Linus tech tips is over 10 years old now so it's easy for us to forget that many
viewers may be encountering the world of pc building for the first time and while
there's lots of great pc building tutorials out there there are also some
that verge on misinformation so in this
video we are going back to basics with
episode 2 of how to basics
installing a CPU
ugh
the hex gears impulse mechanical keyboard comes with RGB lighting and
ip56 water resistance so in the event
that you do spill on your keyboard you shouldn't even need to interrupt your
game check it out at the link below so let's start then from the very beginning
it's a good place to start what do you install the CPU into
the CPU socket where's the socket on the motherboard where's the motherboard well
here's where we get to step one on top of a non-metal non-conductive surface
like the box that it came in now if you don't have the motherboard you're going
to want to go back a few steps and pick one of those up first that's pretty
important now there are two main types of CPU sockets that you should probably
know about in 2019 and actually for years to come
lga style sockets and pga style sockets
Intel primarily uses land grid array or
lgas meaning that the socket itself is
made up of a grid of pins so these touch gold-plated flat contacts
or pads on the bottom of the CPU and
that is what allows your pc to run all of your spreadsheet simulators
AMD on the other hand uses more commonly
a pin grid array or pga configuration
that means that the pins are on the CPU instead of on the socket so pga sockets
are simply a grid of holes that the CPU drops into with no force required now
this makes it much safer to handle the motherboard without worrying about
damaging the pins which can be pretty much the end of your CPU installation
endeavor but it also means that you have to be extra careful with the CPU Intel
actually originally used pgas but they
switched to lga around 2002
presumably because processors are generally more expensive than
motherboards and if you're gonna accidentally bend or break a pin you
want your new paperweight to be as cheap as possible with that said it's not
impossible to repair socket pins it's
just extremely difficult and extremely
easy to cause even further damage to other pins while you try to fix the one
that's bent so your best bet is to send
it to an experienced technician if you run into this no pressure
but anyway you aren't just concerned with the type of socket but also the
number of pins so Intel's main consumer socket lga 1151 has
1151 pins while their 2066 socket which
is geared more towards enthusiasts has 2066 pins
on the AMD side am4 has 1 331 so if AMD
was using the same naming scheme as Intel it would be pga 1331 i guess and
then their tr4 socket which is actually an lga well that one has 4094 pins which
is where things get pretty confusing because sometimes AMD does use lgas
now some of these sockets have been around for a few years and may continue
to be used by Intel and AMD so something you need to note is that
just because a CPU physically fits into
a particular socket does not necessarily mean it will be compatible
and this was a lesson that riley who prepared this episode learned all too
well in our cheapest amazon pc video now
sockets are different from chipsets a specific configuration of hardware and
software that allows the processor memory and the peripherals in a system
to communicate with each other processors often launch alongside
compatible chipsets but sometimes they'll be forwards or backwards
compatible with the next or previous generation the thing though is this
might require a BIOS update in order to work so you will need to consult your
motherboard manufacturer's website in order to know 100 for sure which cpus
work and which motherboards and if a BIOS update is required
okay so now that we've done our homework we know our processor is compatible with
our motherboard it's time to drop that sucker in except don't actually drop it
because as i said the pins regardless of what they're attached to are extremely
fragile and susceptible to damage now these following steps apply broadly
to both of Intel sockets and to AMD's am4 socket while tr4 AMD's enthusiast
socket for Threadripper does do things a little bit differently before you
begin you're going to want to grab an anti-static wrist strap that's connected
to a ground or you're going to want to keep your feet stationary and touch a
metal part of your case or power supply with your power supply plugged into the
wall to discharge any static buildup on your body now if you're upgrading your
CPU on an existing system the first thing you're going to need to do is
unplug your CPU's cooler so find where the fan cable plugs into the header on
the motherboard and just pull it off
for Intel systems it's pretty common to see these tool-less plastic pins
installed around the socket simply rotate them in the direction indicated
pop them open and pull the CPU cooler off
on the AMD side of things you should find a little lever like this on one
side of the processor socket pull it up and the latches on either
side of your CPU should loosen so you can pull them off the little hooks on
the side and remove the cooler be careful though it's not uncommon for the
CPU to get pulled off with the heatsink
exposing its fragile pins it's not a huge problem as long as you don't bend
anything though if you're doing a new installation rather than upgrading
though Intel lga sockets will have a socket cover in place
leave this where it is as it will come off by itself when you lock in the CPU
instead lift up the retention ARM or arms on the side of the socket this will
allow you to lift up the socket lid next hold your processor being careful
to only touch the edges if you touch the contacts on the bottom not only can this
interfere with electrical contact but it can actually cause corrosion over the
long term next look for an arrow in one
