Well before anything, if you don't think this is the right place (yahoo answers) to ask this, please suggest me some other forums...
But ok anyhow...
i'm looking for a new CPU for my computer, I don't wanna spend a lot of money (actually I wanna get something really cheap) but I have some questions...
When I got my new graphics card the dude from the shop said that not all of them would be compatible with my PC... So... How do I know if a CPU I want to buy is compatible with my PC or not? And... Is it any easy to change the CPU on my own? Or should I take my PC to some shop or something for them to change?
Also... What's the cheapest CPU I can get? (a decent one, not a pile of crap)...
Right now my computer stats are:
CPU: 2.9GHz Pentium 4 (you can see why I want a Dual/Quad Core)
RAM: 2GB
HDD: 660GB
Graphics: ATI Radeon 4670 HD
Eh btw.. Whats the difference between Dual Cores and Quad Cores?
I know what I just said is pretty much a huge mess and its really confusing... So yeah good luck!What processor can I get to my computer?Just wanna second what barb said that was a great response:)What processor can I get to my computer?you have to find a processor that will fit your motherboard for example a LGA 775 socket can only take chipsets of that socket mean you can put an i7 in it. Also dual core means it has 2 cores it process 2 as much as a single core a quad core does 4x as much.What processor can I get to my computer?take it to a shop. you are incapable of performing the necessary actions with your present level of knowledge.What processor can I get to my computer?It's not that hard to upgrade a processor, just make sure you know what you are doing since processors are expensive and fragile, there are a bunch of videos on you tube that can walk you through it.
However, In order to know what processors you can upgrade too I would need to know what motherboard you have in your computer or at least what The model of your computer is (ie: Dell Dimension 4500 or HP pavillion dtv6)
I don't think you will be able to upgrade to a processor that is that great since because you have a Pentium 4 it likely means you have an older CPU socket or a motherboard that doesn't support newer processors.
You also asked what the difference between dual cores and quad cores is.
Imagine the processors like a highway, each core is a lane and each car a a piece of information.
Your pentium 4 has 1 core therefore 1 lane.
A dual core has 2 lanes and a quad core has 4 lanes.
So a quad core could let 100 cars pass by in the time it would take a dual core to let 50 past.
So a quad core can theoretically work twice as fast as a dual core, The only problem is that a programmers have to write their code to be able to utilize all four cores.
Some programs are only written to be able to use 1 or 2 cores and not all four making a quad core pointless. However, most programs (with the exception of computer games) are written with 4 cores in mind so a quad core should preform faster than a dual core almost all the time.
