Topic: HOW HARD TO UPGRADE CPU?

[jmz93]

Hi folks.

How hard/easy is it to upgrade to a faster CPU in the same brand/family?

I'm not afraid of opening the case to say, install an optical drive or PCIE card, but haven't upgraded a CPU before.

The machine is exclusively for DAW applications.  I'm currently running:

Current CPU: AMD Phenom II 965 quad-core 3.4GHZ
Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3 Rev 1.xx
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 1902 02/17/2011

and want to upgrade to the fastest AMD Phenom II, which looks like the Phenom II 1100T (black edition), with six cores.

Other system specs (not sure what is relevant here):
Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit.
Drives:
System: INTEL SSDSA2M120G2GC (solidstate drive)
Audio drive (64k clusters): WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 [Hard drive] (1000.20 GB)
RAM: 16GB (DDR3)
I'm guessing it is 1,333MHZ speed ram, because I just ran "winsat mem" at the command prompt, and got a speed of 15397.60 MB/s

Is it just a matter of unplug one, plug in the new one, go into bios and select the new CPU from a menu?

Thanks for any tips/pointers.

Chris

P.S. Usually I'm running Cakewalk Sonar, which I understand has been heavily optimized for the latest Intel chips. But, the top I7 chips are substantially more money (which I don't have) and would probably require a motherboard replacement too. I don't want to go through all that; i.e. I want to get the most performance from the machine I have, and there seems little left to max out.

[mattmiller]

I'm not familiar with AMD processors, so somebody else will have to help you with any specifics.  But I'm sure your motherboard is compatible with only certain CPUs.  Look at your motherboard specs and see what is compatible.  As far as the physical installation, (at least with Intel CPUs) it's a matter of:

removing the heatsink (carefully)
removing the old processor
cleaning the remnants of the old thermal compound off of the old heatsink (xylene works great for this, rubbing alcohol is also good, apply using a coffee filter or anything that is lint-free)
install new processor
apply thermal compound (Arctic Silver is the name brand you want to look for; the AS website will have instructions on how much (little) to apply and how to apply it to your CPU depending on where the cores are
reinstall heatsink

In most cases, the system should boot up, perhaps just with a message notifying you that it has detected a new CPU and asking you to confirm to continue.  You might not need to intervene any more than that.

[Fried Chicken Boy]

As Matt detailed, it's pretty straightforward.  The only additional thing I would strongly recommend is to wear an anti-static wrist strap and ground it before you open up the computer's case.

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

That is pretty nice setup. I'm not sure you'd see an enormous difference by upgrading to 6 cores.

If you're itching to drop some $$ into your system, I would consider getting an SSD drive for your OS/programs. Best upgrade I've ever made. Much faster bootup times and program launch times. (we're talking 10x as fast as a regular drive)

[rastasean]

What do you plan on doing with the quad core? That's the processor that I've had my eye on for a little while now.

[Gordon]

That is pretty nice setup. I'm not sure you'd see an enormous difference by upgrading to 6 cores.

If you're itching to drop some $$ into your system, I would consider getting an SSD drive for your OS/programs. Best upgrade I've ever made. Much faster bootup times and program launch times. (we're talking 10x as fast as a regular drive)

Drives:
System: INTEL SSDSA2M120G2GC (solidstate drive)

 

and as said make sure cpu/motherboard are compatible.  for that you need to know what socket type it is.  I would assume socket would be the same but double check and check that 6 core are supported.

[jmz93]

Hi guys. as usual, thanks for all the great replies and info!!

Yep, I can already vouch for the nice load times using a solidstate drive. Silent too! Oh and in keeping that audio-only drive defragged, and formatted with 64K clusters.

Re. CPU:
So, I'll check with Asus just to make sure my board has the right socket etc.
I'm glad this doesn't look too complex.

What am I doing with the old chip if I do indeed upgrade? I don't have any plans for it. PM me.
It's less-than six months old, has been in a well-cooled machine, dry smoke-free environment etc.

If anyone else here does serious DAW work, meaning say, mixing 24-36-track projects with tons of plug-ins, what sort of DPC latency are you seeing on your DAW, when it's just idling at the desktop?

If you're wondering what DPC latency is, check out the free monitoring tool and the PDF explanation at:
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml


For fun, I tried turning off anything network/internet related today, to see if any of that was causing glitches or stealing resources. Honestly, I didn't notice much change/difference in performance. (I turned off Microsoft Security/Firewall, network controller, even a couple USB 3.0 ports not being used). With all that off, I'm seeing DPC latency numbers ranging from 65-120 with the system just sitting at desktop.

I'm not experiencing problems really, just trying to see how far I can push things and optimize everything.

One last question.
I'm currently using on-board video, for two reasons.
1. I'm blind, use text-to-speech software, and usually only turn the screen on if I need a handy sighted person to look at something for me. So, graphics performance was very very low on the priority list. The screen is usually switched off, the mouse getting dusty somewhere behind it.
and

2. I usually run 1024x768 here, since it works best with my screenreading software. That's probably old-fashioned these days.

but, maybe going with on-board video wasn't a great idea, and installing a dedicated video card, although not a seriously expensive one, would free up system resources? Any thoughts guys? I originally thought going AMD with onboard video would mean less heat from a video card, less power consumption, and more room in the case.

Also, currently connecting the screen to the PC via analog. There's a digital connection available too. Does the onboard video chip do less work if it sends digital to the monitor?

[Gordon]

onboard video generally only reserves a small amount of RAM.  I just built my mom a machine (amd as well).  using 4gbs of ram I think it reserved .25 gigs for video.  with your 16gbs ram and limited use of video (so not much CPU dedicated to it) I don't see a reason at all to go with a card.

[jmz93]

thanks Gord. I'm scratching that one off my list.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Don't forget the paste!

[mattmiller]

 

That CPU must have taken about, what, 15 minutes to fry itself?