[anthonyla65]

Hi everyone, i have ASUS P4PE with a Celeron 2.3GHz @ 3.2GHz OC at the moment, i'm thinking to upgrade to this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/81385 . Its pretty nice for its price, i just want a new cpu so it doesnt bottleneck my 7600GT and so i can play Mass Effect without lagg cos' its CPU dependent, also it has HT so i can multitask better. But the problem is, on the CPU support list on ASUS site says i need BIOS version of 1005 i'm not sure what mine is, but my current CPU Celeron 2.3GHz need 1005 too and i think i'm running it fine... I'm pretty confused I just wanna ask if even though my BIOS isn't the required version, would it still accept my CPU or would it reject it ? I appreciate any replies

[anthonyla65]

any replies please ? :(

[philthomas]

Why not check for an upgrade for your bios first, from the Asus website
I think the bios for that board is now up to vers. 1007

[serverguy]

If you're not having any problems at the moment, don't bother upgrading.

[anthonyla65]

Well, the reason i'm not upgrading my BIOS is because you have to flash it and i read a lot of people after they flashed their board it went dead. Well i still dont know should i upgrade or not. Because i tested my CPU and it got quite a decent score even better than some Pentium D's so i dont know

[ilop12]

i think it would be better to save up moeny and buy a whole new rig when you can. it would help in the long run. if you save up enough to get a e8400 or e8500 with a gigabyte ep45 or something like that, it would be much better. if your proccesor gets higher scores than pentium d's then its not worth upgrading it. but you i think it would be best to save money now and get a much better system down the road.

[anthonyla65]

well, i'm currently in 3rd year of secondary school and i'm not thinking of getting a new PC till after 5th year. Its just that i get lagg in mass effect, i'm not sure about my CPU better than a Pentium D but on the "Post you CPU mark 2.1 Scores" i looked at the Pentium D score and mine was better by 1000. But my CPU is a Celeron Northwood 3.2GHz, i'm sure the CPU mark is right because i tested my Celeron Prescott 2.8GHz (3rd PC) and it got 3200, it seems right. Do you think it worth upgrading if i'm getting score better than Pentium D ? I just want a Pentium 4 because HT seems cool

[Razer]

As a long time user of Pent 4 with HTT, avoid it like the plague. It's not fast, it's not good on heat, it needs a shed load of power, the multitasking sucks big time and overall, any dual core will flatten it.

Mass Effect will probably still run like a dog on a P4, better off getting a newer dual core instead of a rusty old P4..

[anthonyla65]

hmmn... should i even get a P4 or stick with my Celeron. My only concern is that my celeron was a refurbished CPU (cheap) and it has a small L2 Cache of 128KB, is it worth upgrading to a P4 2.8GHz 512KB L2 (Planning to OC to 3.4GHz) ? Would i actually see a performance improvement ?

[Razer]

The performance boost you would get is barely worth it. With the price of P4's these days you would be better off buying the 3.4GHz model on the 478 socket anyway. You are much better off buying a cheap dual core system and swapping over bits and pieces because the maximum performance you will gain from P4 isn't great.

If you have to decide between a P4 or Celeron only, then go with P4, if you can afford to get a dual core, don't hesitate.