Do people actually upgrade just the CPU and keep using existing motherboard?

Have you upgraded CPU while keeping the motherboard?

  • Yes, I have upgraded CPU at least once on my last/current motherboard

    Votes: 37 63.8%

  • No, I replaced CPU and motherboard on my last CPU upgrade

    Votes: 12 20.7%

  • No, I replaced the entire PC on my last CPU upgrade

    Votes: 9 15.5%
  • Total voters
    58
  • Poll closed .
I used to do this all the time in starting in the 1990s but not really in the last 10 years. In the 1990s I had several dual processor rigs including dual Celeron 300As overclocked on slotkits
 
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About 50% of the time for me. Aside from my initial cheap builds when I was in high school which were more hand me downs a few gens old my more recent builds from 2007ish to present.
q6600 to a qx6800
I had a phenom PC with 2 different processors before jumping to 2500k but can't remember what ones, I blame alcohol and undergrad for that
2500k to 2600k (free)
6700k
5950x (which there is no upgrade path)
 
bananas1 said:
Replacing the motherboard is the biggest hassle. It also provides the least performance/features gained with an upgrade. So it makes sense to keep the motherboard as long as possible. Unless there is a very specific feature or set of features required, I usually go for the cheapest motherboard available and put my dollars to work with the cpu/gpu.
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Eh, I think there is a lot to be gained for many people, by upgrading the motherboard to something mid-range. Especially if you haven't upgraded in the past two-ish years.

PCI-E 4.0
More than 1 or 2 NVME slot
USB-C on the rear panel and often front panel USB-C connectors
More/faster USB-A ports
built-in Wifi
 
Back in the day, constantly.
Would have bought AS5 by a pail if sold that way! :-P
If it wasn't soldered, why not?
Today, it seems the process has slowed considerably.
Remember when GPUs had a six month refresh?
(and didn't cost a mortgage payment!)
 
mashie said:
But in general I normally upgrade so seldom that everything has gone obsolete by the time the system isn't fast enough.
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That's my issue as well now days. I went from x99 to 10th gen.

On my X99 I went from a 5930k to a 5960X which helped me from having upgrade right away, I was waiting for Zen 3 but by the time I was ready I couldn't get my hands on a CPU I wanted.

Until sandy bridge I use to upgrade every year. Now I just don't care lol.
 
I upgrade CPUs wherever possible/makes sense but mostly because I love to tinker and hate throwing away old hardware that still works.

I'm still a bit salty about AMD dropping X399 support after the 29xx threadrippers but I may get AM5 whenever that comes out in the hope that I can get 1 or more CPU upgrades in the future.

cpufrost said:
Back in the day, constantly.
Would have bought AS5 by a pail if sold that way! :-P
If it wasn't soldered, why not?
Today, it seems the process has slowed considerably.
Remember when GPUs had a six month refresh?
(and didn't cost a mortgage payment!)
Click to expand...

I still upgrade but it is a lot less than in the past. Less because everything costs a small fortune now and (whenever I do buy) I tend to get something mid-range or high-end to start with (vs budget parts in my younger days).
 
I did in my dell t5810...as you can find the thread... good for a bit then system died. moved cpu into my dual lenovo and bought a second. gaming on it today...but starting to grab parts to build a new pc...
 
cpufrost said:
Back in the day, constantly.
Would have bought AS5 by a pail if sold that way! :-P
If it wasn't soldered, why not?
Today, it seems the process has slowed considerably.
Remember when GPUs had a six month refresh?
(and didn't cost a mortgage payment!)
Click to expand...

Why not? Well for me it's because I'm a tired old man that would rather spend my time watching more movies than spend it upgrading my PC.
 
Back in the Socket 939 days I think my DFI Lanparty NF4 board saw around 6 different Athlon chips in it. IIRC ended up last with a Opteron 180.

My current X99 went from a new 5820K to a Ebay 5960X that cost £100 after selling the 5820K. Only only did it cos I could. Back in SKT939 days, a 200MHz bump or a dual core meant a lot.
 
