Upgrade on Old PC

[myrgo_31]

What i want to do is upgrade an old Athlon XP. This CPU runs at 2.2 GHz and has 512 KB cache. if i wanted to upgrade to like a better CPU, what would be the better one without upgrading the motherboard?

Also, I just looked at it, and it looks like there are only 2 DIMM slots, and one is being occupied by a 512 meg stick. If i add another stick of 512 to it, will they both run in dual channel, and will it hurt the motherboard if i max out the dimm slots?

The comp came from Circuit City in like August 2004 in case that helps.

[Cricket]

We need to know what motherboard you're using. In fact, can you give the complete system specs for this computer?

Is that Athlon XP running at an actual speed of 2.2GHz or is it a 2200+? Because if it's running at an actual speed of 2.2GHz you won't be able to find too many faster Athlon XPs as that one is pretty much one of the fastest made.

Cricket

[myrgo_31]

um i dont have the sheet with the system specs (just not the motherboard is what i dont know):

Athlon XP 3200+ (2.2 GHz)
160 GB Ultra DMA HD
512 MB PC2700 at 333mhz CL2.5 RAM
2 opticals (DVD burner and cd-rom)

well it says it is a VIA chipset (i think)... it says VIA everywhere, so thats what im guessing. is it possible to get a sempron upgrade that is a little better?

also, i want to get another stick of 512 megs of RAM. i found it at newegg, i just want to know if it can run i dual channel. the new stick at newegg is this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820141167

OR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820161613

[Cricket]

The 3200+ is the fastest Athlon XP available. There is nothing faster in Socket A. You're topped out.

And even if that motherboard supports Dual Channel DDR, AMD systems don't really see much of a performance difference between single and dual channel memory modes. But you might want to replace the PC2700 with PC3200 as the Athlon 3200+ is a 400MHz FSB processor and should be using PC3200 (DDR400).

Why do you want to upgrade that system anyway?

Cricket

[myrgo_31]

basically i want to upgrade it cause i dont have a lot of money to buy a new one, and all it basically needs is another stick of ram for 1 GB, and itll be good to go for the things i do

i've cut down a lot on the games that i play. i havent played halflife 2 in like 3 weeks now. what i want is an xbox 360...