Upgrading W3J-T2500 to T7200

Gidday guys, merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

I currently have a W3J with the T2500 and 2 G RAM. I am thinking about upgrading to a T7200. How difficult is it to change the CPU? Is it simply a matter of pulling the old one out and slotting the new one in, or do I have to change BIOS or other settings as well?
Also, just to be safe, could someone (Justin?) confirm that the Intel part # I am looking at ordering is correct, BX80537T7200.

Last but not least, do you reckon I will see any difference, or am I just wasting money?

Thanks guys

 

Dont think you can upgrade processor. Can it be done?

 

10% performance in CPU based jobs
Just as I posted :
My borther's W3J with Core Duo 1.66 scores 4200+ 3dmark05,don't expect much in the area of 3D graphics other than and +100 score improvement.
Also Merom generates more heat.And W3J is warm/hot enough already.
Of course CPU intensive games will improve on Merom but not that much again.
You have to upgrade to the lastest bios to upgrade to Merom.And I suggest using arctic silver.
Good luck...

 

If I were you, I wouldn't upgrade until you NEED 64 bit. The T7200 is about 10% faster than the T2500. But you most likely won't notice the difference. Wait till your 1 year warranty is up, then upgrade, would be my advice.

 

yea it can. I don't think it's worth it unless you are planning to get the x64 of windows and find someone to sell your old cpu to at a reasonable price.

 

I would wait until the last chip line is made for your socket.

I dont think its going to be too long either.

It will be faster, have more cache and cost the same

expand it to the max its gonna go.

 

What's the general thoughts, is Merom the likely last to fit this socket? If so, I'll wait till the next chipset is out, hopefully the price of Merom will crash and I can go all the way and whack a 7600 in!

 

I think there will be at least one more chip release . I think its still called merom though isnt it?

I think this socket will have another chip with higher mhz and a larger l2 cache. 2 cores though only, the 4 cores I think are going to be for the next socket.

 

I did upgrade my own W3J's processor. It had a T2400 when I bought it, then I bought a T7600 processor and I upgraded the processor myself (with a little help from my friend, to be precise). It's not too difficult, you just need to remove the vga module before removing the fan. After that you can find the processor easily. I used AS5. Oh, and you need to upgrade the BIOS to the 2.10 version, available from ASUS' website.

About the part number, I think there's only one kind of T7200 available, so if that's the part number you find, that should be it.

Now about the difference, I really have no idea... but I can feel the difference from T2400 to T7600.

 

The current chips are the last to fit in this socket. Santa Rosa is a new platform coming in Q2, but this will introduce a new socket for the 800MHz Meroms. The only refreshes to the current Merom line upcoming are LV and ULV parts (but those are not socketed parts so aren't relevent to you) and some additional Merom based Celeron Ms, but those aren't likely to be faster, and look to be quickly replaced by Santa Rosa based Celeron Ms anyways.

 

My guess would be, yes, the Merom is the last CPU which will be compatible with your laptop. The next generation Mobile CPU from Intel is rumored to be code named Penryn, and out in 2008. Which means that the Merom (Core 2 Duo) will be top of the Intel laptop CPU heap for some time yet. Penryn is rumored to feature a 6mb cache on the high end, (3 mb on the low end), just like the 2mb/4mb cache with Core Duo CPUs. But again it won't be out until 2008.

Santa Rosa, which is the next mobile chipset, is for the Merom CPU. The only thing that will be new in regards to the CPU, will be the Merom for Santa Rosa will feature an 800 MHZ FSB and use the new Socket P. So you won't see a new CPU introduced with Santa Rosa, just an update to Merom. Anyway the big generational design change for Intel mobile CPUs already happened with Merom. So if you want to get one to upgrade your laptop with, wait until the prices drop to a price point that you're happy with, and then go for it.

Intel Santa Rosa announcement URL
Intel Laptop CPU Roadmap article URL
Intel CPU Roadmap article URL

 

Hi guys, thanks for all the replies.

Basically, I've just been given a freebie through work, a T7400, not a 7200 as I originally thought it was going to be. I have been told that if I whack it in, I might have to do a repair install from the original software that came with it. Any thoughts? I am running the 210 BIOS already.

Thanks and regards

 

Atleast wait till your warranty expires. If you do it now then your warranty expires now.

 

Since you're already running the dual-core system profile, I think Windows should just detect it and you should be fine. As far as I know the only time re-installs were required (and even then there were ways around it) was going from single core to dual core Athlon 64s on the desktop machines.

That said, you might consider waiting as Eddie mentioned so you don't void your warranty.

 

So, if you don't care about the warranty then no, you don't have to do a repair install. Just replace the processor and that's it.