Is it possible?

[chollerz91]

Sorry for the inviting title,

For a laptop, is it the same socket for the CPU for both the i3 and i5? Just querying for a friend and I cant find anything on google

Thanks guys, (sorry if this seems really un technical but these were his exact words.)

 

[kristmace]

Laptops are a nightmare for upgrades! (For me as a desktop junkie)

According to Wikipedia, the fountain of all knowledge, they both use the µPGA-989 socket.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_i3#Core_i3

Good luck if he's going to attempt it!

 

[cmndr_andi]

as kristmace mentions - its socket 989.

However, the laptop's BIOS must support the new CPU and the existing cooler must be up the job of cooling the new CPU (hence don't go for a CPU with a much higher TDP).

Make sure your friend understands that all laptop i5 CPUs are dual cores (just like his i3) so not much of an upgrade. Jumping to a quad core i7 mobile CPU would give a decent performance jump - but the lowest TDP of these CPUs is 45W so the cooler may not be able to handle it and the BIOS may not support it.