ASROCK 939 Dual SATA2

[LORD]

Hi,

My current system is this :-

Athlon XP3200+
ASROCK 939 Dual SATA2 mobo
3 GB DDR PC3200
Nvidia 8800GTS 320MB
150GB 7200rpm HDD
Windows XP SP2

I've just installed 2 gigs of DDR that a friend kindly donated taking me up to 3GB. I have a decent enough graphics card but I think the CPU is now a serious bottleneck. I've started using FL studio XXL Music production software on my PC and the CPU can start to sweat FAST.

I've been looking at supported CPU's on the ASROCK website here :-

http://www.asrock.com/mb/cpu.asp?Model=939Dual-SATA2

I'm considering trying to find a dual core Athlon chip on Ebay to boost the performance of my PC. What I don't want to have to do is any BIOS flashing. I did once a few years ago and I still haven't recovered from the stress :rolleyes: I wanted to check that as long as the website says 'all' under the since BIOS column I should be OK? I was wondering what sort of performance gains I could expect from a switch to say a 4600/4800 X2 over my single core 3200+?

Additionally, since I now have 3 gigs DDR the mobo is running single channel memory (3 x 1 GIGS). Seeing as XP only reads 2.5 gigs of it I was wondering whether 2 gigs in dual channel (only 0.5 gig down in reality) would run faster than 2.5 gigs single channel. One to ponder :doh:

Many thanks

 

[thomas234]

Well the website says it supports that chip in all versions of the BIOS, so it probably does. I don't know what experience you've had with BIOS flashing, but I've always found it quite straightforward. It's just if it goes wrong it can be a problem...

Why does XP only recognise 2.5gb of RAM?

 

[LORD]

Ok thanks for the response.

AFAIK 32 bit OS's can only address a certain amount of RAM. I'm not sure on the exact amount tbh. XP 64 bit will be able to use much, much more but I don't trust that i'll be able to find the right driver's for everything.

 

[thomas234]

I'd wait for someone else's input before you go ahead and order a new CPU!!

XP & Vista 32bit can access 4gb of RAM, although it shows up as 3.5gb. I've read conflicting stories about Linux, but some say 32bit can access upto 64gb RAM.