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Is it possible to switch my Mom's Celeron to a Pentium? If so, is it easy enough for a person that doesn't know a lot about the hardware of computers to do it for the first time and basically not completely kill the computer? Thanks in advance.

-Joe

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You should not have a problem doing it. You just need to make sure the Pentium you choose is compatible. If you can give us the specs of the motherboard or computer model, we should be able to help guide you.

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Haha, exactly. I guess it would be better to break a computer that isn't our main one, eh?

-Joe

That'd be good. Hahah :thumbsup:

Just an FWIW, the first time I swapped out a CPU the computer wouldn't boot again. I was sure Id killed it. Thankfully my neighboor was smarter than I. He determined it was bad ram. Bad time for a coincidence such as that.

Although its not hard to do, its also very easy to screw up. I was straightening pins out on a CPU just a few weeks ago because I had gotten too complacent with what I was doing and screwed it up.

Wisdom comes from knowledge, which comes from errors. Be carefull with that in which you can't afford to replace :thumbsup:

Edited by Bubba Bob
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Haha, yes. I found an offer on free computers on a place called Freecycle. I might do something like that to practice, and see if I can do it if I get bored with it or something. They may be too outdated by now, though, one being 17 years old and the other from 1998.

-Joe

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I would get one or two and at least play with them. That's how I learned to do things. I now build everything from the ground up myself.

Sometimes the most difficult task, is the task never started, for fear of the task.

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Sometimes the most difficult task, is the task never started, for fear of the task.

Fear of the unknown is my worst enemy. Almost always it is never as bad as I thought it was going to be.

LOL... Right On :thumbsup:

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Is it possible to switch my Mom's Celeron to a Pentium? If so, is it easy enough for a person that doesn't know a lot about the hardware of computers to do it for the first time and basically not completely kill the computer? Thanks in advance.

-Joe

Well it is possible that the chipset and bios on the motherboard only supports Celerons and not Pentiums. This is more common than folks realize; while the processor will fit in the socket it won't be recognized and the chipset cannot set the voltages etc to make it work.

Will it damage the motherboard or new processor? Most likely not since if the chipset does not recognize the processor it will not power it up.

Of course you are probably going to be out the cost of the processor , or face a return and restocking fee at the least.

Remember that for any given processor speed the Pentium family will have a higher bus speed than the corresponding Celeron. If your board does not support the faster speed, no boot.

So you really need to identify the motherboard make and model and look up what processors it supports before you go any further.

Also when you buy the new processor make sure that your heatsink and fan are adequate. The Pentium will generate more heat then a Celeron and may require a larger heatsink and faster fan so you do not fry it.

Then once you have identified what processor it supports and bought the new one you shut down, unplug , and observing proper antistatic precautions remove the old processor. Move the clear cmos jumper to the clear position and/ or remove the cmos bios battery on the motherboard. Put in the new processor, lock it down. If you are reusing the heatsink make sure to properly clean off old thermal paste and apply the proper amount of new thermal paste.

Replace the clear cmos jumper and battery. Close up , plug in and boot to bios. Configure the processor; it may be as simple as clicking "load optimal defaults" or you may have to manually enter the multipliers and clock speeds etc.

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  • 1 year later...

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