Old PC Upgrade: Motherboard & CPU

[Music] welcome to another video from explainingcomputers.com this time i'm going to be fitting a new motherboard and processor in an old desktop pc specifically i'm going to be fitting this asrock h410 chipset motherboard and this pentium gold microprocessor as these are the best low cost components i could purchase in the spring of 2021 so let's go and get started right here we are back with the old pc i've been upgrading in previous videos and which currently has a pentium e5500 processor in this gigabyte motherboard and it's got eight gigabytes of ram however the ram here is ddr3 so we can't use that in a new motherboard so what we're going to be doing is replacing the pc's processor motherboard and memory and before we do this there are a few things which are worth noting firstly some of you have asked whether fitting a new motherboard and a cpu in a pc is actually building a new computer rather than doing an upgrade and this could be argued either way but as what we call things that are relevant to the process i'm simply going to rapidly move on secondly you want to put a new motherboard in an old pc it needs to have an appropriate case and power supply here the existing motherboard has got a micro atx form factor which means it's 244 millimeters long on the back connector edge rather than being 305 millimeters long here for a full-size atx form factor motherboard so our new motherboard obviously needs to be micro atx or smaller or it won't fit in this case this said it's worth noting if you have a case which has currently got a full size atx motherboard 305 millimeters down here you could put a micro atx motherboard in that case that would be the mountings to allow you to do that we should additionally note that this case has got a cutout in the back to take an atx import output or i o shield this pc is also fitted with a power supply which connects via a 24 pin atx connector as well as an additional four pin 12 volt connector and this means that the power supply here will work with a modern pc motherboard for comparison if we look inside this much older old pc we can see that the case doesn't have an atx i o shield on the back and so it cannot accommodate modern motherboard connectors we could also see that the power supply here doesn't connect via a 24-pin atx connector and it also doesn't have an additional 12-volt connector to plug into the motherboard and so it wouldn't be easily possible to fit a modern motherboard into this old pc it's also worth noting that older pcs from some manufacturers and most notably dell sometimes don't have standard motherboard mountings or standard atx power connectors so do be very careful indeed if you want to change the motherboard in an old dell pc returning to the pc we're upgrading the power supply is rated at 355 watts which will be fine for the components we're going to be fitting although if we wanted to add a separate graphics card we should have a higher rated power supply this said i'm sure that already there are people in the comments saying that i should be fitting a new power supply anyway i shouldn't be using this old power supply and there is an argument for that because old power supplies can fail this said it could also be argued i should be using a new case and also new drives and so it all comes down to how much you want to spend and how much e-waste you're prepared to produce here we're fitting a new motherboard cpu and ram which will cost 162 pounds 21 and we're reusing the existing case the power supply the case fan and the drives and to buy a new entry-level case and power supply and comparable drives would cost somewhere between at least 100 and 130 pounds so adding up to 50 percent of the total cost hence as my goal here is to demonstrate the lowest cost new component upgrade which will give this old pc a modern specification i'm going to be keeping the existing power supply a final thing to mention is that most pcs have a system builder or oem version of windows that is licensed to the original motherboard only so in theory if you fit a new motherboard you need to purchase a new windows license now in practice if before you upgrade you link a pc's copy of windows 10 to a microsoft account then after the upgrade you may well be able to reactivate windows using the activation troubleshooter however this is not guaranteed especially on older pcs where windows was pre-installed and of course you may not want to link your windows license to a microsoft account so please be aware but if you upgrade your motherboard you may need to buy a new license key if you want to reactivate windows right here we have our new components which as i've already noted cost me 162 pounds 21 which is about 225 and this was significantly more than i expected to pay for these entry-level parts but in the spring of 2021 hardware prices remain high due to increased demand and supply shortages you could of course select other parts in an upgrade you might be doing yourself a higher specification motherboard processor memory etc and indeed my initial plan for this upgrade was to use an amd athlon 3000g processor but in over two months i couldn't get hold of one and so i've decided to go with this intel pentium gold specifically