HELP with cpu....

Hello, I have a p4 1.8ghz right now in my computer, and a friend just gave me his old computer.. not much but the only thing is it has a 2.2ghz processor... both pentium 4's. Can I just swap them out? or what are the steps?? Thank you.

You should be able to swap them out, given that your motherboard will suppport a faster chip. To swap processors isn't hard at all, just unclip/unscrew your CPU fan, remove the heatsink, and up the lever and pull it out. Drop the other one in and go in reverse.

HOWEVER, Switching the motherboard might help you more because it is already known to work with his CPU and he might even have better RAM and such. If you want to keep your software just keep your hard drive and you should be fine.....unless your missing drivers needed for his mobo.

Good luck!

awesome, ima give it a go soon, thank you.

dont forget to reaply a new layer of thermal compound between the processor and heatsink when reinstalling the processor.

yep, most people don't do that.

Also about the new mobo thing.. make sure you know what you're doing at least a bit if you're going to go replacing the whole motherboard.

Thank you all, yeah ive done few installs.. just double checking with the cpus... thou was a bitch to get out of the alienware crap.