Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cpu

Would an adapter work, or do I need a new power supply?

ZaneJ. — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:43:35 -0800

Do I need a new power supply with the correct connection, or can I get an adapter and not fry anything? I'm building a new gaming computer for myself. The motherboard is a DP45SG, from Intel. The power supply is this one here. The motherboard's slot to power to the CPU is a 2x2 connection. The power supply doesn't have a 2x2 connection. It has a plethora of connections to power SATA devices, as well as a 12v 2x4 connection. So, do I need to send back the power supply and get a new one, or can I use an adapter such as this? I've also seen adapters that attach to a SATA power connection and have the 2x2 connection.

This is my first computer I've constructed by myself without friends cohorts lending a significant hand. Any assistance would be grand.

Help me install a new CPU/mobo

mullacc — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:01:15 -0800

I broke my PC's motherboard :( Please help me pick a replacement and guide me through the installation process... Being very clumsy and impatient, I managed to break my motherboard while installing a second hard drive in my desktop PC. Now it doesn't work.

I've never installed a motherboard, but I enjoy fiddling around with this stuff so I'm going to give it a go. While I'm doing it, I figure I might as well upgrade my CPU too. I bought this PC from one of those generic configure-to-order websites, so I'm pretty sure I can just buy some off-the-rack replacements.

Here's what I had:
AMD 64 Athlon X2 4200+
GIGABYTE GA-M55SLI-S4 AM2 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard

Here's what I'm thinking of buying:
Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz
GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard

The Gigabyte website confirms that the E5200 CPU will work with that motherboard, and prices seems good to me. Any comments on my selection?

Here are some of the other components I have that I plan to keep:
2GB of DDR2 800 RAM (4 x 512MB)
COOLER MASTER Praetorian 730 case
420w power supply that says on the box it supports LGA 775 socket
I think an ATI Radeon X300 PCI-E graphics card (or something very similar)
And, of course, other stuff like 2 SATA HDDs, a DVD burner and stuff that probably isn't relevant.

I think all this stuff should work together. Any problems I'm overlooking?

Seems like hardware installation should be pretty straightforward, though perhaps time consuming. Any tips or additional things I may need to acquire? I have the right screwdrivers, but no other PC-specific tools.

Now my next problem: once I get all the hardware in place, what the heck do I do next?

My primary hard drive has Windows 7 RC installed. I still have the installation disk I made, and also the original XP disk that I bought along with the computer. Is it possible to salvage the Win7 installation and the current data on the drive? I have backups of my important files, so it's not a life or death issue. But if I can get away with it, I'd like to keep things as they are.

Thanks!

More difficult than buying a Wii.

arcolz — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:59:39 -0800

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. I'm going to be using this computer for gaming, but I'm building on a budget and I'd rather not spend more than $80 on the memory.

I'd think like to get a 2x2gb kit, because it looks like those give the most bang for my buck. However, I'm clueless when it comes to what speed, cas latency, timing, or voltage I should be looking for. General tips or specific product recommendations would both be great. Links to compatibility lists would also be awesome.

I'm also curious about whether or not it is necessary to flash the bios of the motherboard. I've read that it often improve memory compatibility and fixes bugs and such. Is it really worth the trouble and risk?

CPU History Recording

AltReality — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:49:36 -0800

I'm trying to find an app that will monitor and record CPU usage *by Process* ...I'm finding all kinds of monitoring apps and even some that will record history, but only of the total percentage used, not broken down by process.

Any suggestions?

Will this dual-xeon motherboard boot with a single CPU?

Skorgu — Mon, 18 May 2009 05:31:26 -0800

Will a dual-1366 (Nehalem, Xeon 5xxx) motherboard work with a single CPU? Specifically, a SUPERMICRO MBD-X8DAL-i-O Dual LGA 1366 Intel 5500 motherboard and a single Intel Xeon E5504 CPU.

The second CPU/ram will be loaded in a few months but I need to replace a box pretty soon so I'm bootlegging it.

I know I'll have to populate only the loaded CPU's ram slots, but it ought to work anyway, right?

Real-world microprocessor performance based on specs.

brenton — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:14:20 -0800

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. I'm buying a laptop on the Dell Outlet. But trying to do research for which one to pick has led me to the wikipedia page on Core 2 Duo processors. Several things confuse me.

1. What is the meaning of this "GB/s" unit of measure under the "Matched memory and maximum bandwidth" column? Is this a reliable indicator of generic processing power?

2. For DDR2 RAM, is the chart saying that the processors with only 533 FSB are always faster than the 800mhz processors? It seems so since they have more "GB/s". But that makes no sense! The processors with faster FSB should always be better... right?

3. Is a "Core 2 Duo" most likely better than a "Core Duo" or even a "Pentium Dual Core"? It would be helpful if I could narrow it down to just one processor type.

What should I be looking at when choosing a processor? I had it in my head that Core 2 Duo was the best dual core processor out today. If I choose the Core 2 Duo with the fastest FSB I can find, (assuming a reasonable clock speeed,) is that the way to go?