what we have here is a pentium g6400 which is a dual core cpu with a 4 gigahertz base frequency and intel uhd 610 graphics launched in april 2020 the g6400 uses intel's latest desktop lga 1200 socket and requires a motherboard with an intel 400 series chipset in march 2021 this cost me 62 pounds 38 and was listed on amazon.com for 69.99 we can see the chip itself through the top of the box sort of looking out there being rather happy so let's get it out let's bring in stand with a knife and cut things open down here i think like that always exciting open a new processor and the biggest part here will be the cooler there we are there's a processor on the top can we get that out there we are there's the processor in its little packet and this is the cooler which is supplied with it which is which is good how do we open the cooler do this carefully because there will be some thermal compound already applied there we are we can see thermal compound on the cooler there and if we just lift it out carefully not touching the thermal compound there is the intel stock cooler for our processor which i'll leave carefully packed away in the box next we have our motherboard which is this asrock h410m hvs revision 2 what an exciting name for a motherboard and this cost me 56 pounds 99 which is about 70 dollars so let's open it up nice and straightforward like that or we've got our i o shield waiting in the top to go in the back of the case some sata cables we've got a manual which ah the manual's also got a driver dvd we don't always get those these days but the style of the show is under this piece of cardboard there it is there's our new motherboard always exciting to have new motherboard let's just get rid of that down there and if we get this out or crinkle crinkle out of the material there we are here is our new motherboard i do like opening up new processors and motherboards and components and well everything to do with computers really they're always very exciting so let's just bring you in a little bit closer so we can take a better look at the board and in the center we have got the socket which is the lga 1200 socket and this board is equipped as its name suggests with an intel 410 chipset which means it's compatible with our pentium g6400 the 410 chipset is the lowest specification 400 series chipset available and this really is an entry-level board but we still get two ddr4 dimm slots supporting up to 64 gigabytes of ram and then on the back edge we find vga port supporting a resolution of up to 1920 by 1200 at 60 frames a second and an hdmi connector supporting 4k at 30 frames a second we then find a lung from these a ps2 keyboard and mouse port we've got four usb 2 ports two usb 3 ports gigabit ethernet and 3.5 millimeter audio connectors back on the top of the board we find two pcie 3.0 slots eight times 16 slot where you can put in the graphics card and the times one slot and down here we've got four sata 3 ports for connecting in drives and we've also got the usual headers you would expect including the front header here for two usb 3 ports and in fact the only thing we don't get on this entry-level board is an m.2 slot so you can't use an m.2 nvme ssd with this board oh and as i was talking about motherboard sizes and form factors earlier it's worth noting this is a micro atx form factor board but it's a rather small one at just 197 by 188 millimeters in size so it's a lot less across than the permissible 244 millimeters from microatx form factor board finally let's take a look at our memory where i've got two 4 gigabyte corsair ddr4 2400 dimms which cost me a total of 42.74 or around 59. again i found these difficult to get hold of let's just get inside one of them again it's exciting opening up components and we'll get one out like this there we are there's one of our dims all waiting to be fitted and i'm sure some of you were thinking that a 2 400 megahertz memory is not the fastest available it isn't but a 266 six megahertz is the fastest supported memory speed on our motherboard using a celeron pentium i3 or i5 processor and two 400 megahertz is still a very respectable memory speed and a significant upgrade for our pc greetings our processor is now waiting to be fitted and if we very carefully flip it over like that you'll see that on the back like all modern intel processors it doesn't have pins it has connection pads and specifically what we see here is a land grid array of 1200 connection pads which is why the socket for this chip is called lga 1200. just as an aside note that if this was an amd processor it would have pins as we can see in this comparison of the underside of an intel and amd cpu anyway returning to our pentium gold it's time to fit it in the motherboard with its central lga 1200 socket and all we need to do is to raise this little lever like that we should also remove the little plastic cover which protects the pins just under here and get that off there we are and this now lifts back and we can see with 1200 pins it's amazing piece of precision engineering this we now take our processor it just drops in lining up the little arrow top corner and the two little notches there and there and then we can now just drop this back in place it will uh move back like this oh come on