How to Decide Whether to Upgrade Your CPU/Motherboard

Postpone the CPU/motherboard upgrade for as long as possible. Only upgrade your motherboard and CPU after you have exhausted other possibilities. A major CPU/motherboard upgrade involves serious computer surgery and has some potential negative consequences:
The CPU/motherboard is one of the most expensive upgrades you can make to your computer. First consider upgrading your RAM and video card. It’s usually cheaper to add more RAM and a faster video card than to upgrade your CPU/motherboard. And depending on what kinds of apps you’re running, upgrading your RAM/video card might provide a better performance boost than using your new CPU and motherboard.
The side benefit is that the longer you postpone the CPU/motherboard upgrade, the greater the performance jump you get when you finally do the landing.
The CPU/motherboard is one of the most difficult upgrades to install. To facilitate this upgrade you have to take out each adapter card and unhook each wire from the hook and maybe even take apart parts of the case – then do it again in reverse.
The CPU/motherboard combination has dependencies. No matter how fast your new CPU and motherboard combination may be, it still depends on your existing adapter cards — including video, audio, modem, and ports — to take care of placing (respectively) the video on your screen, the audio in your speakers and the data Internet in your browser.
You may have to uninstall the memory modules and your power supply. Using a new CPU/motherboard combination may force you to dump all the memory modules you’ve accumulated over the past few years and the low-rated power supply.