New processor ?

[blotchyprune]

Hi, I'm just after few opinions here...

I currently have a pentium 4 2.8ghz running xp and if I open task manager the proformence is maxed out most of the time mainly when it has to do something visual.

My socket is 478 and reading on the net I found the best processor I can get is a p4 3.4ghz and I found one on eBay that's cheap enough, I'm just wondering if I will notice much difference.

Thanks

wont make much of a difference at all TBH

[weesteev]

Probably not, more RAM would help when running multiple applications and a better GPU will offer better support for gaming and grpahical work.

If your performance is maxed out then its likely there is something running that shouldnt be! I would try all the usual virus/spyware/malware scans first, then try turning off services running that you arent using at startup.

he did say its max when doing something visual so I take it by that the system when just running desktop is idle?

TBH if you need better performance its time to save up for a new system . A skt 478 system is not likely to be able to keep up nowadays

A nice dual core AMD backbone will not cost the earth nowadays

---------- Post added at 13:10 ---------- Previous post was at 13:08 ----------

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/201692 here is a basic dual core bundle

how much does the guy want for the chip?

[MovedGoalPosts]

If the CPU is being maxxed out when doing something visual, is it in fact the CPU that is the bottleneck, or perhaps it is the Graphics capability, especially if it is an integrated graphics?

[AbyssUnderground]

To be honest, Pentium 4 is quite outdated now with several CPU's infront of it. Your best bet would be to upgrade the motherboard, RAM and processor in one go. You can get a decent Core2Duo, motherboard and 2-4GB of DDR2-800 memory for less than £200 nowadays. I'd look into that.

If you want to go the whole hog on an upgrade, you can look into the Core i series but that's going to cost a fair bit, £400+ easily.

[blotchyprune]

Thanks for the opinions, I didn't think it would and I know my system is old with keeping up with today's stuff.

Think I'll look in at getting a system and see if I can find this 1 a good home.