there we are that's it in like that drop the lever back in quite a bit of force going on there and there we are we've mounted the processor in our motherboard again as an aside note if we were fitting an amd processor things are very similar indeed with the processor's pins fitting into the socket and everything being locked into place with a little lever next we're going to fit the stock intel cooler with it's a thermal compound reapplied on base and it's often easier to fit the cooler when you've got the motherboard in the case but for better filming access i'm doing it the other way around and because of this i've got the motherboard raised up on these round boxes because there are holes here on the motherboard through which the push pins here on the cooler have to fit so cooler is square it can go in any way around we want and the orientation is fine but you have to be aware we've got a connector for the fan here which goes in our case here down to the motherboard down there so i think this is the right orientation for us so all we have to do is to line things up nice and carefully like that there we are and then all we have to do with the name implies is to push down on the push pin so we'll push down on this one first of all like that and then holding things in place we'll do it opposite diagonal like that this one here and then this one down here and our cooler is now secured into place and so all we now need to do is to sort out the fan connection so i'll take the cable from up like that and this will plug in down here for cpu fan down there and there we are our cpu cooler is well and truly fitted next we're going to fit our memory so if we take the first of our ddr4 dim modules and we can slot it into place on the motherboard they only go in one way around make sure you get it the right way around put it in like that and there we are clicks into place retains at the end and then we'll bring in the other one goes in obviously like this and slots in again there we are secured in place and by jingo we've now got our motherboard fitted with its cpu cooler and ram guess what it's now time to remove the old motherboard and i'm going to start by removing this usb 3 card because we don't need this with a new motherboard it's got headers for our front usb 3 ports and also back usb suite ports there we are and i'm now going to remove the power connectors that's the 12 volt power connector and also the 24 pin power connector a little latch release on that come on there we are and we'll now take out the satellites which connect our drives some of those didn't want to come we've also got this connector for this case fan that'll come out of there we're doing fairly well now i think yes just release some of these cable ties and now all we've got left is a front audio connector down here like that and then the final thing is down here i'm going to give you a closer shot of this and these are all the jumpers for the front panel and just before you pull these out it's worth making sure that they're actually labeled if i take one out it's difficult to show you exactly what's going on but there you are hopefully you can see on there it says power led so we're safe to take these jumpers out because they're labeled for going back again but sometimes in some older cases they're not labeled in which case you'd have to take very careful note of what colours went to what markings on the motherboard oh and i've missed the final connector which is the front usb 2 port there we are tent on out of there but i think everything else is disconnected it is so we can bring in mr screwdriver and take out the motherboard screws and here we are the last one is coming out now and so in theory if i've got them all the motherboard should be able to no i've missed one i always miss one there we are wasn't the last one it was the second last one i'm going to blame the fact i couldn't see on camera but it's not true at all i just missed that screw oh there don't leave a screw on your motherboard but there we are the motherboard should now be releasable it is yes there we are we can gently take it out of the case like that and we've created a large new motherboard sized hole in our computer right we're now ready to fit the new motherboard but before we do we need to remove the old motherboard's io shield from the back of the case hopefully it comes out very easily like that there we are and we want to put in a new one which came with the motherboard in the motherboard box and we fit this through from the back again like this these are sometimes a swine but actually that's going in quite easily and there there we are that's all fitted like that next i've checked that the risers in the case are in the right positions for our new motherboard if they're not just get a pair of pliers take them out and reposition them as needed and it's now therefore time to get the motherboard and put it in the case the moment of truth i think we have to go in like that because we've got all these drives fitted but we can go around like that and then we just need to slot it carefully into place making sure we fit through the i o shield at the back like that that is pretty good and we can now put in the screws and there we are with everything nicely tightened up