Best Core i' processor I can put in a Travelmate 5740?

Hey guys, I'm going to replace the Mobo of my laptop and well actually give it a complete overhaul to be honest. New HDD, mobo etc. So I was wondering what's the best Core i5 processor I can put in it.

On top of that is there such a huge difference in processing power between the core i5 and i7 series processors? The i7 seems to be so expensive (not sure if I can even put one in my 5740) so is there a huge jump in performance?

In the complete acer manual I have for my laptop it says here the best processor the computer ships with is the 'i5-540M' 2.53 GHz with Turbo
Boost up to 3.06 GHz. Or something like that. Is that the best I can put in my computer?

Thanks in advance for any help

 

As with any processor question unless one of the two in comparison absolutely sucks, the answer is always and will always be "depends".

i7 is available as a quad and in laptops the i5 is not. Been awhile since i looked at it but used to be that the i7 also had hyper threading and turbo boost and the i5 didnt not sure if that remains.

 

Not all games support quad-cores. Though most do these days I guess so that argument is totally irrelevant. I was looking at something like the i5-540 or something simply because it's clocked pretty high and if I need extra power I should be able to turbo it up to 3GHz without hurting it seeing as it's built to go that high. That obviously should be plenty I suppose. I've just seen cheaper i7 processors than the i5-540 but I think that was just the single cored ones.

 

Most game engines don't support 4 cores- they work with four (except for Fallout 3 ) but they don't use them.
Second thing- there's no such thing as "single core Core i7s".
If you want some advice give us some CPU models (with prices)- that would be a lot easier.

 

Well for instance...

Here's an i7-620M from Taiwan for:
NEW Intel Core i7 620M 4M 2.4~3.06G surpass i5-540 (eBay item 280624563220 end time 05-Mar-11 01:04:59 AEDST) : Computers Networking

Approx 90€
(Is it a problem that it's only Stepping: 1) ? I'm sure you all know what that means right... my current processor is Stepping: 3

Then there's this i5-540M:
Intel Core i5 540M 540 2.53G 3M 2.5GT SLBPG PGA988 CPU (eBay item 180533453297 end time 12-Mar-11 19:41:32 AEDST) : Computing

For basically double the price... something like 160€

Apparently the i7 are better than the i5 right? The i5-540M apparently fits my board but does the i7 and what makes the i7 so much better than the i5 anyway? That question might be as stupid as 'Why is a Dual Core processor better than a Single Core processor' but to be honest I can't make sense of all of this 'i3-5-7' etc.

Especially when the i7 is HALF the price of the i5-540... how does that work out? It looks like it has the same clock speed as well.. and I'm scared that I'll buy some sort of crappy 'demo' or non-OEM processor and get ripped off...

Anyway I'd like some help on this, if the i7 is really that much better than the i5 and it's basically the same price or cheaper then I'd be happy to buy one. I just don't know whats the difference because some sites show certain i7 processors at a lower (but still very very close) place to higher i5 processors...

 

what motherboard you upgrading too?
laptops arent like desktop pc, you cant just buy any make and fit it

 

That's a dual-core i7, it's basically the farthest end spectrum of i5 line but they decided to brand it as i7. Any other i7 (e.g. 720M) is quad-core and usually performs worse in gaming because individual cores can't turbo as much, and overall it's hotter and more power-hungry.

I'd say get the 620M... still I'd suggest you do some more research first.

 

My motherboard is going to be a MB.TVH02.001 it's a socket 988 apparently. Though I'm not entirely sure. The core i processors for laptops are all 988 socket I'm pretty sure.

The comparison between the 2 processors I listed looks like the i5 is actually more powerful than the i7 (in Ghz (Or it's the same in Ghz)) not to mention it's MORE expensive.. seems kind of crazy to have a better processor cheaper...

The i7-620M has these specifications:
CPU Socket: PGA 988 pin (fit intel PM55/GM55)

The processor currently in my Laptop is a:
i5-430M 2.26 2 430 M 3 MB PGA988 35W KC.43001.DMP

Here this crazy sob is selling the i7-620M for only 85£ w/ Free expedited postage:
New Intel i7 620M 2.4GHz to Turbo 3.066GHz 4MB L3 ES C0 on eBay (end time 18-Mar-11 17:42:08 GMT)

The guy on Ebay also states this: Please Make sure your platform support i7/i5 Mobile ES (Only For Next generation Intel Calpella PM55/PM57/HM55/HM56/ QM57 Chipset)
On top of that the processor shows up as Genuine Intel(R) CPU 000 @ 2.40 Ghz 2.40 Ghz (Please look at the picture on the Ebay page)
That seems really wrong.. isn't it meant to show core i7 etc? What's with the 'ES' as well? Obviously there is something wrong with this right..? That's why it's so cheap. It's also a C0 stepping so I guess it would have tons of problems... as it's rev 1.0

Which means they either suck or he's crazy. I'm hoping for the latter, not to mention that it fits my board. Because there is another person from Taiwan also selling these processors as New:Unopened as well, except he wants 223£ + 15£ postage...

 

ES=Engineering Sample so differs to the final OEM release. It may have features missing or have stability issues. He notes in his ad it's ES C0 Chip, very stable, performance 95% closed to i7 620M OEM . That's why it's cheap.

 

Ugh so it's a demo sample.. no wonder it's so cheap. I don't know anyone in their right mind that would buy the ES even if it is still the i7 chances are it'll never last in reliability. Most websites said that the i7-620M is still around $300 USD and it looks to be around that case for the OEM stepping 3 models...

I suppose I'll get either the i5-540 which seems to be pretty cheap these days or the i7-620 I'll look around and see if I can compare prices and such.

Thanks for the help.. I'll look out for el-cheap-o ES model chips..

 

Hi Zeptinune,

I also have a travelmate 5340z with a intel pentium p6000. I want to upgrade to i7 or i5. i am unable to find if this is possible or not. I tried to find compatible processors for this travelmate, but I dont get clear information. I was wondering if I should base only by the socket or what.. how did it go with you? were you able to upgrade? do you know what is the best option for me here? the pentium p6000 works fine, but I need hyper threading and virtualization, plus, more power. please advise

thank you,
chris.