Video:Building a PC: How to Install a CPU

Transcript:Building a PC: How to Install a CPU

Hi I’m Deputy Mike Dehghanian from Geek Squad for About.com. Today we’re gonna be discussing, building a PC and how to install a CPU.

Build a Computer in Static Free Area

Now of course when you're doing anything pertaining to the upgrade of a computer when you open up the computer in general. You wanna make sure you have a static free environment. Now in our case I'm standing on an anti static mat but of course if you don’t happen to have that at home there are actual anti static wristbands and what these wristbands are is you of course is you attach it around your wrist and then it's got a little alligator clip on one end and that alligator clip is suppose to get clipped to a metal part of the actual computer case you're gonna be working on.

Install the CPU

First step we have here is to take the CPU and I already have something called thermal interface material on here and basically what that means it's a coating of usually  a silver type material and this coating is the one  that goes in between the processor and the heat sink to make sure that good thermal contact is being made and the computers not going to overheat.  

What have here on the processor is I’ve got a golden arrow and this is the key that’s going to line up the processor with the actual socket. So on the socket I’m looking for the little arrow that matches the size of the one that’s next to the CPU which you can see right here. So what I’m gonna do is while being very careful not to touch the thermal interface material   and making sure that I am unlocked, I’m going to install the CPU very carefully…and it should snap right into place; which it has. And now it’s gonna stand on its own. It’s, it’s firmly in there. I’m gonna push the lever down and that’s gonna lock it into place completely.  

Install the Computer's Heat Sink

So now the CPU is installed but of course we’re not done until we’ve installed the actual heat sink. So what I’m gonna do is, I’m going to align these little clips that I have for the heat sink onto the clips that I have for the actual processor socket.  So I’m gonna put that in, get it aligned fully and then once that’s aligned it’s gonna fit snugly in here.  I’m gonna make sure that I get this latch over the clip on this side which I have. And as soon as I push it down it’s now latched in place but we’re not done yet because if I turn it on right now, the fan’s not spinning, the computer is definitely gonna have a heat problem. So I’m gonna take this fan header is what this is called, it’s just a power connector and there is a matching spot for it right here on the main circuit board and so I make sure I firmly insert it an it only goes in one way so you just have to be careful and now I’ve got a nice tight seal. 

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