Current CPU: Core2Duo E6600
New CPU: Core2Quad 9550, 2.83GHz, 45nm, FSB 1333, Socket LGA775, L2 Cache 12MB, PCG 05A
The manual for my motherboard (PDF warning) (page 65 / 14) just gives physical instructions on the lifting of the slot cover, the insertion of the CPU, the placing of the slot cover. Then it gives an instruction to put a fan on it.
I just want to make sure there aren’t other things I need to adjust before popping in the new CPU. I don’t want smoke to start curling up, sparks to fly, the apartment complex’s power to shut down for 12 hours, to deliver an electric shock to some innocent neighbor who is just taking a shower … or even damage equipment.
Or heck, even just not get the full processing capabilities I should get with this supposedly badass CPU!
Am I good to go - just pop it in and then follow the BIOS instructions?
The quads the duos use the same socket. The only issue I would worry about is whether the BIOS on your motherboard has been updated to recognize that new processor. If there’s a BIOS update for your mb, you should install it before the CPU install.
>Then it gives an instruction to put a fan on it.
Did it come with a fan/heatsink? If it didnt you should verify if your old one has enough heat moving power to handle that CPU. I would think you require a new heatsink/fan.
>he apartment complex’s power to shut down for 12 hours, to deliver an electric shock to some innocent neighbor who is just taking a shower … or even damage equipment.
PCs are generally not dangerous. If there is some catastrophic issue most likely the worst damage you would do is a blow a fuse.
Ive never done a duo to a quad upgrade. Im curious as how windows will handle it. Considering you already have a duo in there then your HAL is configured with multi-processor support, so it may just boot up into windows, do some magic in the back-end, reboot, and all four cores will be working.
Flash BIOS. Check.
Double-check heatsink/fan. Check.
Probably won’t kill neighbors. Check.
Windows will hopefully speed up. Check.
By the way, the two most catastrophic things I’ve had occur in my many years as a computer tech (I switched from hardware to software several years ago, which is why I’m not sure about the duo to quad upgrade thingy) were a shock, and a smoke plume. The shock was when I was pressing the “On” button on a computer with the case removed. With the case removed, there was no protection to the finger when you depress the button, and the entire current went into my finger. It only stung for a few days.
I wasn’t joking about the computer smoking thing in my OP though - a boss once told me to put a POST card into a computer to see where it’s hanging. I had never seen a PCI POST card before, only ISA. This had the backplate removed. Sure enough, a PCI card with no backplate will fit into an ISA slot nice and snug. Power it up, and smoke IMMEDIATELY came from the mobo. Fried the card and the mobo.
So … just want to make sure I don’t blow up my new CPU because of a missed jumper or something. I certainly won’t insert it backwards
Even if it works, depending on your usage you may not see a performance gain. Apps written to handle four cores will fly on that thing, but apps that arent natively multi-threading might perform the same. Its only recently that some games have started really using multicore. Some games might do physics in one, water reflection in the other, sound in another, etc. Old games might just stick to one core.
Stuff like your windows boot up times and typical tasks may not benefit, but if youre a chronic multitasker you’ll get some performance boost as all those processes are spread over 4 cores instead of two.
Lets us know how it goes. Ive been thinking of doing the same upgrade. Except I have a 1.86ghz c2d thats overclocked to 2.45ghz.
I have never overclocked. Well, I’ve had elite friends come over who have overclocked my systems in the past (before my current e6600) and it’s caused some apps to bail unexpectedly, so we undid it and the apps worked fine. Never went back to OC.
The apps I need the most speed in are:
Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Pro 9.0
Supreme Commander/Forged Alliance
Techsmith Camtasia
I notice in FA online that people with quad cores never slow the game down, but people with single and dual core often do. So, I hope the extra processors help there. Even if not, I’m taking a slight bump in MHz (2.4 to 2.83).
In Movie Studio I edit 1080i movies. In my current setup, the preview is kind of chunky, and the render time is lonnnngggg. I hope that the preview smooths out and lets me see edits as I make them (as opposed to waiting a second or three), and that the render times come down considerably.
In Camtasia I edit and produce video tutorials.
Boot time and whatnot would be nice.
Any idea how JIT programs work with a quad core? Things like Flash, Silverlight, and other programs that run applets on your local PC. They slow down browsing (and of course they make the browsing experience better), but I’m wondering if quad core will make the browser experience faster?
Actually, our Horselover may know a bit about this - the BIOS update I’m getting has:
Improved Core 2 Quad 1333 stability and overclocking
Enhancements for Quad-Core CPUs
Additional 1333 FSB Support for future CPUs
Additional support for 1333MHz CPU’s
Soooo … new CPU and video card are going well. Gaming is pretty, and produced videos render quick. It’s nice to see 97-100% usage on 4 CPUs instead of 98-100% usage on 2 CPUs.
It’s also easier to skip through video in Vegas. CPU temp is about 52-55, ambient about 45.
Vista scores are all 5.9 - they seem to top out there, heh.
