Important CPU Buying Tips 

The CPU tips will help you during selection of CPU. Read it before purchasing the CPU. The last year industry saw a massive jump in CPU processing power. With vendors trying to outperform each other by introducing higher speed processors. Intel and AMD have been pushing P4 and Athlon XP respectively. Entry level processors from all three major players - Intel, AMD and VIA are available in the market.

Intel's entry level workhorse , the Celeron 1.7 GHz is still going strong and favorite among the users. AMD's challenge to Celeron is Athlon XP 1700 which is comparable in price. In the past , we have seen major price cut from Intel in Pentium 4 segment. In the next couple of months, this segment could once again observe major drift in terms of technology and price with both rivals Intel and AMD planning to shift to 64 bit architecture CPU's with their Itaniun2 and Opteron respectively.

Every vendor and reseller is trying to provide low cost Pc solution to the masses. VIA has taken massive steps and introduced a motherboard with On-board processor. AMD is also gaining the market share. Here there is competition from refurbished and repackaged CPU's being sold in the market. Since couple of CPU's come in tray packaging for volume sales, they are dirt cheap.

CPU tips for buying

• New CPUs require higher rating power supply. Hence always ensure that your power supply is rated at 350 W at least.
• Invest in good heatsink and fan combination for your processor.
• Always buy Genuine CPU. Check Hologram seal on Intel CPU box. In case of AMD, make sure that the plastic casing is not broken.
• If you plan to do CPU intensive tasks such as graphic processing, gaming and animation go for CPU with 256 KB or more of L2 cache. The Pentium 4 Northwood has 512 KB of L2 cache. For gaming applications, go for CPU which supports 3DNow! or SSE.
• If power requirement and heat dissipation are not an issue, you can go for cheap and affordable Palomino cores.
• If you want only basic office applications, you can go for cheap CPU like Cyrix M III processor. This cheap CPU works with any socket 370 motherboard.
• For high end 3D design and CAD applications, you will require a processor with highest clock speed and the largest on board cache memory. Pentium and Athlon processors are best for such type of applications.

CPU Tips For Intel Based System

Right selection and installation will give you trouble free performance.

• CPU cooling:COOL your CPU first. Then it will perform. Processor cooling is very important from performance and reliability point of view. Always provide good quality cooling fan with high rated heatsink.
• Extra 12 V power for Pentium 4:  All Pentium 4 processors require extra 12 volt power supply. Make sure the power supply for new processor has necessary four pin 12 V connector. This connector fits into the ATX 12 V connector on your Motherboard.
• Hyperthread technology: Intel's 3.06 GHz processor incorporates Hyperthreading technology which gives better CPU performance when running multiple applications simultaneously.
• CPU type: Willamette CPU's are fabricated using 0.18 micron fabrication process. Willamette requires more power and generate more heat. New Northwood CPU's are fabricated using 0.13 micron fabrication process. Northwood CPU's have L2 cache of 512 KB.
• Intel drivers: Intel supplies drivers for new 800 series chipsets ( including 845, 845 - DDR and 850 chipsets called the Intel application accelerator driver. These drivers increase the performance of your IDE devices. They offer better boot times and also surpass 137 GB limitation of the IDE drives in the native Window drivers. SSE2 type of special instructions in Intel CPU's help deliver better performance with certain types of data.

CPU Tips For AMD Based System

Right selection and installation will help you to build reliable and high performance system.

1. CPU cooling: COOL your CPU first. Then it will perform. Processor cooling is very important from performance and reliability point of view. Always provide good quality cooling fan with high rated heatsink. Use thermal paste for better contact between heatsink and CPU. If by chance you forget to connect the fan supply and switch on the motherboard, you will damage the AMD CPU with in seconds. Always use CPU heatsink and fan combination that is certified by
AMD.

2. Proper mounting: As bare Silicon is exposed at the top surface in AMD CPU, heatsink installation should be done properly. You should not slide the heatsink on the top surface of CPU. A small scratch or friction may damage CPU.

3. Power supply: It is always better to go for minimum 300 w power supply for AMD based system.

4. Special instructions: The 3DNow! instruction set streamline power of certain applications. 

5. Memory: You can use SDRAM or DDR memory. SDRAM is cost effective option for basic applications. However for demanding applications ( graphic or high end gaming), go for DDR memory. DDR memory is good for high speed applications.

6. Type of processor: AMD Duron processors offer reasonably good performance with respect to their price. But as they are phased out, it is better to go for Athlon processor. They are available in old 0.18 micron Palomino and new 0.13 micron Thoroughbred core. New technology requires less power and generates less heat. Not all motherboards support them. Hence always ensure that your motherboard supports new CPU before buying the motherboard. Extra check the motherboard manual.

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