Upgrading the processor Help please

It would be virtually impossible to tell what CPU would be the best in your system with only that information.  We can get some info from the old processor though.

You have a 65nm processor in a LGA775 package with an 800MHZ FSB.  Your motherboard will likely be able to handle some of the 65nm Core2Duo processors.  The fastest one with those specs is the 2.4 GHZ Core2Duo E4600.

If you know your motherboard specs, you can see if it'll handle the newer 45nm processors or a faster FSB.

Above all, even if it matches the specs theoretically, make sure the proposed CPU is supported by your motherboard. 

MottiKhan is right, more info on your motherboard and memory speeds will be needed for furthur suggestions. But since the computer hardware market is seeing a slump, now is a great time to invest in some fast hardware that will last much longer compared to a slight cpu speed upgrade. i just recently finished building some custom gaming rigs for 3 buddies of mine and i hafta admit, the e8400 @3.0(e8500 @3.16, e8600 @3.3 ghz) and Asus P5Q Pro P45 motherboard is a fantastic, sub $300 combo. Provided gaming is CPU speed intesive, a 3ghz+ cpu will last quite some time. Since i consider the motherboard to be the most important peice of computer hardware, the P5Q Pro does the job with a high FSB and p45 chipset that is relatively cheap performance wise and allows for further upgrades (ie. running a SLI / Crossfire gpu setup w/o the pci bus bottlenecking the throughput, fast memory options). Also, if u so choose, the P5Q pro and e8*** series cpu's make a fantastic overclocking tandem, provided sufficient cooling is being used.

If you have any more Q's, feel free to send a pm or whatever, i build custom desktops as a hobby / 2nd job and would be more than happy to help.

yeah tell us what motherboard you are running then we will know.... and also you might need a bios update if its to old to support newer CPU's on the LGA775 socket

Umm Honestly I have no idea what motherboard Im running. My Dxdiag specs are as follows.

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 4/9/2009, 23:08:37
       Machine name: FRANK
   Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_gdr.080917-1612)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: HP-Pavilion
       System Model: FK792AA-ABA a6600f
               BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
          Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual  CPU  E2200  @ 2.20GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
             Memory: 3070MB RAM
          Page File: 1673MB used, 4691MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode

Does that help? Sorry I'm pretty inexperienced at upgrading my comp hah.

Now we're getting somewhere.  You'll need to verify this, but here's what I found...

It looks like an HP Pavilion a6600f Desktop PC with a Foxconn MCP73M01H1 Motherboard. 

It's a pretty impressive setup, but you're right about the CPU being the weak link.  In fact, with a FSB speed of 1333 MHZ, you can put a blazingly fast CPU in there.  Unfortunately, your memory speed is limited to 800MHZ.  That might actually be a blessing in disguise since your current memory is probably as good as you'll get.  (Meaning you can save a few bucks there).

Here is the spec sheet...

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01357119&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en

As you can see, it's a pretty nice motherboard.  You'll want to open the computer up and double check it before rushing out and buying that monster CPU.

Ha Thanks alot Mottikhan I honestly wasn't expecting a good motherboard at all Assuming that thats true (which it probably is) What would you suggest for a good and relatively cheap CPU? Thanks alot

I've always tried to go with a balanced approach when it comes to upgrading.  Top of the line normally costs way too much, but there's little point in doing an incremental upgrade.

If it were me, I'd be thinking along the lines of an E8400 at 3GHZ.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

It won't break the bank at $165.00 and is pretty zippy.

Again, make absolutely sure that your MB can handle it.  A tech can peek at it and let you know.

Make sure you have a decent power supply too.  From the looks of it though, you're problably more than ok.

The NVIDIA GeForce 7100 video card that's installed on your computer is pretty decent, so you don't really need an upgrade there.  Of course, if you were wanting to go monster, you can shell out $130.00 more and get the GTS250.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130468

But of course, that's very optional.

Beyond that, it's a pretty nice machine.

Odds are if you do upgrade, it would be advisable to go that little bit further and get a new CPU cooler to go with it. Don't want your fancy new CPU dying a year or two early thanks to stock cooling.

An excellent point.  The CPU listed at Newegg comes with a stock cooler which should be sufficient, but an upgraded one can't hurt.

Actually, it's not anything resembling decent.  7100 is integrated, is it not?  I think there was one variant of the 7100 in a dedicated variety, but it got rare fast.

Then again, today's integrated (7100 included in that) is far superior to the integrated we had 10 years ago.

Of course, that's dependent on needs...

I guess that's a matter of opinion.  Yes, it's integrated, but the site shows it to have 128MB dedicated memory rather than shared.  At 400MHZ and 1.4 billion pixels/sec, it's not exactly a slouch.  Maybe not high end, but decent in my opinion.

