Need Some Quick Advise

[aspire]

u have aim?
easier to talk

sooooooo your basically looking at a whole new computer

 

[Delinkwent]

lildelinkwent2

 

[Apokalipse]

hyperthreading does not necessarily give you a performance increase. in some cases it actually slows your computer down

like said above, going from 2.6GHZ to 3.2GHZ is not going to be a big leap

for gaming, the Athlon 64's are actually a lot better, and most of the time a fair bit cheaper than Pentium 4's.
I'm not going to be one sided and say "pentium 4's are crap" however, if you do upgrade, I would recommend a new motherboard also, even if not for AMD.
chances are, your current motherboard cannot support the 800MHZ FSB of the higher end Pentium 4's

 

[uzi9mm]

Just get a prescott. The northwoods are more expensive since prescott is starting to take over the P4 market. It is a supply and demand issue
phenomenon.

Also yes they run hot, but they can handle the extra degrees without a problem. Also heat should not be a problem if you have proper cooling. And the proper cooling is a stock HSF with the thermal pad.

 

[Delinkwent]

hmm... how do u figure that i cant support a 800mhz fsb?..

 

[Apokalipse]

well, I'm not saying that it definately can't, but cosidering the CPU is a 2.6GHZ P4 or celeron, the CPU's with an 800MHZ FSB are/were not common for that speed.

 

[Delinkwent]

hmm no its not that.. my cousin had given me his old case which he had a 2.8ghz HT stock.. and i jus put my old processor in it.. but it can handle a 800mhz fsb btw...

 

[Delinkwent]

btw... im a rookie in oc'ing.... wat programs do u use to do it?

 

[Delinkwent]

... im tired... sorry if im a little impatient...

 

[Apokalipse]

for overclocking your CPU, you would usually go into your BIOS.
on boot, it will say "press [some key] to enter setup"
press that key

then try and find CPU or FSB options.
to overclock your CPU, you can increase the FSB, or increase the multiplier.
your total CPU speed is a product of your FSB (the speed it talks to RAM) multiplied by the multiplier.
my (slow) CPU is a Pentium 3 933MHZ, it has a FSB of 133MHZ and a multiplier of 7
I've overclocked it now to 150MHZ FSB, now it is at 150x7=1050MHZ

I would recommend if you can, to actually lower the multiplier so you can raise the FSB more. most CPU's have a "locked" multiplier, meaning you can't change it. but if you can, it is often good to use it.