CPU and ram upgrade questions :)

Hey I'm gonna buy a i7 920xm replacing my i5 540,will I need to change the heat sinks also?
I read here that if you have this kind of cpu, you also need to use throttle stop to get the most benefit, is the software simple to use? and what if i don't use it? will i have poor performance? would i just use it when i decide to game or other demanding tasks? Or is it needed for general use to like web browsing?

And could someone suggest a good brand of ram,i have no idea about this, ram just confuses me :S I'm thinking 8 gigs of something xD....Maybe 6 depending on price.
Also will new ram just plug and play or will i need to change bios settings.
Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.

 

If you really need more than 4gb of RAM I think people will recommend 8gb where it's two matched pairs of 4gb rather than a 6gb option where it's two different amounts of RAM.

 

No, your heatsink will work perfectly.

The 920xm is an extreme processor, this means your able to adjust the multiplicator and thanks to Throttlestop even the TDP/TDC values, this means you can highly overclock this beast (3.2 Ghz across all cores is easily possible... that's huge ^^)

But the processor is already a beast withouth Throttlestop, it's just nice to have such a tool whenever you need even more power (or do some benching, lol) For browsing you don't need Throttlestop, and I usually don't use it for gaming, but it's dead useful for some rendering tasks and similar stuff (and for heating up the CPU, hehe)

I really recommend you check out the Throttlestop guide, there's a ton of useful information.


About the RAM, just get the cheapest DDR3 1333MHz imo... you won't notice the difference. Just my two cents.

 

Hey thanks for the replies xD.
I don't need 8 gigs of ram I'll probably never use it all my main focus is gaming BUT! I'll know the system has 8 gigs and along with the new CPU its about as good as i can upgrade my system.So i don,t need it,it will just make me happy having it xD.
Taking both of your advice I'm thinking of getting this ram 2x4gig at 1333 mhz
8GB RAM MEMORY FOR ALIENWARE M15x DDR3 NOTEBOOK LAPTOP on eBay (end time 09-Apr-11 01:49:22 BST) tell me if this is a bad choice please ^^

And reading what you have said about the 920xm I'm even more excited and ordering this tomorrow from here New Intel Mobile Core? i7-920XM Extreme 8M Turbo 3.2GHz on eBay (end time 21-Mar-11 03:19:08 GMT)
And thanks for the link i'm gonna take sometime to read it tonight lots of info thanks...+ rep to both of you,helped me alot.

One last thing running the 920xm at 3.2 on all core + a over clocked Gpu, am i gonna melt my laptop?

 

I think you will be fine with both items. I have to get 8 gig sometime as well, hehe.

3.2 GHz is usually not the limit... but it will run hot when you have 100% load across all cores, e.g. when doing some encoding or similar. Then I recommend keeping an eye on the temps. But for normal gaming the CPU will be perfectly fine as there's not 100% load all the time... it will never run as hot as while encoding or benching.

Don't worry, a lot of people here have oc'ed 5850 and 920/40xm and it works perfectly. After you install the CPU I would test it a bit of course and take a look at the temps... but I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun.

Make sure you have some thermal paste around when exchanging the processor, as well as some stuff to clean the CPUs (e.g. isopropyl alcohol) and I highly recommend some ESD protection, just in case.

There are a lot of links and threads about changing the CPU here, I guess you already know how to do it, otherwise just ask and I can provide you some links.

 

ok great to hear both items should be fine i have some mx3 from when i repasted my gpu about 6 weeks ago i was just going to use that again.
ESD? electrical static discharge? and any links would be great if you don't mind,though i think i know how to change it,its always nice to have more info,i am a bit nooby xD

 

Official teardown video is always useful as well as the service manual. (However, you don't need to take it too accurate, no need to take out the HDD and similar stuff for exchanging the CPU... )

Yeah, ESD is electrostatic discharge. This can harm your parts even if you don't realise anything. If you have bad luck you can easily kill a CPU or a mobo... but then you're really unlucky. A lot of people exchange CPUs and similar without such protection and never have problems but I would never advice anyone to do so... I say better safe than sorry. In the end it's up to you.

I always use an ESD mat and a wristband when working inside my system.

Another thing that gets easily forgotten is to do a power drain before working on the internals of a notebook. If you never done such a thing like CPU exchange it may be handy to make a little check list before doing it, then you can always check whether you didn't forget a step.

 

my thermal paste guide has enough info for you to take out the cpu.

 

Thanks for the link Svl7 and Inap I have your thermal paste guide thats why I thought I'd be ok changing it but think I'll look at that vid see what i can learn its so fun opening things up and having a fiddle.