Do I need a new power supply with the correct connection, or can I get an adapter and not fry anything? [more inside]
posted by ZaneJ. on Jul 30, 2009 - 4 answers

I broke my PC's motherboard :( Please help me pick a replacement and guide me through the installation process... [more inside]
posted by mullacc on Jul 3, 2009 - 4 answers

I'm in the middle of grabbing all the parts to build a new PC for myself. I have pretty much all the components, but I can't figure out which kind of memory I need to go with an Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16GHz) and ASUS P5Q-E. I've looked at both Intel's and Asus's websites, and of course the Google to no avail. Details on what I'm looking for inside. [more inside]
posted by arcolz on Jun 22, 2009 - 8 answers

I'm trying to find an app that will monitor and record CPU usage *by Process* [more inside]
posted by AltReality on Jun 2, 2009 - 14 answers

Will a dual-1366 (Nehalem, Xeon 5xxx) motherboard work with a single CPU? [more inside]
posted by Skorgu on May 18, 2009 - 4 answers

Help me understand Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Wikipedia has a confusing chart that seems to indicate matching processor to the RAM is more important than the actual specs of the RAM or processor. [more inside]
posted by brenton on Apr 8, 2009 - 15 answers

I would love a huge poster of something like this. But I can't find anything like it on sites that sell posters. Does anyone know where I could find very high resolution images of die cores?
posted by SouthCNorthNY on Mar 25, 2009 - 10 answers

I'm installing a new CPU and motherboard into my friend's case. If I were installing it for myself, I'd slap the thing together and see if it worked but since the computer does not belong to me I'm going to try to be more careful. The CPU is a boxed Intel E5200 and the motherboard is a cheap ASUS. As I understand it the E5200 is going to have pre-applied thermal interface material, a.k.a. thermal grease, on it and all I'll have to do is pull the tape off and put the heat sink on. Right? Also, if anyone has any tricks to gracefully seating the heat sink I'd love to hear them.
posted by rdr on Mar 24, 2009 - 3 answers

I've got a Socket 479 CPU with a fan that is making a lot of noise. Will a Socket 478 CPU fan/heatsink work on a Socket 479 CPU? [more inside]
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Jan 10, 2009 - 7 answers

Is there any way to slow down the CPU in my Dell Latitude D830 running Windows XP Pro? [more inside]
posted by king walnut on Dec 7, 2008 - 11 answers

How do computer speeds vary with different core counts? Is a twin core 3000 as fast as a single core 6000? What about a quad core? Is there any point in multicore chips for home use and gaming, or does this need fancy threaded software to take advantage of it?
posted by talitha_kumi on Jul 31, 2008 - 11 answers

Games PC CPUFilter: Is it worth upgrading from an Athlon64 3500+ Venice to a 4000+ San Diego? (plus a bonus question on 3GB RAM in XP and dual channel memory). [more inside]
posted by boosh on May 30, 2008 - 12 answers

I want my computer to work exactly the same, but faster. I can't add any more RAM. Motherboard/CPU upgrade? [more inside]
posted by grrarrgh00 on Mar 2, 2008 - 16 answers

Quad Xeon vs. Core2 Quad? [more inside]
posted by Asef Jil on Feb 12, 2008 - 14 answers

How can I cool my computer down without replacing the broken fans? [more inside]
posted by wondermouse on Feb 2, 2008 - 24 answers

In a modern CPU, how many individual electrons, approximately, are "let through" in each clock-cycle of, say, an individual transistor or logic gate? [more inside]
posted by Jimbob on Jan 8, 2008 - 7 answers

For a good reason, I need some program, any program that I can leave unattended and will eat up CPU on a windows xp box. Recommendations? [more inside]
posted by vacapinta on Dec 20, 2007 - 7 answers

New computer build, how to decide [more inside]
posted by raildr on Dec 19, 2007 - 7 answers

Why are CPUs not getting faster any more? This plot is some data I scraped from a few sources around the web. I know it's not exhaustive, but I'm looking to pick out long-term and general trends. It's clear to me that processor clock speed has plateau'ed around roughly 4 GHz. Why? [more inside]
posted by sergeant sandwich on Dec 9, 2007 - 30 answers

How can I identify which Xeon processor I have in my HP XW8200? [more inside]
posted by StickyCarpet on Dec 5, 2007 - 4 answers

I have a Dell Inspiron 531 desktop that came with an Athlon X2 64 5600+ processor. I have heard that the last in this line of processors (and the last socket AM2) will be the 6400 - did I lock myself into a dead-end CPU upgrade path? Or will I be able to upgrade in the future to AMD's next line of processors, whatever it is?
posted by nervestaple on Oct 23, 2007 - 3 answers

Will I fry this chip? [more inside]
posted by zackola on Oct 18, 2007 - 10 answers

Can you help my ACER L100 stop over-heating? (Please say yes, I'm trying to write my thesis!) [more inside]
posted by mateuslee on Sep 1, 2007 - 14 answers

After a messy processor installation.... How can I remove spilt thermal paste from my best trousers?
posted by rumbletum on Aug 28, 2007 - 2 answers

Upgrading AMD Processor for 939 motherboard. Athlon 64 X2 4200+ or Opteron 170? [more inside]
posted by zaphod on Aug 21, 2007 - 11 answers

Overheating PC problems - is my sensor lying? [more inside]
posted by twine42 on Jun 18, 2007 - 4 answers

How is physical memory recognized by a 32-bit OS running on 64-bit hardware? [more inside]
posted by Caviar on May 14, 2007 - 8 answers

Help me find the right CPU stand. [more inside]
posted by Sara Anne on Feb 21, 2007 - 4 answers

