advice on upgrading processor for HP A6010n (P5LP-LE Leonite MOtherboard)

[JakeKay]

Found this BIOS updating information on the HP site:

http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-Pavilion-a6010n-Desktop-PC/3376909/model/3376911/document/c00...

[Ejwalla]

Thanks for all the help! I will post the outcome if I decide to go through with it 🙂

[Ejwalla]

After researching I realized that a bios upgrade could only be done while running the original OS, which was Vista. I currently run Win7. I created a new partition on my drive and installed Vista there (essentially a dual boot system now). Then I carefully researched what bios file I needed and went for it. I used the HP method like you suggested. After a minute or two ( it felt longer) it worked! I went from version 5.06 to 5.23. Now I can upgrade the processor. I got one for $10. I know it's an old computer but it's fun tinkering and my setup does what I need it to 🙂 thanks again

[JakeKay]

Congratulations. Good job.

Have you also done the other (almost required) upgrades such as maxing out your RAM and installing a real video card?

[Ejwalla]

Yep, both of those. I'll be using the e6700 processor that you used. I was wondering, did you have to tell your computer that you changed the processor? ( either in bios or in windows) or is it just automatically detected?

[JakeKay]

Just drop it in. The motherboard should recognize it without any drama.

Word of warning: Sounds like you have a good handle on this but if you have not installed CPU's before...........

You will be removing the heatsink from the old CPU with the 4 screws holding it on. Take notes as you go and be careful. Note the amount of tension on the screws as you remove them. Replace them tightly but do not overtighten.

There is a lever that locks the holding plate down over the CPU. It's a tight fit. Push that lever down and over to release.

The CPU socket contains hundreds of very tiny pins that make contact with the hundreds of tiny spots on the bottom of the CPU. Use extreme care not to damage these pins. Do not touch them or allow any foreign matter to fall in there. Remove the old CPU carefully and drop in the new CPU straight and carefully making sure to align it properly. It should only fit one way and there are alignment notches in the CPU chip.

Clean both the top surface of the CPU and the contact surface of the heatsink carefully. Use alcohol to remove the old thermal paste. Do not douse, just wet a lint-free cloth with the alcohol and rub gently until the surfaces are clean. The old gunk should be easy to remove.

You *must* apply a new coating of thermal paste and there are differing opinions on the best way to do it. YouTube has some videos on "applying thermal paste to a CPU" if you are not sure. I use what I call the "painting" technique: I place a very small dollop (probably smaller than a grain of rice) on the surface then use a razor blade (a piece of an old credit card will do) to spread the paste in a very smooth and very thin layer, like a layer of paint. I do this to both the top of the CPU and the bottom of the heatsink that will contact it. You want to avoid any excess that may ooze out when the heatsink is attached. Extra paste is not better and may be counter productive.

Another popular method is to simply place a single dollop (grain of rice-sized) of thermal paste onto the center of the top of the CPU and clamp on the heatsink. Others like to make a little "X" or give it a little schmear first but I hate not knowing the paste has spread evenly so I "paint" it on. The goal is to fill the micro-pits and imperfections with the paste so as to achieve comprehensive contact between the CPU and heatsink to assure maximum heat transfer. In a perfect world with two perfectly smooth surface the paste would not be necessary but that's almost impossible.

I use the most popular brand, Arctic Silver 5. It works great but it is conductive so it's important to make sure excess can't ooze out and slurp down onto the CPU contacts. That could prove fatal so make sure to not use too much.

Screw the heatsink back into place, reattach the fan wire (extremely important) and you're good to go.

[JakeKay]

BTW, again, in case you have not done this before, there is no need to remove the fan from the top of the heatsink, consider the two as one unit. You will also likely find the fins of your heatsink are clogged with dust. Take it outside and blow out all the dust. Use a duster can of compressed air (the best way to do it, available at WalMart and many other places) if possible.  FWIW, some people say you should avoid giving the fan a hard spin with the compressed air.

[Ejwalla]

Hey wow thanks 🙂 this is my first processor swap. I'll post the results!

[Ejwalla]

Thanks again the processor swap went great! Super easy actually. My next idea was trying to put more than 4 GB of RAM in. I know the specs say 4 is the max but if I can find it cheap enough I might try just for the heck of it.

[JakeKay]

Congratulations, very happy to hear the CPU upgrade worked. It might be a good idea to check on the CPU temps regularly for the first week or so to make sure all is well. If you don't already have a utility that can report internal temperatures, fan speeds, etc. you can try this one, called HW Monitor, from CPUID. It's well regarded and I've used it myself:

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

As for the RAM, I think it's highly unlikely you could get the machine to work with 2 GB-sized modules. I believe it's a limitation of the Intel 945G chipset on this motherboard. The RAM slots themselves might not even be able to read modules larger than 1 GB. Here are the Intel specs for the chipset:

http://ark.intel.com/products/27720/Intel-82945G-Memory-Controller

Another limitation is with the Windows operating system. The 32-bit operating systems cannot address more than 4 GB of RAM. Also, that OS also reserves roughly 500 MB for its own use so you will only have about 3.5 GB available to you. This is not as bad as it may sound because this is usually enough RAM. It's when you start doing RAM intensive things such as doing a lot of multitasking, keeping a lot of tabs open in your browser, or running certain applications such as video editing or what they call compiling tasks (not sure I understand that). You can lower your RAM needs by not keeping multiple applications open at the same time and not keeping too many tabs open in your browser.

If a motherboard supports more than 4 GB of RAM and you want to exceed that amount, you need to install a 64-bit version of Windows. Google for "how much RAM do I need" and you can learn a lot about this. Going from 1 GB of RAM to 4 GB is a much bigger deal than going from 4 GB to 8 GB.

I think the best thing you can do for your RAM situation is to install the fastest RAM the motherboard can use and make sure you install matched (identical) modules in the same channels (every other slot). According to HP the fastest memory you can use is PC2 5300 (667 MHz).

I buy all my RAM from Crucial and I use their online tool to find compatible modules. Here is their page on the HP a6010n:

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/HP-Compaq/pavilion-a6010n

One caveat; Crucial lists the PC-6400 (800 MHz) RAM as compatible but this contradicts the specs on both the HP and Intel sites concerning RAM for this motherboard-chipset. While the 800 MHz RAM may indeed run in the machine I suspect it would be stepped down by the chipset and would not actually run any faster than 667 MHz.

I would definitely stay with the PC2 5300 (667 MHz), and I would definitely stay with 4 perfectly matched RAM modules.