I have multiple AM4 motherboards that have seen 3-5 CPUs each depending on where I found a good deal that month. The locked down artificial 2 generation BS Intel pulls drives me nuts. (Yes, I'm still bitter about how an 8700k wouldn't work on a Z270 chipset motherboard for no reason at all.)
 
kirbyrj said:
I have multiple AM4 motherboards that have seen 3-5 CPUs each depending on where I found a good deal that month. The locked down artificial 2 generation BS Intel pulls drives me nuts. (Yes, I'm still bitter about how an 8700k wouldn't work on a Z270 chipset motherboard for no reason at all.)
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Same boat as you, annoyed that that the 7700k was the only CPU for my z270 chipset with no upgrade path. My HTPC, primary and secondary since then have all been AM4. Still trying to decide between a 4600g and 5600g upgrade for my HTPC which is on a 2400g. Not saying that I will never go back to Intel, but the upgrade possibilities on AMD sockets makes it a more tempting platform as long as performance is about equal.
 
evhvis said:
Same boat as you, annoyed that that the 7700k was the only CPU for my z270 chipset with no upgrade path. My HTPC, primary and secondary since then have all been AM4. Still trying to decide between a 4600g and 5600g upgrade for my HTPC which is on a 2400g. Not saying that I will never go back to Intel, but the upgrade possibilities on AMD sockets makes it a more tempting platform as long as performance is about equal.
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Yeah, I like how AM4 turned out. I might just go all-in on AM5.
 
I haven't for years. I did two or three CPU upgrades on a motherboard that ended up with an AMD X2 3800+. Core 2 duo e6600 > e7600 > Q9550 in the same board, if I recall. After that I had "adult money", something shiny on new motherboards won me over. 2600k, 7700k, 10850k were my next steps that got new MBs.
 
Haven't done that since the PII / Celeron era. But I'm probably going to do it again soon. 3700X -> 5800X3D if the price is right.
 
Yes I've done it 5 times.

AMD 9950 BE to AMD 965 BE.

Ryzen 1600X to 2700X to 3700X.

Considering another CPU upgrade to 5800X3D if my motherboard supports it, but I think at this point it might be better to upgrade my motherboard. It seems like with each BIOS update some features are lost and performance won't be as good as on a newer board.
 
Since Sandy Bridge the performance increases each year have been so small. Over a decade ago, yes the motherboard outlives the CPU. Now that performance holds for so many years, an upgrade usually entails a new socket with new features
 
Usually I've purchased a new Mobo and new RAM with my CPU upgrades. Microcenter bundled discounts have helped facilitate that, too. With Intel, they were always changing sockets or even adding new stuff (that I actually wanted) with subsequent platforms. AM4 has been a pleasant surprise, but I jumped onto it late enough that I probably won't upgrade it, either.
That fact that my wife gets my hand-me-down parts probably also plays a role.
 
I've done it a few times over the years.
1984 Intel 8088 --> added 8087 math coprocessor
1995 Intel 80486 66 MHz ---> Pentium Overdrive 83MHz
1999 Intel SlotA Celeron 300MHz OC to 450MHz --> Pentium III 700 MHz
2017 Intel E6850 Dual core 3.0Ghz --> Q9650 quad core 3.0GHz (for fun on an old PC)
2018 AMD socket 939 FX-57 single core --> FX-60 dual core (for fun on an old PC)
2019 Intel i7-920 --> i7-980X (for fun on an old PC)
 
i think i did it once. was planning to do the same for another computer, but ended up getting a complete system instead.
 
i did that in past upgrading to faster 486, then pentium with better pentium, etc ,etc but for few years still running older I5 on HTPC with 32GB ram but better CPUs are now harder to find and keep low power consumption
 
I decided to grab a B550 board when they first released and used a Ryzen 3 3100 until the 5600x released, I payed above msrp at the time to get the cpu when 5000 released, now buying my time I have replaced my RX570 8Gb with an RX6600 as to stay current.
 
Just got my Ryzen 5 5600G for my fanless living room PC so will going from 2400G to 5600G on my 470x mini itx board. Should be somewhere between 1.6 and 2.5 times the performance, depending on the application which is a nice upgrade for a computer that was built around the time the 2400G came out (early 2018). First time in more than a decade where I've been able to upgrade an old board and get a few extra years out of my setup.
 
blackmomba said:
Been about 4 years that I've been on this board and I've gone through a 1700x, 2700x, 5800x. No point in switching out a board that's working fine and has all the features you need. Literally adds nothing to your experience lol
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blackmomba

So what do you do with your old CPU?
 
philb2 said:
blackmomba

So what do you do with your old CPU?
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I bought a combo on newgg in 2017 with the Ryzen 5 1400 and MSI B350m Gaming Pro with some 2400Mhz memory, I give the cpu and memory away , kept the board and dropped the $85 1600 AF in it with same 3600Mhz memory clocked down to 3333Mhz with a RX 580 8Gb, daughter has been using it for awhile.
 
How can I vote? Yes I upgraded the CPU on my motherboard from the 5930k (iirc) to the 6900K eight core CPU a few years back and I will squeeze a few more years out of it for sure.
 
