Member Avatar for robhiphop

Hello all,

I currently have an HP Pavilion a5050a desktop and I'm looking to upgrade my processor to give the computer a bit more punch. However, I'm a bit confused about a few things.

My computer currently has the following:

Intel E6300 1.86 GHz Dual Core 2
Asus P5LP-LE motherboard supporting FSB speeds of 533 MHz, 800 MHz, 1066 MHz (processor dependent).
Intel Chipset 945G

Now, what is the most powerful processor I can get without replacing the motherboard?

I've looked at the E6850 processor, which according to HP tech support will be compatible with my motherboard. However, I do have my doubts, as this processor runs at an FSB speed of 1333 MHz, according to the Intel website.

Presumably this would mean that the FSB speed is too fast for my motherboard to deal with???

I'm extremely baffled by this, as the HP tech support seem quite happy that the motherboard will be compatible with this processor.

Any advice on this, or what would be a good processor compatible with my motherboard?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jermaghs07

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Member Avatar for jbennet

be careful - hps have very small power supply outputs so they cant drive much more than the specification they came with

Member Avatar for robhiphop

be careful - hps have very small power supply outputs so they cant drive much more than the specification they came with

Yeah, the power supply units are low powerin the HP. Fortunately I already upgraded the power supply unit to 500 watt capacity when I got a new graphics card, so I should be OK on that front.

It's really difficult to get solid information about the motherboard though.

Member Avatar for jbennet

yeah its not a standard one - you cant put it in a non-hp case and you cant put a normal motherboard in a hp case, its the same with dells. Front connectors are nonstanard too

Member Avatar for robhiphop

Based on what i know about processors this is just an opinion based on what i read,but i think the biggest you will be able to use is the E6700,you board don't support the 1333 bus speed like you said in the first post.it only supports up to 1066 as stated on the hp site .
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2170928,00.asp
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00864946&lc=en&cc=us

Yeah I'm inclined to agree with you. I can't see this motherboard supporting a 1333 bus speed processor, despite what HP tech support has told me. An E6700 would probably be the most powerful processor I could use, but I don't think the differencein performance between that and the E6300 would be enough to justify the purchase.

The next time I buy a PC I don't think I'll be going for a "name" brand like HP. They appear to go out of their way to make the components as "non-standard" as possible, making upgrading a difficult and frustrating experience. You can't even get decent information out of them as to what the components can and can't do.

Member Avatar for jbennet

yeah, hp, dell and gateway use nonstandard front panels, motherboards, cases and sometimes psus

Member Avatar for jermaghs07

My suggestion is not to upgrade. unless you are wanting to get into some serious gaming a 1.8 dual core should be plenty. just make sure you have 2Gb of RAM and a nice Fat Video card and it should do anything you want it to do.

The reason i say this is, manufactured computers are not ment to be upgraded. in fact places like dell and HP go to extensive lengths to make sure you can't, that way if you do want to upgrade you have to buy the parts from them.

just next time if you want a fast computer, build your own. it's much more cost affective. and fun

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