upgrading CPU ?

[DBest]

Hey everyone.

I bought myself a processor for upgrading my pc.
i currently have 2.4GHz P4 socket 478
i got hold of a 3.0GHz P4 socket 478 with HT

my question is, can i just put the new one in ? will windows go ballistic since it detects a change in cpu ? . (btw, the motherboard is fully compatible with the new cpu)

and... i have another 2.4GHz p4 cpu that dont seem to work. anything i should try before tossing it in the bin

cheers ;)

[Limp_Trizkit]

Well, you'll want to check the maximum front side bus speed of the motherboard you're looking at putting that 3.0GHz chip into. If it doesn't support a 533MHz bus, your chip will be sorely underclocked. (I should know, I have a P4 @ 2.8 I'm trying to find a new non-RDRAM-eating home for, and a 400MHz board makes it clock in at 2.1GHz, a useless upgrade over the 2.0GHz-housing boards I've been testing it in.)

Windows may or may not go ballistic, it really depends. I've swapped CPUs from the same line (different speeds) and Windows wasn't any the wiser, at least as far as activation goes; I would back everything up to be safe, though, because you never know when something will go wrong.

And regarding that spare - what all have you done so far to verify that it works/doesn't work? (And might I suggest that if it doesn't, you make a keychain (http://steveno.wordpress.com/2005/12/28/my-processor-key-chain/) out of it.)

[DBest]

Hey there LT,

Ya, my motherboard can fully support the 3GHz chip. it has 800Mhz FSB etc. My main concern is if windows freaks out.

with that spare 2.4Ghz, i have tried it in 2 different working motherboards but fails to start up. so i should assume its dead.

[Limp_Trizkit]

That 2.4GHz is probably keychain material then.

Windows freaking out is really hit-or-miss. Like I said, sometimes it'll panic, but on the other hand I've also swapped several machines such that afterwards Windows didn't really care. Chances are you'll be fine; at worst, you might need to re-activate.

[DBest]

I see. thanks for the help.