I have in the past when I ran AMD systems as part of my upgrade cycle. I would build a new system with case, motherboard, PSU and so on but carry over the GPU. Then drop in a CPU upgrade and replace the GPU breathing new life in. I would also typically upgrade the ram to double at around that time. Then next cycle carry on the same way.

My last AMD system was the best bang for the buck I got, spending a long time planning it out. I ran the 550 BE heavily overclocked for a good while until the 1090T replaced it. Drop in, bios update and whole new computer. 550 went down to some other computers that needed the boost. Still have it in my drawer.

Since Intel has not been as friendly with upgrades when AMD had no offerings and I built what I am using now (older GPU) I built it much better to last longer and other than replacing the GPU with my 1080 this has been a beast. Sadly the motherboard has some power issues so I had to dial back my over clocks but I cant afford a 100% new build right now as thats what it will be at this point lol.

But I would love to go back to AMD for solid upgrade options. But I don't like the crazy power suck on some of these.
 
I must say thanks to Microsft and Intel throwing everything pre 2017 under the bus OS wise. I have a huge range of suddenly dirt cheap mega core Xeons to play with. They have nosedived to double figures in a lot of cases.
 
I remember during the AMD days going from a Phenom II days going from a Phenom II 965, to a 1055, then finally 1090. Jumped over to X58 and only ran it with an i7 920. X79 was my next platform upgrade, and that went from the 3820 to the 4930k I'm still rocking. Obviously I'm doing a full platform upgrade whenever I decide to upgrade at this point.
 
daglesj said:
I must say thanks to Microsft and Intel throwing everything pre 2017 under the bus OS wise. I have a huge range of suddenly dirt cheap mega core Xeons to play with. They have nosedived to double figures in a lot of cases.
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It's so weird, but even from the start, Microsoft has been behind the success of Linux. Nobody (practically speaking) could afford 8M of ram systems until Win95 (mysteriously) made ram cheap (8M requirement). It's not that you couldn't run Linux in 4M, but at the time, it really really wanted 8M. We've had Microsoft to thank in so many ways.
 
cjcox said:
It's so weird, but even from the start, Microsoft has been behind the success of Linux. Nobody (practically speaking) could afford 8M of ram systems until Win95 (mysteriously) made ram cheap (8M requirement). It's not that you couldn't run Linux in 4M, but at the time, it really really wanted 8M. We've had Microsoft to thank in so many ways.
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:ROFLMAO:
 
philb2 said:
:ROFLMAO:
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Ahead of the release of 95, which again, really wanted 8M (Microsoft's words), an 8M desktop would easily run you USD $3000+. That would have been damaging to Microsoft's upcoming release (all stop). So (somehow) it was fixed and ram prices greatly reduced. You can read into that whatever you will. Running Linux effectively also really needed 8M. Windows 95 made running Linux (talking 1024x768x8bit graphical desktop) affordable back then. Just saying. We're talking 1994. Just some history. 1994 is when I got my first Linux "workstation".

Just to swing somewhat on topic, it was a Pentium 90 with the f00f bug, etc. And part of the age of "not much" in terms of CPU upgrading.

It's just similar to how, now, Microsoft is creating a high end pool of CPU resources for mostly Linux users (due to their own decision making).
 
cjcox said:
It's so weird, but even from the start, Microsoft has been behind the success of Linux. Nobody (practically speaking) could afford 8M of ram systems until Win95 (mysteriously) made ram cheap (8M requirement). It's not that you couldn't run Linux in 4M, but at the time, it really really wanted 8M. We've had Microsoft to thank in so many ways.
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How would you even get a hold of linux back then? Dial into a bulletin board with your 14400 baud modem?
 
daglesj said:
How would you even get a hold of linux back then? Dial into a bulletin board with your 14400 baud modem?
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RedHat Linux was released on CD in '95, could probably get other distros on floppy (either in store or from a friend). At some point they started including CDs in books about how to use and administer a Linux system, dunno how much later they started doing that, though.
 
Red Hat was a LATE to the game Linux distro (amonst the early providers). Granted, we all waited in anticipation of it (it made a lot of promises). There was Linux life before Red Hat. But just fyi, my distro was Yggdrasil Plug-and-Play (on CD no less). My Pentium 90 had a Mitsumi CDROM (as all but SCSI ones were proprietary back then).
 
daglesj said:
How would you even get a hold of linux back then? Dial into a bulletin board with your 14400 baud modem?
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Internet download over a modem or go to the campus computer lab and download to floppy disks. Back in the early days Linux distros were packaged for 3.5" floppy disk images. You needed a couple dozen of them or so. I forget exactly how many, but it was a massive pain in the ass compared to downloading a single DVD image and burning it to a disc or writing it to a USB key.
 
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