Recently, I have been debating about whether to purchase a new computer or upgrade my existing Pentium II 266 MHz CPU. Ideally, obviously, the solution would be to purchase a new 1+ GHz box. My economic realities, however, as CS student in higher education make that difficult though. So I am considering upgrading the processor chip in my computer (but not changing the motherboard, just adding the highest-rated chip my current motherboard can handle and also adding a new fan). Using this option, I could add a 500 MHz chip and almost double my processing speed (my computer already has 192 MB RAM installed).
The question is, do you think this kind of processor upgrade is safe? (I heard that you can damage the CPU components by overheating if you get a new CPU without an adequate supplemental cooling; therefore, when I spoke to the technician he said adding a new fan would take care of that.) Secondly, how long (i.e., years) do you think a 500 MHZ processor can realistically last today without having to buy the latest and greatest tomorrow? (I remember reading a TechRepublic article saying the difference in performance between 500 MHz and 1+ GHz chips is negligible, and that the real difference will come when we hit 5 GHzanyway). Any other advice you could provide on this matter would be greatly appreciated.