I’ve mostly done my own upgrades – RAM, video cards and a DVD/CD drive over the years but I now want to upgrade the processor. How simple is this? I assume I’ll need to check what type will fit my motherboard before buying and get the appropriate fan etc. I’m not heding for cutting edge here. I currently have 1.8GHz ish and am aiming for around the 2.5GHz mark.

Any help or advice greatly relieved.

Yep check mobo and chipset to make sure there compatible worth noting is to check your mobo with GFX card too as AGP is slowly phasing out.

I had a feeling the motherboard was nearing the end of upgrade life! Is there an easy way of finding out what one I have WITHOUT turning it off and opening it? This machine is the one I’m discussing.

If I change the motherboard can I just take my current hard disk and plug it straight in?

I’ve been slowly extending the life of an AGP/DDR based system and sooner or later you will probably want to upgrade the whole thing. If you switch motherboards you may well find that you need to replace the graphics card (from AGP to PCI-E) and memory (DDR to DDR2) the disc drive should be safe though as most new motherboards have IDE and the newer SATA interfaces.

If you do stick with the current motherboard for now you might need to do a bit of research, finding the processor socket type is only the first step and you still need to know what processors of that socket type will work (for example my motherboard takes Intel 775 processors, it can run most dual-core ones happily but can’t provide the voltages for quad-core). You might also need to upgrade the bios for the motherboard to recognise newer processors.

Some software diagnostic programs will identify the make and model of motherboard without the need to open the case (SiSoft Sandra used to I think) but I don’t know if there’s anything built into Windows that will.

I’ve dont the same with my old system-max’d out and stable with 2gb and best processor for the board.

It’s been fine for yrs but starting to show it’s age now.

For the price it’s cheaper to buy a new mobo setup with mutlicore cpu’s.

I’m waiting for mobo’s with USB 3.0 at least but thats still a long way-Jan if I’m really lucky.

Doesn’t the crucial website have a scanner you can download to help if you can’t find the model number of your board?

I get the feeling I’m in over my head now. I may have to speak to a techy friend (who may well be reading this) for advice. This machine was bought as CPU, mobo and a few other bits and then had stuff transferred on so it may be time to do the same again.

think you want somewhere like this to make life easy

Yes. I got a Novatech bundle a couple of years ago; very good vfm. I’m thinking of upgrading my processor, but tbh, I could just get another MB bundle for only a few quid more. And then there’s the quad-core option; mt current one won’t take those, so maybe it’s best to just upgrade the MB as well.

And I’ll have enough spare bits to build a spare basic PC, if I get a new MB. It’ll do fine for someone who just wants a web-surfer/media centre type machine.