Heya

I have an old(ish) fujitsu siemans desktop with a pentium 4 processor, Over the years I’ve put an extra 2gb of memory in, addedd a 1TB SATA Hdd and generally left it alone. It’s running 32bit Windows 7 now, fine most of the time, the processor seems to be running flat out most of the time (according to speedo thing in Windows 7)

I’ve seen Motherboard, processor and RAM for £120ish. Is it worthwhile? Transfered the guts from one case to another before, so can’t see that being an issue

What do we think?

Really depends on the board, CPU & Ram. Seems cheap for decent versions of all three. You can pay way more than that just for a CPU.
Specify what you’ve got and what you’re looking at & we can let you know if it’s worthwhile.
Other things to consider:
Is the replacement board the same standard (dimensions) as yours – will it fit in the same case.
The new CPU may require a bigger heatsink. Will that fit in your case?
Is the graphics card onboard or separate. If built in does the new board have it built in. If separate, is your current card the same standard as the new board.
Your existing power supply may also come up short of what’s necessary to drive the replacement.
It’s rarely as simple as it seems.

What’s taking up all the CPU in your current box? Windows 7 is in my experience, pretty quietr most of the time. Mine for example as I’m typing this says 0% (although it is a fairly beefy box).
Is it busy when you’re not doing anything?

High CPU under normal conditions is usually a sign of another issue. You could buy the new stuff (and if you’re going down that path then do what Johnny says above and let us know the detail) and then find it’s still hammering the CPU.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Intel-E5700-Dual-Core-CPU-4GB-DDR3-Motherboard-Bundle-/360313317903?pt=UK_Motherboards_CPUs&hash=item53e458ea0f

Was thinking of that kind of thing, I’m assuming that dual core would be better than my current pentium 4?

It’s hammering the CPU whist converting videos to DivX, and taking an age to do them,

Would CPU sort this? Sorry, excuse my limited knowledge on this

Yes, that will be a lot faster than your pentium 4. Looking at some rough benchmarks online I’d guess about 6 or 7 times quicker.

You still have to consider the points above though. You’ll need a new power supply almost for certain.

If you’re going from a P4 system to a modern architecture, I’d budget a new PSU in with that. Newer boards will require more grunt on the 12V rail than older PSUs can reliably deliver.

Yep, that sort of stuff is very CPU intensive.

Cheers guys!

I’ll be back for more help soon 🙂

Oh,

What’s your video card?

Yeah more CPU helps video encodes, but depending what you go from/to you might not get a huge decrease in conversions times.

It’s nearly always a “leave it and do something else”* task anyhow.

Cougar’s hinting at the possibility of GPU accelerated encodes though, could be a cheap upgrade option…

(*tho possibly on the same machine, if it’s not totally bogged down.)

not sure on video card, but it is a seperate

Could always change OS for a grand total of £0

*hides* 😆

Cougar’s hinting at the possibility of GPU accelerated encodes though

I’d like to take credit for that, but I’d be lying. I hadn’t given much thought to usage. However…

not sure on video card, but it is a seperate

This is what I was angling at – P4 era GFX card, it’s going to be AGP of some form. Good luck finding a modern board with an AGP slot; that’ll need replacing too.

This is what I was angling at – P4 era GFX card, it’s going to be AGP of some form. Good luck finding a modern board with an AGP slot; that’ll need replacing too

I think it is

Conqueror – Member

Could always change OS for a grand total of £0

*hides*

The Ubuntu that I installed on my Netbook is no bother at all 🙂

Could see how Xubuntu or Ubuntu fair on the system if money is tight or could see anyway.

If you use the computer a lot probably would be worth upgrading some of the parts.

Dont need AGP slot. A lot of boards these days have reasonable onboard graphics unless used for gaming.

Fujitsu Siemens (and other computer manufacturers) usually only spec PSU’s sufficient to get the job done without any overhead for more powerful CPU’s etc. You will need a new PSU.

Some of the older Fujitsu Siemens desktops came with non standard power supplies. Non standard in that they were long & thin instead of the more ‘normal’ ATX standard shape (15cm wide x 8cm high x approx 14cm deep). If you have to replace the PSU then available replacements will normally only be ATX standard and may not fit in your case.

You’ll probably have to do an operating system re-install as well…

Having said that, the CPU in that package is massively more capable than any P4 chip and bundled with a decent amount of memory so the value is there, it’s just the practicalities of getting it done.

I bet he’d get away without a reinstall but I’d recommend doing one anyway.

Micro ATX Mobo with integrated graphics and one of these 45watt CPU

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/177049

and you will probably be using less power than before

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CPU_power_dissipation

I have an old(ish) fujitsu siemans desktop with a pentium 4 processor

P4 = old.

And Conqueror, linux is gonna make sod all difference to video encoding.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Intel-Pentium-E6500-Dual-Core-PC-4GB-DDR3-1TB-/360337866235?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item53e5cf7dfb

hmm, full PC for not much more

I bet he’d get away without a reinstall but I’d recommend doing one anyway.

Windows 7, it’ll probably be fine.

hmm, full PC for not much more

I don’t see anything there that says what motherboard it is, which rings alarm bells with me.