obobskivich wrote:

What is the point of "hacking" all of this when you can just install a 64-bit OS? I don't get what the aversion is - it's not like the Core 2 Duo doesn't have EM64T or 64-bit Windows is somehow non-functional (it also doesn't cost anymore than 32-bit).

As far as the "hacking" goes - PAE is enabled by default in Windows since XP SP2 as part of NX/XD (required to support it) however will not address more than 4GB of memory (which includes the mapping for the video-card and other add-in boards) due to a combination of Microsoft's licencing restrictions and driver compatibility.

Well, formatting and reinstalling the OS may be a hassle or time consuming, so it can be a temporary solution.
Also, 64bit will not run anything 16bit. Sometimes, it can be useful to have one 32bit machine around the house.

Of course, I'm not saying this should apply to the OP's case, but I was merely mentioning it.

BSA Starfire wrote:

RacoonRider wrote:

Perhaps you could also check out Q6xxx and Q9xxx CPUs, some are available cheap these days. Massive cache, 4 cores - what could be better?

This is what I did Pentiu8m E2220 to Q6600, made a massive difference and the Q6600 is pretty cheap nowadays. For what it's worth, mine is running Win7 a treat.

Me too! Core 2 Duo E6300 => Q6700 (actually, Xeon 3230)

RacoonRider wrote:

BSA Starfire wrote:

RacoonRider wrote:

Perhaps you could also check out Q6xxx and Q9xxx CPUs, some are available cheap these days. Massive cache, 4 cores - what could be better?

This is what I did Pentiu8m E2220 to Q6600, made a massive difference and the Q6600 is pretty cheap nowadays. For what it's worth, mine is running Win7 a treat.

Me too! Core 2 Duo E6300 => Q6700 (actually, Xeon 3230)

I'm on a Core 2 Duo E6400 and since I got a halfway decent 775 board now, was thinking about getting a Core 2 Quad 6600. Ebay has them selling for $35-$45.

For day to day regular use, like browsing or MS Office, a Core 2 Duo is quite nice. It only lags behind when i'm playing certain games or trying to do something that is able to use tons of threads like rendering/archiving.

There should be no real point in upgrading to quad core. According to the things she does, the good ol' Core 2 Duo will do fine. You might want to get an small SSD, install Windows and her main programs on that (and then use the HDD for additional storage), or get an SSHD, and just throw all on it. The SSHD will run a little faster over time, as it learns which programs are used a lot, and it will put that data in it's 8GB flash.

Besides, if the integrated GPU is better than GMA, you might not have to upgrade that. A good card that handles 1080p video very well (and with the 60fps videos on YouTube coming up too, it works fine) is a GeForce GT 610. It also has very decent casual gaming performance. It gives a significant improvement in HD or DVD content. You can buy one brand new for 30€, and it really depends on your region how much it is used. Besides, the GeForce GT 520 is essentially the same.

Let's not get this blown out of proportion. I'm not looking to turn her computer into a Formula 1 car 😉 I'm just aiming at a simple short-term upgrade (couple of years) that will give her better performance without breaking the bank.

So it's gonna be an E6750, 4GB of RAM and a gfx card - probably a passively cooled 8500GT since that's what I've got.

fyy wrote:

I'm on a Core 2 Duo E6400 and since I got a halfway decent 775 board now, was thinking about getting a Core 2 Quad 6600. Ebay has them selling for $35-$45.

That's true but add another $24 for shipping/GSP and it suddenly becomes much more 😀

GeForce 8500GT is a good choice - has the PureVideo HD decoder and will handle various video decode (it also appears on the nVidia GPU Flash list); should also be low heat/noise while doing it.

Get her an SSD and more ram, that little computer will fly

Skip the CPU, get that thing some RAM, at least 4GB.

