New processor for my comp.

[colonelva]

Hi, first time posting here. I'm currently on a budget and can't buy a new computer (wife won't let me) , however I'm entertaining the option of upgrading my processor. Below is what I found for my mobo. I'm mainly using this comp for playing games, WOW - Battlefield Bad company. I'd also like to have something that will prepare me for Battlefield 3. Any help would be appreciated as I'm not tech savvy.


Motherboard Name Asus P5BW-LA (Buckeye)
Bus Type Intel AGTL+
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 267 MHz (QDR)
Effective Clock 1066 MHz
Bandwidth 8530 MB/s

If I need to post anything else please let me know..

 

[Yami]

That information's not very helpful; can you use Speccy to find out your computer's specs and give them to us?

Speccy - Standard

 

[brinks]

Depending on what video card you have, a new video card might be a better option for your gaming needs.

 

[Slaymate]

Is that a brand name PC like a HP? Please provide us with the Brand and model number.

 

[colonelva]

I apologize for the delay in response, work has been a pain .. but here goes..and yes it is an HP Pavilion a1640n.

Summary
Operating System
MS Windows XP Media Center Edition Professional 32-bit SP3
CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 @ 1.86GHz 51 °C
Conroe 65nm Technology
RAM
6.0GB DDR2
Motherboard
ASUSTek Computer INC. Buckeye (Socket 775) 38 °C
Graphics
HP L2045w (1680x1050@60Hz)
1024MB GeForce GTS 250 (BFG Tech) 56 °C
Hard Drives
244GB Seagate ST3250820AS (SATA) 49 °C
313GB FUJITSU MAXTOR STM3320620AS (SATA) 53 °C
Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H653L
Audio
Creative X-Fi Audio Processor (WDM)

Motherboard
Manufacturer ASUSTek Computer INC.
Model Buckeye
Version 0nx1114RE101BUCKE00
Chipset Vendor Intel
Chipset Model P965/G965
Chipset Revision C2
Southbridge Vendor Intel
Southbridge Model 82801HH (ICH8DH)
Southbridge Revision B0
System Temperature 38 °C
BIOS
Brand Phoenix Technologies, LTD
Version 3.17
Date 08/21/2007
Voltage
CPU CORE 1.680 V
MEMORY CONTROLLER 1.688 V
VIN2 1.664 V
PCI Data
1. PCI Available
2. PCI Available
3. PCI Available
4. PCI Available
Graphics
Monitor
Name HP L2045w on NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250

Is that enough information? I wasn't sure if this is all that's needed.

 

[colonelva]

Figured I'd throw a bump on this hoping someone could see it .

 

[Yami]

What sort of budget to you have for upgrading? I'd definitely upgrade the CPU first, but that will also require upgrading the motherboard, and getting new RAM... and possibly a new power supply, though if it that PC has a GTS250 then the power supply is probably good enough.

 

[colonelva]

I'm going to have enough for anything under $200. I'm using Thermaltake Black Widow 850 w power supply recently bought that thinking that would be enough to power my comp. Was that a bad choice?

 

[flipp1234567]

First of all, i believe that 6GB for the system is overkill... in a good way and bad way. Your Operating System is the problem... Windows xp 32 bit can only recognize 3.5gb of ram while a 64bit xp can recognize up to 8GB. so i dont think a new processor is really necessary, unless the lag and slow performance persists...

but then again, the processor is pretty out of date...

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor BX80570E8400

775 sockets for intel are mainly the core 2 duos anyway... so i would probably replace your old one with this one... its about 170 USD and almost twice as fast as you existing processor. from my friends experiments, the better the CPU, the graphics card will also follow in a sense, so replacing graphics card should be crossed out...

i don't completely agree with Yami, since he's probably thinking of getting the i-series... theres still very good intel Core 2 duos out there, its not as good as the i-series, but its better than what you have

the 850 W power supply is not a bad choice, but its overkill since your computer doesn't consume that much power yet... atleast you will know that your computer wont bug out because of consuming more power than the pwoer supply is giving it. haha



well thats my take.

 

[colonelva]

I do have some lag while playing, was kinda hoping to alleviate that. What if I upgraded to 64 bit, would the extra ram help?

I had read somewhere that my mobo wasn't compatible with other type of chips cept Conroe. I can't remember where I saw that. This is the spec on my mobo

# Socket: 775
# Supports the following processors:

* Intel Core 2 Duo E6x00 with Dual Core technology (Conroe core)
Motherboard Specifications, P5BW-LA (Buckeye) - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

Not sure if that means I can't use anything but Conroe.

I had previously looked at Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6850
(4M Cache, 3.00 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB. Thanks for the input so far.