# How To Swap your Desktop CPU: A simple guide for all



## Maverick Wolfe (Jan 16, 2014)

*Hello everybody, For those of you that have read my posts thank you for doing so, I have been on the forum a while now and I really love it here. My name is Maverick, and I am posting a guide today for everybody so they may understand and know how to in general replace their CPU, this guide may also be used for laptops but I highly recommend you look online for a disassembly guide for a laptop if you even dare attempt to do it with one. I am a professional and an enthusiast and have been doing this for many years, Please enjoy my guide.

List of tools you will need:

1.PH1 Screwdriver of any sort you may use an electric screwdriver, but a ratcheting one or socket ratchet is best.

2. Your hands--And obvious one but very important. 

3. Sterile Nitrate Gloves for your hands--This is so when you are "installing" your thermal paste you do not get any on your hands as most pastes stain or are hard to get off.

4. Static Wrist strap(WARNING: DO NOT DO THIS WITHOUT ONE UNLESS YOU ARE AT A BENCH WITH GROUNDING OR KNOW HOW TO HANDLE PARTS WITHOUT THE RISK OF ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE!)

5. Needle Nose pliers---These come in handy for grabbing screws if they fall into a place you can't reach with your fingers and are simple as well as not too expensive, It is best to have a set of Curved and Straight needle nose on hand.

6.90% rubbing alcohol, Cotton balls, Cotton Swabs and Cosmetic pads. Cosmetic pads work great because they are also cotton and leave less of a mess than cotton Swabs/Balls, the swabs help you for extremely tight spaces such as gently cleaning accidental overage beyond the surface of the CPU of paste. AS5 Cleaner is also an alternative to using alcohol but the 90% is cheaper in the long run.

7. A sectioned tray or a set of bowls to place screws in so you don't loose them.

8. Flashlight or Daylight lit Lamp--You may need or want these because dropping screws can and will happen regardless of magnetic tips or not, Looking for and finding any screws dropped especially in your case is critical and sometimes cases have odd places screws end up and you just don't see them again until you finally hear them rolling around.

Note:I will add more to this section of the guide if I think of anything more or if others contribute to this article. Also using a Magnetic Tip screwdriver will help but NEVER use an overly magnetic screwdriver or bit as you can damage your components.
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Choosing a processor:

First you need to know what type of socket you have on your motherboard and what brand of CPU you are using AMD and Intel are the major CPU makers out there. Finding this out will determine if you are able to even upgrade just the CPU or need to get a new Motherboard.
The Ram standard is DDR3 now and has been since late 2010 early 2011, so you shouldn't unless you have a computer that's been built during that time frame with a DDR2 motherboard have need of replacing your ram. This is all critical in knowing what you will need to do to prepare for your new CPU. (You may also need to upgrade your Power supply-More on this later.)There is a tool out there called CPU-Z http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html that will help you discover exactly what you need to know if you do not know about what type of ram you have or even CPU type/Make as well as Socket type for the CPU.
Second you may need to look at other components as I mentioned, particularly the Power Supply of your computer, It is very critical the new CPU have plenty of juice to pull from the power supply so If you need to buy a new power supply do so.(I will be posting a guide post in this thread Separately on Power supplies but will touch on basics as well here.) I highly recommend at least an 850 watt Power supply with a minimum of 80-90 amps on a single or across 2+ rails for any upgrade or any desktop computer because of component wattage requirements.
Thirdly Go shopping for a new CPU once you have determined exactly what you need and buy the needed components that will go with your upgrade. I highly recommend Newegg for shopping for good components. I have had very few problems with them and when I have they eventually straightened things out or made them right in some way.

I will be using my own shopping experience as well as pictures from my personal upgrade today to help you with the steps needed to install a CPU within your motherboard. Please note that I buy and use AMD CPU's and Motherboards for my personal builds. I also trust and prefer AMD CPU's over Intel. Intel also uses a different socket install than AMD. But this guide applies in general to BOTH types of CPU's the biggest difference is just how the Retention mechanism works for the two different brands.

