Change Cpu Running Ub10.10

[Rsvdude]

I have a desktop with AMD AM@ dual processor and thinking of up grading the processor to a quad core.

The MB Asus M3N78 is AM3 compatible.

Can I just unplug one CPU and plug in another or would I have to reinstall the operating system.

Thanks for any help

[dave_boo]

Assuming that the motherboard has the latest bios and does in fact support quad-cores (update your bios before swapping!--the motherboard should support the new chip but better safe than sorry) Ubuntu will have no issues with the change.

Case in point; my old laptop went kaput on me. I moved over the cpu and WLAN card into a new ITX motherboard with a whole different northbridge (went from Intel->Nvidia), RAM (went from DDR2->DDR3), graphics (both Nvidia but different models), etc. and the sucker just booted right up. Well, except for the Windows partition which bluescreened; to be expected with different SATA controller though.

[TimeBandit2]

To add to what dave-boo said.

Make sure to use the new cooler than comes with the new CPU as it may have a different thermal profile (that will ensure you're using fresh thermal compound as well). It should use the existing retention bracket.

Reviewing the CPU support list: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2Plus/M3A78/#CPUS

It appears to support all AM3 CPUs when using BIOS version 0703 or above.

Good luck.

[Rsvdude]

Thanks for the replies I had forgotten about the BIOS so will check and update first. I have a tube of thermal paste so can sort that too. Was mainly worried that Ubuntu might baulk but it sounds worth a try can always swap it back temporarily.

[dave_boo]

Thanks for the replies I had forgotten about the BIOS so will check and update first. I have a tube of thermal paste so can sort that too. Was mainly worried that Ubuntu might baulk but it sounds worth a try can always swap it back temporarily.

The only thing it would 'balk' at is the fact that you have an extra two cores; and by that I mean the compiler may not take that into account and you could be short changing yourself in certain circumstances. Luckily there's a nice easy way around this. Open a terminal and type in the following:

export CONCURRENCY_LEVEL=5

Technically you only need "4", but I use "5" because of tradition. It seems that someone did a study on a quad core and for his machine using "4" was fastest. Only thing I can suggest is to experiment and see what works best on your system.

Also of concern is updating to the latest kernel 2,6,38. It's much smoother on my hardware...

Edited April 19, 2011 by dave_boo