Hi!

Here's my question. I hope you can help.

I’m looking for some advice please and I’d be grateful for any help in pointing me to what I need to buy. I realise that overclocking may be an option but, unless someone explains how to do it I have no idea, and I'm very wary of editing the BIOS. I'm NOT very techy (a novice really), but I have upgraded some of the hardware on my PC over the years. Not the processor though.

Anyway, I have a PC that’s around 6 years old. I realise that I probably can’t upgrade its processor very significantly without replacing the motherboard, but I’d still like to upgrade as much as possible in order to be able to play at least some of the more recent games. From what I’ve read, the motherboard should support a processor as ‘high’ as 3000MHz (conflicting advice from store techies so far though).

I’ve been told that Socket A processors are harder to find. Can you tell me exactly what it is that I need please? I'm in the UK.

I don’t need to play the MOST modern games, and I realise that a new PC would be my best option for that. I just want my son and I to be able to play some games that my current processor can’t handle. Some we have in mind specify a 2.6GHz processor, or thereabouts.

Thanks for your help (in advance).

Gelert.

Here’s what the utility, CPU-Z, says I have;

AMD Athlon XP

Barton (I think that was the name of the Code name).

Socket A (462)

Technology 0.13um

Core voltage 1.680v

Specification AMD Athlon™ XP 2600+

Family: 6

Model: A

Stepping: 0

Ext. Family: 7

Ext. Model: A

Instructions: MMX(+), 3DNow!(+), SSE

Core Speed: 1921.1MHz

Multiplier: x11.5

Bus Speed: 167.1MHz

Rated FSB: 334.1MHz

Cache: L1 Data: 64KBytes

L1 Inst.: 64 KBytes

Level 2: 512 KBytes

why don't get a new one.
I guess difference should be too much...

6 year, time to make subtitution.

Or at least run some backup process

Hi Gelert - usually, before upgrading the CPU, your best bang for the buck (or quid in your case) is in RAM first, then a better graphics card.

Unfortunately, you did not say where you stand in either of those critical areas. If you have less than 1Gb of RAM, then that's definitely where you should put you money first. My updated standard minimum recommendations for RAM is 1Gb/core for XP, and 2Gb for Vista.

If you are running with on-board video, then definitely get a new graphics card when budget allows (after RAM). If those two areas are deficient, a bigger CPU will be of little use - the RAM and graphics bottlenecks will render useless any increased CPU horsepower.

_________________
Bill, AFE7Ret
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