Shopping:
I use Newegg, I also use other resources on top of Newegg, but I generally know exactly what I want before I buy it. Do not just go out, purchase a CPU and expect to be able to drop it into your computer and think it's an upgrade when it might not be always look at specifications and comparisons of what you are looking at versus what you actually do have. If you are not careful you may end up doing what I refer to as a Sidegrade where it's not quite a step up but a step in the direction you want to go. If you can help it please don't do that. An example of a sidegrade would be to go just one model above the current CPU you have such as going from an AMD Phenom II 940 to an AMD phenom II 960, both are quad core both have the same specs except the frequency is actually slightly higher, this will work, however if you want a big boost and expect a big boost this is a definite do not do. Upgrade would be like I am doing, I am going from a Phenom II 3.2GHZ 1090T Quad Core Thuban to an FX8350 8core 4.0Ghz (4.2Ghz Turbo) Processor(CPU) which is based off of bulldozer and piledriver architechtures this particular processor I am upgrading to is a Vishera, previous code was Zambezi. My upgrade will be a HUGE jump for me thus it is a major upgrade. Always go to reliable sources for reviews of CPU's and look for comparison sites, they do have them out there and they are awesome. I went right to the CPU section of newegg, eliminated all other CPU's from the view except for Vishera CPU's and picked out the 8350, I could have gotten the newer 9x series processor but I chose not to as it would have exceded my Thermal Capacity for my Heatsink and I want to be able to use my Current heatsink. These things are all factors when considering an upgrade. I always tell people to consider buying an aftermarket CPU HSF instead of using the stock cooler, the performance difference is always in general much better than the stock CPU Cooler. Which gracefully brings me into my next topic.

CPU HeatSink Fans or HSF's:

This is a very important thing to consider with your purchase, a stock HSF will work for you until you can spare the extra cash to upgrade your stock Heatsink. I always remove the stock thermal compound from a brand new CPU HSF unless I don't have or could not buy a tube of thermal compound. Here is a list of current highly used compounds for your HSF and processor these are in no particular order:

1.Arctic Silver 5(AS5)
2.Zalman STG-2 and STG-1
3.Diamond based compounds such as Antec Diamond 7
These choices make up the core of what your upgrade will do for you in terms of performance with heat dissipation. This is also a key thing when shopping for a new CPU is to keep in mind the Thermal Displacement Power or TDP within the means of your cooling solution. I know for a fact that some will argue that paste doesn't affect performance but it can if applied incorrectly, or if your HSF is inadequate for the job. HEAT will bog down your processor, the cooler it stays the better your performance will be. These are the main reasons for keeping this in mind when buying that shiny new processor.

Note: you may wish to buy a brand new Case for your computer if you do not have enough cooling or even suspect you may not have enough. I personally Prefer and Recommend CoolerMaster HAF series Cases.

Okay, So you finally bit the bullet and bought that processor, chose which one you want and are now getting ready to install it into your machine. If you had to purchase a new motherboard please follow the installation guide for the board, unless you have an aftermarket heatsink that goes onto the board instead of using the stock heatsink retention system. (I buy and prefer MSI boards for their Military certifications.) If you had to buy a new board and Ram too Congratulations on your new purchases. Below I will provide pictures of a stock AMD board with Stock retention Mechanisms for the Heatsink, and pictures of my motherboard without the stock mechanisms. I will have to remove my board because of my Heatsink and the way it is designed. Let me know if you folks want a Full aftermarket install guide on how to install an aftermarket heatsink. Some aftermarkets simply use the stock retention brackets others Bolt on like mine.

Get all of your tools and such from the list above together the day of your shipment arrival and place them in one particular spot so that everything is ready to go and so that you aren't scrambling to get what you need together. Once your shipment gets to you, if it is below 40F do not install anything for at least an hour after unpacking. let everything warm up so that no condensation builds when you go to install and fire up the components.
{More to Follow in this same thread will add pictures and all of the rest of the steps}
*


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## Maverick Wolfe (Jan 16, 2014)

*:furious:Apparently my first post bugged because I can not edit the bloody thing.:furious: I originally intended on just editing my first post and continuing everything.:furious: :notworthy:I have written Review articles in the past on other forums**.**:notworthy:** So having a :furious::furiousost lock:furious::furious: on me is something new I have not seen.
** I have a housemate and friend who helped me with the pictures and such, He will be finishing the edits on the photos for me today, we are both photographers but he has an awesome 12MP DSLR so we used that and of course I needed to be showing things so having his help was paramount. Our photo shoot took about 4 hours and the actual dis-assembly and re-assembly of my machine took about 45 minutes in total without all of the really awesome show you folks will be seeing. all in all we took over 100 photos, so this will be very comprehensive and picture related. To fix the issue I will simply copy and paste parts of my original post into a new post below this.
*


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## Maverick Wolfe (Jan 16, 2014)

little bit of a bump the production of the pictures is taking longer than anticipated, but I will get the full guide with pictures posted up immediately after I get my post production pictures. Sorry about this delay.


