CPU and motherboard are the same? Sound card not showing?

[jseh]

I am checking out what I actually have in my PC because I want to upgrade it so I downloaded Speccy.
It doesn't show that much more information than device manager.
I'm confused about the CPU/Motherboard because they both show Intel Core i5-3470.
Also, my sound card is not showing, yes it says "AMD High Definition Audio Device" but that's not a model.
Can anyone help me with this?

 

[mrjimphelps]

The CPU plugs into the motherboard -- that's why you see Intel Core i5-3470 listed with the motherboard.

What sort of upgrade do you want to do? Do you want to make the computer faster? What you use the computer for will help determine what would be the best thing to do to get better performance.

Two things which usually help are (1) more memory and (2) converting from a mechanical hard drive to a solid state drive (SSD). Since you have 64-bit Windows, you can probably benefit from more memory, if you aren't already maxed out. A solid state drive is always faster than a mechanical hard drive, and you will see that benefit every time there is a disk read or write, such as when Windows starts up, or when you save something to the hard drive.

If you do a lot of gaming, then a better graphics card could help, unless you already have a good graphics card.

If your network interface card is old, you may get a better internet speed by installing a new card.

You could probably benefit from a better CPU. But you will need to get one which is fully compatible with your motherboard, memory, etc. Also, you need to handle the CPU with extreme care, and then use a good thermal paste to attach the heat sink to the new CPU. I would not advise changing out the CPU unless you know exactly what you are doing, that is, if you've done it several times before.

Sometimes the cost of upgrading your computer is more than you will pay for a new computer. Perhaps you will want to just add memory and install an SSD. Those two steps will give you just about all of the improvement you are likely to get.

 

[jseh]

The CPU plugs into the motherboard -- that's why you see Intel Core i5-3470 listed with the motherboard.

What sort of upgrade do you want to do? Do you want to make the computer faster? What you use the computer for will help determine what would be the best thing to do to get better performance.

Two things which usually help are (1) more memory and (2) converting from a mechanical hard drive to a solid state drive (SSD). Since you have 64-bit Windows, you can probably benefit from more memory, if you aren't already maxed out. A solid state drive is always faster than a mechanical hard drive, and you will see that benefit every time there is a disk read or write, such as when Windows starts up, or when you save something to the hard drive.

If you do a lot of gaming, then a better graphics card could help, unless you already have a good graphics card.

If your network interface card is old, you may get a better internet speed by installing a new card.

You could probably benefit from a better CPU. But you will need to get one which is fully compatible with your motherboard, memory, etc. Also, you need to handle the CPU with extreme care, and then use a good thermal paste to attach the heat sink to the new CPU. I would not advise changing out the CPU unless you know exactly what you are doing, that is, if you've done it several times before.

Sometimes the cost of upgrading your computer is more than you will pay for a new computer. Perhaps you will want to just add memory and install an SSD. Those two steps will give you just about all of the improvement you are likely to get.

I want to play videogames. Right now Fallout 3 advises me to use Medium settings instead of High or Very High.
I want to play Very High at a proper speed.

 

[RoasterMen]

You're missing the motherboard's AUDIO driver. The only AUDIO drive installed is the one needed by your graphics card to drive audio signals on HDMI.