Can you upgrade your motherboard?

When I bought my computer, I remember seeing the same body with different processors. Can you upgrade your computer later to a better motherboard and processor or isn't worth while?

 

If it's a laptop probably not. If it's a not a laptop, it's best to look at the motherboards manufacturers
site to see if you can replace the cpu for a more powerful one.

Sometimes just replacing the hard drive for either a sshd or ssd drive can improve performance.

This applies to both laptops and desktops.

 

Normally the big problem you have if you want to upgrade your motherboard is the ports location. If you have a laptop casing the is exactly the same with the ports in the same place but one laptop has a AMD motherboard and another a Intel motherboard, in principle the fixtures should be the same. So if you want to upgrade shouldn't it be possible?

 

If it's on a desktop and the usb ports or other connectors don't line up when replacing it, the easiest thing to do is modify the back panel physically to where you make it fit. If you're already replacing the motherboard on it, it's safe to say that you're not worried about the warranty or neding it in any way if it was there.

You could always transplant the components from your old desktop to a new case, but you'd then have to make sure that everything is good for alignment of the power supply having enough space away from the board and make sure the motherboard is properly grounded with the new case, adjust the screws for all of that, etc. It's not that hard. I'm sure just writing it out is more complicated than doing it, but if you can stick with the case you have and not have to buy a new one or go through all of that just for a small change that you can already make to an existing one, that's usually better to do and saves on time and small issues when upgrading.

If you have a laptop or a netbook, it's rare to see alternative motherboards. You can usually order the replacement motherboard from manufacturers one at a time or in bulk, though. So upgrading motherboards in laptops isn't usual, but replacing a laptop motherboard is if it's stopped working or had other issues that required you to do this.

On laptops and netbooks/ultrabooks, you can upgrade the ram and hard drive usually, sometimes the GPU (if not integrated) and wi fi card. Usually the sound card is integrated (but there are one or two models where you actually can replace this too). Upgrading the screen to a touchscreen is possible for most models too now.

Aside from that and upgrading the CPU, there is usually just a need to replace items on a laptop or the motherboard itself, rather than finding upgrades that aren't exact replacements.

One of my pet-peeves with most manufacturers now is that they've gone to great lengths to make this harder and harder to do, and in some cases closer to impossible for hobbyists and engineers who don't want to have to desolder things from the motherboard or take an entire system apart just to change the blasted battery on it. Others have gone as far as to make it that way just to change out the hard drive now, and some even solder the ram chip to the board so that if it shorts out or goes bad, you can't easily fix it anymore like before by removing and replacing it without being very careful or technically skilled to do so. But it is entirely unnecessary for them to do this, and it only serves to make it more difficult on people, forcing them to buy when they don't have to or to throw away or recycle items when they could still be used otherwise.

So yeah, most of the time for laptops it's just replacement (if you're able to get to the part easily) or upgrades for desktop, but making sure the little issues are handled like back panel alignment, power supply matchup, proper grounding, etc.

 

I am going to have to assume no. In my experience anything relating to the motherboard as an issue means just one thing..it is time to buy a new one. I am the type of person that gets really nervous though when you start tinkering with how the things work, so maybe that is playing into my nervousness a little bit.

 

Thank you for your responses.
Here is the image of the Amd A6



and this the Intel i7



as you can see the slots are in the same place so in principle you could make the upgrade with out doing any alterations.

 

Looks like you can. So, let us know how the upgrade goes Just be careful with the whole thing and follow the usual stuff like ensuring you follow a checklist and ensuring that you don't let static hurt the motherboard, which I think you've got covered. All the best with the upgrade.

 

My computer is still under warranty so I won't do it right now, but I have heard it said so often that you couldn't. That once you buy your laptop you could only upgrade the hard drive and the ram. Yet when you go to the store you see the same casing with different motherboards and CPUs. That got me thinking maybe all that you read might not be true.

 

You definitely can. But, it's not advisable. You have to look for a variety of things before you upgrade. First you can't upgrade a motherboard of a Intel processor to an amd one and vice versa without changing your processor. You must look for what types of Ram is supported like DDR2, DDR3, DDR4 although most are backward compatible. The graphics card slot is also backward compatible though.

 

I think you just have to do the calculations to see if it's worth while, after all you will have a completely new computer on your hands and it could till be worth while.

 

While you -can-, a lot of times you can just reinvest that money in a new machine and sell off the rest of your rig to someone that deals in parts and refurbishing. It's worth more to them than you and sometimes you can massively upgrade for a couple hundred bucks.

 

The problem with upgrading your motherboard is finding a motherboard that is compatible with all the components you already have together. Usually when building a PC you start with the CPU and find a compatible motherboard to match and build other components based on those. So, yes you can, but it's hard to call it an 'upgrade' instead of a whole new build, because the motherboard is basically the skeleton and muscle that bind the organs together. What benefits does upgrading a motherboard hold anyhow? If you 'upgrade' it in any real sense of the word then you probably would need to upgrade something else like the ram or CPU to go with that otherwise performance-wise it will probably not matter when you use the same old components.

 

I see your point so you can't really consider it an upgrade but rather a rebuild. Still it a tleast gives you a chance to save that old laptop that was put to the side.

 

My mоthеrbоаrd suppоrtеd оnly ddr2 аnd I wаnt tо upgrаdе tо ddr3 suppоrtеd оnе. Is it nесеssаry tо upgrаdе/rеplасе thе prосеssоr tоо?

Mоthеrbоаrd upgrаdе. Nесеssаry dеtаils?