Want to upgrade CPU (could use some help)

Either is fine, in fact, both are pretty decent dual core processors. What I'd like you to do, prior to going any further is finding out what BIOSs are available for that motherboard, and what CPU support they offer. Did you build it? or did you buy a pre-built computer? I'm guessing you bought a pre-built so here's the thing. Open up the case and look for a motherboard manufacturer name, the the model of the motherboard (not the chipset) go to that motherboard manufacturer's site and look for downloads for that particular motherboard. Find the most recent BIOS and look for what CPU support it offers. Check previous BIOS's as well for their support lists. You BIOS may need to be flashed to get those CPUs to work. You should also find out which BIOS your mobo has at the moment.

Thanks for the reply, i am having a hard time finding anything on the Motherboard description

• Motherboard manufacturer's name: Foxconn MCP73M01H1
• HP/Compaq name: Napa-GL8E

It is a pre-built store bought and says it supports those models above, of course i cant find any new bios for it

Make sure your RAM and video card aren't bottlenecks. How much ram do you have? What is your video card?

As ubersmurf said, make sure your motherboard supports whatever processor you decide to get. CPU-Z can help you get your motherboard model name or number. Google can help you find everything.

PS if you're using your motherboard on-board video, definitely buy a new video card instead of a new CPU.

Your current cpu should be ok for demigod.   What graphics card are you using?  If you are using GeForce 7100/nForce 630i  then you need to upgrade your videocard.

i have a 9800 GTX and 4 gigs of Ram corsair

Looks like youd be all set with either of those processors that you linked.

Unless you've added a videocard to that system your running onboard video which is more of a bottleneck than that processor.  If this is the case, I'd recommend this:

ATI Radeon 4770 512mb video card, and

Gigabyte ep45 UD3R motherboard

Xigmatek s1283 heatsink/fan combo, or OCZ Vendetta 2 Heatsink/fan combo, whichever is cheaper

This motherboard will allow you to overclock that processor to 3ghz and beyond (3.2ghz is average with a decent cooler and safe volts, 1.4v), while that videocard will be approximately 125x faster than your current onboard video.  Total cost? A hair above $200 usd.  The speed of the 2180 overclocked will be similar to a stock e8400, and you can't really overclock with that board.  The videocard will be such a massive improvement I can't really put it into words for you here.

EDIT:  I see you have a 9800 gtx which is sufficient.  I still recommend the motherboard/heatsink upgrades over the processor upgrade.  That 2180 is an overclocking champ but that motherboard is a dud.  Note: you could overclock the processor reasonably well with that motherboard and save some money using a "bsel/pin mod" but that's somewhat risky and requires some research and such - I'm thinking you probably aren't interested in that route.

If you have further questions dont be afraid to pm me, I've been a pc hardware enthusiast for as long as I can remember and I love this sort of stuff.

Thanks for all the info, i think i rather avoid the swtiching of the motherboard even if it is better. If i got a new mobo i would go to town and make a fancier computer.

So you guys think that i could just drop one of those processors mentioned above in without much problem? I will have to use HP update to see if it will update my bios, that is my main concern cause i cant find any bios for download. 

EDIT: hah looks like a bios update was just made as now i see it on website.

I think i am going for the 3.16GHz

E8400 is wolfdale core, 45nm, 65w.  Your motherboard supports it, so it will be as easy as dropping it in.  You'll get a noticeable performance upgrade.  However, for ~$70 usd less, the mobo/hsf upgrade would give you probably just a little more speed.  Imo, its worth the extra half hour of work taking out the old mobo and screwing the new one into the case for this speed and money saved.  If you are absoultely unable to do this, then the e8400 will work, yes.  I don't recommend spending the extra money on the 8500 over the 8400.  

I wanna throw in there that I have two pcs, one of which is running an E4300 @ 3.15 ghz and 9800 gt.  This processor is extremely similar to your e2180, and it runs DG at 1680x1050, high settings, at silky framerates at all times.

Reboot your computer, and when the HP/Compaq logo appears (just at the beginning of the boot sequence) repeated tap f10. Once you get into the BIOS DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING. But look around for a BIOS revision number. That should tell you what BIOS you have. You could call HP and ask one of their techs directly if the CPU you want support for is there, and also ask about newer BIOSs. I have to repeat DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING WHEN YOU'RE IN THE BIOS. Most pre-buit computers don't have a lot of overclocking options in the BIOS, so I don't recommend that. As well, overclocking can kill components, you'd be stunned at the number of ram modules I've thrown away. If you want to learn to overclock, wait until you're ready to replace your computer, and overclock the old one once you get the new one. Don't destroy your only computer.

