HP Pavilion a305w Processor Upgrade???

[cotjocky]

I have a HP Pavilion a305w that came with a trigem mobo. It has a Intel 845GL chipset and a Celeron 2.7ghz processor. Everything I have read says this pc only supports 1gb of ram in 2 512mb sticks outside of the HP website, yet I have two Kingston Value Ram sticks at 1gb each in the mobo and it recognizes it and works fine. From what I have read, Celeron processors leave alot to be desired, but overall, this processor has done well for me. I am not a gamer. But I do run alot of programs at once and things tend to get slow. I was wondering what is the max Processor I could upgrade this pc to? I wouldn't mind spending a little money on a better processor, but not looking to spend $500 on a processor to get little in return. I have seen some P4 Processors in a decent range $75-$150.

Can anyone tell me what are my upgrade options from better to best? And if the improvement would even be worth the cost? Any imput would be appreciated. If you need more info on the pc, just ask here and I will add additional info.

Here is a link to the HP site giving the specs of this pc.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...362754&lang=en

[flanzig1]

The mother board spec sheet says it will support a P4 Northwood. Bad part is the FSB is only 400 and what is avaiable out the is either 533 or 800 FSB CPUs.
There may be a BIOS update for different CPUs: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...os=228&lang=en

[glc]

The 845GL chipset does not support 533 FSB. You are pretty much stuck with what you have. Finding high speed Northwood 400 FSB P4's is getting hard, and they are not cheap. Even if you could find and buy a 2.8 GHz model - the fastest 400 Northwood made, I don't think you would notice enough difference to make it worth the expense.

http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=542

The motherboard/chipset does in fact support 2gb of ram.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...#c00046449_doc

[cotjocky]

Originally Posted by flanzig1 The mother board spec sheet says it will support a P4 Northwood. Bad part is the FSB is only 400 and what is avaiable out the is either 533 or 800 FSB CPUs. There may be a BIOS update for different CPUs: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...os=228&lang=en

I followed the link for the bios update. It didn't give much imput. If I were to do the update, how can I tell what kind of CPU it could take then? Is it listed somewhere in the bios?

[glc]

Check my edit, please.

[cotjocky]

Originally Posted by glc The 845GL chipset does not support 533 FSB. You are pretty much stuck with what you have. Finding high speed Northwood 400 FSB P4's is getting hard, and they are not cheap. Even if you could find and buy a 2.8 GHz model - the fastest 400 Northwood made, I don't think you would notice enough difference to make it worth the expense. The motherboard/chipset does in fact support 2gb of ram. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...#c00046449_doc

Yeah, that is the only place that I have found that stated it could support 2GB of RAM. On that same website (HP) it also states it can only take 1Gb (512mb x 2). It says that on the first link I posted.

Crucial said it could only support 1GB (512mb x 2) also.

Sucks about the processor though. I guess if I want something quicker, I'd just be better off to build or buy a new pc. Maybe something with core duo. I'm still not fond of AMD.

I am assuming that the difference in those two processors wouldn't even be noticable. Correct? Being their both FSB 400.

[glc]

The larger cache on the P4 will help, but not enough to make it worth the $170 in my opinion. I'd start saving for a new build - that Pavilion was built as an entry level computer with low end parts and it really doesn't have a reasonable upgrade potential.

[cotjocky]

Originally Posted by glc The larger cache on the P4 will help, but not enough to make it worth the $170 in my opinion. I'd start saving for a new build - that Pavilion was built as an entry level computer with low end parts and it really doesn't have a reasonable upgrade potential.

Ok, my questions have been answered. I appreciate all the help!!! This is a great site for info!