Replacing my Processor

I'm trying to modify a PC that my mother gave me since she wasn't using it anyway. What I want to do is make my pc good enough to run Minecraft on high. Can anyone tell me how to replace my processor? The socket I use is 775 according to system requirements lab. My video card is an Inno3D FX 5500, 1 Gb of ram, 500 watt PSU.

Thanks!

Knowing the socket is not enough to be assured that your new CPU is gonna work. You have to check the compatibility of your motherboard (MOBO).

http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/
http://www.motherboard.cz/

If you don't know the brand and model of your MOBO, I suggest downloading and using speccy.

I've been burned by this back in the day trying to get Prescott Pentium 4 to work in a board that didn't support it. Sometimes a BIOS upgrade is all you need, like that time a board wouldn't accept a Northwood CPU instead a Willamette.

As of now, the only thing I can say about my motherboard is that it's old. My mom had it built only 3-4 years ago but I guess it's fine to put a new processor. What do you recommend I buy?

Re-read what I wrote... if you have no idea what MOBO you have, install speccy and it'll tell you.

Sorry, I was replying on my phone and I didn't have access to my pc so I couldn't give you the right info. Here:

OS: Windows XP Home SP3
BIOS: Date-11/01/06 Ver. 08.00.12
Processor: Intel (R) Pentium(R) D
Video Card: Inno3D GeForce Fx 5500
Motherboard: ASUS P5VDC-MX
HDD:l Seagate ST3402111A

I don't have Speccy installed, but I do have Game Booster so I used that instead.

>Pentium D
>1 gig of ram
>agp card
>max supported ram 2x2gb

This is full of lawd. You're not going to get any better than C2Q on that socket, and any attempt to upgrade your GPU would be useless as your board only supports AGP cards. If you really only want to play minecraft though the integrated 4000 HD on the new desktop i3/5/7 CPU's can run it around a solid 50 fps.

That'd necessitate buying a new board, cpu, ram, and most likely a PSU given the sheer age and quality of that rig.

Though at this point, you might be incredibly satisfied with just buying a 2012-2013 mid range laptop.

Thank you, I sort of already knew that it would be hard to upgrade my PC, but I needed to hear it from others.

One last question, how do I know what the form factor of my case is? So I can know what motherboard I can replace it with.

Thanks!

Open up the case and see.

Your MoBo is Micro ATX (9.6 × 9.6 in/or 244 × 244 mm)

If your case has more room, then it should fit ATX (12 × 9.6 in/305 × 244 mm)

Also there should be some bolt holes at the bottom of the case if it is made to fit ATX.

Thank you very much for all of your answers. I took all of your advice and I decided that I will just build my own PC. I've already made a list of the components that I am going to buy. Would you kindly check if these are good enough?

CPU: AMD FX4100 (3.6G) 4MB
MoBo: MSI 760GM-P21 (FX) AM3+
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series (2 x 2GB) SDRAM DDR3 1600
GPU: INNO3D GTX650Ti 1GB DDR5 128BIT
HDD: SEAGATE 500GB SATA
DVDRW: SONY DRU-870/880S 22X SATA

Would you please also inform me if any of these components are incompatible with each other? I think my wallet will die if I buy another part that doesn't work with the others...

I (and most other computer/software engineers) wouldn't recommend going with any manufacturer other than ASUS for your motherboard. The AM3+ socket is due for replacement any time now so you'd be better off getting a motherboard with a socket that supports Intel processors, LGA1155 would be your best bet for a low budget machine because it will leave you plenty of room to upgrade in the future. As for RAM Corsair and Kingston are generally the recommended manufacturers. For video cards either ATI or Nvidia works (ATI is generally more bang for the buck) and for manufacturers personally I go with either ASUS and XFX or Zotac if the budget is skimpy.

So that's a bit of a guideline for buying your parts. Although, the engineers in this section would be able to better assist you if we knew what kind of budget you're working with.