I was thinking of upgrading my CPU. It currently runs 2.9GHz and my MOBO is only upgradable to 3.4GHz. Will the difference be noticeable enough to justify the expense? Also, I have enough memory space to double my RAM (from 1GB to 2). I know that would be significant, but would I need the extra processing power to make it useful?
2GB is usually a worthwhile upgrade from 1GB, but if you're going to get new RAM, you may as well wait until you upgrade the rest of the components, since you can then get more up to date RAM. It's not worth upgrading the CPU for the sake of 500mhz.
Hiya bass073. I guess it depends on what you are upgrading from. I upgraded my old machine from a 2.8ghz P4 Celeron to a P4 3.2Ghz. I noticed a massive improvement but mainly because there was such a difference between the two CPU's. The P4 Celeron was a 2.4Ghz 400Mhz FSB SK478 with 128Kb L2 Cache, and the CPU I upgraded to was a P4 3.2Ghz Prescott 800Mhz FSB SK478 with 1MB L2 cache and the difference was huge. If your situtation is similar you too will notice the difference. I paid £50 for the upgrade and this was done 12 months ago. That £50 upgrade has lasted me until now where I am looking at upgrading again, so I guess the decision is all about if you feel the money would be well spent. If you already have a similar processor to what you are looking to upgrade to, then I would agree with Sam and bite the bullet for a while, save up and get a better CPU, memory and possibly motherboard together. Let us know how it goes ;o)
