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Upgrade guide to CPU's, what you got to what you can getDec 18 '00 (Updated Jan 19 '01) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line First, find out what you have, then look here for your different options. Remember, knowledge is power.
Introduction Upgrading your computer's CPU is not that hard, just requires a bit of research and a bit of courage to open your computer and look inside. You need to know what you have, in order to determine what is available. The "camps" essentially falls into the following 5 categories: Socket 7/SuperSocket 7, Slot 1, Socket 370, Slot A, Socket A. Both Intel and AMD makes Socket 7. Intel owns Slot 1 and Socket 370. AMD owns Slot A and Socket A. As Athlons and Durons are relatively new, they'll just be briefly discussed. The questions you'll have are about Socket7/SS7, Slot 1, and Socket 370, and we'll go over each and explain your options. Socket 7 / Super Socket 7 All Pentium CPU's use Socket 7. Some advanced K6's use what is known as "SuperSocket 7", which is Socket 7 with PC100 capability, but the pin-out is the same. PC100 means your "memory speed" (front-side bus speed) is 100 Mhz (requires PC100 SDRAM, of course). Slower/cheaper CPU's use PC66 memory. If you have a Pentium, you need to check if it takes MMX CPU's. The difference is in the voltages. Pentium MMX CPU's have a "split voltage" or "dual voltage". Older Pentiums only use one voltage. If your mainboard has only one voltage, then you'll need to get an adaptor in order to use the latest SuperSocket 7 CPU's like the K6-2 or K6-3 series. Even if your mainboard has dual voltage, you may STILL need the adaptor as some of the latest CPU's are beyond what the mainboard was originally designed for. Makers of such adaptors are Powerleap, Kingston, Evergreen, etc. Most of these are standard "drop-in" solutions including the new CPU. Socket 7 CPU's can be easily removed by removing the heatsink (if any) and releasing the lever. They go up to 550 MHz. If you want to go faster than that, you'll need to replace the entire board. Slot 1 / SECC 1 Earliest Celerons, and Pentium II's and III's are Slot 1 CPU's. These look like tiny versions of the PCI slot, and obviously a Socket 7 CPU won't fit a slot 1 slot. Intel later renamed this standard as SECC1. Roughly half of the modern boards are slot 1, as they need to support the Pentium 2's. Some older boards are PC66 only, while later ones are PC100. Intel have many chipsets in this market for the mainboards, the most popular is the 440BX chipset (PC100) and the 440LX (PC66). About the CPU's available... Pentium II's slower than 350 MHz are PC66. 350 MHz and above are PC100. Make sure your board supports such speed before replacing the CPU. For example, it would NOT do to put a 400 Mhz P2 in a 440 LX. It'll probably still run at 66% speed, but that would not be an upgrade at all. Only the earliest Celerons are Slot 1. Intel quickly switched those to PPGA Socket 370, and later FC-PGA Socket 370. We'll discuss those later. All Celerons are PC66. So how do you know how fast you can go up to? First, find the maker of your mainboard, and go to their website and see if they have any BIOS updates. The bios updates should tell you what CPU's the board understands in the latest rev. Second, slot 1 CPUs CAN use Socket 370 CPU's with what is known as a "slocket" (combining slot and socket) adaptor. However, you'll need to check the slocket manufacturer to see what slocket speeds do they support. In general, the PC100 boards (BX chispet based) can go all the way up to Pentium 3's which is over 800 Mhz (PC100 version only), any Pentium 2's (up to 450 Mhz), and any Celeron (with the right Slocket if needed). The PC66 boards should stick to Celerons, and/or consider replacing the mainboard completely. Socket 370 Socket 370 is Intel's low-cost answer to Slot 1. Designed originally for Celerons, Pentium 3's now also come in Socket 370 format as FC-PGA (flip-chip) package. While Slot 1 can use a slocket to use Socket 370 adaptors, there is no adaptor to do the reverse. Still, with the latest P3's in S370 expansion potential is good. P4, unfortunately, will need yet another socket. The later generation of Celerons, the FC-PGA version, is sometimes known as "flip-chip", because the chip itself is actually "backwards". You can also find Pentium 3's in flip-chip format, in either PC100 or PC133 bus speeds. With Socket 370, there are variations as well. The earliest Socket 370 are PPGA Celeron compatible, while later can take both PPGA and FC-PGA Celerons. The difference again is voltage. You CAN get an adaptor that'll allow you to use FC-PGA Celerons on a PPGA-only board from Powerleap, though there's no guarantee it'll work with P3's. The fastest Celeron currently available is 766 MHz. If you have a Socket 370 board, you should be able to use it, though you may need that PPGA-FC-PGA adaptor and maybe a BIOS update. Slot A Slot A is AMD's answer to Intel's Slot 1. It's only used for early (model 1 and model 2) Athlons. You're