Upgrade i3 Motherboard to i7 Sandy Bridge

Upgrade i3 Motherboard to i7 Sandy Bridge

When you upgrade a processor or a motherboard see to it that the socket of your processor is the same of the socket of your motherboard. The socket of the i7 Sandy Bridge 2600K 3.4 GHz is LGA 1155. If your current motherboard is LGA 1155 therefore you can upgrade it but if you are using the old socket which is LGA 1156 then therefore it cannot be upgraded. You can see the socket of the motherboard by checking it inside which you can see on the side of the processor. You can also know it via software, you just download CPU-Z or any motherboard identifier software to see the socket of your current motherboard.

If it is the same socket, you can buy on the market the processor that you needed. You can also via online stores like amazon or newegg.com. It is really important to know first if your socket of the processor is compatible with the socket of your motherboard.

Upgrade i3 Motherboard to i7 Sandy Bridge

I think you should be asking if you can upgrade your processor and not your motherboard because upgrading your motherboard means replacing it literally. If you want to upgrade your CPU, the first thing you should check is the processor socket on your motherboard. That dictates what processors are compatible with your motherboard. When you say “Core i3 motherboard” that doesn’t point to your motherboard, actually.

Core i3 refers to the processor and not the motherboard. The Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge Quad-Core 3.4 GHz processor is socket LGA 1155. If you want to upgrade your processor with this one, check the socket type of your motherboard. To check, shut down your computer then unplug it from the power. Open the CPU case then disconnect the power connector from the CPU cooling fan.

You need to use a screw driver to unscrew the cooling fan from the heat sink and remove the heat sink slowly from the top of the processor. Be careful because the heat sink is very hot. You need to wait a few minutes until it cools down a bit.

When it’s not too hot anymore and not completely cold either use a thick glove or any thick fabric to remove the heat sink from the processor. Once the heat sink is removed, open the latch and remove the processor. Now, in there where the processor is lodged, check if you can see “LGA 1155” printed.

If you see a different print and not “LGA 1155” that means the processor you want to buy is not compatible with your board. The one printed on the processor compartment is the socket type of your motherboard and that’s what you should look for when buying a new processor.