xps Replacing dual-core i5 with quad-core i7 in notebook

[JosephT]

I have an excellent condition XPS l501x laptop for travel use, and soon it will be my main computer in college. The notebook boasts a mighty i5 460m dual core CPU, paired with an nVidia GeForce 420m. Recently I have got my hands on a damaged Asus notebook, which has a quad-core i7 740qm. I was wondering if I could upgrade the CPU of my Dell, but looking around the internet discouraged me.

 

Could somebody give advice about the situation?

 

As far as I know the "Optimus" feature will not work with a quad-core, (because it has no GPU integrated,) therefore the XPS' motherboard will not boot with the i7.

 

But there were l501x-es with 740qm-s and GF435m-s inside, which GPUs also have Optimus capability.

[sazrocks]

But don't those chips use BGA?

[QuantumBit]

The chips aren't like desktop CPU's where you can swap them. They use BGA (Ball Grid Array) where basically the CPU is soldered onto the board. So I highly doubt you will be able to replace it.

[unknownmiscreant]

I looked into this a while ago, and discovered a bunch of compatibility issues, not to mention that the chips are soldered to the motherboard. Don't waste your time.

[JacobFW]

You might be able to, but you won't no for sure until you dissassemble the laptop and see the cpu itself.

 

Personally, I would not recommend it.  Not only will the i7 use more power, and put out more heat, but it has a lower base clock (1.73ghz compared to your 2.53ghz), meaning that it likely won't feel as responsive as the i5.  And almost any task that makes good use of the 4 cores will likely cause it to thermal throttle and lower the turbo clock.

Edited July 26, 2017 by JacobFW
Meant to say turbo clock instead of base clock at the end

[Lolucoca]

I don't think those chips are using BGA, I guess they're using the standard kinda PGA thing, Socket 988 and such

[JacobFW]

Funny thing is I've heard for years that laptops all have the cpu soldered to the motherboard, yet everyone I've ever owned had been swappable.  

[MorganO]

4 minutes ago, QuantumBit said:

The chips aren't like desktop CPU's where you can swap them. They use BGA (Ball Grid Array) where basically the CPU is soldered onto the board. So I highly doubt you will be able to replace it.

 

3 minutes ago, unknownmiscreant said:

I looked into this a while ago, and discovered a bunch of compatibility issues, not to mention that the chips are soldered to the motherboard. Don't waste your time.

 

7 minutes ago, sazrocks said:

But don't those chips use BGA?

yes and no , my laptop cpu can be removed (PGA)

where i usaed to work we barely had any laptops that came in with BGA we had a couple alienware 1st gen i7's come in they were PGA

[kaiju_wars]

4 minutes ago, JacobFW said:

Funny thing is I've heard for years that laptops all have the cpu soldered to the motherboard, yet everyone I've ever owned had been swappable.  

Minus my Dell 7559 and my old MacBook, same.

 

Anyways, OT:

I looked up the manual for the laptop.

It's the PGA version of the 460M.  PGA means pin-grid-array, not the ball grid array everyone thinks it is.

Yes, at least on the Dell, the CPU is swappable.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/xps-15/manuals

Page 100 of the service manual.

 

What model is the Asus, I can look it up if you give me the model of it and tell you if it uses PGA or BGA CPU.

[kaiju_wars]

8 minutes ago, QuantumBit said:

The chips aren't like desktop CPU's where you can swap them. They use BGA (Ball Grid Array) where basically the CPU is soldered onto the board. So I highly doubt you will be able to replace it.

 

11 minutes ago, sazrocks said:

But don't those chips use BGA?

 

7 minutes ago, unknownmiscreant said:

I looked into this a while ago, and discovered a bunch of compatibility issues, not to mention that the chips are soldered to the motherboard. Don't waste your time.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/xps-15/manuals

Page 100 of the service manual.

It's not a BGA CPU.  It's PGA, meaning he should be able to swap it out.

[MadOverclocker]

3 minutes ago, kaiju_wars said:

 

 

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/xps-15/manuals

Page 100 of the service manual.

It's not a BGA CPU.  It's PGA, meaning he should be able to swap it out.

Yeah. Older laptop generally have PGA and newer laptop generally have BGA.

[kaiju_wars]

1 minute ago, MadOverclocker said:

Yeah. Older laptop generally have PGA and newer laptop generally have BGA.

If I remember correctly, Intel stopped PGA mobile CPUs altogether, they're only BGA.  I don't know about AMD though.

[MadOverclocker]

Just now, kaiju_wars said:

If I remember correctly, Intel stopped PGA mobile CPUs altogether, they're only BGA.  I don't know about AMD though.

AMD did this too but they stopped too.

[kaiju_wars]

Just now, MadOverclocker said:

AMD did this too but they stopped too.

Ah, yep.

Unless MediaTek and Qualcomm are doing PGA chips for cheap Chromebooks and basic Windows 10 laptops, then there's really no way to get a new laptop with a swappable CPU...

Kind of irritating, as I've swapped CPUs on a laptop before to upgrade it, and it worked well.

[Phate.exe]

My semi-trusty Asus Zenbook UX31E had the charge controller crap out on me a while back, so I replaced the motherboard.  Mine has an i5-2557m and 4 gigs of ram, but it was available with an i7-2677m.  The CPU is soldered to the mobo.

 

Considered buying an i7 motherboard for it, but it didn't seem to be worth it since both the i5 and i7 are garbage dual core sku's, and the i7 still has HD 3000 graphics and 4 gigs of ram.

 

With the exception of the rare socketed laptop CPU, that was probably the most likely to be successful i5 to i7 swap in a laptop.