Anyway to adjust settings on processor?

I have a AMD Athlon X2 (64) processor on my desktop. As tempting as it would be to purchase a quad to replace it, there are other things that I'd like to upgrade first (adding the necessary parts to add up to five eSATA devices), which will involve buying the part, drive cases with eSATA fittings, and another small IDE drive (120GB) and case, which would give me three drives, not counting my backup one (a Seagate XTreme 500GB), which also has an eSATA port. And I'll probably need to buy the eSATA cables, too. So at this time, a processor upgrade will have to wait.

But, is there any way to get more out of the one that I have? It's an AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core Processor 3250e, according to the Device Manager. Not the most powerful by any stretch of the imagination, but still, a dual core. Note: I don't want it pushed to the max, just want to bump the performance by small steps at a time. I doubt these controls are within the OS (at least I've never found them). Anyone has some advice? I'd like to run some higher performance apps (the main one being the high performance folding application).

But, this desktop is under warranty, and has ran fine since purchase (no BSOD's, or "crashing" at all). Just a little more performance, if possible.

Thanks to all for taking the time to read this thread, and looking forward to any answers that may help me.

Thanks,
Cat

Based on a quick search you can probably overclock it to up to 2.5 GHz.

Since you mentioned warranty, I assume it's a brand build, in which case it's unlikely that your BIOS will have many options in that department. Flashing with a different version/release may be possible, depending on how hands-on you want to get. At any rate, oc'ing it will break your warranty.

As for whether you'll really get worthwhile performance improvements out of it, YMMV.

I'd suggest you read up on overclocking a lot before attempting it. And perhaps replace the stock cooler with a better one, even if it is "supposed to" be sufficient.

On most stock mobo's, to have the second processor engaged you must have an app or hardware of some sort that requires that second processor to be active. On most of your newer mobo's for custom builds there is a switch to manually unlock the dual, triple and quad coprocessors, which is a really nice feature.

Hi Cat

AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core Processor 3250e @ 1.50GHz, Overclocking will produce heat and the higher you push the FSB so the temp will rise, you may find that (if your using) a stock CPU cooler it may not be up to the job. (only my opinion) but wait until your ready to get your quad core as you will see a performance difference + you could sell the 3250e.

In this case then, would replacing the stock processor with a like brand quad (AMD) be a simple swap, (as in removing one, and the other fits in), and will my present power supply (basically like one included with notebooks) work? I do know some of you have high powered systems (like 450-550 watts), I don't think I can get that out of a notebook power supply, can I?

If I have to change the power supply to add a processor, mabye it's time I considered selling this desktop on eBay. Five year old notebooks with XP Pro (and single core) still fetch $300 or more. This desktop has 7 Pro on it, and that was through Anytime Upgrade, not Tech Net. I ought to get $700 out of it easily, being that it still has 2 and a half years left on the warranty. I would like to add the quad, but not if I have to upgrade my power, too. Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread.

Cat.

If this was a off the shelf computer you should have a manual this will tell you - or should tell you the Motherboard make and number, then you can find out what upgrades can be made, The computer make and number entered to a search engine will soon show you your spec including PSU. SIW free will also tell you much about your system.

No, you're not getting 550W out of a laptop psu... What kind of power supply is this?

I don't see how you could possibly get 700 out of your desktop, unless you're selling more than what I'm seeing. Maybe I'm missing something.

Depending on your psu you may get away with the one you have, and you'll likely void your warranty if you replace it yourself, but as a general rule I'd replace any psu supplied by a brand like Dell or HP etc with a more reliable model. Power supplies are very cheap, even good ones, but an el cheapo one can take out your mobo and your processor when it fails. In your case, yours is still warrantied, but if you were to replace the processor, that changes things...

Cat - Believe me, 550 watts is not considered a high powered system. I have 550 watts and it works great. I used a power supply configuration calculator to estimate what I would need when I built my system, and then I added a 20% extra fudge factor to cover the bases.

There are computer power supplies out there that go up to 1200 watts! For serious gamers and such.

I'll probably have to live with it, from the way it looks. But soon, I'll probably be getting a new notebook, and I'll know more of what to be looking for. 4GB RAM and a quad core processor. I'm open as to brand, where I live, there's an Office Depot, and they have notebooks (and PC's) for every budget. $600 or so will bring a nice one home.

The power supply that I'm talking about is this. It looks like and plugs into the PC the same as a notebook power supply does. You have a cord about a foot long, then one of those rectangular boxes, then the final cord plugs into a hole just like a notebook does. In other words, the power supply is no different from a notebook. My sister's PC is not like this at all, neither is my mother-in-law's PC. That would have to impose some kind of limit as to what I can run.

But next time around, I plan to build, and am already putting away some cash to the side each month towards it. That's how I bought this one, for around a grand or so, I can build what you would pay two grand or more in the store for. Not counting the OS & office suite, that would push it higher. The markups on store bought PC's are outrageous, sometimes as much as 100%. Meaning that you pay $1,000 for what they paid $500 for (volume discounting).

This way, I'll get what I want the first time. I'll simply build half again as much as I'll really need, that way I won't be let down when I need it.