CPU Upgrade - need to re-install windows?

[yds]

Just upgraded my Celeron 1.8 machine to a P4 2.53 CPU. It boots up fine and shows the new processor. Just wondering whether to get the best performance I should consider re-installing Windows? It'd be a pain to go through reinstallation of all my apps, but I really do want to be able to take full advantage of this new processor. Perhaps a repair-install would suffice? Looking for opinions.

[Coke355mL]

no action is required on your part.

[renhui]

Is the new processor hyperthreading-enabled as opposed to the old celeron? If so, you may want to reinstall the os in order to fully take advantage of two virtual processors, otherwise, it should be okay.

[goofball]

Is the new processor hyperthreading-enabled as opposed to the old celeron? If so, you may want to reinstall the os in order to fully take advantage of two virtual processors, otherwise, it should be okay.

P4 2.53 does not have Hyperthreading. the only 533FSB CPU that has HT is the 3.06.

You don't need to reinstall the OS.

[yds]

Is the new processor hyperthreading-enabled as opposed to the old celeron?

It's an older Northwood core, so I don't think it has hyper-threading (??).

[yds]

As an aside, I'm running 512MB of PC2100 for memory. Should I consider upgrading to PC3200? Will it give me a noticable improvement? I think I can get $512MB for about $70.

[Gee]

Re-installing would be pointless for you. Just leave it as it is. You probably won't notice the speed improvment unless you are doing tasks that are processor intensive.

Most tasks performed are I/O intensive, so you will see very little speed increase.

[Canadianpsycho]

Northwoods do like better memory bandwidth, although it depends on the memory ratios your board supports...

[yds]

You probably won't notice the speed improvment unless you are doing tasks that are processor intensive.

Most tasks performed are I/O intensive, so you will see very little speed increase.

I upgraded cause the kids games (NFS) and my new MS Flight Sim were tending to be choppy. I'm hoping that the 2.53P4 will make a difference!!

[Gee]

As an aside, I'm running 512MB of PC2100 for memory. Should I consider upgrading to PC3200? Will it give me a noticable improvement? I think I can get $512MB for about $70.

Since your CPU FSB is 533, you would benefit from PC3200 as it is rated at 400 MHz and effectively run at 800 MHz. But all you technically need is PC2700 which is 333 MHz but DDR (Double Data Rate) would effectively give you 666 MHz, which exceeds the CPU Bus speed of 533. The closer the RAM is to your computer's FSB the better. Although this is marginal, it will help. You have to decide whether it will justify the expense. Your current RAM is 266 MHz

I upgraded cause the kids games (NFS) and my new MS Flight Sim were tending to be choppy. I'm hoping that the 2.53P4 will make a difference!!

I am sure it will help, you would have been better off getting a Video card for Flight Simulator. But a faster CPU will DEFINITELY help.

[willy]

Since your CPU FSB is 533, you would benefit from PC3200 as it is rated at 400 MHz and effectively run at 800 MHz. But all you technically need is PC2700 which is 333 MHz but DDR (Double Data Rate) would effectively give you 666 MHz, which exceeds the CPU Bus speed of 533. The closer the RAM is to your computer's FSB the better. Although this is marginal, it will help. You have to decide whether it will justify the expense. Your current RAM is 266 MHz

You doubled the speed one step too further. PC2700 is 166Mhz DDR (=333Mhz) and PC3200 is 200Mhz DDR (=400Mhz).

Intel CPU FSB is quar-pumped so 533Mhz is 133Mhz x 4. To run the CPU and RAM in sync, PC2100 (133Mhz DDR = 266Mhz) is all that required. If your mobo supports higher FSB for RAM, you can use PC2700 or PC3200 to obtain higher memory bandwidth ... which should benefit P4 platforms.

[Gee]

You doubled the speed one step too further. PC2700 is 166Mhz DDR (=333Mhz) and PC3200 is 200Mhz DDR (=400Mhz).

Intel CPU FSB is quar-pumped so 533Mhz is 133Mhz x 4. To run the CPU and RAM in sync, PC2100 (133Mhz DDR = 266Mhz) is all that required. If your mobo supports higher FSB for RAM, you can use PC2700 or PC3200 to obtain higher memory bandwidth.

Sorry, you are right. Long day.

[yds]

Thanks guys. I've got a Radeon 9200SE 8X AGP card in it, so that should be decent enough me-thinks. Will look into upgrading the RAM if the kids continue to complain!!

[Coke355mL]

No wonder it's running a little choppy. That card isn't very good for graphic intensive games.

Thanks guys. I've got a Radeon 9200SE 8X AGP card in it, so that should be decent enough me-thinks. Will look into upgrading the RAM if the kids continue to complain!!

[yds]

Since installing the P4, I have been having quite a few crashes of the system when trying to play games (and sometime just doing things like browsing the internet). Wondering if this might be related to the upgrade? Perhaps I got a flaky chip? Should I try a reinstall of XP before I go back to the store with the processor (it was a used processor, but I trust the store I got it from).

Also, noticed that when I ran some benchmarking tests on the mobo/CUP/memory combo, my test results were consistently at the bottom of the benchmark comparisons. Again, possibly related to the upgrade?

Any advice appreciated.