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Our system is a Asus K8V with a Athlon 64 3200 CPU running Windows XP Pro 32 bit.
To get better performance would it be better to upgrade the CPU or install Windows XP 64 bit?
My husband like to play 'Farcry' which I know does handle 64 bit.
With 64 bit OS how would the rest of the system handle? Would you notice a difference in every day use?.... Bootup, Powerdown, web surfing, copying files and such.
Now for the dumb question:
Is there an Intel CPU that I can use on the systmeboard instead of a AMD? Reason I'm asking is that I can get Intel CPU's at a discount.Also wondering. How can I find out what is the highest CPU this Motherboard will take. I can't find anything about this on the specs of it.
Thanks,
Debbie

ASUS K8V it should have letters after this(ie -MX), when you find the correct designation you can go to the ASUS website to check which CPU you can use, and no INTEL are completely different:

Thanks for the reply
Dang no Intel discount, oh will I tried.
Sorry the Motherboard is a Asus K8V SE Deluxe.

Your ASUS K8V is a Socket 754 based system and it peaked a while back, so forget upgrading to another CPU on that platform.
Secondly, you can't simply install an Intel CPU in an AMD board because of the propietary socket used. What you need to do is start looking at a fresh build (Intel or AMD), and it has to be from one done ground up, that means new RAM, GPU, PSU and ofcourse MOBO.
Lastly, forget the Windows XP 64-Bit, if you are thinking about another OS from Windows, start looking at Vista. I'm sure you already know a 64-Bit system will run fine with a 32-Bit or 64-Bit OS.

Debbie25, Dosser is correct, you can find out what the fastest CPU your motherboard can handle at the ASUS website.
No, you can't put and Intel CPU in a motherboard designed for an AMD CPU.
As for the performance boost you can expect by going with a 64bit OS, you will only see performance increases for programs like Farcry that are optimized for the 64bit OS. All your 32bit software will still run the same under the 64bit OS. I hope this helped to answer your questions.

That is the answer I was waiting for.
I really didn't think I would have to rebuild my system just to get better performance.
Thx for being straight with me.

The A64 3200+ is still a decent CPU, you have a fairly decent motherboard, & you apparently have 1GB RAM. If you're unhappy with the gaming performance, the problem *may* be the video card. Which one do you have?
BTW, do NOT get WinXP x64....

Forgot to include this:
http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=235&l1=3&l2=14&l3=0

We have a ATI 9800 256 bit video card.
My husband is the one who uses the system more and mentions mainly bootups and shutdowns and such are slow.
No WinXP 64, why (just wondering)

Jam
I did look at that site before but could not find any spec that indidcated what CPU speeds the board would support

I do NOT recommend a CPU upgrade...it wouldn't be cost effective. But here's where you can check which CPUs are supported by your board:
http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
Is the video card a 9800PRO? It is/was a good card, but it's starting to show it's age, especially on newer games. If your major complaint is bootup & shutdown times, that's not really related to gaming performance (which I thought was what you were asking about). It could be you just have a lot of programs running in the background. Try this...hit Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up Task Manager, then click the Processes tab. Look at the bottom/left of the box where it lists "Processes:"...how many do you have running? Just as an example, mine lists 33. Now click on the column heading "User Name"...this will arrange all the processes. How many do you have affiliated with your user name? I have 9 & know what every one of them is for. You *should* be able to identify every one of your's too...can you?

Just to add...you do not need programs like AOL, MSN, Yahoo messenger loading at startup...nor do you need Quicktime, RealPlayer, iTunes, Limewire, Morpheus,etc loading. These can be started on an as-needed basis. Actually, I don't recommend that anyone install Quicktime or Realplayer on their PC...they open the doorway to infection. There are alternative versions that are much safer.

Just so you know, your options even without considering the motherboard's upgrade path are very limited and illogical if you were to pursue it.
The other 754 CPU's rated higher than your current 3200+ are the 3400+ & 3700+ (Clawhammer) or the 3400+ (Newcastle) - none of which are worth upgrading to from a 3200+ like you've got.

Don't believe the marketing hype telling you that you must upgrade now. I have a 3200+ AMD processor on a socket 754 board too. I was able to safely overclock it to 3400+ as well. A system like this will see you through the dual core frenzy, which contrary to what the big two cpu suppliers would have you believe, doesn't offer significant increases in day to day performance.
My advice to everyone would be to "wait it out" until Vista cements itself in as the default operating system. When this happens, upgrade options will have clearer, more precise benifits.
Another note, my friend has a socket 423 pentium system with a 1.8Ghz processor. He has just installed a 7600GT graphics card and now gets better performance in games than I do (I have a Geforece FX 5700LE).
I hope this helps.

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