stan said:
I want to upgrade my CPU, seems I also need to upgrade my MB.
I have been informed I need to do a clean install of WINXP including SP2
and all updates, I would also have to re-install all my programs and
software some of which have been upgrades others I am not sure which are
data ,As I am not a newbee but also not that computer savvy to risk
loosing a lot of what I consider survival programs. Old enough to be
smarter, young enough to know better. No major changes made to computer in
over 120 days, just a hard drive way over 6 months ago. Can new MB and
CPU be installed without such drastic steps as needing to reinstall
everything?
At present running on Intel 933MHZ, 640 Ram.
Stan
What speed boost you expect (and what you actually get) depends entirely on
how MUCH of an upgrade you intend to perform (and how full is your wallet).
If you are not willing to "risk lo[o]sing a lot of what I consider survival
programs", are you actually NOW performing backups? Otherwise, your files
really aren't as important as claimed. You don't just do backups before
making major changes - because a major change may be made without your
consent, like the hard drive fails or a surge burns out components. While
logical file backups (for a full backup) can get you up and running close to
what you had before, you'll probably want to get a disk/partition image
program, like Acronis True Image, so you can restore that image in case of
disaster recovery. Since you are performing major surgery on your computer,
you'll need backups. It is possible the new motherboard uses a different
translation geometry for your large hard drive than did your old
motherboard, so the new mobo won't know how to read your old drive's
contents. You'll then need to restore the image onto the hard drive using
the new mobo so it uses its translation to figure out where the sectors go
physically onto the true geometry of the drive (rather than the logical
geometry the OS gets to use).
Does the old mobo use the same memory type as what the new mobo will use?
If so, why not just try adding more memory to see if you get the performance
boost that you expect. If you end up getting the new mobo, you can move
over the compatible memory. You might also look at msconfig.exe's Startup
tab to see what processes you have load on Windows startup that are sucking
up your memory and consuming CPU cycles. Disable services that you don't
need; e.g., if you don't intend on running a web server or websharing of
folders for other people to use/abuse then don't run the IIS service. If
you don't have enough memory then processes end up swapping out to the
pagefile. The swapping in and out of pages takes time and the very much
slower hard drive is used for the pagefile to emulate memory (i.e., virtual
memory, virtual because it isn't real memory but just a file on the hard
drive). Getting bytes off a hard drive in a pagefile is extremely slower
than using those bytes in memory.
How do you know it isn't your old and slow hard drive that is slowing down
the response of your system? While the OS uses caching (and even if the
hard drive has a cache), that doesn't help the first time a file is opened.
Caching works to keep a portion of a file AFTER it has been read at least
once. Could be you have an old drive that spins slow (5400 RPM) and a newer
faster-spinning hard drive with a bigger hardware cache would improve
responsiveness. A faster hard drive will get those bytes faster into
memory, and nothing executes unless it is in memory.
Anything in a card slot or connected by cable is a subsystem. However, you
intend to replace the core system (processor, motherboard, and maybe even
the memory). An in-place upgrade (i.e., repair) will probably do the trick
but preplan for disaster. Make backups (and preferrably images for a
near-exact restore). If you don't backup and it breaks after the brain
surgery, you have no way to restore and will have to install everything from
scratch (along with losing all your data files and configuration settings
for every program).
See
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=315341