With advances in technology coming so fast, the need to have an upgradable PC is absolute. Every sucessive software release calls for faster and faster hardware. Quake III needs much more power than Quake ever did. Windows 95 could run smoothly on a 486DX4/100Mhz with 16MB of RAM, whilc Windows 2000 truges along on a Pentium 200MHz and 64MB of RAM. This calls for the knowladge to upgrade your own PC, unless of course you want to pay those PC Techs arms, legs, blood, and other parts of your body you don’t want to part with.

Upgrading your CPU

1. Locate the processor on your board.
2. Check to see what type of socket or slot it is using. A socketed chip will
   be sitting snuggly in a socket, described above. If your chip is socketed,
   look and see if you have a OverDrive socket somewhere else on the board. If
   this system is a more modern one, there will be no OverDrive socket. If you
   have a Slot
   1 board with a processor already installed, it will be quite obvious to
   you, as the CPU is pretty large.

3. If you’re gonna do a chip-for-chip or daughtercard upgrade, you’ll need to
   remove the old chip. If it has a CPU fan, you’ll need to first remove the
   CPU fan. A socket
   7 fan will be clipped on on two pegs on either side of the CPU socket.
   Just remove them and pull the fan off. You do not necessarily need to
   disconnect the fan from the power supply or motherboard fan connector.

4. If the chip is in a LIF socket, use a chip puller to pry the chip out. Do
   this gently, prying each side little by little, taking care not to bend the
   little pins on the bottom of the chip. Also, be sure you are actually prying
   the chip, and not the entire socket. In a ZIF socket, simply raise the lever
   arm to the 90 degree position and the chip should raise out of place. On a
   Slot 1, there will be a vertical drive rail on either side of the Slot with
   clips on top of them. Press these clips inward and you should be able to
   pull the chip from the slot.

5. Now you install the new chip. The new chip should fit snuggly in. Make
   sure it is aligned correctly. Most only fit one way. Socketed CPUs have a
   beveled fourth corner which lines up with the socket. Some have Pin 1 marked
   and you line it up with Pin 1 on the socket. Once you are sure that all the
   pins are lined up correctly with the holes, press the chip into place, or
   lower the lever arm, depending on your socket type. If you are doing a
   piggyback upgrade, align both processors the same way, and press it down on
   the old chip until you feel it snap in place. In a Slot 1 processor, you
   must align the chip correctly over the slot. It is keyed so the chip will
   only go in the right direction. Press the CPU into the slot until the clips
   on top of the vertical drive rails clip into place securing the CPU.

6. Connect the CPU fan now. Just plug it in to the power supply. If you have
   no spare wires left, disconnect one of your devices, plug the fan in, then
   connect the other end of the fan cord to the device again. On a Socket 7
   processor, the heat ink / fan combo will snap on to small tabs on either
   side of the socket. Sometimes it takes a bit of fiddling to get it on, but
   it will go. 

7. Now, you need to yank out the motherboard manuals or refer to the printed
   jumper settings on the motherboard PCB.
   You need to adjust the multiplier
   and bus speed settings for the new CPU you just installed. If you are using
   a board with software adjustment capabilities, such as Abit’s SoftMenu, then
   you will proceed to the next step, making a point to go into the
   configuration utility and make necessary adjustments to these settings.

8. Turn the computer on. Pay attention to the Boot screen as it boots to make
   sure it lists the new CPU. If all is well, it will. If it lists the right
   CPU, but at a chip you know your’s is not, then double-check the jumper
   settings in Step 7. They are probably wrong.

9. If you got this far, you are pretty much done. Install any extra parts
   that came with your upgrade kit, or re-install any parts you may have had to
   remove to make the chip accessible. 

Upgrading RAM

1. Turn off the computer, unplug it, and take off the case cover.
2. Find and identify the type of RAM slots you have.
3. Get your memory. Here is where you make sure the above guidelines are met.
4. Install the RAM. First some info, though. Your computer, if it uses 30-pin
   or 72-pin SIMMs, organizes its SIMM
   sockets into groups called banks. Some boards say that two sockets
   make a bank. Some say that one is a bank. Nevertheless, a bank must be full.
   A half full bank will drive your computer nuts. Also, you can’t mix two
   different kinds of memory in a single bank. For example, you can’t put a 4MB
   SIMM and an 8MB SIMM in one bank and expect to get 12 MB of RAM. Also, many
   systems require you to put the memory in in pairs. Therefore, if you want 32
   megs of RAM, you have to stick 2 16′s in instead of one 32.  As for a
   computer that uses DIMMs, just position the DIMM over it’s black slot,
   making sure the notches in the DIMM are lined up over the notches in the
   slot.  Then, press the DIMM down firmly on both ends, until the white
   retaining clips pops up on both ends.

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