What do you get when you combine a ridiculously good processor deal, a refurb HP computer that was even a good deal when I got it, and a complete lack of documentation or other efforts to try something on the Internet, anywhere, ever?!
Why, you get a fun project for me to try of course. This time, it was a CPU upgrade.
The A6442P HP Pavilion desktop wasn’t a slouch when I got it. It had 4GB of RAM, a 500GB Hard Drive, DVD Burner, onboard graphics (which got upgraded to a Quadro card real quick), and USB ports all over the place for $400. The weak link as it turned out? The nice, but not overly zippy E2200 processor. It’s 64-bit capable, and has “Core Duo” type architecture, but still gets the lame yet appropriate title of “Pentium Dual Core”. If you ever look as PassMark results, you’ll know why. It scores around 1,100. So, for what you get in the package, and the fact it’s x64 out of the box, it was a nice find. But, it had room for upgrade.
Documentation on this sucker is hard to come by, but with a little bit of work, you can find system specs, and information about the motherboard. My initial research showed one very positive thing: this board supports far more than it’s outfitted with from the factory, including up to 8GB in RAM, and processors up to Core 2 Quad’s. However, they show support for Q9xxx processors, but not necessarily Q8xxx processors. So when Micro Center had a deal for a Q8200 processor for $100, I was intrigued. It’s not “officially” supported, but the specs match up to the ones that are supported, except for a slightly smaller L2 cache. I gave in, went and got it, and gave it a shot.
The installation as pretty easy, far easier than the last time I tried processor upgrading or modding (this was back in the Pentium 2 days). I ended up needing to use the old stock fan though, the Intel fan’s plastic snaps didn’t work well in the small form factor. But, considering this chip’s reputation for running cool (it’s very overclockable, but I didn’t want that), this didn’t worry me. Sure enough, it was instantly detected by the BIOS (I had v5.22). Just to be safe, I bumped up the BIOS version to v5.35, and it detected great, didn’t even require a re-activation.
How much of a jump is it? The average PassMark benchmark is 3,161. That’s a 2.87x performance boost, and it instantly took my Vista processor ranking from 5.1 (respectable) to 5.9, likely well off the chart. It also took my memory from 5.4 to 5.9 due to it not being a bottleneck. My system is now clocking in at 5.4, only because of the graphics card, and it’s still pretty darn good!
If you are toting around a system with a E2200 processor, I can’t recommend this enough if your motherboard supports it. The ability to improve your PC by multiples for a low price is hard to ignore, and it’s even pretty good at NewEgg’s current price ($165).
