How-To Geek

I have an Acer AMD-1100-B1410A dual core desktop that I have had since 2008/5 yrs, and I have been upgrading it and putting newer better parts on it since I have had it, with the intent of keeping it forever, by just adding and replacing new parts on it. So far I have upgraded the RAM with 2 Gigs, now have 3 Gig, replaced the power supply, with a CoolerMaster/bigger and better, more amperage, and have replaced the CPU fan with a bigger and better, used one from Goodwill computer store, replaced the case fan with a bigger better one, installed another HDD Seagate Barracuda 1T along with the stock 320G Seagate, which Im using as a slave drive now with XUbuntu installed on it, instead of Vista Home Premium, which is what it came with. Im using the Seagate 1t as my main boot drive with Windows 7 Ultimate on it, and it is running real good so far. But I am now considering replacing the motherboard with the AM2 socket and getting a newer one with a newer 4 core faster CPU. It has the Radeon X1200 graphics card, which I don't believe can be replaced, can it? Am I on the right track, and should I continue with this endeavor, or should I consider just getting another tower with all the state-of-the-art hardware included. I would like to be able to just replace the mother board and cpu if possible. Can anyone give me any sound advice on this, and what I should do? Any help appreiciated!

Old School

You have to be careful with a 4 core CPU. If the cycle speed is not faster than your 2 core, it will not really make any difference for normal jobs. Only very CPU intensive jobs like video encoding will benefit.

I used to have a 2.5GHz duo core and a 2.4GHz quad core. For day to day operation, they were equally fast. Now I have a 3.6GHz quad core with hyper threading - and that is really faster.

To Mr. Lighthouse: I like that answer, kinda like.... "If it aint broke, don't fix it"......a good law to live by.