Laptopfilter: I'm curious about how CPU usage, noise level, and being able to go to standby/hibernation and shut down properly are related. For a long time (over a year, I think) my HP laptop(running Windows XP) was at 100% CPU usage all the time, ran loudly, and wouldn't go to standby or hibernation or shut down all the way. There's a lot [more inside]
posted by sleeplessunderwater on Jan 31, 2007 - 11 answers

Here's a weird error that I only get when I'm in My Documents or Windows Explorer (so it seems)... [more inside]
posted by moonbird on Jan 28, 2007 - 11 answers

Shopping for a cheap used laptop: What are the minimum specs I should be looking for with respect to CPU, RAM, HD? I'm planning to use WinXP (maybe I'll settle for 2K), Open Office, and FireFox (including some AJAX-heavy web sites such as gmail, Google Docs, del.icio.us), with a wifi card. And not much else. I want to avoid "I'm always waiting for this stupid slow computer!" but not spend much more than the minimum needed to avoid that.
posted by Leonard of Vince on Dec 18, 2006 - 24 answers

Where can i find benchmarks between AMD Turion 64 X2 and the Intel Core duo / Core 2 duo? [more inside]
posted by EvilKenji on Aug 20, 2006 - 2 answers

I'm going to swap the motherboard and CPU on my computer, please help me not screw it up! [more inside]
posted by pinespree on May 29, 2006 - 17 answers

Upgrade filter: I'm looking for a new motherboard/CPU combo and a SATA-RAID "solution" I want to spend $300-$400. What hardware should I get? [more inside]
posted by Paris Hilton on Mar 16, 2006 - 24 answers

Why does Windows Media Player hork up all my CPU these days? When it didn't used to? [more inside]
posted by sidereal on Mar 1, 2006 - 7 answers

Winxp laptop: Blue screen, unrequested reboots and mysterious problems. Please help me connect the dots and figure out what's wrong with my computer. [more inside]
posted by miniape on Feb 5, 2006 - 6 answers

I am missing two pins from my Pentium 4 3.06 (478)CPU... Can it still work? [more inside]
posted by curiousleo on Jan 28, 2006 - 20 answers

My computer is making a funny noise and overheating. Can you help me fix it? [more inside]
posted by MrZero on Dec 29, 2005 - 17 answers

How can I de-epoxy my P4 from its heatsink? [more inside]
posted by ChasFile on Dec 2, 2005 - 7 answers

Help me upgrade my work computer to make it run better. [more inside]
posted by ikkyu2 on Oct 25, 2005 - 31 answers

I have been noticing a problem with my work laptop which is running XP SP2. If left up and running all night, then on most mornings i find out it is running very sluggishly with 100% CPU utilization (from the graph). First I thought may be it is firefox with its large number of open tabs. But I am not so sure anymore. killing firefox does not help. Also when I look at the CPU column in task manager i cant quite figure out what is causing that 100% utilization. None of high numbers on the CPU column look suspect. Obviously I am missing something here. One thing I am not 100% sure, and there may be something to it, is that I may have seen this problem more often when I am using wifi instead of wired LAN at home. But I need to verify this. After this happens I usually have to reboot the machine after bringing it back to work. I am able to suspend the machine and bring it to work and plug it into the work LAN. But unless I reboot it it really runs slow. Just logging out does not help. [more inside]
posted by flyby22 on Oct 19, 2005 - 18 answers

I am updating an old server actually on dual xeon 450M/512k processor to xeon 500/2Mb. I know the motherboard support the new cpu's but do i need to change the vrm or will the old one do just fine ?
posted by selfsck on Aug 25, 2005 - 1 answer

Owing to bad/absent ventilation design on the part of hold everything, I now have a drawer with an interior temperature pretty constantly in the 90 degree F (32 C) range. How should I best take advantage of this? [more inside]
posted by ikkyu2 on Jul 31, 2005 - 17 answers

[DeadComputerFilter] I just moved, and as is customary, my PC moved in a separate trip, re-boxed in its original container, and generally cared for better than even myself. Now, I plug it in, turn it on... well, almost. It just doesn't come on anymore. [more inside]
posted by ChrisR on Jul 9, 2005 - 6 answers

Is it a bad idea to run the Folding@Home client on a laptop? [more inside]
posted by knave on Apr 19, 2005 - 11 answers

While in the middle of doing my taxes the other day, my monitor went to displaying a weird character over and over over the entire screen. The computer wouldn't respond at all, so I shut it off manually via the power switch on the back. Since then, whenever I've attempted to start it up, the fans come on, the hard drive clicks a couple times, as usual, and then nothing. The fans keep whirring but there's no beep, no usual startup process, and nothing ever gets displayed to the monitor. [more inside]
posted by DyRE on Apr 16, 2005 - 3 answers

Why do certain Windows applications eat up 100% of my CPU processing capacity, and what can I do about it? This just happened when I started up Zelda Classic, and happens with my SNES emulator. Additional clues and oddities under the fold, Cartalk-style. [more inside]
posted by Saucy Intruder on Mar 22, 2005 - 14 answers

Are AMD CPUs prone to overheating? [more inside]
posted by knave on Jan 30, 2005 - 26 answers

The Windows task manager tells me the CPU and memory usage by each process. Is there a utility that can tell me which of the running processes are responsible for current HDD activity?
posted by Krrrlson on Aug 19, 2004 - 5 answers

Is there software available for Micorosft Windows that slows CPU cycles, emulating a slower machine? For example, if I wanted to test software on a Pentium II 200, emulated on a faster machine.
posted by the fire you left me on Mar 25, 2004 - 5 answers