What do I need to do and know before upgrading my CPU?

Question

I'm talking about upgrading my CPU

I have an Acer Aspire T300 with an Intel Celeron 2.4GHz processor and I want to upgrade to a Pentium 4 processor.

Answer 1

Know what cpu your motherboard will support is the #1 consideration. Go to the manufacturers website, and look at the CPU specs. You have to know what socket you have.

Answer 2

First you should figure out what type of motherboard your computer has, and the exact specs that your current processor has. Say for instance you have a Pentium 4, and want to upgrade to a faster one. Intel made no less that 30 different Pentium 4s, some on different sockets (478 and LGA-775) Different cores may or may not be supported by the BIOS also, take for instance the common Northwood and Prescott cores. This can all be determined by what the motherboard supports. Find a MoBo manual online, or if you have an OEM system, call the manufacturer if you have to.

Good Luck
Zach

Answer 3

If you mean upgrading an existing (and older) system, most likely you will need to upgrade both the motherboard and processor. If it's in the matter of years, you certainly, without question, will have to. Almost all upgrades are motherboard/processor upgrades.

Other than that, you need to know if your CURRENT memory will be supported on the new motherboard - if not, you'll need to purchase new memory. Most of the new motherboard/processor combos will take DDR or DDR2 memory, while most of the older memory is SDRAM. If you were to look at the memory, SDRAM has 2 "slots" in the memory stick. DDR has 1. If you're looking to upgrade, you probably don't have DDR2 unless you bought it very recently (as new).

You will also need to know if your current power supply supports the new motherboard, if it has the 4 pin 12v connector. If not, you may also need to purchase a new power supply.

All other components should work with a new upgrade. You have no need to worry about PCI cards, DVD/CD drives and usually not a case -- though if you have a "mini" or ultra-small case, that will be a concern. (It's called ATX form-factor case, or ATX)

EDIT: I'm editing because you edited your question. Yes - You will need both a new motherboard and processor. Your next step should be to discover what type of memory you have in your system. You can do this by referring to manuals, or if you are inclined, you can look for yourself (per above). If you have DDR - you need not worry. If you have SDRAM - It will have to be replaced.

As for the power connector on the power supply, you can look for yourself if you want. It'll be a 4 pin square connector coming out of the power supply. That will be required. It's usually yellow-black corded. If not, the price on those are around 39-59$USD

Answer 4

If you want to remove the single chip, and not the board here's what you need to do. You need to find a manual for the operating specifications for the mother board. It should tell you what clock speeds that the board can be set to, and from that you can figure out what is be best processor to get to replace it.