the motherboard has now been fitted in the case well that said there are quite a few cables to connect so let's start with the power supply we've got here the 24 pin connector which will go down here so let's put it down there like that and next we need to attend to the atx 12 volt connector which on this motherboard like on most modern border boards we can see here is an eight pin connector but the connector from our power supply for the 12 volt extra connector is a four pin connector as you can see and this isn't a problem because we're using a fairly low power processor here but if you had a very high power processor you would need to use all eight pins but you can use a four pin connector into the eight pin atx 12 volt connector and it only goes in one way around you can't get it wrong it goes in here where everything lines up and there we are that fits perfectly well indeed moving along we come to the front panel connectors which are hidden behind the time 16 pcie slot and a little tricky to work out given how the motherboard is labeled so it's useful to confirm the pin out in the manual so let's plug in the power led the power switch the drive led and finally the reset switch noting that the positive connection in each case is the one which isn't white next we'll hook up the front usb 2 and usb 3 ports the connectors for which only go in one way around as well as the case fan connector next to the cpu fan and then lastly for now it's the turn of the front hd audio connector i say lastly for now because i've yet to connect any of our drives with the sata cables here down to the sata ports on the corner of the motherboard and i'm going to leave the drives disconnected on the side of the case until we've done a test [Music] boot well i've now connected a monitor rodent and keyboard as well as applying the intel sticker to the case to maximize the chance of everything working so let's turn on the power this is the very first power up for this computer always a bit nerve-racking but things seem to be working we can hear fans little light on the keyboard the screens pick something up yes it's booted and of course it's booted to the bios because we haven't got any drives connected so it can't launch an operating system but it does seem what we can see here everything is working okay it's therefore now time to hook up our drives where i've used one of the new satellites for the ssd and to put the side back on the case my strong suggestion at this point is then to reinstall windows or another operating system and if you want to know how to install windows 10 it's covered in my video ryzen budget pc number three windows install and tests this said it is possible that windows 10 will boot up and sort itself out from the existing windows installation on the pc's ssd and so i'm going to give that a try and hopefully run a few performance tests guess what we're now running windows 10 on our pc with its brand new pentium gold processor and just to let you know i did have to do a clean install and windows 10 is no longer activated however this is not a problem as in the next video we're going to be installing linux this said i did just want to boot into windows 10 which is a where we are at now working nice and fluidly because i wanted to run passmark which i've done down here where you can see the overall score is a 3050 which is not bad it means this pc is above average and this compares to an overall score of 452 before we made any changes to this whole pc and an overall score of 487 before the motherboard processor and ram upgrade we've implemented in this video i've also run crystal disk mark on the ssd on this computer the c drive we're booting from where as you can see speeds have more than doubled compared to the pc before the upgrade as the drive is no longer constrained by the previous sata 2 interface so we're benefiting here from having a more modern motherboard as well as a better processor and i look forward to testing out the new hardware more extensively in the next video so there we are our old desktop pc now boasts a modern motherboard and processor i could of course have fitted higher specification components but for a lot of computing purposes what i've used are perfectly sufficient and indeed in my last video in this series i intend to put a linux distro on the machine and a lot of free software and to show you all the things it's possible to do on a pentium gold pc including video editing i'll be editing the video on the pentium gold pc but now that's it for another video if you've enjoyed what you've seen here please press that like button if you haven't subscribed please subscribe and i hope to talk to you again very soon [Music] you

Channel: ExplainingComputers

Views: 209,505

Rating: 4.9307437 out of 5

Keywords: Desktop PC upgrade, fitting new motherboard, new motherboard in old PC, Pentium Gold, Pentium G6400, building new PC, upgrading old PC, motherboard upgrade, motherboard and CPU upgrade, motherboard and processor upgrade, Christopher Barnatt, Barnatt, installing new otherboard, installing processor, installing CPU, install Intel CPU, install Intel cooler, install desktop PC RAM

Id: sX_yFWKXkz8

Length: 24min 46sec (1486 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021