Upgrading a 1.66G Duo A8Jc to Merom (future)

I'm possibly buying an A8Jc in the UK with a 1.66Ghz Core Duo processor and have heard that the supplier are about to start selling the 2Ghz equivilant.

Don't want to spend too much, so I'm hoping that the price of the 1.66 machine will drop further, then snap it up.

But I only want to do that if I feel that it'll last me a good few years. So I'm thinking that maybe in 18 months time, I could buy a Merom processor - which I've read is drop in compatable with current Core Duo motherboards.

How certain can I be that I will be able to buy a Merom and slot it straight in? Is there a high chance of bus/addressing/memory compatability or whatever issues cropping up?

Cheers

 

its hard to say. Although Merom is pin compatible, it also needs a Bois upgrade. Some manufacturers may do this, and some may not. Those that do not, will probably bring out Merom in a different laptop.

If you want futureproff, and can wait, then i would recommend you do so, until Merom hits the market. It will be 20% faster than Core Duo, but it may be expensive at first. Intel will probably lower the price of Core Duo, when Merom's are vast in the market. That may be any time September, or October. Even with a 1.66 Ghz Core Duo, you are still futureproofed a fair bit.

 

The A8Jc is an Ensemble, as such the price won't drop. Instead ASUS will probably raise the specs for that machine in the future.

As for Merom, you'll be able to slot it in alright, but then the question is how soon or will ASUS release a BIOS for Merom support for A8 models...

The old saying is still true.. the best time to get a notebook is when you need it .. if you keep waiting, there'll always be newer technologies on the horizon... if you waited till merom was out... prob the next great thing will be right knocking at you

 

It's also worth noting that Merom's performance improvements aren't that great over the existing Core Duo; nowhere near the jump the Core 2 Duo makes in desktops.

 

Thanks for the answers... I hadn't realised that there was a chance that the BIOS update might not be made available.

Think I'll wait to see what price the 2G A8Jc comes in at and then decide.

 

merom = conroe except with a slower bus speed. clock for clock they perform very similar