So I went online to Newegg.com purchased this AMD Athlon 64 3700+ processor as he had a budget of $500 and I still had to buy the mother board. I chose the ASUS A8V Deluxe motherboard for this job. By using this combination I was also saving some money for my client which he was very pleased about. Please refer to the How to purchase a processor guide for full details on what questions to ask yourself before purchasing a processor.


INSTALLATION :
This AMD processor installation was really easy for me anyways as I have built a lot of computers and have lots of experience with them. Plus, these processors are really simple to install and if you get stuck you can simply follow the instructions in the quick install guide. The easy installation guide comes in handy if you are doing this for the first time, even the second time (you get used to it after that), or if you just want to refresh your memory. You should not encounter any problems if you use the stock heatsink and fan, but if you do plan on using different ones than use the instruction that came with the fan and heatsink to install it properly.

If you choose to install the stock heatsink and fan (like my client), I would highly advise against overclocking this processor (plus it is already pretty fast). One thing I would like to suggest you if you are planning to install it yourself is to always use Arctic Silver thermal grease when installing the heatsink; it will help keep your processor cooler or make it cooler faster and run cooler at all times. Heatsinks tend to get dust and dirt stuck on them over time, so I suggest doing a clean up ever three months or so. I had not cleaned mine for about six months and the processor started over heating; when I opened it up I noticed a lot of dust and dirt on the heatsink. Now it runs much cooler after a good cleanup.

The first time you boot-up your newly built or upgraded computer with this processor, you may need to clear your CMOS/BIOS settings to factory defaults to make sure you start out with a clean system (this will reduce the chance of crashes and conflicts). You may not have to do this if you are just replacing or upgrading your processor. Then you have to install your favorite operating system or if you already have an operating system installed, just boot up. One thing to keep in mind when booting for the first time is to keep an eye on the processor and memory (RAM) temperatures especially if you used a different heatsink and overclocked the CPU. I also suggest that you make sure the memory sticks you have are compatible and can overclock without problems.