Have an old Intel laptop?

TheAmazingDanny · August 13, 2017

Do you have an older Intel laptop and think you need an upgrade? I have some information for you.

Intel's laptops that don't exhibit "ultra-low TDP" - that is, the "Core iX-XXXX(X)M" laptops, some older Pentiums, and some older Celerons, can actually be upgraded really cheaply. I just didn't know where else to post this and felt like those who want a legitimate tech tip who are also experienced with computers might want to know this.

A lot of Intel's mobile CPU lineup since their first generation "Core i" products have PGA CPU chips. That means, by opening up an old laptop, you can turn a screw, take out the CPU, and put a new one in that is that same generation into that socket, and turn the screw back around. There's triangles to line them up.

Using CPU-World's site listing of what CPU's go into the same socket, I can gather this bit of information for you. ALL of the CPU's below are rated for 35 W TDP.

Socket G1, rPGA988A (source: http://www.cpu-world.com/Sockets/Socket G1 (rPGA988A).html): You can swap out your CPU for a Mobile Celeron P4X00 series, Pentium P6X00 series, i3-3X0M series, i5-4X0M, i5-5X0M, i7-6X0M.

Socket G2, rPGA988B (source: http://www.cpu-world.com/Sockets/Socket G2 (rPGA988B).html): You can swap out your Sandy Bridge CPU for a Celeron B7X0M series, Celeron B8X0M, Celeron 100XM, Celeron 1020M, Celeron 1020E, Pentium B9X0 series, Mobile Pentium A1018, Pentium 20X0M series, i3-23XX(M/E) series, i5-2XXX(M/E) series, i7-2620M, or i7-2640M. If you have Ivy Bridge, you can swap that for an i3-31XXM(E) series chip, i5-32X0M series or i5-33X0M series, i7-35X0M series, or you can enjoy your effective eight core i7-3612QM or i7-3632QM CPU.

Socket G3 has many CPU's rated for 37 W (not 35W) of TDP and is rPGA946B (source: http://www.cpu-world.com/Sockets/Socket_G3.html): You can swap those for a Celeron 2950M/2970M, i3-4XX0M, i5-4XX0M, an i7-46X0M, or you can enjoy effective 8 core performance on the i7-4702QM and i7-4712QM CPU's.

I haven't tested every generation out, but I did buy a Dell Inspiron 3520 with a Celeron B820 and 4 GB RAM and I upgraded to an i7-2640M and 12 GB RAM and my config runs great. There is a little bit of thermal throttling when there are more demanding tasks thrown at it, but it's a lot snappier and I stumbled upon these and thought I should post about it here.