ThinkPad CPU upgrade (help)

[MC Morrado]

I'm in the middle of upgrading an old ThinkPad Edge 0579-6AU that I have lying around which I plan on using for college. Finding an Intel i7 that I can swap in for college and more intensive work is very much needed because I love having control over a computer I can repair and use for a long time. The HDD is held in with a Lego piece and a folded piece of paper and it hasn't given me any problems (the hard drive caddy thing didn't come with the laptop when I bought it, had to do a little MacGyvering).

 

Can anybody help find which CPU socket my ThinkPad has? And what is the best CPU that I can swap into it?

[jaslion]

Euhhh yeah so don't just spend 100$ in an 8th gen intel laptop and call it good. This thing is WELL beyond what could be considered usable and can't even fully properly function in windows 10 or has ANY video acceleration.

 

Whilst it sucks that cpu upgrades can't be done anymore it also is just a BAD idea to use a 15 year old laptop for college. Keep in mind that between a 380m and i7 640m there's like 40% cpu performance improvement which isn't much That and it's a DUAL CORE which will struggle to just browse the internet. The quad core i7's will overwhelm the cooling in the device.

 

Save yourself a lot of headache and also failing class due to a insufficient pc and just spend a little bit of time looking on ebay to get something a decade newer and waaay faster.

 

It's a case of what is logically the better choice and emotionally holding on to a very obsolete piece of tech. Here it's much much better to be logical as this will bite you in the ass BADLY eventually. Also the hdd not being in a hdd case in the laptop is BAD as that means it has worse shock absorption and for a hard drive that is genuinely a death sentence rapidly.

[MC Morrado]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

Euhhh yeah so don't just spend 100$ in an 8th gen intel laptop and call it good. This thing is WELL beyond what could be considered usable and can't even fully properly function in windows 10 or has ANY video acceleration.

 

Whilst it sucks that cpu upgrades can't be done anymore it also is just a BAD idea to use a 15 year old laptop for college. Keep in mind that between a 380m and i7 640m there's like 40% cpu performance improvement which isn't much That and it's a DUAL CORE which will struggle to just browse the internet. The quad core i7's will overwhelm the cooling in the device.

 

Save yourself a lot of headache and also failing class due to a insufficient pc and just spend a little bit of time looking on ebay to get something a decade newer and waaay faster.

 

It's a case of what is logically the better choice and emotionally holding on to a very obsolete piece of tech. Here it's much much better to be logical as this will bite you in the ass BADLY eventually. Also the hdd not being in a hdd case in the laptop is BAD as that means it has worse shock absorption and for a hard drive that is genuinely a death sentence rapidly.

I am upgrading to an SSD and 8GB of DDR3 anyway. It wouldn't hurt to get an upgraded CPU as well. I use Linux as my main operating system so I'm not bothered about Windows 10.

[jaslion]

12 minutes ago, MC.Morrado said:

I am upgrading to an SSD and 8GB of DDR3 anyway. It wouldn't hurt to get an upgraded CPU as well. I use Linux as my main operating system so I'm not bothered about Windows 10.

Still a dual core is rough even on a light linux distro. Do keep in mind that many college courses REQUIRE windows.

 

Just be wary about this and that this thing has had a great life but really is at the time of retirement. It's been 15 years for a computer that is AMAZING.

 

Be ready to run into the limits at any point and swap over. Rather be prepared than stubborn and run into issues that dock you points or assignments.

 

 

[Beskar_Armour]

While I somewhat agree with the above, there is a bit more nuance. Linux can be fine if you are sure your programs are supported, and if you aren't doing anything strenuous this is a perfectly good laptop.
 

On 12/20/2024 at 11:16 AM, MC.Morrado said:

Can anybody help find which CPU socket my ThinkPad has? And what is the best CPU that I can swap into it?

Socket is going to be the G1 (Wikipedia), (Your laptop has the i3-380M, found the details of its socket here), and from the Wikipedia page, the best cpu would be the i7-940XM, which is about $60 on Ebay (at least where I am). Good luck with the upgrades, I always love when old devices get saved from being E-waste.

[Beskar_Armour]

Wait, I just read a bit more. Turns out the Quad Core i7's don't have integrated graphics, meaning the best processor you could get for you laptop would be the i7-640M.