Caltrops - The processor wars are hotting up.





	[quote name="Willdog"]Not sure what your level of competence is with actually building computers. I'll assume you haven't started from scratch before. In theory, installing a new cpu isn't much different then adding more ram. You just need to figure out what kind of CPU socket your motherboard supports, what it's max supported speed is, and then buy the fastest CPU in that form factor that you can afford. The actual work is just unlocking the fan and heatsink from the old cpu, pulling the old cpu off the board, slapping the new one in, and reattaching the fan/heatsink. A lot of BIOS's will recognize a new processor after you reboot. If it doesn't, you'll have to go into the CMOS and set it up. Other considerations are whether the new chip uses a lot more power then the last or if it will run a lot hotter. Software-wise it is a good idea to reinstall windows when you do a major hardware switch (processors, vid cards). Windows configures itself for a particular set up (especially xp). A common recommendation is to have a partition on your hard drive just for windows. I bought a new 80GB drive recently and split it into 15/65 GB partitions. Windows and other direct program files (office, spybot, crap like that) get 15GB all to themeselves (and it takes up just over 5GB now with system restore options in place). Games/music/movies goes on the other side. So whenever windows gets screwy again, I can just back up my mail, favorite links, and desktop arrangement, format the windows partition and not worry about losing everything else. As far as new drivers go, I don't think anything has changed that radically yet. Drivers are mostly for vid and sound cards, I've never heard of needing a particular driver for a new CPU before.[/quote]