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My little girl just got given a "new" computer that has a athlon II 170u.
Its a single core and I'd rather she have a quad core machine.

I was thinking about swapping it for this I found on ebay: AMD Phenom II X4 905E 2.5GHz Socket AM3 6MB 4 Core 65W HD905EOCK4DGM Processor

Anything I need to be aware of?

The current chip and the possible upgrade are both socket AM3.
Is there a better chip (cheaper) chip to get which would also work?

It is in a older Compaq computer. (I don't have the model number off hand.)

The model number might be nice just to ensure there aren't potential gotchas like a low wattage power supply, small form factor, motherboard with inscrutably cheap VRMs, or some other problematic factor. However, your choice of replacement chip is already efficient by quad Phenom II standards, so you and your daughter will probably be set.

I'll have to open the case and see what they gave me.

Its a real cheap oem board for sure, only 2 dimm slots and 1 16x pcie, and I think 1 1x and 1 old pci slot.

I think I'll have to scrounge up a better cpu cooler as well.

It is in a older Compaq computer.

It is also quite possible that the BIOS will not recognize the 905E (in fact I'm almost willing to bet on it).

Deanjo wrote:

It is in a older Compaq computer.

It is also quite possible that the BIOS will not recognize the 905E (in fact I'm almost willing to bet on it).

I'd forgotten that a lot of OEM boxes do that kind of artificial segmentation. That would be a shame.

Deanjo wrote:

It is in a older Compaq computer.

It is also quite possible that the BIOS will not recognize the 905E (in fact I'm almost willing to bet on it).

Now that would suck but for $30 might be worth the risk.

Maybe just switching to a spare athlon x2 might be a good idea. I'll think on it.

Aranarth wrote:

Deanjo wrote:

It is in a older Compaq computer.

It is also quite possible that the BIOS will not recognize the 905E (in fact I'm almost willing to bet on it).

Now that would suck but for $30 might be worth the risk.

Maybe just switching to a spare athlon x2 might be a good idea. I'll think on it.

Easiest thing to do: look up the Compaq model number's CPU support list. That would at least let you know if it was feasible.

I would definitely check before hand if there is a BIOS update that hasn't been applied on the machine before doing the swap to increase the chances of it being successful.

Deanjo wrote:

I would definitely check before hand if there is a BIOS update that hasn't been applied on the machine before doing the swap to increase the chances of it being successful.

yup and since the machine has not been run for 5 years highly likely.

So on a hunch, I searched 170u Compaq, and with a little bit of click-hunting it looks like this is the motherboard in whatever system he's running: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01925534

The CPU upgrade possibilities are pretty decent, too. Quoth the linked article:

AMD Phenom II X4 9xx/9xxe/8xx Quad-Core (Deneb)
AMD Phenom II X3 7xx/7xxe Triple-Core (Heka)
AMD Phenom II X2 5xx (Callisto)
AMD II Athlon X4 6xx/6xxe (Propus)
AMD II Athlon X3 4xx/4xxe (Rana)
AMD II Athlon X2 2xx/2xxe (Regor)
AMD Sempron 1xx (Sargas)

As long as Aranarth updates the BIOS first, that 65W quad Phenom II will probably do just fine.

OEM Machine with a 20W TDP CPU....What's the PSU wattage?

DPete27 wrote:

OEM Machine with a 20W TDP CPU....What's the PSU wattage?

And the mount for the heatsink, some OEM AMD builds used a screw down socket 775 heatsink.

Concupiscence wrote:

So on a hunch, I searched 170u Compaq, and with a little bit of click-hunting it looks like this is the motherboard in whatever system he's running: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01925534

The CPU upgrade possibilities are pretty decent, too. Quoth the linked article:

AMD Phenom II X4 9xx/9xxe/8xx Quad-Core (Deneb)
AMD Phenom II X3 7xx/7xxe Triple-Core (Heka)
AMD Phenom II X2 5xx (Callisto)
AMD II Athlon X4 6xx/6xxe (Propus)
AMD II Athlon X3 4xx/4xxe (Rana)
AMD II Athlon X2 2xx/2xxe (Regor)
AMD Sempron 1xx (Sargas)

As long as Aranarth updates the BIOS first, that 65W quad Phenom II will probably do just fine.

Yup the picture matches what I remember.

I'll check the power supply but it looks like the M/B is rated for 95watt cpu's so I could go with a cheaper chip.
The downside is you can only stick 4gb ram on board.

It also looks like the board uses a standard heatsink mount which will make it easier to find something to cool the chip.

Thanks for taking the time to look it up for me.

How about proof in a picture, Emachine SFF with a AMD Athlon II X4 635 under the heatsink.

biffzinker wrote:

How about proof in a picture, Emachine SFF with a AMD Athlon II X4 635 under the heatsink.

Someone on my local CL is selling a similar board with a similarly weird heatsink configuration. I really don't quite get why AMD hasn't yet embraced through-motherboard heatsink mounting, but I can understand why people hate pushpins.

It is only a 250 watt P/S but I have a rosewill 550w p/s that amazingly is the exact same dimensions so that is not an issue.

It is a HP Compaq cq5000 series machine.

I have to check but I think I have a 2gb dimm to upgrade the machine from 2gb to 4gb.
Getting an athlon ii x4 chip is probably the better idea for right now since it is not going to be used for major games and you can't upgrade the memory beyond 4gig.

I'll also see about getting a 250gb ssd to go along side the 500gb hd in the machine.
Last upgrade would be putting in a 1/2 height radion r5 240 I have on hand.

That should work out for a nice fast machine for the girl and I only have to put $50 into it.

Are you still using the stock OEM powersupply? If so, I wouldn't push it too far from a 20W CPU. I picked up a low-clocked Athlon II X3 for my sister a few years back, which I believe was a 45W TDP model. Microcenter had the OEM version for like $29 at the time. I think there are some 45W X4's as well.


Edit: It still wouldn't hurt to get a lower TDP processor, but not as big of a deal if you're going to be changing the PSU.