How to Find Out What CPU a Computer Has

A computer has many parts, but the motherboard is where all the other components connect. The main piece of the motherboard is the central processing unit, or CPU. The CPU is arguably the most important component of your computer and knowing what CPU you have can help you plan an upgrade or determine if you can run specific software.

Instructions

Linux

1. Open a terminal and type "less /proc/cpuinfo".

2. Locate the "Model Name" to have the model name of the CPU

3. Locate the "cpu Mhz" to know the speed of your CPU.

Windows

1. Go to the "Start" menu and click on "Control Panel".

2. Locate "System" and click on it to display the System information.

3. Locate the "Processor" line to know the CPU model name and speed.

Apple OS X

1. Open system profiler by going to "Apple Menu" then "About This Mac" and finally "More Info".

2. The first page that opens should be "Hardware Overview: ". If it is not click on "Hardware" on the left frame.

3. The CPU information is available under "CPU Type" and "CPU Speed"

Tips & Warnings

• When looking at /proc/cpuinfo, you will see one block of information per core. If you have a quad core you will see the same information four times. Windows might display two sets of speed. The highest one is the maximum speed of the CPU. The lowest one is the CPU speed when using energy saving features.

References

• Apple : System Profiler
• Microsoft : System information
• Linux : cpuinfo function