Re-use a HP Pavilion case and mobo

[BigRed CC Dually]

I have an old P2 450mmx system that is too slow that I will scavenge parts from. I’ll reuse the HDD w/OS, CD ROM, CD burner, FDD, monitor, keyboard and mouse.

I’d like to put an old HP Pavillion a847c case, power supply, and motherboard to good use. It was left to the wayside when I upgraded my Son’s computer with a new Antec Sonata II case and ASUS motherboard so we could install a PCI-E x16 GPU card in it.

My big question is which CPU to buy to put into the HP case? It is socket LGA775. The motherboard is an ASUS PTGDA1-LA made for HP; the HP name for the board is Goldfish2-GL8E. I’m looking to buy something along the lines of an Intel Pentium 4 630 Prescott 800MHz FSB 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 for $179 from Newegg. (It originally had a P4 540 (P) HT 3.2 GHz processor in it) I would like to know if it would work with this mobo. I looked at the ASUS site but this board is not listed.

I’m also hoping to do a repair install of the XP Pro on the HDD and reregister it with MS if required, to the upgraded system as it will no longer be used on the remains of the PII system.

I have a single 512 MB DIMM of memory to put in the new system and can pick up another if it requires pairs.

I’m hoping for about $300 I can have a much better system for the Wife to surf the net, read e-mail, and play basic games on. The Pavilion mobo has onboard video and sound, so no need to buy a GPU card or sound card.

Please let me know if it is do-able with a processor like the one I am looking at. Thanks in advance.

[jayb1234]

Found this page, whuch leads to this page at HP, which lists that as an Asus PTGD1-LA, Supports processor up to 3.8 GHz, 800 MHz fsb, Northbridge: i915G graphics and memory controller hub, Southbridge: ICH6 Intel I/O Controller Hub 5. You should be fine if you use the same model of processor as the original, but there might be bios support issues with the 630. HP's site is terrible for navigating trying to find stuff. You might have better luck googling it.

Hope that is helpful.

[glc]

You probably could save some cash and put a Celeron-D in there.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819112193

It's questionable whether the bios will support 6xx or anything but a xx0 series processor. You just don't know. Intel has been changing cores recently, seems as fast as some people change their socks. I know a 520 will work, but that costs more than the 630.

[BigRed CC Dually]

Jay, GLC,

Thanks for the help.

GLC, $11 more for the 520 at $198 won't kill me as long as it will work.

Jay, You are right the HP site is a real pain. I printed out the original PTGDA1-LA number and system data from the site last summer when we added memory to the system before up-grading/rebuilding actually, I see it has changed now but the Goldfish2 name is the same. I was not able to navigate to the page you got though...good job!

So I should be good to go with Intel Pentium 4 520 Prescott 800MHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 right?

Would the Celeron work for sure too and would it be that noticeable difference for simple games? $98 is very attractive

Thanks again for the help guys.

[glc]

I'm pretty sure a Celeron D 330 at 75 bucks will work in there. It can handle simple games fine. The onboard video is going to be the limiting factor.

[BigRed CC Dually]

Too late , Oh well, I went ahead and purchased this; Intel Pentium 4 640 Prescott 800MHz FSB 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 EM64T for $217.00

My thought process was put the new processor in my Son's machine (it will give him 64bit capability for the future) and because I know the original processor will work with the HP mobo, put it back into that case as it is a quick processor but not 64bit enabled, plus I won't have to fret over the HP BIOS accepting the CPU.

I checked the ASUS website and the P5GD1 in my Son's system is compatible with the Intel Pentium 4 640 Prescott processor.

Thanks for the support....you guys rock!!! I'll be back when I start doing the swaps I'm sure...something will come up I'll need help on no doubt

[BigRed CC Dually]

Wow!! the swap was so easy it was scary!! I put the P4 540 (P) HT 3.2 GHz processor back in the HP case, and the HDD from the old PII system and fired it up, changed the bios to boot from cd, did a repair install, activated it over the phone (didn't have Ethernet working yet) and then loaded a sound driver from HP. I found out I had to power down and restart my router in order to connect the new setup.

The son's computer was even easier and I didn't have to even reactivate Windows which was a surprise. So for $218.99 and scavenged parts my wife has gone from a 450mHz MMX P II to a 3.2 GHz P 4 HT machine and my son now has a 64 bit ready system.

Thanks to all for your insight and support, I would not have tried it with out your help.