Basics of Building a Computer (Part 5)

                                                          Central Processing Unit

        The central processing unit, or CPU, is what processes everything in your computer. Each motherboard uses either an AMD or an Intel processor, neither of which will fit the opposite ports, so choose carefully. For the money savers, go with AMD. AMD is much cheaper than Intel and in most cases, tends to be much faster than Intel, compared to its opposing processor through Intel. If you don't care about money and wish to have a glitch free PC, go with Intel. Intel is the most simple, straight forward, and most reliable processor out there. Intel processors produce much less heat than AMD, so choosing a processor fan or cooler is much easier for Intel. You can check out each website link provided to browse new processors. For advanced gamers, choose a processor that has at least 4 cores and will run at a speed of atleast 3.0GHz. For expert gamers, choose a processor with 8 cores and a clock speed of atleast 4.0GHz. For standard use, a dual-core processor will do just fine with a speed of 2.0GHz and higher to support new operating systems. Ex. My PC utilizes an 8 core, AMD processor with a clock speed of 4.3GHz for extremely heavy multi-tasking and gaming.