Compatabilty of processor for my 'ol msi.

my comp is now 4 years old. my third and final video card which i got a few months ago makes it run like a dream in nearly everything. a year ago or more i bumped it to 2 gigs. but my processor has now and for a while been the occasional bottleneck. i plan on keeping the rig for probably another year but i'm think about getting a 3.2 ghz to replace my 2.4 which seems to be at the very bottom of most system requirements these days and i would like to enjoy bioshock in as much of its glory as i can. so the question is are these two a good match?
my motherboard- http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p…O-LSR&class=mb
new processor- http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll…tchlink:top:us

20 bucks is more than worth it even if the change is nominal. the change processors is always the most "gee i really hope i don't botch this up" upgrade

Yup, it's compatible -- your mobo is Socket 478 and supports 800 MHz FSB and 3.2 GHz CPU, which matches the processor.

I would not expect a huge performance boost, as you say, but if you can get it for twenty bucks, why not?

(Swapping the processor is a pretty simple operation unless you have some very fancy cooling gear. Microsoft might make you re-activate Windows though.)

http://processorfinder.intel.com/det…px?sSpec=SL7E4

ended up getting this one for just under 50 including shipping. i figure the l2 cache size being 1mb versus 512k in the 3.2 makes them about even. is that a correct assumption?

About. The difference between 3 and 3.2 GHz is pretty trivial to start with; the bigger L2 cache will help for some things.

In any case, don't sweat it. It's very hard to predict exactly what kind of a performance impact a particular CPU will have, and it varies a great deal by application.

For example, take the L2 cache: bigger is usually but not always better. Why? Because a smaller cache is faster. So, all else being equal, if you only need to put 512k stuff into the L2 cache, the 512k cache will outperform the 1 M cache; OTOH if you need to cache 1 M, the bigger cache will win since you'll be swapping stuff in and out of the 512k one more.

Anyway, good luck with the upgrade, and I hope it makes a visible difference. :-)

The one you got is better and more advanced than the other one. The one you bought is made with a 90nm manufacturing process while the other CPU is/was older and based on a 130nm process. I don't remember what exactly Intel did when they shrunk the die size of the Pentium 4 but it is quite likely that some architectural improvements went into the newer and smaller CPU (like optimized cache logic etc.). Good choice .

The manufacturing process will only affect power consumption and (possibly) overclockability, though. But yeah, still a good choice. :-)

that's good to know considering i'm already pushing my power source to its threshold. i probably shouldn't get a soundcard… though my philips one does blow at times in some games when it scratches and crackles.

oh and thanks for the info

Right, you probably shouldn't. Your computer is starting to show its age -- in your shoes, I'd use it as long as its legs take it, and once it really starts to chafe, re-purpose it and build or buy a new one for your main workstation/game box. My old computer is now ticking along as a home server, serving files, taking backups, and sharing a printer. :-)