Help with Selecting a CPU

[poushma]

How can I find out which CPU to use for an upgrade? I bought some RAM (DDR2) recently for an upgrade to my system, but it still didn't quite speed up. I check my resource manger and noticed that my CPU is very weak. I want to buy a new, faster one, but I don't know how to tell if a CPU is compatible with my computer. Is there a program I can download that will tell me what try of CPU to buy, or something like that?

[Ron P.]

Welcome to the forums,

First I moved your post to it's own topic under our General Discussions, Forum Chat, since it really had nothing to do with the forum and topic you posted it under. Now in order for members to provide you with a more accurate reply, we need to know a little more. What sort of work do you use your computer for? Do you use it for editing video, for graphic illustration, photographic editing, gaming? If you are editing video, are you working with standard-definition or high-definition? Also tell us more about your computer system. You can go to the User Control Panel, found in the upper-left of the web board, go to the Profile tab, and enter that information there. It will then appear under your name, and where an avatar is used, for future reference. That way you're not repeatedly asked about that information, which can be very important when troubleshooting.

[Ken Berry]

It would also be useful to know if your Vista is 32 bit or 64 bit. I can't even recall if Vista Home Basic came in a 64 bit version. However, if it is 32 bit and you already had 3 GB of RAM, then buying more RAM would have been a waste of money since the 32 bit versions effectively cannot use more than 3 GB anyway...

[teknisyan]

Hello poushma,

This is an answer regardless what version of OS you are using an what Corel program you will and are using. If you want to upgrade your processor and RAM first this thing to need to do know if your mother board support newer RAM and newer processor. Some mother board only supports certain types of processors like AMD or only INTEL.

And to my knowledge there is no easy way to know that is your motherboard unless you open up your CPU and check the exact name and model of your motherboard. If you are the one who built the CPU then I'm sure you know how to check the name and model of your mother and how to check what processor and RAM it can support, if not then contacting a computer technician will be the your best move in order for the technician to help you in upgrading your processor and RAM.

And if your computer is a branded computer like HP, Dell, Acer and the likes, I would suggest that you just contact their Tech Support, since they may have an upgrade program that you may want to take advantage and may end up saving a couple of $$$ in the process.

Hope that helps.

[Ken Berry]

The free Belarc Advisor will also give you the exact name and model of your motherboard, and lots of other useful system information: www.belarc.com/free_download.html We include it in the registration process, but I am surprised just how many of our new users seem unwilling to use it. So later trying to find out this same information from them to help with their queries is a bit like pulling sore teeth out!!