corner of the CPU this will line up with a similar marking
on one of the corners of the socket
there may also by the way be notches on the sides of the CPU these should line
up with tiny nubbins in the side of the socket if you're not a hundred percent
sure about your arrows once you've determined the correct
orientation lower the CPU into the socket gently there's no need to push or
apply any force though i do recommend giving it a tiny
wiggle just to make sure that it's seated properly
and to let it know that you still love it no matter what
next lower the socket lid over the CPU
making sure that it fits back under the screw or bracket that held it in
originally then push the retention ARM down and under the hook so it stays into
place if you've got two arms they'll be designed so that one goes down first and
then the other just like this
now that process is pretty similar for most consumer boards and cpus for the
last 10 almost 20 years
but AMD's tr4 socket that one's a little more involved your threadripper CPU will
actually come with the torx screwdriver
that you need to install it first loosen the three screws holding down the socket
lid it'll say which order to loosen them in so don't just unscrew them all
willy-nilly once you've got them loosened those screws will stay inside
the socket lid which will pop up on its own because it's spring-loaded so that's
pretty fun under the lid you will find another lid
which has a plastic tray inside lift this lid up holding it by the sides then
slide the plastic tray upward and then put it away to the side
next is the actual socket cover which protects the pins we're just going to
leave that there for the moment now threadripper cpus come pre-installed
into an orange plastic housing do not
try to remove it it is supposed to be there holding it by the tab on one side
slide the CPU into the rails in that
second lid with the bottom facing the socket until it kind of clicks into
place then you can remove the socket cover
from the actual pins by pinching the grab points in the middle and then lower
the second lid containing the CPU now onto the socket
gently push and it will secure itself into place at which point you can then
lower the first lid and start screwing the screws back into place
now that torx screwdriver that's included is designed specifically for
these screws so once they're threaded in a little you can tighten them in the
order that's specified on the socket lid until the tool clicks and that's it your
CPU is installed but it won't last very long without a CPU
cooler now if you have a third-party cooler that's probably going to come
with its own instructions detailing how exactly to mount it if it has no
pre-applied thermal paste you're going to need to add your own to the top of
the CPU before installing just remember guys that when it comes to
thermal paste less is more you only need to fill the small imperfections between
the CPU and the heatsink there's no
mystical pentagram of thermal paste required to
summon the pc gamer gods that's only going to end up with a whole bunch of
thermal compound all over your motherboard which probably won't damage
it but it'll be really messy to clean up gamer's nexus's modmat actually has a
great guide for how to apply thermal compound to most modern cpus so consumer
chips just the small ones a simple line down the middle is perfect for Intel
enthusiast cpus four smaller dots in each corner will do your wonders and for
Threadripper you want to make an x with four dots in between the lines to help
fill in the gaps the thing is that the larger the actual CPU die
under the heat spreader on top is the more thermal compound you need to make
sure that you get full coverage because any dye area that doesn't have thermal
compound is going to result in hot spots on your CPU which at the very least can
limit your overclocking potential now mainline processors usually come with a
cooler while enthusiast ones sometimes do not
now many coolers come with pre-installed thermal paste on the bottom in which
case there's no need for extra if you do
have a stock cooler simply line up the four mounting pins with the four holes
on the motherboard socket if you're reusing it by the way you will need to
reset those pins back to their original location and then push down on the
opposing sets of pins until they click into place
as for AMD it's the same process in reverse from removal where we simply
hook the side of the cooler without the latch first
then the latch side and close the ARM
now it can sometimes take a little bit of force but if you feel like you're
overdoing it then you should probably check the bottom side and make sure that
nothing's interfering after your cooler is secured you can
connect your fan plug into the closest 4-pin header on your motherboard which
will usually be clearly labeled CPU fan
now that we've got our CPU installed we could just say
ah that's great let's call it a day but we won't because we're professional
technicians it's good practice to make sure that your CPU is actually seated
correctly and just because the system boots doesn't mean that it is so you're
going to want to go into your motherboard's BIOS which is normally
accessed by pressing delete or f2 when you first power on your system to make
sure that all of your RAM sticks show up
it is very common especially on Threadripper cpus for some of the pins to not
make perfect contact which can cause one or more of your memory slots not to
function correctly if you do run into this it's okay probably nothing is
damaged just go ahead and take it out reinstall it and try again
and then that's really it your CPU is installed the brain of your system some
might call it treat it well my friends
treat it well normally these sponsor spots are pretty
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for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do but if it was
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