I didnt say it ran it bad, i am just crazy and want to run it better. Pc work in general scares me because of my huge hands being at 6feet 5 inches tall

yeah i will give HP a call before i buy a processor, smartest thing to do probably.

ubersmurf, I very much disagree with your notion that overclocking kills components.  Using a reasonable voltage and having adequate cooling, you can overclock quite nicely without having any risk of immediately killing your hardware.  You may decrease the life expectancy of the processor, motherboard, or ram, but typically this means the processor will last 5-10 years instead of 15-20, which is negligible.  

Some people do kill their hardware very soon after overclocking it.  This is either because of a serious lack of knowledge (using far too much voltage) or hardcore/competitive overclockers doing "suicide runs" on hardware, using very high voltage, extreme cooling, and going for records in benchmarks until the hardware inevitably dies.

I have been running my q9550 @ 4.25ghz (default 2.83) for 5 months, 24/7, with no issues.  My e4300 @3.15 (default 1.8) has been up 24/7 for ~1.5 years).  Every pc I've had since I was young has been overclocked, and the only faulty parts I've had personally are (cheap) power supplies and hard drives - neither of which is effected by overclocking my processor.  Overclocking grants huge performance gains with minimal cost and effort, and especially since the release of the core 2 duo, the processors simply beg for it.

Get this though, he's new to overclocking. And most stock motherboards don't have tons of overclocking options. But sure, if he's able to and wants to overclock it, then he should. If you want to go to an overclocking forum and figure out how Italian, go for it. It does improve performance, and it's an inexpensive way to do that, and it can be done safely. But you'll have to learn more about it in order to do it, and that mobo may make it impossible. As well you may not be able to fit a good CPU cooler in that case (IDK what the case is like, but from my experience most stock cases aren't as friendly to large CPU coolers. As well airflow through the case could be a real problem with a stock case. These are pitfalls, you should do what you want.

I just think it's a bad idea for the various reasons I already stated.

Well after chatting with HP tech i am going for the new processor, thanks for all the help guys. Now i play the waiting game .

When I was a kid my mom bought me a compaq for christmas.. Was psyched until I realized it was terribly slow.  Bought a new videocard for it which had to be pci since the shitty mobo had no agp port, then I had to upgrade the power supply because it was 115w and not enough.  Case was so small the new power supply wouldn't fit inside, so I had to cut through the steel and attach the p/s to the outside of the case with twist ties.  Didn't look like much, but it worked

moral of the story?  Always build your own pc, even if your a little kid.

And btw, his motherboard is micro-atx, so he likely does have a terribly small case too.  If it were me I'd just install if out of the case - I've ran a pc on a piece of cardboard for a couple weeks before.  But ya, I don't think he's up for that.  Learning to overclock is pretty simple really, http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=2057083&enterthread=y 20 minutes reading that thread, 10 minutes downloading the necessary programs, and your off to the races.  And I realize that foxconn motherboard isn't going to overclock through bios.

Tidus, yeah if he had built it, it would be a different story, I'm all for overclocking, but you (9/10 of the time) have to build a rig to do it, the stock stuff sucks for overclocking.

I got the wolf e8500 free 2 day shipping, and had a 10% off promotional code so not a bad deal. Now i am excited!

Nice performance increase i turned up my sound quality and anit-aliasing and got consistently good sim speeds in large games. For some reason the new processor gave me more available ram.  Crazy 32 bit operating systems i am going to go to upgrade to vista64 bit soon i hope. 

As a lot of you guys  probably know be wary of the junk stock fans from intel with the stupid push clips, i went with a fan with screws and some special heatsink compound from work(some really good stuff i use to heatsink components for temp rise testing).

The pushpins aren't so terrible, but the stock HSF is definitely really bad at conducting heat away. Just moving to a cheap copper block from Arctic Cooling or similar alone can drop temps 20C.

Stock intel fans are fine for minor overclocking, ~20-30% I would say.

You should run coretemp to look at the actual temps. As Kyro said, the stock fans aren't that bad, and would probably be fine. I can imagine the new cpu removing a bottleneck that would prevent your GPU from running at full capacity, which is great.

I will look at my core temp and see if it has a little room to grow the cpu speed. I am a cautios guy so if i can overclock i wont do it too much, of course i better read up on all of it before i try.