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I almost exclusively have utilized laptops for my work. However, I need to purchase a machine with a bit higher specs and have decided to invest in a desktop.

My organization provides stipends for people who need to purchase new electronics—and as such I am unable to "build a PC" but want to ensure what I purchase is upgrade-able in the future.

How can I tell if a specific machine is compatible with another CPU? Are there different sizes of sockets that I can utilize to verify compatibility?

Most importantly, are replaceable CPUs still the industry standard or have we woe the days of upgrade-able Desktop components in this manner.

My only experience with socket CPUs is with the ThinkPad w500, and even then, is minimal.

Giacomo1968
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WaffleB
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3 Answers3

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TLDR: Match the socket and chipset for compatibility and you should be fine. Most motherboards/chipsets have these listed.

Ideally you want to find a QVL/supported processor list and find a processor on that.

Most full sized, and many SFF desktops do still come with socketed chips, outside the extreme low end.

AMD tends to have suprisingly long backward compatibility with sockets (though sometimes you need to do a firmware update first). Intel changes sockets every few generations - and I feel like is a better 'general' example of what might catch a new user.

In general upgrading within the same 'generation' of processor, but a different model is fine. I'm going to focus more on intel, but many of these things are common to intel, AMD or other processors.

So what to watch out for -

Is it the correct socket? You can't fit an AMD socket AM4 into an AM5. Likewise, You can't fit a modern intel into an AMD motherboard and vice versa.

There may also be sockets with the same pin count but slight differences (like the HEDT/Server LGA 2011 versions)

There may not be out of the box support or support at all for a specific generation of chip. My "Coffee Lake"/9th generation intel processor wouldn't work on a board for 8th or 7th generation intel processors, and the older chips wouldn't work on my motherboard despite being the same socket.

AMD had better backward support but you sometimes needed a bios flash to support a newer GPU. With the correct socket, and firmware you could run a newer chip but those firmware versions would drop support for older chips. This was especially true with the socket AM4

A good/safe option would be to look up processor support for the chipset or motherboard, and updating the bios before swapping.

Journeyman Geek
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You want to locate the motherboard type in the system. Depending on the brand, you might find this information in the instruction manual, on the website for the manufacturer, or by opening up the computer. You'll also want to locate the CPU. Depending on the lineage (2nd Gen Core i5, 10th Gen Core i9, an AMD Ryzen 9000 series CPU, etc), you might be able to upgrade in the same line - so from an i3 to an i7 or i9 of the same generation. From a Ryzen 3 to a Ryzen 9.

You'll want to also be sure of the socket type on the motherboard, and more importantly, you need to determine if the board is locked down by the manufacturer or not.

For example: PowerSpec (the house brand of Micro Center) basically uses off-the-shelf parts so upgrading the CPU is not really any different than if you built your own computer. Dell, on the other hand might be a bit more proprietary with their motherboard, making upgrading the CPU a royal pain at best, or downright impossible at worst.

That being said, I think you're better off getting a computer with the best CPU you can afford with your stipend, and then look into upgrading other parts of the machine as time goes on. If it's not feasible, you're going to have quite the bit of research to do.

Anthony LoPrimo
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I absolutely agree with Journeyman Geek's answer.

However, if you are having to ask which CPU's are compatible, I would recommend staying with whichever CPU's are listed as being compatible by whoever is offering the warranty.

For example, if you bought a complete computer from Dell, they will list compatible CPU's.

If you purchased a motherboard from a vendor, then stick with whichever CPU's the motherboard manufacturer lists as compatible.

By using a CPU not on the compatible list, you are opening yourself up to possible troubleshooting headaches. You can plug in a new CPU and your computer just might not work. However, you can plug it in and it doesnt work at all. What is worse, is you plug one in and in works... but you are getting strange errors, issues, hiccups down the line. Something is wrong, but you now dont know if its a bug, software issue, user error.... or could it be that CPU? Its just not worth it, in my opinion.

Keltari
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