Looking for CPU die core prints

SouthCNorthNY — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:17:24 -0800

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?

Installing a heatsink the right way

rdr — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:36:00 -0800

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.

The rebirth of cool

Blazecock Pileon — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:22:51 -0800

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? For example, would this guy work?

In addition to fixing the noise issue, I'm looking to quieten the computer. I have a Pentium M 2.1 GHz processor in there. Would a straight copper heatsink be sufficient?

Will I need to buy more thermal paste or can I use what is already on there?

Thanks for your advice.

Slow Down?

king walnut — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 11:15:06 -0800

Is there any way to slow down the CPU in my Dell Latitude D830 running Windows XP Pro? My last laptop, a Toshiba, had a utility for controlling the CPU speed. I liked to slow it down to avoid heat and fan noise at times. Is there a way to do that on my Dell? I've looked through the utilities that came with the machine, and googled, but I can't find anything.

I'm confused about computer specs

talitha_kumi — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:11:40 -0800

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?

XPSP3AMD6440003GBetc.

boosh — Fri, 30 May 2008 07:20:38 -0800

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). I'm considering upgrading my games machine. The current guts:

Abit AN8 Socket 939 motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice
2 x 1GB PC3200 CAS3.0 DDR
Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB (PCI-E)

And the upgrade that I'm considering:

Swap CPU for an Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego
Add an extra 1GB of RAM

I can't justify splashing out on a whole new mobo/CPU/RAM bundle anytime soon, nor spending silly money on a used FX-55/60 chip dredged from the depths of eBay, so it's pretty much this or nothing I think. But is it a worthwhile upgrade - will I see a noticeable performance boost? Really I've got three questions, and I can't seem to Google up anything approaching a definitive answer:

1: Is it worth going from 3500+ Venice to 4000+ San Diego (with its extra cache and extra 200mhz)?
2: Is it worth going from 2GB RAM to 3GB on an XP machine used for gaming?
3: If I add the extra gig, should I add 2x512GB or a single stick of 1GB? Currently I've got the 2x1GB memory running in dual channel and I've got two ports free.

Some additional info:
1: The OS is WinXPSP3, with the fat stripped away, running on a 36gb WD Raptor. I don't think I can make any performance improvements on the software/disk side.
2: This machine is only used for games - nothing else at all. I don't do any multi-tasking (there isn't even an AV program running).
3: I won't be upgrading to Vista for DX10. I don't play that many games and the ones I do play tend to be a few years old (Rome Total War, Oblivion).

So would one or both of these upgrades give the PC an extra lease of life, or would I be throwing money away for no real benefit?

Need for speed

grrarrgh00 — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:02:23 -0800

I want my computer to work exactly the same, but faster. I can't add any more RAM. Motherboard/CPU upgrade? Four years ago, my coworker built me a wonderful PC that has brought me little but happiness and joy in the time since. (I can now never again imagine purchasing one of those factory-built monstrosities, with their pre-installed applications and mysterious innards.)

I've maxed out the RAM on the 4-y/o motherboard (1.5 GB), but it's grown too slow and jerky for my tastes. The prospect of reinstalling all my applications and recreating all my settings causes me palpable distress, which is why I don't want to replace the computer altogether.

Previous threads seem to indicate that a motherboard/CPU upgrade is not that complicated. And RAM is cheap enough that I don't care about having to purchase all-new RAM, if that's the case. But I'm uncertain whether I'll have to consider changing any other parts. (E.g. Power supply?) And I'm assuming a mobo/CPU upgrade will get me the performance jolt I'm seeking, but is that assumption correct? Are my visions of making this upgrade and then continuing life with my exact current setup intact Pollyannaish?

Quad Xeon vs. Core2 Quad?

Asef Jil — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:46:35 -0800

Quad Xeon vs. Core2 Quad? I've been charged with building a system for an electrical engineer. He's been given a recomendation of a quad core Xeon processor.

I don't have a lot experience with server processors.

I understand that server processors scale better in multiprocessor environments and also tend to have higher heat tolerances, but are there any other advantages to bringing a Xeon to the desktop (especially considering it's higher price)? Any caveats?

OS: XPP64

How can I cool my computer down without replacing the broken fans?

wondermouse — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 15:24:10 -0800

How can I cool my computer down without replacing the broken fans? I have a custom-built PC that is having problems with overheating. The CPU and Power Supply fans are fine, but the northbridge fan is no longer spinning, and neither is a built-in case fan. We got them spinning a couple weeks ago just by blowing the dust out of them and prodding them a bit, but that only lasted for about 24 hours before they stopped again.

The initial response to this question will probably be "Replace the fans," but the problem is that to replace the fan on the motherboard, I'll have to pull everything out just to access the pieces to remove it. I'm not very hardware savvy, so I'd rather not do this. The computer is otherwise working well, but according to the BIOS, the CPU temperature at this point sits in the 60's (celsius) and the overheating alarm comes on sometimes when I'm not even using it, let alone when I try to do anything intensive on the computer. I have an Abit NF7-S V2 which is apparently notorious for the busted fan problem, and an AMD processor which seems to be able to withstand unusually high temperatures.

