How difficult/dangerous is it to install a new processor. Right now I have a 400 mhz AMD, and I need to upgrade to something a little more powerful.

You're much better off getting a new motherboard/CPU/memory combo. It will cost more but have much better bang for the buck.

Also don't turn on the computer until the heatsink and fan are properly secured. Tom's Hardware posted a video of playing Quake 3 then removing the cooling equipment during a game. The FPS dropped to 0, then blue screen, then smoke from the processor.

MJ

Installing a CPU is easy as taking out a light bulb. Open your case, your CPU has a heatsink and fan on it. Remove the heatsink, unclip the CPU and put a new one in :)

Just make sure you ground yourself before ever going inside your case, static electricity can damage componenets.

Changing CPU's should take about 15 minutes.

just make sure your motherboard supports the new cpu. it's almost as easy as adding ram.

definitely ground yourself to the chassis before touching the chip. if you don't have a grounding strap, at least keep one hand touching the metal part of the chassis at all times until the chip is connected. avoid touching the pins as well.

As Tower said.. it is fairly simple. But I would check out your options before spending money on just a CPU. if its using a 400mhz right now it probably is pretty old. Meaning you can't really ramp up the CPU speed that much.

Not only that, but just upgrading the CPU alone won't make a great deal of difference because you still have slow and old ram, motherboard, etc. You will gain a little bit, but I would see what the cost/performance ratio would be between just a new CPU or maybe a motherboard/cpu/ram combo.

just my two cents.

It's easy inserting the proc in the CPU socket. The difficult part is installing the Heatsink/Fan.

When I upgraded my old AMD to an XP 2100+, the stock heatsink/fan was very hard to install (however, some heatsinks/fans are easy to install). I'm a particularly careful person when doing things, however, this time, I had to return my motherboard because I damaged it while installing the heatsink.

Finally, I was able to install the heatsink/fan after placing a couple layers of masking tape on the motherboard, and placing some cloth felt on the end of the screwdriver.

:o

My Computer was originally an IBM Aptiva with a pentium 2.


My father upgraded it with new memory, an extra harddrive, motherboard, and AMD processor. Looking for the cheapest components possible, that's what he came up with.


Windows XP runs fine with what I have. But games, oh my, games are slow as ****. I tried playing Civilization III on my PC, whew.


Right now my P3 laptop runs faster than than my PC at playing games.