because of the 4 cores, more because it clocks higher.

My personal approach would be to look at memory upgrades and do a little overclock with a better CPU Cooler, but would understand fully if you don't fancy the overclock complications.

CPU-Z will tell you the all-important bios version and memory size here.


One point to mention, if you are using a 32bit operating system, then there is no real benefit it putting more than 3 gig of RAM in, the 32bit O\S will only address a maximum of 3gig.
To get the full benefit of 4gig you need a 64bit O\S, but check first that your motherboard and CPU will support a 64bit O\S, the quad core CPU's will, but make sure the MOBO will.
Motherboards are fairly cheap nowadays anyway, we do some great ones at Novatech for reasonable prices, or you could always go for one of our ready-built motherboard bundles.

My home system has the following:
Foxconn 6150M2MA Motherboard
AMD 64 dual core CPU running at 2.2ghz
4 Gig of Corsair RAM
8gig Flash drive in the back (used as ready boost, makes a BIG difference to the speed)
2 X 500 gig hard drives
Vista Ultimate 64 bit
Nvidia Geforce 9500GT graphics card with 1gig onboard

This system runs VERY fast, I fitted an artic pro cooler on to keep the temperatures down.