Pentium D 950 slower than Celeron D 356 it replaced

[damnitzhym]

I'm on a very tight budget at the moment so replacing this PC is presently not an option. PC is Compaq SR2150NX w/ ECS RC415ST-HM motherboard. HP/Compaq spec. page states Pent D 9xx CPUs are compatible with this MB. Memory is maxed out @ 2GB. I have been into "msconfig" and gotten it to recognize the 2nd core, but some of my programs are noticeably slower. I'm guessing the board while functional w/ Pent D 950 dual-core, is not optimized to take full advantage of dual-core processor.

I'm now thinking of installing a Pent 4 661 (3.6Ghz) and selling my Pent D 950. Does anyone think the P4 will yield better results ie. faster operation than D 950 on this motherboard or should I just reinstall the Celeron D 356 (3.33Ghz) that came with it?

I've been told a P4 of the same Ghz rating as a Celeron D is a faster processor running some if not most applications. Is this true?

Please help.
Thanks

[damnitzhym]

google for "CPU to Front Side Bus Ratio."  I think you'll be surprised as to how all the components work together to attain a certain throughput for any given PC.
The speed/characteristics of your RAM plays an important roll as well

HP specs the MB @ 800/533 FSB depending on the CPU installed. Intel specs the D 950 @800Mhz FSB. Celeron Ratio is 6.24:1 compared to Pent D ratio of 4.25:1 - Pent D should be more efficient than Celeron D based on these ratios even if it was a "single core," correct?

The installed memory is (2) identical PC-4200 533 MHz DDR2. HP says this MB can also accept PC2-5300 667 MHz DDR2. I'm sure swapping in some 5300/667 RAM will help, but it doesn't  seem like that should resolve the existing problem. Am I wrong about this?

[patio]

Anything at the ECS site on maximising a dual-core CPU ? ?
I doubt HP's site would be very detailed on this...

If i remember correctly ECS had a User Forum at one time....worth a look.

[damnitzhym]

Anything at the ECS site on maximising a dual-core CPU ? ?
I doubt HP's site would be very detailed on this...

If i remember correctly ECS had a User Forum at one time....worth a look.

No support on ECS site for RC415ST-HM.

[patio]

Here Ya Go...