So while I'm not big on the idea of pulling everything out of the computer to get to the fan, I'm wondering if there's a minimally invasive but effective cooling solution. I did a little research on this, but there's so much information and I know so little about it that I'm not sure what to go with.

How many electrons in each processor cycle?

Jimbob — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 05:04:01 -0800

In a modern CPU, how many individual electrons, approximately, are "let through" in each clock-cycle of, say, an individual transistor or logic gate? Are we close to managing the paths of individual electrons? Or are we still shuffling around millions of the little blighters in each transistor in each tick of a 2ghz processor?

Standalone programs that burn CPU?

vacapinta — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:52:26 -0800

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? I just need to do some testing. This program should run by itself for hours at least. I dont care what it does as long as it burns cpu - at least 50% would be great - if I can tune this, even better. Also, the machine may not have internet access - so no seti@home I suppose.

New Box, HELP

raildr — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:17:36 -0800

New computer build, how to decide What I need is an updated box, currently running a dual processor Intel, 700mhz, 1 gig, XP Pro. I plan on getting a new box, dual core (AMD or Intel), ghosting my 40 gig hd and doing a repair install of XP to keep all my programs. I am NOT a gamer. I do use photo shop, etc. I have looked at ARS's site and the boxes don't seem to fit what i want.
I do use 2 monitors, both analog (crt 19", lcd 19", but would consider a new flat panel.
Computer types and all, give it your best shot, cheaper wins!

Why did CPUs stop getting faster about 5 years ago?

sergeant sandwich — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 16:35:08 -0800

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? I am aware of Moore's law, and the megahertz myth, and things like bus speeds and cache sizes and instruction sets and that comparing clock speeds across processors isn't especially meaningful. I know that Intel stopped pumping up the clock cycles, I know about pipelining and predictive branching and multiple cores and which bottlenecks are where in a computer.. I understand that despite the CPU speed flattening, actual computing power has continued to increase.

However, surely if a chip designer can run the core at a faster clock, they would. Why can't they?

My understanding was that this was essentially an issue of thermal management: faster switching + fixed settle time = more current = more resistive heating.

However, someone else pointed out to me recently that this might be an issue with the RC time constant of the interconnects on the chip.

Ideally i'd like to find an article about this phenomenon from an EE/physics point of view, preferably from someone in the industry. Most preferable would be in a journal or IEEE publication; a trade magazine would be good too. An article in something like Wired would be okay, but I need to cite a source and the popular press is notoriously bad when it comes to this sort of thing.

However, my googlefu is really failing me here, so any explanation or pointer to search terms, or really anything of help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Which Xeon CPU is this?

StickyCarpet — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:29:49 -0800

How can I identify which Xeon processor I have in my HP XW8200? This is a dual processor motherboard, and I want to add the second processor. The System Information accessory on XP tells me I have a:
x86 Family family 15 model 3 stepping 4 GenuineIntel ~3200 Mhz

I see the following CPUs, for instance, listed for sale:
Xeon 3.2Ghz 3200DP 533FSB 1MB Cache DP 604
as well as:
SL7AE Intel XEON CPU 3.2 GHz 3200 DP 2 MB 533 MHz

How do I shop for one that will be an exact match with the one I have in there already?

6400 "Black Edition" the end of the line?

nervestaple — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:32:30 -0800

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?

Burn baby!

zackola — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:43:48 -0800

Will I fry this chip? Recently installed a Athlon X2 4200 to replace an older socket 939 single core Athlon. What is a good operating temperature for it? I'm not looking for maximums, that is easy to find. I want to know what is safe/good. At rest temp in Windows XP is around 46C. Turn on the UT3 beta demo and it will get closer to 60C. Running Prime95 for 10 minutes or so heats it up to 65C. Throughout this, everything has seemed stable. I'm using SpeedFan 4.33 for reporting the temps and not overclocking anything. My motherboard is a Asus A8N-E if it makes a difference. Stock heatsink/cooler and a fairly airy case. Thanks for any opinions!

Acer L100 overheating annoyingly

mateuslee — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 06:22:05 -0800

Can you help my ACER L100 stop over-heating? (Please say yes, I'm trying to write my thesis!) I have a new Acer L100. It worked like a dream for the first 4 months I had it. Now, although I haven't moved it, it started to act funny, like so:

1) Fans would start whirrling super-noisily and/or just shut off
2) The computer will freeze
3) Computer shuts down.

This is a relatively new thing. At first I thought it was some virus or sth, but no. I see many complaints about this online.

Incidentally, I find that by switching it from vertical to horizontal position once the fans turn off, it will work fine - but I'm afraid of losing my thesis.

Any other Acer users out there with this experience? How did you solve it? Ideas, suggestions, insight much appreciated. Don't want to send it back to Acer now (but maybe later, still under warranty I think).

Thanks!

PS. Using Windows XP

Please help me clean my trousers before the wife sees them

rumbletum — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 09:37:43 -0800

After a messy processor installation.... How can I remove spilt thermal paste from my best trousers?