thinking of upgrading cpu.

D

dameous

Geek Trainee
I recently bought a ready made system with the following specs...

- AMD Athlon 64 4000 San Diego (Socket 939) Dual DDR400 CPU
- AMD Freezer 64 Pro Approved Cooler
- Asus A8N-SLi Premium (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard
- 2GB (2x1GB) DDR PC4000 Dual Channel Kit
- 250GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 16mb cache SATA-2 Hard Drive
- NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB DDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card
- NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
- Onboard Sound
- Tagan TG600-U25 600W Dual Engine ATX2.01 SLi Compliant Silent PSU

My problem is the cpu. When its pushed real hard its limitations start to show. I have been toying with idea of replacing it with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600. Would this be good idea? I know i could go down the path of overclocking my current cpu, but I'd rather get a better cpu and run it safely.

I have never actually changed a cpu before, so can anyone point me in the direction of a good tutorial or something, epescially one concernig AMD cpu's or A8N-SLi mobo's.
 
A 4600 is probably going to dissappoint you. You've already got a very fast CPU, when you say pushed to the limets I'm assuming you mean in gaming. If that's so I don't think any game out today is going to hammer you're system. The 4600 is clocked the same or a little lower I belive so it all comes down to dual core aspect. If the game doesn't make good use of that then it's not going to help. But if it's stuffl like file compression, ripping tracks, video editing etc. then yeah a 4600 should help you out a bit.
The core 2 duo's would be a much better upgrade but it's not worth it concidering you'd have to replace way to much of your gear.
------------
As for changing you cpu it's actually very easy. Unplug the little cpu fan cable from the motherbaord. You then lift up the lever/s to release you heatsink, this could take a bit of effort but so long as you really don't jam on it or anything you shouldn't experience any damage.
You'll then see to top plate on you're cpu with some paste residue ontop. There will be a metal lever lying parallet with the socket the cpu sits in. You'll need to pull up on that and then the cpu will be free to be gently lifted out.
You then insert you're new cpu carefully alligning all the pins the proper way, there's only one way to put it in right. Then shut the lever so it's latched down. Apply a largish bb sized dot of thermal past and spread it across the top plate of the cpu. Replace your heatsink/fan and connect the fan cable to the motherboard. You're not good to go.
 
If you really want to change your CPU to a dual core one, go for the 4400+ or 4800+. The 4600+ has a total of 512Kb L2 cache, while 4400+ and 4800+ has 1Mb in total.
 
I have a 4600 and a 4200 and i notice a difference for sure, not to mention i get a way better score on folding@home on my 4600 machine that on my 4200 machine
 
I don't think the L2 cache size makes that much of a difference in AMD cpu's Thoonie, it's more of an Intel thing. Could be wrong though.
 
Thanks so far. I'm going to be a bit more specific. When i got my rig about a month ago it was excellent. I was playing games such as Dawn of War: winter assault and X3:reunion, on the highest graphics and performance settings with no problems at all. Then the Graphics card (7900GTX) died and I had a problem with windows only being able to start up in safe mode. I got in touch with the retailer and sent back the rig on their advice. They replaced my graphics card with a new 7900GTX, sorted the windows issue and sent it back.
Now, Whenever I play games, there is definite difference in performance. I get slight stuttering or very short pauses. I just got Company of heroes yesterday, that puts quite a lot of strain on the system, and get lots of small lock ups and sound errors (stuttering and such.) And the problem isn't just related to quite recent games. I also have medieval Total war Gold edition that also suffers from these issues.

So, I have tried updating and installing older graphics drivers to no avail, and so I thought that maybe the CPU was struggling. I suppose there could be ram issue, but i have 2 gig of DDR4000 dual channel ram.

The only other thing i can thing of is the sound card. My system came with AC97 integrated. I have disabled this and am using a soundblaster Audigy 2 NX outboard card, connected via USB. Possible conflicts?

Any opinions greatly appreciated.
 
Your CPU is fine with the games that you are playing, for example, medieval total war, in my 3rd system with 3700+ CPU, i can play Rome total war without any stuttering/errors that goes with company of heroes too. Did you by any chance overclocked your CPU or Gfx Card?
 
I haven't overclocked anything, as the rig was returned to the supplier for repairs, but i don't know if anything has been altered by them. Here's a system overview taken with 3dmark06 showing the cpu and graphics card stats. Does everything look as it should?

Manufacturer AMD
Family AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 4000+
Architecture 64-bit
Internal Clock 2.4 GHz
Internal Clock Maximum 2.4 GHz
External Clock 200.0 MHz
Socket Designation Socket 939
Upgrade Socket 939
MultiCore 1 Processor Core
HyperThreadingTechnology N/A
Capabilities MMX, CMov, RDTSC, 3DNow!, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, PAE, NX
Version AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 4000+
Caches
Level 1 128 KB
Level 2 1 MB


