E6400 CPU Upgrade?

New E6400 Owner here. Please forgive me if it's been posted before, but what is the fastest processor (DIY) upgrade this system can handle. It's currently running a T9550 and I would prefer a dual with HT capable or Quad CPU.

Thanks!

 

The E6400 and Precision M2400 are identical with the exception of the lid design and the M2400's standard Quadro FX graphics card. The M2400 can be ordered with the fastest of the regular C2D mobile processors- the 3.06GHz T9900. The T9550 you currently have runs at 2.66GHz, so a 0.4GHz (400MHz) boost alone wouldn't be worth the kind of money a T9900 would cost!

The only quad core options would be the Core 2 Quad Q9000 (2.0GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 6mb L2 cache) or the Q9100 (2.26GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 12mb L2 cache). The Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9300 would also work- it's a 2.53GHz version of the Q9100.

The Core 2 Quads have a TDP 45W compared to 35W for the T9550 you currently have. I don't think Dell ever offered the Quad in a 14.1" model and heat dissipation issues may be one of the reasons??? The E6400 and M2400 with T9000-series processors and discrete graphics tend to run pretty warm under load. A 45W TDP processor could push the heat issue to the point that it becomes a real problem...

Unfortunately, none of the Core 2 processors feature Intel's Hyper Threading (HT) technology. Only the new Core i3/i5/i7 have HT capability and they are not compatible with your system.

My suggestion would be to stick with your T9550 for the moment. The Latitude E6410 is due within the next few weeks and it will be based on the new Core i architecture! It should support all the way up to the Core i7 Quad processors.

 

Thank you, for the fine and detailed explanation. Looking forward to the 6410!

 

Back to the original question, what processors WILL work. My current processor is much slower than the OPs (A P8400 at 2.26GHz) and really would like to upgrade the current laptop if possible. What is available and supported by the available bios as plug n play?

Has anyone sucessfully put a Q9100 in a E6400? a T9900?

 

I have put a T9900 in my E6400(was T9600). All is running fine, no problems with it. I would only recommend to use 35W processors!

 

Definitely stick with 25W or 35W parts. Anything hotter than that and you are definitely pushing your luck. That being said, unless you are hitting 100% processor usage regularly you might want to consider upgrading other portions of the machine instead.

 

Here's every processor that has been offered on the E6400 at some point:

P8400 - 2.26GHz, 3mb L2 cache, 25W TDP

P8600 - 2.4GHz, 3mb L2 cache, 25W TDP

P8700 - 2.53GHz, 3mb L2 cache, 25W TDP
P9500 - 2.53GHz, 6mb L2 cache, 25W TDP
T9400 - 2.53GHz, 6mb L2 cache, 35W TDP

P8800 - 2.66GHz, 3mb L2 cache, 25W TDP
P9600 - 2.66GHz, 6mb L2 cache, 25W TDP
T9550 - 2.66GHz, 6mb L2 cache, 35W TDP

P9700 - 2.8GHz, 6mb L2 cache, 25W TDP
T9600 - 2.8Ghz, 6mb L2 cache, 35W TDP

T9800 - 2.93GHz, 6mb L2 cache, 35W TDP

T9900 - 3.06GHz, 6mb L2 cache, 35W TDP

Note- all have 1066MHz FSB

The difficult question is how much of a performance increase will make it worth the time, effort and expense? The P8600 is obviously not worth a second thought- going from 2.26GHz to 2.4GHz wouldn't even be perceptible. The P8700, T9400 and T9550 are the only ones selling regularly for under $200 on Ebay. But 2.53GHz and 2.66GHz are only an increase of 0.27GHz and 0.4GHz, respectively. The increase from 3mb to 6mb of L2 cache memory has a negligible impact on speed, at best...and not worth a 10W TDP increase, IMHO! '

Ultimately, you're the only one who can decide what performance-boost-to-price ratio is acceptable for your system...you have my best wishes in whatever you decide to do!

 

Absolutely...GREAT ADVICE!

The RAM, hard drive and O/S would be my starting point! Does it have at least 4GB of RAM and is it DDR2-800 (rather than DDR2-667)? Does it have a 64-bit O/S? Does it have a hard drive or SSD? If not SSD, does the hard drive spin at 5400rpm or 7200rpm?

 

Before considering any upgrades, people should put up the specs of their laptop and what they plan on doing with it. Most upgrades will yield no benefit at all since users do not understand what is bottlenecking their specific uses.

 

My E6400 is running an IBM SSD drive and 4GB of DDR2-800 memory. I am stuck with XP for corporate reasons so my only option left is a CPU upgrade. I regularly encode HD video on this machine and the faster processing would be noticable I think. Maybe not worth the $$ for the amount of boost though.

Thanks a bunch for the detailed information. Suppose I will watch the price of some of the higher end processors mentioned and see when they begin to drop in price.