CPU Replacement

[Windows Sniper]

Hey All,

My Old Cpu is Starting to Slow Down, Its Main Ghz is Starting to Drop.

Its a 2.4 Ghz Dual Core Celeron E3200.

Now I've Just Shopped Around and i've Found a Replacement,

Intel Core 2 Duo E7600, S775, Wolfdale 45nm, 3.06 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB Cache, 11.5x Ratio, 65W

My Question is, Will this be worth the £90?

And i Do a Lot of Gaming and Work. So what do you guys think? Any reviews?

 

[boogieboy]

Hi i would suggest you to get a Quad Core (Core2Quad) instead if you can increase your budget a bit coz as you've mentioned that you do gaming and as new games taking advantage of 4 cores so it would be nice though E7600 is a good processor and you will see quiet much improvements compare to Celeron

 

[GeneO]

What do you mean by "Its Main Ghz is Starting to Drop"? How did you measure that?

 

[Windows Sniper]

Hi i would suggest you to get a Quad Core (Core2Quad) instead if you can increase your budget a bit coz as you've mentioned that you do gaming and as new games taking advantage of 4 cores so it would be nice though E7600 is a good processor and you will see quiet much improvements compare to Celeron

Unfortunatly I Cant Improve my Budget as i had it set for £100 for a new cpu and thats the Fastest i can get at that price, actually £6 under. But i'm Glad you agree with it.

What do you mean by "Its Main Ghz is Starting to Drop"? How did you measure that?

I measured that with CPUZ-Id, on the box it says that the E3200 is for 2.4 Ghz, Now mine has dropped down to 2.36 GHz, So i know its Dropping slowly (Actually More Quickly Then i thought, especially at 2 years of age now.

 

[GeneO]

Your CPU won't "loose" its speed like that. It either works or doesn't.

You probably have processor power savings enabled and your CPU is just lowering its frequency when idle to conserve power. There is nothing wrong with that and you aren't loosing any CPU processing power from it - when the system needs CPU, the frequency will increase. Try running something like Prime95 stresses your CPU and you will see the GHz increase.

 

[Britton30]

GeneO is right, CPU don't lose speed, however at various times they change up their speed based on your specific hardware and BIOS.
Example, my wife's PC has an Athlon64 X2 2.4Ghz in a HP PC. It has CPU power options which are locke by HP, sometimes CUPz will show it as low as 800Mhz, depending on what it is doing at the time.

The CPU can change speed within a scant few nanoseconds. Billionths of a second.

 

[carwiz]

You might want to run HWiNFO64 with Sensor only checked and see if the voltages are up to par. A slowing processor could mean an aging motherboard regulator or a power supply getting weak. Either will cary over to a new processor. The limits are +/- 5% but I would consider 5% the failure mark and replacement time.

 

[profdlp]

...on the box it says that the E3200 is for 2.4 Ghz, Now mine has dropped down to 2.36 GHz...

40 MHz is within the margin of error for the test - less than a 2% difference. If we were back in the days of P-133 CPUs then 40 MHz might be something to get excited about. Your processor is running full speed.

Having said that, boogieboy's advice is worth looking into. If you can pick one up cheap it would definitely kick things up a notch. Make sure it's compatible with your motherboard, though.

 

[GeneO]

You might want to run HWiNFO64 with Sensor only checked and see if the voltages are up to par. A slowing processor could mean an aging motherboard regulator or a power supply getting weak. Either will cary over to a new processor. The limits are +/- 5% but I would consider 5% the failure mark and replacement time.

If you don't have good stable voltages, your processor frequency won't change, the processor will just crash. Since the OP didn't mention any crashing, his voltages are fine.

I have never seen CPUZ frequencies vary that much. I expect it is Intel Speedstep power savings (it won't be C1E or other C state power savings since they don't show up on CPUZ in my experience).

 

[profdlp]

If it were enabled and running Speedstep is going to drop it a whole lot more than .04 GHz. It usually is in the 30-40% range, not the measly 1.67% our man is seeing.

 

[carwiz]

You might want to run HWiNFO64 with Sensor only checked and see if the voltages are up to par. A slowing processor could mean an aging motherboard regulator or a power supply getting weak. Either will cary over to a new processor. The limits are +/- 5% but I would consider 5% the failure mark and replacement time.

If you don't have good stable voltages, your processor frequency won't change, the processor will just crash. Since the OP didn't mention any crashing, his voltages are fine.

What ever gave you that idea? How do you think C1 and C1E are implemented? Never heard of VR capacitors going bad? I take it you never heard of overclocking either. It's a simple test worth checking and can show whether the voltage is fluctuating or sagging out of spec. Doesn't cost a thing but a few minutes and can rule out power problems. Beats guessing at something you can't see.

And I agree, you won't see it in CPU-Z. Half of it doesn't work anyway. That's why I said use HWiNFO64 (for 64-bit OS). It's a MUCH better monitor. It even has a core graph that will show the speed changes with the voltage change for those of you that need pictures.

 

[Windows Sniper]

Thanks for all the replys guys, I will run the Suggested Programs when i get home.

The Core Drop is not just listed within Cpu Id though it shows up sometimes in WEI.

My Motherboard is Locked So Overclocking and Voltage Changes are a No-no But it does help stop temptation.

And My motherboard Specifically Lists the E7600 as Being Compatible so i hope it is.


Thanks again Everyone i will, as i say, Run the tests again and post the results Here.

 

[GeneO]

You might want to run HWiNFO64 with Sensor only checked and see if the voltages are up to par. A slowing processor could mean an aging motherboard regulator or a power supply getting weak. Either will cary over to a new processor. The limits are +/- 5% but I would consider 5% the failure mark and replacement time.

If you don't have good stable voltages, your processor frequency won't change, the processor will just crash. Since the OP didn't mention any crashing, his voltages are fine.

What ever gave you that idea? How do you think C1 and C1E are implemented? Never heard of VR capacitors going bad? I take it you never heard of overclocking either. It's a simple test worth checking and can show whether the voltage is fluctuating or sagging out of spec. Doesn't cost a thing but a few minutes and can rule out power problems. Beats guessing at something you can't see.

And I agree, you won't see it in CPU-Z. Half of it doesn't work anyway. That's why I said use HWiNFO64 (for 64-bit OS). It's a MUCH better monitor. It even has a core graph that will show the speed changes with the voltage change for those of you that need pictures.

What ever gave you the idea voltage changes would change the processor frequency? Changing voltage can affect the stability, not the speed. Yes I have heard of overclocking - my rig is overclocked and I know something about it, a bit more than you it appears. You have to increase the core voltage sometimes to make the overclock stable, not to increase the processor frequency.

 

[GeneO]

If it were enabled and running Speedstep is going to drop it a whole lot more than .04 GHz. It usually is in the 30-40% range, not the measly 1.67% our man is seeing.

You are right, The next step down for this processor is 2.3 GHz.

 

[Britton30]

Lets be nice.