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Laptop upgrade - used CPU

cawill

cawill

cawill

Associate
Joined
1 Jun 2007
Posts
126
I have a Dell XPS 1640 which I'm looking to improve performance by upgrading the CPU.

However due to the age of the socket I am only able to get used CPUs.

Current specs of the laptop are:
Intel core 2 duo mobile 2.00ghz
4GB DDR3 RAM 1066.0 MHz
1GB ATI Radeon graphics card.
830 Samsung 256GB SSD

I would prefer to purchase a new desktop computer however until I settle in 1 place it doesn't seem worth it.

I have been looking at purchasing a used / tested Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile P8700 2.53GHz from a company based in the UK (I hope the forum rules allow me to say this).

This CPU was supplied with my laptop model so I'm hoping heating wouldn't be an issue.

Could anyone advise whether this is a worthwhile upgrade?

How risky is this process?

Has anyone else carried out a similar upgrade using a second hand CPU?

Thank you.
 
laptop disassembly is often painful and complex, see if you can find a tutorial first for that popular model so you know what your in for.

Theres no ral reason why it should not work
you need
patience
the latest bios for that model installing before you change cpu
confidnece that you know the cpu is socketed (not soldered onto the machine)
and your buy the same socketed cpu

a delicate hand opening the case up and removing components
cleaning products to remove old paste
new thermal paste
 
Thank you errata, I will find out if it's soldered on, however information I have seen so far suggests it's not.

Will moving from 2 to 2.53 ghz provide an improvement in performance? for example will it up the fps on low graphics on games? Skyrim for example.

This would cost me £30 to upgrade and is a temporary message until I get a new pc.
 
The CPU upgrade isn't going to be worth it really.

I have upgraded all my laptops apart from my newest one, first one going from an Intel Celeron 1.5GHz to a Pentium 4 2.4GHz. Next one going from an AMD Truin 2.00GHz to a dual core one. Both of which were hefty upgrades in CPU power. Upgrading a CPU for an extra 500mhz isn't going to be worth it though, the difference wont be noticable, graphics performance will stay the same.
 
Thank you for your advice, I'm now considering whether this upgrade is worth it at all. Maybe I'll be able to find a higher spec CPU to go in the laptop or just save up for a new PC all together.
 
I had been looking into getting a more substantial upgrade for my laptop.

The service manual lists replacing thermal cooling pads on the CPU / Heatsink. Is this just the thermal paste? or something different? Can anyone help?
 
if the 1640 is like the 1340 they your in luck from a difficulty point of view as on the 1340 its really easy to access the CPU (basically remove the base panel then remove the CPU heatsink assembly and there it is) however like people have said its probably not going to be a massive improvement.
 
I would have a read of the service manual at http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/sxl1645/en/sm/index.htm

That tells you exactly how to get to the cpu and how to operate the ZIF socket etc.

when i dismantled my old xps 17 the heatsink thing needed the old type thermal pad to fit closely enough. I ended up making a copper shim and using arctic silver on each side to get a good fit.
 
Thank you, I've been looking at that. It's there that I came across thermal cooling pads, the manual notes that I need to replace these. I haven't come across them before, can anyone help me in how this differs from thermal paste?

I know the performance boost won't be significant, but I see this is a short term measure.
 
cawill said:
Thank you, I've been looking at that. It's there that I came across thermal cooling pads, the manual notes that I need to replace these. I haven't come across them before, can anyone help me in how this differs from thermal paste?

I know the performance boost won't be significant, but I see this is a short term measure.
Click to expand...

Thermal pads are just easier to apply as they are basically a solid at room temperature and then melt when the laptop is in use. You can still use thermal paste on the chips.
 
Like I mentioned before, on the Dell machines i have dismantled, the heatsinks do not press firmly against the chip (CPU, GPU, Ram etc.) and they depend on the pads to bridge the gap. A layer of paste hardly gets squashed in my experience. This was fixed by cutting up Copper shims (approx 1.0mm thick) and then using paste on each side of the shim. This is fiddly and you need to be sure that they cannot slite out and short on anything by accident!
 
Thanks Ian. To lower the risk of anything going wrong would it be easier just to buy thermal pads? Can you usually see any gap between the heatsink and cpu if there is one?
 
Well I upgraded my Acer Aspire 5930G which originally came with an Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 2.0GHz CPU with a used Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz, and I did feel the little "umpf" in the upgrade. Doing some video-rendering to e.g youtube via movie maker is going a lot quicker now.

Uninstalling and installing the new CPU etc was very easy and took max 10minutes at least with the type of cooling system in this Acer.
 
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Thanks Gripen, the small improvement in performance you noticed is all I'm trying to achieve.

I managed to get a P8700 for a decent price, I have some AS5 and some thermal paste remover.

Putting me off upgrading right now is Ian Eb's experience with dell laptops as I'm trying to avoid any overheating, could anyone with any experience comment further on this?
 
If the CPU is mentioned in the service manual as being one of the options overheating shouldnt be a problem as the hardware installed should cope with it fine plus an update of around 500mhz is not going to increase the heat that much. Usually laptop heatsinks are one size fits all.

Your more likely to cause overheating by not applying the heatsink/paste/pads back correctly.

First thing I do when getting a 2nd hand laptop is look for the service manual and then see what I can upgrade it on. Then look for the fastest CPU that the model can take and see if its affordable. Its like with anything for me it may not be much of an improvement performance wise but at least you know its the fastest the laptop can have.

Last laptop I bought my wife I managed to upgrade the CPU (to a faster Core 2 Duo), faster RAM, WiFi Card to N and also customised the cooling (hardware and software) because it was a Toshiba and there fan profiles are awful (for awful read - non existant!) on older models. Only thing I couldnt do was find a tv card for it to fill the vacant slot on the motherboard. Oh and I added the bluetooth module too.

Make sure something like core temp is installed before you upgrade so as soon as it hits windows you get the CPU temp.
 
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Just an update to say I managed to upgrade successfully to a P8700 2.53 Ghz CPU. AS 5 dropped temperatures of both idle and load.

Thank you everyone for your advice and help.
 
I just did a similar on a M1330, replaced a Tick CPU with a Tock CPU, redid the thermal paste and put in some copper shims. It dropped temperatures substantially. Think the CPU was £25 second hand off the Internet. Coupled with bunging in a 128GB SSD I had kicking around has given it a whole new lease of life.
 
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