Cpu Upgrade on Old PC

[Compaq226]

I own a Acer Aspire z3101 and want to upgrade it. I know how much ram I'll put in it but I need to know what cpu. Right now it has the stock cpu it came with but its kinda slow. I've been stuck on this for half a year now and just want to know. If you can help or direct me to some sort of answer I would be more than grateful. Thanks

[DoctorNick]

8 minutes ago, Compaq226 said:

I own a Acer Aspire z3101 and want to upgrade it. I know how much ram I'll put in it but I need to know what cpu. Right now it has the stock cpu it came with but its kinda slow. I've been stuck on this for half a year now and just want to know. If you can help or direct me to some sort of answer I would be more than grateful. Thanks

If you type in the full model number, like this for example: Acer Aspire Z3101-U4062

That one has a AMD Athlon II X2 240e

[jaslion]

I mean these were never meant to go past 35w amd chips as it does not have a cooler capable of handling phenoms AT ALL.

 

This machine is ancient and no matter the upgrades it will still be slow.

 

I know I do service at a place that is currently still using phenom II x4 940's 16gb of ram, gtx 750's and 250gb ssds and they do not want to let these go. constantly upgrading but they are just awfully slow. A 50$ dell 4th gen i5 from ebay obliterates these things for usability and that is considered a slow pc already.

 

I'd simply replace instead of upgrade as even the best cpu is very weak.

[Compaq226]

10 hours ago, jaslion said:

I mean these were never meant to go past 35w amd chips as it does not have a cooler capable of handling phenoms AT ALL.

 

This machine is ancient and no matter the upgrades it will still be slow.

 

I know I do service at a place that is currently still using phenom II x4 940's 16gb of ram, gtx 750's and 250gb ssds and they do not want to let these go. constantly upgrading but they are just awfully slow. A 50$ dell 4th gen i5 from ebay obliterates these things for usability and that is considered a slow pc already.

 

I'd simply replace instead of upgrade as even the best cpu is very weak.

I know that even if I upgrade it it will still be slow but that's not the point. It's more of a project than really wanted a good pc. I'm already getting a dell omniplex 9020 as my main. Also I really do want to keep and preserve it while it still being semi use able. On top of all that the pc runs windows 10 32bit really good plays lfd1 like a champ. 

[Beerzerker]

14 hours ago, DoctorNick said:

If you type in the full model number, like this for example: Acer Aspire Z3101-U4062

That one has a AMD Athlon II X2 240e

Stock wattage of that chip is 45W's, not 35W's and it's rated for 2.8GHz clockspeed.

The OP should be able to go up to an AMD Athlon II X2 250e and be fine because that one is also rated at 45W like an AMD Athlon II X2 240e and runs at 3.0GHz instead of 2.8GHz - Not a lot of difference but there it is.

If the OP wants to, an Athlon II X4 620e might work too because it's also rated for 45W but only runs at 2.6GHz.

If wanting an X4 chip, it's going to be a matter of if the machine's BIOS supports an X4 chip because it may not. 
4 cores but a lower clock speed vs 2 cores at a higher clock speed are the apparent choices here without exceeding 45W's power draw.

Whatever the OP does, they DO NOT need to run anything else aside from an "e" series chip because the wattage draw of a standard X2 is 65W's and an X4 normally runs at 95W's but can be a little higher too in certain cases, that along with some lower X4 models still drawing 65W's themselves.

To ensure it's going to work I'd go for the Athlon II X2 250e and be done with it - Better clockspeeds so that's a plus but that's also the best they can do with what they have and be "Safe" about the wattage draw of the chip.

[jaslion]

8 hours ago, Beerzerker said:

If the OP wants to, an Athlon II X4 620e might work too because it's also rated for 45W but only runs at 2.6GHz.

The system came with a athlon II x4 615e so the 620e should be fine

[Beerzerker]

9 hours ago, jaslion said:

The system came with a athlon II x4 615e so the 620e should be fine

I agree, it shoudn't be a problem provided the board's BIOS supports it.

Based on what I found they (Acer Aspire z3101) could have come with either an X2 or X4 chip and the OP didn't say what they had in the machine so.....

[Compaq226]

On 9/19/2023 at 12:01 PM, Beerzerker said:

I agree, it shoudn't be a problem provided the board's BIOS supports it.

Based on what I found they (Acer Aspire z3101) could have come with either an X2 or X4 chip and the OP didn't say what they had in the machine so.....

The processer I have in it is the AMD Athlon II 2X 240e. I should of said that and sorry it took me awhile to say that.