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Upgrading CPU


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#1
Eville Dad

Eville Dad

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My son is playing WOW and to improve performance we want to upgrade his CPU.

Currently using:
AMD Phenom 64 9500
Asus M3N78 Pro MOBO
Nvidia GeForce 9800GTX+
320GB Western SATA HDD
750w Power Supply

Upgrading to AMD Phone II Black Edition 550.

Can I simply remove the the old CPU and Heatsink and install the new CPU and Heatsink or do I need to upgrade the BIOS or any other settings in advance to support the new CPU?
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#2
Digerati

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Before replacing the CPU, make sure you have an adequate supply of RAM. You did not say how much is installed but if less than 2Gb, that may be a bottleneck that negates any advantage the new CPU might offer. If you have plenty, then as long as the board supports the new CPU (see here) you don't need to do anything special with the BIOS. It is typically best to boot directly into the BIOS on first boot, make sure all is properly identified, date and time are corrent, then Save and Exit as this will then set any HW changes in the BIOS and boot normally.

Then of course, it is paramount you apply a proper layer of TIM to ensure maximum heat transfer - see TIM.
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#3
Eville Dad

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Thank you for your reply, that is very helpful!
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#4
Eville Dad

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By the way, I have 4M RAM.
I had a problem after installing the new CPU the fans and lights came on but no boot up.
I reinstalled the original CPU and same problem, I think checked all my connections and think my HDD SATA may have been jostled because after plugging it in again it booted up fine, but with the old CPU.
I will get some TIM and try the new CPU next, thanks again!
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