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## nobrainer612 (Feb 23, 2014)

Thanks for the tutorial. I have opened up a few laptops before, and every time I forgot the location of some screws.


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

Maverick Wolfe said:


> *:furious:Apparently my first post bugged because I can not edit the bloody thing.:furious: I originally intended on just editing my first post and continuing everything.:furious: :notworthy:I have written Review articles in the past on other forums**.**:notworthy:** So having a :furious::furiousost lock:furious::furious: on me is something new I have not seen.
> ** I have a housemate and friend who helped me with the pictures and such, He will be finishing the edits on the photos for me today, we are both photographers but he has an awesome 12MP DSLR so we used that and of course I needed to be showing things so having his help was paramount. Our photo shoot took about 4 hours and the actual dis-assembly and re-assembly of my machine took about 45 minutes in total without all of the really awesome show you folks will be seeing. all in all we took over 100 photos, so this will be very comprehensive and picture related. To fix the issue I will simply copy and paste parts of my original post into a new post below this.
> *


The forum has a 30 minute time limit for editing.


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## Dave Sal (Dec 20, 2012)

I look forward to this thread with pics and recommendations, as I am planning on upgrading my Alienware pc, circa 2005 with an AMD processor and a socket 939 motherboard, to a quad core processor and a modern motherboard . I'm way overdue for an upgrade and my computer is running like molasses with stuttering of audio and occasionally freezing up. I plan on getting this done before Microsoft abandons Win XP in April. Keep the updates coming!


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## Maverick Wolfe (Jan 16, 2014)

*My Housemate's laptop crashed due to a graphics card problem. He has it back up and hopefully I will be Getting the pictures before the beginning of the month.*


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## Maverick Wolfe (Jan 16, 2014)

I am back and I finally have the pictures, I have moved across town but my friend got me the pictures back. All of the pictures will get uploaded and linked to with Steps and descriptions. I'm rather excited as I will now be able to Concentrate more on the good things in life rather than be stuck in just a simple 8'x10' Bedroom to do my work in.  Lots of Guides and Mods will be Forthcoming in the future


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## Dave Sal (Dec 20, 2012)

Well, I didn't have time to wait for your upcoming pics and tutorial so I went ahead and purchased the individual computer components myself, after doing much research, and my son and I put it together on the kitchen table in a few hours. I am now running Windows 7 64 bit with an Intel I5-4570 3.2Ghz quad core CPU on a Gigabyte GA-H87M-D3H motherboard with an Intel 530 series 120GB solid state hard drive, Corsair Vengeance 4 GB ddr3-1600 ram, a Lite-on DVD burner, Corsair 430 watt power supply and a CoolerMaster case. Even with the stock CPU cooler the processor runs around 98 degrees Fahrenheit almost all the time. I'm glad I didn't bother getting an aftermarket cooler like I had planned. I recommend PCpartspicker.com, which checks to make sure that there are no compatibility issues between components. This new PC is FAST! :thumbsup:


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## JP1756 (Apr 8, 2014)

Dave Sal said:


> Well, I didn't have time to wait for your upcoming pics and tutorial so I went ahead and purchased the individual computer components myself, after doing much research, and my son and I put it together on the kitchen table in a few hours. I am now running Windows 7 64 bit with an Intel I5-4570 3.2Ghz quad core CPU on a Gigabyte GA-H87M-D3H motherboard with an Intel 530 series 120GB solid state hard drive, Corsair Vengeance 4 GB ddr3-1600 ram, a Lite-on DVD burner, Corsair 430 watt power supply and a CoolerMaster case. Even with the stock CPU cooler the processor runs around 98 degrees Fahrenheit almost all the time. I'm glad I didn't bother getting an aftermarket cooler like I had planned. I recommend PCpartspicker.com, which checks to make sure that there are no compatibility issues between components. This new PC is FAST! :thumbsup:


Or you could just do what I've done with my i5-4670K and bought a $30 aftermarket cooler. Even when gaming, my CPU doesn't exceed 82 degrees fahrenheit. And I've been playing pretty intensive games lately..


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## Dave Sal (Dec 20, 2012)

Man am I glad I didn't wait for Maverick and his pictures. Looks like he was all talk and nothing came of it.


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