Debalic wrote:
gbaji wrote:
In my opinion it is about the same or even more hassle to swap a cpu out of a mainboard as it is to swap a mainboard out of a case. You're free to have a different opinion, but that is mine. Given that I've probably done both of those operations a few hundred times more than you have, I'm going to go with my opinion having more weight. Obviously, you're making your decision for your computer, so you're free to do whatever you want to do. I'm posting about what I tend to do, and why.
This is ridiculous. I've never seen any design where motherboard removal was anywhere near as quick or easy as just the CPU removal, except maybe for compact appliance-style devices, which is hardly within the scope of our discussion.
To be fair, I work on a lot of HP workstations at work. I can pull almost everything and replace them without even using a tool. Except the cpus and the boards. These require tools and take a hell of a lot more time. Pretty equivalent amounts of time. The difference being that if I pull the entire board with cpus and memory and swap it out for an entire board/cpu/memory trio from a known working system, it's done and takes about the same amount of time it would take to replace one cpu. And that may or may not be the problem. Um... But that's not what I'm basing my argument on. I just point it out as a reference point. While these are not typically used for home computing, they're also a far cry from appliances. Again, I mention this only to respond to your "I've never seen any design" comment.
Even on a home computer, unless you intentionally purchased a really crappy/small case, it's really easy to remove the main board. A few screws on the bottom/side (which means that nothing blocks them because they're on the side that no components are attached to), unclip maybe 3 or 4 cables, and pull it out (probably not in that order). Put new board in the same spot. ***** it in. Re-attach the cables. Done. Takes like 5 minutes and has about zero chance of breaking anything.
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For CPUs, you may have to move some cabling and perhaps a drive or some other component out of the way in a poorly-designed case, then remove the heatsink and/or fan assemblies, which is usually a set of screws and a set of clips, then lift the lever and remove CPU.
Yeah. You have to remove the fan. Which also requires removing the fan power cable (which is often a pain by itself). Then unscrewing several screws, which are inevitably in difficult to reach spots, sometimes with difficult to find/release clips or covers. Every fan designer seems to have his own idea of the "best way" to attach a fan to a heatsink. Then comes the fun of releasing the cpu lever and replacing the cpu. This is admittedly not the pain that it once was (bent pins no longer the issue it once was). Assuming you have a well designed socket, this isn't too terrible, but if the board is "old", that may also not be the case. Then you have to re-attach the new heatsink and fan assembly. Which again, can be a pain in the butt.
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The motherboard, however, often requires removal of at least the heatsink/fan to start with.
No, it does not. I don't think I've ever had a board or case that required this. Easily the last 3 home computer upgrades I did, involved simply purchasing an already assembled trio of board/cpu/memory, and just replacing the existing board in the case in one piece, and then plugging the existing cables for my components and PS into the new board. Sometimes this also requires replacing the PS as well, if power requirements have changed.
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Then disconnecting all the cables, removing all the mounting screws, and lifting the motherboard itself - which is much larger, awkward, and prone to being blocked by more cabling and components that need to be moved/removed.
Only if you started out with a really tiny and/or custom constructed case. For the last three decades, I have always purchased the most basic large cases with removable panels on all sides. Very simple. Actually very inexpensive as well. And a snap to remove/replace all components within. And this makes it much easier to replace things that attach to the case itself. That may be what's coloring my perspective because for me it's easy to remove stuff within the case itself (like the mainboard) because there's plenty of room inside. The connections between the board and the components on the board (specifically the cpu) is where the pain always is for me.
This isn't the early 90s anymore. There are literally only maybe 4 cables you have to connect between the board and the case. One power/communication connector. And then 1-3 drive connectors (SATA or SAS). That's it.
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And yes, I have done this several thousand times over the past twenty years, to many varied models and manufacturers.
I just suspect our experiences are different. In my professional life, I'm always working with high end workstations where they are designed to be swapped out in whole chunks. At home, I've always endeavored to follow the same model because to me it makes the most sense. If, as I do, you purchase your board/cpu/memory as a single component, then it's easy to just drop it into a case as one piece. And because you did this when you built the system, it's trivial to remove the same trio later and swap it with a new one. Just pull the PCI cards off, pull the main cable bundle, then pull the drive cables. At this point, you've completely disconnected your board from the rest of the computer. Now it's just a few easy to reach screws and you're done. Repeat the process to but the new board in.
The reason I advocate this method is that it allows you to gain far more benefit for the buck. I've found that for quite some time (probably about 15-20 years now), trying to upgrade memory and cpu on a board just isn't worth it. By the time the amount/speed I purchased initially is no longer cutting it (or is failing), the upgrade options available that will still be compatible with the mainboard I've got are nearly meaningless relative to the increase gained if I replace the trio as a set. Most of the time, the reason you need to upgrade the board is because the old board no longer supports some newer memory and cpus. I just don't see the logic in spending a hundred bucks on a cpu that is maybe 15% faster than the 5 year old cpu I had before, when I could spend $300 on a total new trio of board/cpu/memory that will be 200% faster as a whole than what I've got. And it'll support new features that the old board didn't. And it'll provide upgrade paths for things like my video card and peripherals as well.
And yes, if you do this, you'll find that fiddling with the cpu and heatsink is a pita relative to just swapping out the board.
Edited, Mar 27th 2015 7:31pm by gbaji