CPU Upgrade on Dell Vostro A860

Then what would the bottle neck be? I am interested in getting a new processor. Right now with a blank XP install, its pretty snappy.

Hell it runs better than my Lenovo T61p with a T7500 processor. I think its because the T61P bios throttles the SATA controller to 150mbps and limits the ram to clock at 667Mhz. Its a solidly built system, but can't realize its full potential.

 

Memory or HDD, most likely. I mean traditionally, the HDD is the biggest bottleneck on most systems. A bloated install and a pittance of memory can make it worse.

I doubt it's the SATA controller. Unless you're using a top-of-the-line SSD, you're not going to hit the ~150MB/s limit of the SATA bus.

 

Interesting, that's true I guess since its a platter HDD it probably doesn't peak that fast.

But wouldnt sataII standards be more efficient with data transfer?

 

Possible. Even likely. But I don't think it should be enough to make it noticeable.

 

Well either way, I got me a T7250 for an upgrade. Now I just need to get my hands on some PC6400 and hopefully I got me a new computer.

 

Hi,
RAM clock is limited to 667MHz with the i965 chipset. No need to buy PC6400 then.

Michael

 

SOB! I read somewhere it was clocked at 800Mhz. Oh well, I have a 1gb of PC5400 laying around so I guess I'm good.

edit, now i remember where. the dell website! lying s. Well luckily the chip i have is 4-4-12.

 

Ok i got my new processor and I installed and its working great. Now the old processor had the thermal pad on there. So i scrapped that off and used a small layer of AS5. Under regular load i'm seeing 45C temps, but under a heavy load like a movie or a video game its peaking at 80C!

What should I do, i feel like i didn't put much AS5 because too much is bad. But now I'm afraid there is too much of a gap.

Note that the heatsink is the same for the GPU and I left the pad on there, but I put a small layer of AS5 there too.

Any thoughts?

 

There should be no gap at all; if there is then you either need to modify the copper piping so there is no gap, use a small piece of copper in between that and the processor, or switch back to using the pad.

 

well i think there is a small one, i think the GPU with the pad is a little higher because one core is about 7-10C higher than the other.

I doubt i'll be able to find a piece of copper thin enough, so i may just get another thermal pad. Thanks.