WinFast PX7900 GTX Driver 8.3.9.1

Description WinFast PX7900 GTX
Manufacturer Leadtek Research Inc.
Total Local Video Memory 512 MB
Total Local Texture Memory 754 MB
AGP Aperture Size 0 B
Driver File nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version 8.3.9.1
Driver Date 2-13-2006
Driver WHQL Certified false
Max Texture Width 4096 px
Max Texture Height 4096 px
Max User Clipping Planes 6
Max Active Hardware Lights 8
Max Texture Blending Stages 8
Fixed Function Textures In Single Pass 8
Vertex Shader Version 3.0
Pixel Shader Version 3.0
Max Vertex Blend Matrices 0
Max Texture Coordinates 8
VGA Memory Clock 0.0 Hz
VGA Core Clock 0.0 Hz
PCI
Name WinFast PX7900 GTX
Vendor ID 0x10de
Device ID 0x0290
SubSystem ID 0x2a60107d
Revision ID 0x00a1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bus
Type PCI Express
Revision 1.0
Enabled true
Rate 16
Sideband Addressing Not Supported
Fast Write Not Supported
 
You can ask those guys what they did exactly but it's very odd that you'd be noticing these issues now. Put it this way, if you didn't have problems before with you're processor than upgrading it now isn't going to help. This sounds more software related. Just to make yourself feel better I'd download Tuneup Utilities 2006, and use it to clean up you're registry, correct program errors, etc. Run some virus and sypware scans, defrag your HDD. All that usually precautionary stuff. I doubt it will help much but hey you should do it anyway with or without problems I guess.
 
Thanks exfoliate. I have tune up utilities 2006, but i hadn't installed it yet. Have done so now and found something interesting. When i use the one click maintenance option, 12 program errors are continually found. When i click fix, it tells me all problems are resolved, but as soon as i run it again the exact same program errors are found. they are mainly missing library errors...

Code: 
ApplicationControlDispatch 1.0 Type Library
-------------------------------------------
The key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{4E5A5CBD-2CE8-4085-B515-A20137D70D3D}\1.0\HELPDIR for this type library points to the missing folder [?ACDisp.dll.CDD357E5_FED7_4E52_A790_6A8153A1CD12]. This subkey can be deleted for this type library.

AxSysListView32 Class
---------------------
The key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0A398EE6-277C-480D-BD4F-3288EA3AB8E2}\TypeLib for this object points to the missing type library HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{70E491EB-491F-4A83-B337-C0E53D438C67}. This subkey can be deleted for this object.

ccFWSettg 1.0 Type Library
--------------------------
The key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{54B0DF71-97D6-493C-834D-99FC9E19D612}\1.0\HELPDIR for this type library points to the missing folder [?ISWrap.dll.FECE20E3_C0AC_4226_8B2F_B4A6284CCE0B]. This subkey can be deleted for this type library.

FREIntegEx Class
----------------
The key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{72E492DD-B841-4D9C-8EBC-3BAC9711F6E5}\TypeLib for this object points to the missing type library HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{28D557D9-9F72-4A93-87C2-8A0D7DCEA0CD}. This subkey can be deleted for this object.

FREIntegrator Class
-------------------
The key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{7CA87530-E5EB-4B82-92DB-6299B2116A0A}\TypeLib for this object points to the missing type library HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{28D557D9-9F72-4A93-87C2-8A0D7DCEA0CD}. This subkey can be deleted for this object.

INSCDeskBandLoader Class
------------------------
The key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{3D975EF4-F5AF-4B9A-AF62-BB8616BF0C50}\TypeLib for this object points to the missing type library HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{454E64D6-28AA-4539-BE09-4CC0C3345D33}. This subkey can be deleted for this object.

ISLuCbk 1.0 Type Library
------------------------
The key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{56EBB89D-BB5A-4408-BA3F-04F68EB28690}\1.0\HELPDIR for this type library points to the missing folder [?ISLuCbk.dll.8ED44B83_0BBE_4026_8BE6_F18E96D60A79]. This subkey can be deleted for this type library.

niscmnht 1.0 Type Library
-------------------------
The key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{6E2295DE-2B0E-4ED8-91A8-D9E9A514A027}\1.0\HELPDIR for this type library points to the missing folder [?niscmnht.dll.1F3E1CCC_EA84_438B_ACBE_B58B53C1FE80]. This subkey can be deleted for this type library.

Norton Protection Center
------------------------
The key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{74C90354-7254-4F45-A9B3-CB28DC16931F}\TypeLib for this object points to the missing type library HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{454E64D6-28AA-4539-BE09-4CC0C3345D33}. This subkey can be deleted for this object.

NSCFrame Class
--------------
The key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{67B81FA9-84AB-4779-9CF8-D7A0DEB91298}\TypeLib for this object points to the missing type library HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{E704BD33-6AB6-4981-871B-1D64E78DD1E9}. This subkey can be deleted for this object.

NSCHomeCategory Class
---------------------
The key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{FFA6F3AA-2B29-4EA0-ABB0-C8C5EE9D3871}\TypeLib for this object points to the missing type library HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{E704BD33-6AB6-4981-871B-1D64E78DD1E9}. This subkey can be deleted for this object.

NSCPluginProduct Class
----------------------
The key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{93156B26-5354-474E-BD56-C2CEB190C4F5}\TypeLib for this object points to the missing type library HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{E704BD33-6AB6-4981-871B-1D64E78DD1E9}. This subkey can be deleted for this object.

These problems remain even after a restart. Is there any reason why they cannot be sorted and could they be adversely effecting my system. I have Norton system works ( Norton anti virus, go back, ghost ) running, so maybe these files are being protected for some reason.
 
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