O
ur CyberPower box is easily the most capable machine in this
upgrade story. A circa 2006 rig, the CyberPower’s confi guration
is still quite powerful. At the heart of it is an Intel Core 2 Duo
E6700. That’s a 2.66GHz dual core on a 1,066MHz front-side bus. The
chip is riding in an Intel D975XBX Bad Axe board with 2GB of DDR
and a 250GB hard drive for storage. In the GPU department, an ATI
Radeon X1950 XTX runs the show.
But while these components are still quite serviceable, they’re far
from what most power machines are running today. In fact, we’d say
everything in the CyberPower would qualify as mediocre by present-
day standards. The Intel 975X board, though, somewhat limits our
upgrade options. Built for the Pentium D processor, the 975X— at least
the revision here—works with most 65nm Core 2 CPUs but not the
newer 45nm CPUs. The board also lacks offi cial support for 1,333MHz
front-side bus CPUs, but it will unoffi cially recognize and work with
the Core 2 Extreme QX6850 CPU and other 1,333FSB 65nm parts.
Clearly, the weakest component here is the machine’s hard drive,
which is sorely lacking in capacity. Aft er that, it’s really a toss-up as
to whether the Core 2 Duo E6700 or the Radeon X1950 XTX is more
in need of replacement. In gaming, the X1950 XTX is long in the tooth
but still quite capable of playing most modern games at 1280x
resolution. Push the resolution to fi ll a 24-inch or 30-inch fl at panel,
however, and the card runs out of steam with more punishing titles
such as Crysis. The Core 2 Duo E6700 is one of the original Conroe
chips launched almost two years ago. It has since been eclipsed by
quad-core Conroes (and, of course, Penryn-based chips). Nonethe-
less, upgrading either of these components will give the machine a
reasonable peppy boost in performance.28 | MAXIMUMPC | JUN 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com
OPERATION UPGRADE
Can a PC have a midlife crisis? This one did. Watch it go from pudgy and out of shape to pimpin’
CyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 DuoCyberPower Core 2 Duo
CASE STUDY 2
Upgrade Scenarios that Lack Clear Answers
TOUGH QUESTIONSLawyers like to say that hard cases make bad laws. The same
logic applies to system upgrading—borderline confi gurations
really challenge you to take a long, hard look at what to do with
your machine. In two scenarios we’re really torn on whether or
not to upgrade.
AGP: As a general rule, we feel that AGP isn’t just dead,
it’s dead, buried, and has turned into fossil fuel. However,
there are situations in which adding a $150 card will give a
Pentium 4 or Athlon 64 AGP machine a short reprieve. Nvidia
has pretty much called it quits on AGP, but AMD is planning onlaunching a new Radeon HD3850 with the old-school interface.
If it’s priced right, the card should buy AGP Pentium 4 users
and Athlon 64 machines another year of life. Still, you’ll have
to really ponder whether this is a wise investment, as even a
bottom-end Pentium dual-core system will spank either CPU.
SOCKET 478: The same upgrading trepidation applies to
Socket 478. Beyond dropping in a little more RAM, you’re left
with the prospect of chasing down an elusive Gallatin-core
P4 Extreme Edition and then paying $400 for it, which seems
unwise to us.