Can I upgrade my HP Media Center to a 3 Ghz or faster processor?
by jj16 on July 22, 2010Q: I have an HP Media Center PC m1160n, version 2002, Windows XP SP2,. AMD 64 Athlon 3400+ 1.79 ghz, 1GB RAM.
I like the unit but would like to know if it could be upgraded to a faster processor, say 3.0+ ghz and 2GB RAM at a reasonable price, while keeping all the other features of the unit?
This page from HP has a ‘Maximum approved processor’ list http://bit.ly/clHwvb and it looks like you’re already pretty much at the top for the motherboard in the system right now.
First off, Ghz isn’t a good measure of CPU performance at all. One processor can run at 1.4Ghz and another at 3.6Ghz and have identical performance!
I always use a site like http://www.cpubenchmark.net/ to help me compare CPU performance, otherwise it’s too hard to keep all the names straight.
Anyway, for a worthwhile performance boost you’d need to replace the motherboard to support some more current hardware. Depends on your needs and your budget, that may or may not be a road you want to go down, or it might be more cost effective to purchase a new unit.
If you’re having to wait a long time for different programs to load, upgrading the RAM to 2GB should make a pretty big improvement and be quite cheap.
Mark (Uber Geek) says: on July 23, 2010 at 8:14 am
Some more info for my above comment:
This computer uses old DDR RAM, which has become more expensive as companies make less and less of it. On-line prices look to be around $80 for 2GB of DDR PC3200 RAM.
You’ll need to buy a set of two 1GB sticks, like these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211014
…and replace your existing RAM, because there are only two RAM slots in your computer and both of these are probably filled with a 512MB stick of RAM.
Mark (Uber Geek) says: on July 23, 2010 at 8:22 am