PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => Self Building, Upgrading & General Hardware Help => Topic started by: Nuli on August 15, 2008, 09:29
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Hi All,
My tech knowledge is not brilliant, so please bear with me.
It's something that's been niggling me for a while and I wondered if someone on here could offer up an explanation or advice.
My original set up was an AMD Athlon 64 3200 + Mhz with Mobo Asus A8 Socket A 754 and 2GB kit (1GBx2), Ballistix Tracer 184-pin DIMM DDR PC4000.
I decided to swop it for an Intel Core 2 Q6600 2.4 GHZ 8Mb with Mobo ASRock 4 core Dual-SATA2 (Socket 775) HDMI AGP & PCI-E and 1GBx2, Unbranded DDRII 667 RAM.
The reason I chose a quad core was I thought that it would run multiple applications faster, but overall my system seems to run slower.
Would that be because of the Mobo and Ram I've used or should I just expect my system to run a little slower with this Intel chip.
Also I didn't use my Ballistix Ram as one was not working so I bought two cheap unbranded 1gb sticks.
I have a feeling that hasn't helped.
Regards Martin
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I expect its due to the single processor, not that many applications or indeed operating systems really utilise the fact that there is more than one node... out of interest what operating system are you using?
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Hi Sam,
Opps! meant to say I'm running XP, only forgot.
Regards martin
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From what I recall, Windows XP Professional does support multiple processors but Home edition does not. Though I might be wrong. Any idea which one you are running?
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Hi Same,
Sorry to be so vague.
I have XP Home.
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Hi Sam,
Apologies, my typing is terrible today.
I had a problem with my previous Mobo so thought I might as well try another chip while I was getting a new Mobo.
I thought it might run things a bit quicker and when it didn't I wondered why.
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well since XP home doesn't appear todo multiple threading I think we have hit the solution. Each individual processor is indeed slower than your old one so if it is not doing this then your system will be slower. I'm not sure if there is a fix to get XP home todo this? Someone who is more familiar with Windows might know - I'll do some hunting. Essentially though you have future proofed yourself quite nicely with the processor - especially if you upgrade your operating system, XP Pro, most new versions of Linux (sorry to be the preacher) and Vista will utilise your quad core properly.
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Hi Sam,
Thanks for explaining that.
When I decided to upgrade the chip I should have checked if it would fully function with XP.
You live and learn.
I'm happy that Microsoft have extended their support for XP, but I guess I'll have to upgrade sooner or later and then chip will then mult task.
Thanks for the information. I'm glad I asked the question now.
Regards Martin
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no worries, I'm wondering if there is a fix for this but I've not been able to come around one. I wonder if you can upgrade to Professional? Not sure you can, I'm a bit useless when it comes to microsoft though :dunno:
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There isn't a means that i know to cleanly "upgrade" xp home to pro, but you could install over or just completely reformat and install xp pro. If you install over the installation it will remove the current windows directory before installing a new one and keep your accounts intact.