ASUS P965Neo and a "new" CPU

Motherboard: ASUS P965Neo
Power supply: some "junk" unit that came bundled with my midtower case—it’s an old boy, probably 6 or 8 years old now.
-Mode COM Feel II - 400ATX
Current CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 925 1.8ghz x2 (tried overclocking it to 1.98 and it holds up)
-Temperatures: at 100% load and 1.800mhz, I'm hitting 82-83 degrees (no matter how long I run it)
+at 100% load and 1980mhz, it hits 84-85 degrees (after about half an hour)
Cooler😳 Just the stock cooler that came with this processor, and yeah, the case is open.

The plan: swap in an Intel Core 2 Duo 925 (3.0ghz x2); according to the web, the board supports it.
-Price: $17...

****Quick question: would I need to reinstall Windows after the swap? I just finished reinstalling Windows 7 64-bit two days ago because I was getting ready to upgrade the RAM.

Would that happen right during the CPU swap itself? (I'm sticking with the old cooler and power supply for now)
From what I've read, the E4300 pulls 65w, while the 925 draws 90w...

-Rest of the build: Nvidia GT220, 2gb DDR2 RAM (dual channel)—I'm grabbing another 2gb soon, so I might as well grab the processor at the same time.

When you swap out the processor, there’s no need to go through the hassle of reinstalling Windows—just make sure you flash the BIOS first. You'll want to grab the latest version available, and then you should be all set.

Regarding the BIOS, it says I'm running version 1.9—which, honestly, is the last time I ever touched an update...

Beyond that, I’m wondering if this upgrade is even worth my time. Some benchmarks suggest the Intel Core 2 Duo 925 is a massive step up, but then you read the forums and everyone says this whole platform was a complete dud. Apparently, they run incredibly hot and just don't deliver the performance people expected. :/

Switching to that processor would actually be a step backward. I mean, sure, it hits 3GHz, but it’s based on an old architecture that just sucks and runs insanely hot.

If you had a decent 775 motherboard, you could maybe mess around with a quad core or at least an E8400, but with what you've got, the only move is jumping to an e6*** series, which isn't much of an upgrade anyway.

Basically: just be glad the thing still works and don't touch anything while it's running. You should probably just start saving up for a new PC. 😁

Exactly

That’s exactly what I was thinking... look, just as a heads-up, I actually swapped out the thermal paste on my CPU yesterday after clocking in about 50,000 hours of uptime... now the per-core temperatures are looking much better, so the chip itself is running about 10 degrees cooler than before.

This is actually my third graphics card in this build, and honestly, everything is running like it's brand new. 😁
The only snag is when I start playing around with the overclocking. If I set the FSB to 220, it boots up perfectly fine, but once I hit 233, it just refuses to post—the fans spin up, but that's it. I haven't touched the voltages yet; you think maybe that's the culprit?
-I'm also a bit fuzzy on the whole RAM-to-CPU relationship during an overclock. One of my sticks is 667MHz and the other is 800MHz, though they're both running in dual-channel at 667MHz... could that be part of the issue? Or does the system just need more juice?

It’s all scaled together, I guess. As you bump up the FBI, the memory goes up too, so you’ll have to dial in the voltage yourself (plus everything else, since you pretty much have to run everything on manual). To get a better handle on how this works, you might want to check out this guide:

http://forum.pcekspert.com/showthread.php?t=88200

My motherboard is pretty locked down, honestly. There’s just so little that's actually unlocked or adjustable... so for right now, I’m definitely not touching anything.

I can't make heads or tails of all these calculations either. All this stuff about memory and whatnot... none of it makes any sense to me. xD

You’re pretty damn brave, messing around with a 400W power supply that’s probably older than I am. 👍

I really hope we don't run into each other. 😍