CPU socket PGA989

[markusdy]

I have a laptop Acer Aspire 4741g with a motherboard cpu socket PGA989 with i3 330m in it. Can it be upgraded with more highier tier than i3? Like i5 / i7? I need help what will i do and choose which of them are compatible to my laptop.

[Haro]

If the cpu is not soldered ( which it's pga so it's probably not ) then check compatibility with your laptop and decide on which cpu is decent for you. Though non of them would really be good for anything. The laptop is old and not necessarily decent at almost anything. 

[GoldenLag]

4 minutes ago, markusdy said:

Can it be upgraded with more highier tier than i3? Like i5 / i7? I need help what will i do and choose which of them are compatible to my laptop.

You sure a CPU upgrade is what is needed?

 

Looking aside you are chasing minor gains, an SSD breathes fresh life into most systems. 

[5x5]

You can't really do much with that laptop as the power and thermal envelope don't allow a quad core to survive

[markusdy]

3 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

You sure a CPU upgrade is what is needed?

 

Looking aside you are chasing minor gains, an SSD breathes fresh life into most systems. 

I am actually going to use this for CAD designs and i thought cpu replacements can rev it up abit and/or can i atleast put external gpu? And is it possible for me to upgrade the cpu at all?

[markusdy]

11 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

If the cpu is not soldered ( which it's pga so it's probably not ) then check compatibility with your laptop and decide on which cpu is decent for you. Though non of them would really be good for anything. The laptop is old and not necessarily decent at almost anything. 

I put a SSD in and it did make the performance better. Really even a cpu replacement not worth it even a little? And Can External GPU possible in it?

[Haro]

Just now, markusdy said:

And Can External GPU possible in it?

If you can find a way to do it. Highly unlikely though. 

[GoldenLag]

4 minutes ago, markusdy said:

And is it possible for me to upgrade the cpu at all?

Its PGA, so yes you can upgrade the CPU. Cant recall if there are any 4c options for the socket. 

 

5 minutes ago, markusdy said:

and/or can i atleast put external gpu?

If its got a wifi mini-PCIe slot, sure. Tho compatibility can be hit and miss. 

 

The money spent on that id rather recommend putting towards some used second gen workstation from dell or HP, to then upgrade. 

 

They dont cost that much, and its a much better way to spend the money

[markusdy]

1 minute ago, GoldenLag said:

its a much better way to spend the money

Thanks. And yes i think too its better to get a much better laptop

[GoldenLag]

Just now, markusdy said:

Thanks. And yes i think too its better to get a much better laptop

Or a desktop for that matter. 

 

See if you can get by with what you have untill then. 

 

I know socket G2 has quadcores that can be had from ebay, but dont expect great performance. We are still talking mobile power envelopes. 

[svmlegacy]

33 minutes ago, markusdy said:

I have a laptop Acer Aspire 4741g with a motherboard cpu socket PGA989 with i3 330m in it. Can it be upgraded with more highier tier than i3? Like i5 / i7? I need help what will i do and choose which of them are compatible to my laptop.

Most of the Arrandale platform laptops will tolerate these chips:

 

Core i3-3xxM

Core i5-4xxM / 5xxM

Core i7-6xxM

 

Note 1***

Core i7-7xxQM / 8xxQM / 9xxXM

will fit in the socket, but these do not include an iGPU and will not work with the laptop unless you have dedicated graphics, BIOS support for a quad core, and the ability to provide 45/55/65 W. These are really uncommon laptops.

 

Note 2***

There is 2 different official steppings of Arrandale, C2 (20652h) and K0 (20655h). The Core i3-330M comes in both flavours. If you have the earlier C2 stepping, I would recommend staying with it, unless you have updated the BIOS and a K0 only CPU is listed as an option on the laptop.

 

Best C2: Core i7-620M SLBPD (Note, this also has a K0 flavour: SLBTQ)

Best K0: Core i7-640M SLBTN

 

Edit: After doing a little digging, it appears your laptop supports K0 as of BIOS 1.12 (2010/06/08). If you update to that or later, K0 will have full support.

 

Note 3***

Arrandale only supports 8GB of DDR3, at 1067 MT/s. I've tried 16 GB. It will POST, it won't run.

 

Note 4***

For CAD, the real limiting factor is the iGPU. I've run Solidworks, CATIA, F360 on a Pentium P6200 and a Core i7-640M. The difference was minimal in the upgrade, as the graphics only got a slight frequency boost. I had a huge improvement going to an Ivy Bridge based laptop, which is still quite slow for Solidworks.

 

Note 5***

These laptop chips do not have an IHS. If you choose to replace it, make sure to apply thermal paste evenly to both dies, as you want it 100% to be on the entire silicon surface area.

 

Note 6***

PGA989 is a vague term. Clarkfield, Arrandale, Sandy Bridge, and Ivy Bridge share this socket. It comes in 2 varieties:

PGA988A: Clarkfield, Arrandale

PGA988B: Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge

 

Yours is PGA988A. Sandy and Ivy are electrically and mechanically incompatible.

 

Sources: Been there, done that, for CAD workloads. Upgraded a Toshiba laptop from a Pentium P6200 to a Core i7-640M.

Edited July 14, 2020 by svmlegacy
K0 support

[wetSheep]

Your best bet is to just buy a used ThinkPad (t420, t430, x220, x230) from ebay and it will save years of your life. They go for 100-300usd/euro and are really reliable.