Maximum PC

I have inherited an HP desktop (a1020n) it has a PTGD-LA motherboard. The specs support 800mhz fsb and up to 3.4Ghz processor. I have a E8200 proc 'sitting around'.

Can I just drop the E8200 onto this board or stay with the stock cpu?

I was hoping to max out the RAM (4GB DDR2) and buy the family license of Windows 7 to use on the other two comps I have, plus this one.

Please advise and thanks again

The 915 only supports single-core processors (Pentium 4), so your E8200 won't work. It also only supports 2Gb total memory.

I actually have a PTGD-LA hanging on my wall. 3 PCI slots, 915 chipset, no PCIe... pointless to use, looks prettier on my motherboard wall. get a new mobo and then use your E8200.
also, the 915 chipset supports up 2x2GB of RAM. I had that much running in my dad's system using that same motherboard before I upgraded it.

The confusion is understandable as well. These manufactures really need to stop listing Mhz on any part as a blank statement. "3.4Ghz CPU" can go back to a 550, and not work with anything past that...including the 650 of the same Pentium4 family of that recent era.

The chipset family support should be listed, and specifically. As in " up to Pentium4 5xx series" vise just listing MHz.

And that's just the CPU. More often than not, you still see folks confused on memory MHz no matter what platform they're working with. The memory MHz pie can be split up 10 different ways, and still have some assumption left to ponder.

But ya, the 915 chip only supports 5xx CPU's which are single core, and if the max is 3.4, it stops at a 550 (maybe a 550J?). The 925x/925xe only support the 5xx family as well, but introduce the 8xx dual cores too. No 6xx/9xx though...that's for the later chips.

yeah... but if you're already got an E8200... it'd definitely be worth it to get a new mobo and toss that in. I just recently did that with my dad's computer that had a PTGD-LA- upgraded the mobo to 2x2GB of DDR2 800 (though the max the old board could run was DDR2 533), then got a G31 mobo- next I'm going to get myself a Q9550 and give my Q9300 to him... and so on.