{"id":1840,"date":"2009-02-28T11:15:36","date_gmt":"2009-02-28T16:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2009\/02\/28\/cpu-upgrades-not-as-easy-as-they-used-to-be\/"},"modified":"2009-02-28T16:30:45","modified_gmt":"2009-02-28T21:30:45","slug":"cpu-upgrades-not-as-easy-as-they-used-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2009\/02\/28\/cpu-upgrades-not-as-easy-as-they-used-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"CPU Upgrades – Not As Easy As They Used To Be"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mycomputer\"<\/a> Lately I\u2019ve been thinking that maybe it\u2019s time to upgrade my computer a little bit and make the jump to a newer CPU \u2013 specifically a 64-bit Dual or Quad core CPU. My venerable old Pentium 4 (with HyperThreading!) is still working just fine \u2013 but it is starting to show its age. And of course there\u2019s that whole 64-bit thing I\u2019m dying to try out (4 gigs of memory just isn\u2019t enough anymore!).<\/p>\n

So, I started to look around \u2013 but keep in mind it\u2019s been quite a while since I last built my own computer. My computers tend to last for many, many years<\/a>, so I don\u2019t build them often \u2013 and as you\u2019ll recall my current computer<\/a> was pre-built.<\/p>\n

Suffice to say, I was a little bit lost. The last time I built a computer from scratch (nearly 10 years ago now), the CPU choices were basically either Intel (Pentium III<\/a>) or AMD (Athlon<\/a> or Duron<\/a>). There was a socket\/slot for the Intel (socket 370<\/a> or Slot 1<\/a>), and a socket for the AMD (socket A<\/a>). Your motherboard was made for one or the other \u2013 and that was it.<\/p>\n

Things are far more complicated these days.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve still got sockets, of course \u2013 but a bewildering array of them<\/a>, and some of them even have multiple names! <\/p>\n

And if the number of sockets wasn\u2019t confusing enough, now you have to pay far more attention to the particular chipset which accompanies your socket. To get an idea of what I\u2019m talking about, just look at this list of Intel chipsets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When I started looking around, I made the initial mistake of not paying attention to chipsets. I thought that since my current CPU socket was a LGA 775<\/a> (or \u201cSocket T\u201d) \u2013 the same one that was used for Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors<\/a> \u2013 I could just take out my old CPU out and pop in a new one. <\/p>\n

Sadly, this is not<\/strong> the case. My current chipset<\/em> is the Intel 945P, which sadly does not support any<\/strong> of the new Core 2 processors. The best it can do for multi-core is the Pentium D<\/a>, which in my experience is not that great. (The Pentium D runs much hotter and has less on-board cache.)<\/p>\n

Since chipsets are not a replaceable component, the only option is a new motherboard. Again, in the \u201cold days\u201d this would not have been a big deal \u2013 but again, these days there is a bewildering array of choices.<\/p>\n

What makes the whole experience even more maddening is the additional factor of\u2026 well, form factors<\/em>. My current motherboard is a BTX form factor<\/a> \u2013 a new-ish form factor that never really caught on. <\/p>\n

\"BTX<\/a>Of course, the BTX form factor is totally incompatible<\/strong> with the far-more-common ATX form factor<\/a>. Which means I\u2019m basically SOL when it comes to upgrading.  <\/p>\n

The handful of BTX form factor motherboards I\u2019ve been able to find thus far are all of the same type as the one I have now \u2013 in other words, similar chipsets that don\u2019t support Core 2 Duo or Quad. <\/p>\n

So now I\u2019m facing the reality that, in order to upgrade my CPU, I need to upgrade my motherboard, and in order to upgrade my motherboard I need to upgrade my case and power supply. And once all that is done, I\u2019ll need to re-install Windows from scratch (this many hardware changes would make Windows throw a fit).<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but this is starting to sound a lot less like \u201cCPU upgrade\u201d and a whole lot more like \u201cwhole new computer.\u201d Which, of course, is exactly what I didn\u2019t<\/em> want to do.<\/p>\n

See, I like<\/em> my current computer \u2013 it\u2019s been very good to me \u2013 and it\u2019s design is very good. The cooling is excellent and it\u2019s nice and quiet. It\u2019s got plenty of USB ports (both front and back), which is important because I have lots of USB devices hanging off my computer<\/a>. And I\u2019m rather fond of the extra set of front-mounted microphone and headphone jacks \u2013 especially since plugging something into the headphone jack automatically cuts the sound to the rear speaker jack (very handy for using headphones). Say what you will about Dell computers, but mine is very good at what it does (being part of Dell\u2019s higher-end XPS line doesn\u2019t hurt either).<\/p>\n

The thought of having to get rid of the case and buy all that new stuff is, frankly, rather depressing \u2013 mostly because it\u2019s more work (and more money!) than I had planned for. But, it looks like I don\u2019t have much choice. It\u2019s either upgrade, or buy a whole new computer. All this confusion is one of the reasons why I didn\u2019t build my last computer \u2013 but I guess I\u2019m paying the price for that now.<\/p>\n

I guess I just have to face the fact that upgrading my CPU just isn\u2019t as easy as it used to be!<\/p>\n

Computer icon courtesy of the Crystal Icon Set<\/a>. Motherboard image courtesy Dell<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I thought upgrading my CPU would be easy. Turns out – it’s far, far, far more complicated than you’d ever imagine!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[200,5],"tags":[23,198],"class_list":["post-1840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-life","category-technology","tag-computers","tag-hardware","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-tG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2890,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2010\/01\/30\/new-year-new-computer\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840,"position":0},"title":"New Year, New Computer","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I finally upgraded to a new computer running Windows 7!","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The system properties window from \"Yotsuba,\" my new computer!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2010\/01\/system-properties-window-windows-7-300x282.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2881,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2010\/01\/07\/new-computer-time-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840,"position":1},"title":"New Computer Time, Again","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's time for me to upgrade my computer (again) - and the decision on what to get hasn't gotten any easier!","rel":"","context":"In "tech"","block_context":{"text":"tech","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3101,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2010\/05\/31\/another-computer-conundrum-a-computer-for-mom\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840,"position":2},"title":"Another Computer Conundrum: A Computer for MOM","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I face another computer conundrum: what sort of computer to get for my mom, a casual user (as opposed to me, the power user).","rel":"","context":"In "tech"","block_context":{"text":"tech","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6078,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2024\/02\/09\/stress-testing\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840,"position":3},"title":"Stress Testing","author":"Keith Survell","date":"February 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Every once in a while I get the urge to push my system to the max - my computer system, that is. I built my current PC myself, and I get curious to see how well it performs (and if anything has changed). I recently got this urge again, so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2024\/02\/CPU-Benchmark.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2024\/02\/CPU-Benchmark.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2024\/02\/CPU-Benchmark.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2024\/02\/CPU-Benchmark.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2024\/02\/CPU-Benchmark.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1194,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/07\/08\/audio-feedback-from-computers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840,"position":4},"title":"Audio Feedback from Computers","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"There are some subtle audio clues that I use to tell if my computer is doing something - mostly, whether I can hear the hard drive churning or the CPU fan whirring up to a higher RPM - these tell me that something is going on. When I'm remote controlling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "tech"","block_context":{"text":"tech","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5788,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2022\/07\/25\/new-computer-time-turning-it-up-to-11\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840,"position":5},"title":"New Computer Time: Turning it up to 11","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 25, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"After 5 years, it's time again to upgrade my computer, and this time I'm turning it up to 11... for Windows 11, with an 11th gen Intel CPU. (Haha... I'll see myself out now.)","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}