limited to whatever Slot A cpu's are still available, which is right about 1 GHz. The latest Athlon, at 1.2 Ghz, is Socket A only. There are no adaptors that'll let these boards use Intel CPU's, so you're stuck with AMD CPU's if you go this route. Socket A AMD's version of the Socket 370, this is used for their Duron budget processor. It's also used for their latest and greatest Athlon (model 4) at 1.2 Gigahertz. If you have Socket A and a Duron system, you can upgraded to the latest Duron (which is 800 Mhz). The latest Athlon actually have two models, one that has the original 200 MHz FSB, and a faster one with 266 MHz FSB. The faster one will require new DDR memory (PC1600 and PC2100 respectively), which would need a new mainboard that supports it. The older ones SHOULD be compatible with all Socket A boards. There are no adaptors that'll let these boards use Intel CPU's. You're stuck with AMD CPUs if you go this route. What are my options? You'll need to determine what you have currently, and decide how far you can go with that board by a simple CPU replacement, and if you need an adaptor/slocket, then consider the total cost. If you still use a 486, you should really buy a new system. You can't even FIND upgrade CPU's for those nowadays, and the result is a SLOW Pentium (about Pentium 75, barely enough to run WIN95). For Socket 7/SS7, upgrade to a 500+ Mhz CPU should run the latest and greatest stuff for a while at least, if your existing mainboard is compatible with it. If not, you may as well junk the whole thing and buy/build a new system. A cheap CPU's is under $50 nowadays, and adaptor is like $10-15, though there are also more expensive adaptors that can let your old board use the latest K6-3/550's, and those cost $100 or more. Look at Kingston, Evergreen, and Powerleap for these upgrade CPUs. If you have Slot 1, but PC66 only, you can use slocket for the latest Celerons. Beware though that some have reported problems with NVIDIA and ATI video cards after the upgrade. The 3DFX video cards seem to work fine though. If you have a PC100 Slot 1 mainboard, you have a lot of options. You can use Slot 1 AND MOST Socket 370 CPUs (PC100 or slower) with slocket. A good BX chipset board can go beyond 800 Mhz CPU easy, enough for all the latest games and apps, and ability to use Celerons with adaptor keeps upgrade costs low, allowing you to upgrade to the P3's when the time comes. Good BX-based boards are about $100, and CPU prices depends, from $100-$500 depending on CPU speed. Slocket is another $20-50. Socket 370's are limited to Celerons and FC-PGA P3's. Make sure you have a mainboard that WILL support P3's. If you don't, you'll need the Neo370 adaptor from Powerleap, or even consider getting a new mainboard for the future expansion potential. What if I need MORE than just a CPU upgrade? Then it's time to replace the entire mainboard. If you have an ATX mainboard (look at the power connector from power supply to the board. If it has ONE row of pin, it's AT. Two rows and it's ATX) then it's easy, as almost all new mainboards are ATX. You'll probably need to get new memory too as all the new mainboards use SDRAM, probably PC100 or PC133. Your older PC66 SDRAM or EDO RAM are useless nowadays. You may be able to trade those in for a discount on your new memory at some vendors, though you may want to keep the old system intact as it's easier to sell that way. If you have AT case, you may want to buy a new ATX case, as AT cases won't fit ATX boards, and finding AT boards with modern features is getting very hard. The market just isn't there. A good case is under $100. Most now have slide out mainboard trays, detachable drive cages, and slide-out side panels that makes assembly easy. Look for cases that allows extra fan attachments to keep the inside cool. If you're sure this is the route you want to go, then you should definitely consider all four camps. The Socket A/Duron combo is an excellent value, as a Duron/800 is well under $100 (more like $50), and makes an excellent value rig, though a good Socket 370 board can get you a very fast Celeron/P3 with barely higher prices. If you insist on going the P3 route, then you'll want the KT133 chipset or the Intel 815e chipset, which uses the PC133 memory (yep, speed went up again). These are well tested by now, as they offer all the latest features like AGP4X video bus and UDMA/100 IDE interface. Or you can go the 1.2 GHz Athlon route by getting the PC1600 or PC2100 DDR SDRAM compatible boards... Those are relatively new so no one knows how well they REALLY perform yet. I'd hold off a little on those until more data comes in. P4's require a new chipset and package that is not compatible with any existing standards, so that's a wholesale replacement as well. Initial reports shows that it doesn't really provide that much speed increase over the existing CPU's, so I'd hold off on those. In Conclusion I hope this is of some help to those who are seeking to upgrade their CPU's for more performance.  |
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