I recently slapped together a computer "kit" consisting of a case, motherboard, processor, memory and a dvd. I took the hard drive from the old box and placed in the new one. Much to my suprise it worked. I thought the operating system (Windows XP) might balk at the new hardware .

OK here is my question. The old mobo had a dual core processor and the new one has a quad. Is XP using all 4 processors or do I have to delete the operating system and reinstall?

 

I recently slapped together a computer "kit" consisting of a case, motherboard, processor, memory and a dvd. I took the hard drive from the old box and placed in the new one. Much to my suprise it worked. I thought the operating system (Windows XP) might balk at the new hardware .

OK here is my question. The old mobo had a dual core processor and the new one has a quad. Is XP using all 4 processors or do I have to delete the operating system and reinstall?

You can upgrade certain components and the operating system will update the setting to the new parts ... But when you change the motherboard then the operating system must be reinstall ...

 

I recently slapped together a computer "kit" consisting of a case, motherboard, processor, memory and a dvd. I took the hard drive from the old box and placed in the new one. Much to my suprise it worked. I thought the operating system (Windows XP) might balk at the new hardware .

OK here is my question. The old mobo had a dual core processor and the new one has a quad. Is XP using all 4 processors or do I have to delete the operating system and reinstall?

In XP, open Task Manager > View > CPU History and choose "One Graph Per CPU". The Performance Tab will indicate the Cores.

Ramesh

 

Thanks for the great info. I did the Task manager thing and it shows 4 graphs.

So educate me here. XP is able to access all 4 cores but how about my software? Does the program need to be written in a way that allows it to use 4 cores or does XP handle that?


Jim

 

Thanks for the great info. I did the Task manager thing and it shows 4 graphs.

So educate me here. XP is able to access all 4 cores but how about my software? Does the program need to be written in a way that allows it to use 4 cores or does XP handle that?


Jim

Watch the 4 graphs when you are using the software.

Your software has to be written to use more than one core. Most software still written to use just one core. In this case Windows decides which piece of software uses which core.

 

Some softwares can use multiple cores (aka running multiple threads), such as Visual Studio, video encoders, 3D and raytracing applications, modern games.

it is also beneficiary otherwise- web browsers can easily bring a single core system to a halt because scripts go malicious.

It even happens on my current laptop which is dual core- now and then. The menu (right click) takes nearly a minute to load, and so do the file thumbs on the hard drive- sometimes.

Reading yahoo news on some days causes very slow scrolling- you hit the cursor and after ten seconds it somehow reacts.

With 4 cores or more, the system still has headroom to react.

The more cores, the better.

Old softwares do not benefit from multiple cores directly at all- at least not directly.