Asus X55C Best CPU Upgrade

[1Z10]

I have an old Asus X55C (SX030H) running an Intel Core i3-2328M @ 2.20GHz which I'm trying to upgrade a bit for fun.

I easily upgraded the RAM adding an 8GB SODIMM DDR3 1333MHz stick (15€) and a Samsung SSD 870 EVO of 500GB (35€).

Below you can see further details about its specs.

 

 

My next step is to upgrade the CPU too.

• What would be the best CPU upgrade for this laptop?
• Can I install CPUs having a higher TDP (45W vs 35W)?

Maybe by using a better thermal paste and drilling some holes in the back of the cover, it can be possible to keep the temperatures low for a higher CPU's TDP.

 

Based on the Socket G2 / Socket rPGA988B CPUs found on CPU-World.com,

the only Quad-Cores with the same 35W TDP are the i7-3612QM and i7-3632QM which however have a low Base Frequency.

 

 

The best 35W two cores instead are the i7-3520M and i7-3540M:

 

Considering the 45W Quad-Cores CPUs I could choose among these:

 

What do you suggest?

Have you had an experience upgrading this laptop or others to a higher TDP CPU?

Thanks

[Shimejii]

You are going to be pretty much stuck with a 35W TDP cpu, and even then you may have to go through a few of them to get one that works. 

 

These laptops are pretty rough to actually do CPU upgrades on, and often times they will brick the bios. Your choices are pretty limited and there really wont be that much improvement since that was a fairly weak improvement even back in the day.

[svmlegacy]

45 minutes ago, 1Z10 said:

What would be the best CPU upgrade for this laptop?

There's no objective best for Ivy Bridge at 35 W. If you need multithreaded throughput, the 3632QM is a very nice chip, but it will not deliver the same single core performance as a 3540M. It's also noteworthy that the 3540M has a higher boost frequency on the iGPU, which is important as well.

 

Generally, the Core i7-3540M will be the best performer, unless you need pure multi-threaded performance.

 

51 minutes ago, 1Z10 said:

Can I install CPUs having a higher TDP (45W vs 35W)?

Usually no. In my experience (Toshiba, not Asus), the machine will not POST with a higher TDP CPU installed.

[1Z10]

19 hours ago, Shimejii said:

You are going to be pretty much stuck with a 35W TDP cpu, and even then you may have to go through a few of them to get one that works. 

Are there other constraints apart from the higher temperatures on the full load of the CPU having a higher TDP ?

What are instead the possible constraints for other CPUs having the same TDP ?

 

I found a video of a guy updating this laptop from i5-2520M to i5-3340M (both having a 35W TDP), so the Ivy Bridge processors are supported.

Moreover, in the comments, they also mentioned being able to run an i7-3630QM which has a 45W TDP

 

and an i7-3740QM which has a 45W TDP too.