Thanks for the input guys. In the next week or so, I'll be going home to install new hardware and Windows 7. Will report back to let you know how it all went 😀

Hope it goes well! I was in the same spot with my grandpa's pc. He though he was running xp still so I went over and checked it out. Ended up with a 2.4ghz core2quad, 4gb of ram with Vista and intel graphics. Defraged the hard drive for the first time EVER and told him he was good for another 5 years but may need a graphics card update soon.

+1 to ODWilly - hope it all goes well, and looking fwds to hearing about it.

Don't forget to download BIOS update for the board, mine only started well with Q6700 after I updated the BIOS to the latest version.

UPDATE: in case any of you were wondering, my mom's computer is now running E6750, 5GB of RAM, nVidia GeForce 8500GT and Windows 7 64-bit. It's running great 😀

Nice! On that note, I'll add my own little experience with Core 2 Duos recently.

I've kept my old E6550, which I bought back in January 2008, for creating a side build. So, a few months ago I got a bit lucky and bought an MSI P45D3 Platinum for 10 Euros. The guy really had no idea what this board was about. A few days ago, I also found a very cheap Cooler Master Hyper 212 (the original one) for another 10 Euros. Thanks to this awesome cooler and motherboard, I'm now running the E6550 at 3.5GHz. This is about 50% overclock, using a 500MHz FSB, which I find insane.

I used to run this CPU at 3GHz on my ASUS P5K back in the day, but it was either the DDR2-800 RAM or the motherboard itself that was hindering any further OC. I used to have a Scythe Ninja 2 cooler.
There's this guy selling modded Xeons around here, specifically the E5450, which is basically a binned Core 2 Quad Q9650 with a TDP of just 80W. He sells them for just 60Euros each and I've been thinking of getting one to fool around with, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to easily hit 4GHz on that bad boy hehe. 🤣

F2bnp wrote:

Nice! On that note, I'll add my own little experience with Core 2 Duos recently.
There's this guy selling modded Xeons around here, specifically the E5450, which is basically a binned Core 2 Quad Q9650 with a TDP of just 80W. He sells them for just 60Euros each and I've been thinking of getting one to fool around with, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to easily hit 4GHz on that bad boy hehe. 🤣

I'm currently using in my mothership computer just one of these beasts, but in Quad flavour: Xeon X5450 sticker-pin modded for socket 775 (they are 771) and after a few cuts in the motherboard socket I've installed it into my Asus P5B - bios microcode update needed for the maximum compatibility and avoid message at boot diagnostic screen. I've reached rock-stable overclock @3.4 and all of these with really few euros - great cpu family 😀

Pretty cool mate! Thing is, I don't really have anything to do with it, other than fool around. I basically have this secondary PC in my room, this mostly serves as a way to fool around with hardware, I guess I have the hardware bug 😊 .

It does serve as a pretty powerful LAN machine though (I have 4GB DDR3 in there and an AMD 7750), which means that I can always invite friends for some Dota 2, Counter-Strike GO or some SWAT 4 😉

This box is a Core2Quad 2.83-GHz with 8GB RAM and a SSD HD. It started life with only 2GB RAM and a Core2Duo-3.0 GHz. I can tell you the Core2's will handle about anything. The only reason I upgraded to a quad was that the price was right and my primary OS is Mac OS 10.9 and I run virtual machines in it. If you have 2+ GB RAM, Core2 2.5-GHz+ it will run fine. The biggest upgrades for usability will come from video card and SSD. What model HP? DC7900? Convertible Desktop, Slim, Ultra-Slim?

don't forget you can buy a sticker that allows you to buy socket 771 Xeon and install them on certain 775 boards (certain chipsets) allows you for some nice and really cheap options.

anything 1066 buss and above and and over 2mb cache is going to well for average use. if you get a DDR3 board try to get one that isn't a cheap piece of crap with only 2 VRMs/MOSFETs.

EDIT: Yeam man that systme should run GREAT for a some time and if and when it slows a down a faster C2D/C2Q and an SSD will do the trick but, you have a few years to wait yet before it slows down.

right now i'm on a q9550 @ 3.8ghz with 12gb of DDR3 and a GTX480.