Of course, I'm blowing through the site pretty quickly so I might be missing something.

I've never known an integrated yet to have VRAM of its own; that's kind of the point of it being integrated.  (Sidenote: Some laptop graphics are very funky exceptions to this rule, as they try to use the turbocache option.  It's weird.)  I especially doubt that the 7100 does so.  It's probably just your run of the mill non-geek typo.

This is about the best stock information you can find.

If you look here and scroll down quite a bit, you can see specs for the 7025/7050, which are nearly identical to the 7100 except the 7100 apparently increased core speed somewhat (in particular, the 7 series integrated seems to have gained a slight boost on Intel boards) as well as HDMI capability/compatibility.

So while the numbers on the 7100 will be somewhat higher than the ~850 MT/s reported on the 7025/7050, your X1950pro for instance (for convenience :P) pulls 6900 GT/s-note the G rather than the M; this means your card has ~8118x the raw power for that given metric.

Granted, there are other factors to consider, and you're not ever going to be seeing those kinds of numbers.  But you might try referencing Tom's for your comparisons, although you may have to look back a quarter or three to find the 7100 at this point (and do note that if the 7100GS, which is the dedicated card, is reported, it will probably be worse than the integrated 7100).

The bottom line is that while integrated has come a long way, it's still a step above, quite literally, nothing.  (That's the next step down.)  So the question again arises just what exactly are the needs to be filled.

Well if you've never upgraded the inside of computer than updating the CPU can turn into a bad experience.  It's probably the most difficult piece to upgrade mainly due to making sure the CPU fan has the proper amount of adhesive and a solid contact with the CPU.  Someone who's "inexperienced" might end up destroying the CPU and Motherboard  if they don't know what they're doing. 

I'd recommend finding a friend or relative with a technical background to help.

Ha I already Upgraded the graphics card to a nvidia Geforce 9500 gt

And I have a friend who has built computers before so I was gonna ask him to help me install it. That processor you put up motti looks like a big improvement for a good price, thanks alot

That processor is much more powerful (relatively) than a 9500.  Like nuclear bomb vs hand grenade kinda comparison.  I don't like to break it to you like this but that's how it is.  If you run at low resolution (1280x1024) with medium settings I imagine it will run great.  It'll probably be playable at 1680x1050 even, but if you could afford a radeon 4830/4850 or nvidia gts 250 or something in that range you'd be able to pump up the settings much more.  The processor on the other hand is gonna be falling asleep while you play cus its not gonna be too stressed.  Not a terribly good balance for a gaming system.

Well Tidus I dont think it might matters if all of the specs on my system arent balanced, it doesnt really matter for playing most games. Down the road I'm sure I'll upgrade the graphix again but I think the processor needs the upgrade first.

Perhaps.  Before buying a new processor I'd recommend you try overclocking - the e2200 is very overclockable.  I'd buy a $30 computer cooler like a ocz vendetta 2 or xigmatec s1283, install it and overclock to 3.xxx ghz.  Should be able to get ~3ghz with stock voltage or 3.2+ with slightly increased voltage.  If you still aren't happy with the performance, buy the E8400, and use the new cooler on it.  The e8400 should hit 4ghz with a slight voltage increase, or 3.6 ghz stock.  The E2200 @ 3ghz would be considerably faster than the 9500 gt.  You could get a 4850 videocard for 100 after MIR on newegg, or a 4870 512mb for 135 after MIR.  That's less money (even with the price of the heatsink/fan) and I think you'd be happier with that setup.

If you want help with overclocking I'll help you, I haven't looked into the specifics of that motherboard at this point.

Ok That sounds better and cheaper is always good ha. I know nothing about overclocking though, So I would need some help ha.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=2057083&enterthread=y  This here is an excellent guide to overclocking your dual core e2200.  It's somewhat lengthy but fairly easy to understand and provides everything you need to know to go ahead and do it yourself.  I'd recommend reading that, and then looking at the bios settings in your motherboard, and if you need more assistance afterwards, to ask someone for help on that forum or pm me here.  My name is tidusz on that forum as well.

Have you upgraded your processor? Does it work. I am thinking about doing the same thing. I am wondering now why I could not upgrade to the below processor on New Egg.

Please let me know!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116381

Side ports are neat.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/790gx-graphics-sideport,2088.html

Point is yes there are motherboards that come with integrated graphics and its own dedicated mem.

No clue if Nvidia chipsets have done it though. Only seen ATI/AMD mobos with it.

Sidenote.

My integrated Video is a bit older (780 chipset) but has 128mb sideport.. and peforms roughly equal to a gforce 6600. Certainly not useable for modern gaming but enough to get you by. I used it for awhile after the initial upgrade since the 6600 was what was in my old machine.