Dell Inspiron 6400 upgrade questions

[beren-matthews]

Hey all,
This is my first post on a forum so as you can imagine i have tried searching google for this before posting here. As i've had no luck finding any "Concrete" info i thought that'd you'd be the best people for the job! lol

Basically i currently have a Dell Inspiron 6400 & i'm looking to upgrade the cpu from a "Intel Dual Core T2080" to whatever the best compatible "Intel Core 2 Duo" is. (So any suggestions on cpu's would be awesome!)

The only problem is i am a little (as in really really!) confused as to how i find out what cpu's are compatible! I was hoping that you may be able to shed some lite on the situation! lol

Apparently (according to less that concrete info on google! lol) i need to match the socket type, The max FSB Speed & the max CPU speed. so assuming that whatever cpu i choose meets those specs it should work?

I have used Sisoftware Sandra & CPUZ in an attempt to identify this info but i can only find my Socket type (Socket 479 mPGA/Socket P) & my "Chipset" FSB max speed. (800 Mhz) I can't seem to find my max cpu speed.

Any help on this subject would be awesome! It's seems to be a bit of a nightmare if you don't know what your doing! & obviously for the price of the cpu & the work to install, I don't wanna risk that it may not work! lol

Also, If anyone has any opinions on wether or not it's a worth while upgrade, that would be welcome. I do a lot of Audio Production using Cubase so i'm hoping that a new cpu will be worth the money to help cope with the cpu load of some of the projects.

My relevant Spec is as follows:

Dell Inspiron 6400
Motherboard Model: 0XD720
Chipset: Dell 955XM/945GM/PM/GMS/940GML
Max Chipset FSB Speed: 4x 200MHz (800 MHz)
CPU: Intel Dual Core T2080 1 M Cache, 1.73 GHz, 533 MHz FSB.
Socket type: Socket 479 mPGA/Socket P.

Hopefully thats everything! lol
If you need anymore info let me know.

Thanks for the help.
Sorry for the length of the post! lol

 

[Ch3m1c4L]

this thread will help you a lot.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-231455_10_0.html

 

[beren-matthews]

Cheers for the response.

I've actually looked at this link before & not found anything useful in it.

Although, after re-reading it i did notice a suggestion in the final post that was to find out your chipset, type it in to intel.com & it will suggest compatible cpu's. I have now done that & it's almost too good to be true! lol So i'm assuming that i can choose any cpu on this page & it will work? & that as long it's compatible with the chipset it's cool? (other than the bios!) the only thing that confuses me is that my current cpu "T2080" isnt in the list! unless it's been discontinued?

Ne-hoo

Thanks again for the help,
Much appreciated!

 

[DragonQ]

I am writing this post from the same laptop (Dell 6400) although mine has a Core Duo T2300. I never thought of upgrading the CPU to a Core 2 because I assumed it would be too much hassle if it was even possible at all. I did put in 4GB of RAM which helped a lot with performance though.

 

[Yurihyuga]

I would be very careful with processor upgrades with laptops because of the cpu cooler. They were made to cool the processor its sitting on and it might not be up to the task with an upgrade.

 

[beren-matthews]

hmm i hadn't really thought about cooling.......

I've been looking at the Core 2 T7600. According to the Intel website it's compatible with my chipset (Which i'm assuming means it will work! lol) I had thought about upgrading the ram to 4GB. Although Dell claims that the Dell Inspiron 6400 will only take up to 2GB, whilst Sisoftware's Sandra says i can upgrade up to 4GB! Also i have heard (on various forums) that a 32-bit system will only recognize just over 3GB!

This whole CPU jive seems quite complicated.......Hopefully It'll be worth the hassle if it actually works! lol

 

[DragonQ]

Yes, a 32-bit OS will only recognise up to 3.5GB. In the case of my laptop, it sees 3.25GB, so I've maxed out the RAM on that machine. My CPU is not 64-bit so I can't use a 64-bit OS and like I said, upgrading the CPU is way too much effort IMO.