Advice please about upgrade from single to dual core

[Kaos Kid]

Hello

I decided to condense the post to a nutshell, since I tend to ramble.


I took a harddrive out of a skt 654 single-core system and put it in a AM2 system with an X2 5400+ CPU. It did boot to windows, which surprised me a bit. Although 2 processors show in Device manager and all other pertinent places, I believe that only one core is actually being utilized. In both PC Wizard 2010 and Everest Beta Trial, it only appears that one core gets any usage. Is this normal when you switch from single to dual core without a fresh install of the operating system? Any info/advice is greatly appreciated.

[hark]

That shouldn't matter. If you can see two cores, then I'm pretty sure it's using both. Try opening task manager. If you run a single core program taking full CPU time and yet it's showing 50% in the task manager then it should be fine.

[Kaos Kid]

Cool. Well, the 785 mobo I was waiting for arrived so I'll put this in a case and give it its own fresh install then if you think that it is probably still good. I was hoping the x2 5400+ would be strong enough for 1080 files but it appears to not have enough ooomph so I'll turn it into my torrent/surfer box and use the 785 as my HTPC like I originally intended. I'll put my Abit NF7-S/Barton CPU and the Asrock/Skt 754 3000+ on Craigslist and should get my money back from them for what I paid for this and maybe a little extra. Even if it is a Compaq OEM mobo I think I got my moneys worth for only $40 (M2N68-LA Narra3/X2 5400+BrisbaneA2.8Ghz/2x512MB PC6400/AM3 Heatsink/fan from a 955BE)...


Thanks for the reply!

[hark]

You're welcome. About that processor, I think you're right in that it wouldn't be able to handle 1080p video, though it could depend on the decoder.

[nightblood]

If you are on the performance tab of the task manager and see 2 windows for cpu then your computer is using both cores.