SXPS16: Tech replacing P7350 with a T9800 processor.. results???

A tech is scheduled to replace my P7350 with a T9800. I was told they need to replace my entire motherboard to do this. I guess I have a couple questions:

1.) In the SXPS16 is the graphics card also attached to the motherboard? If this is the case will they be sending a new graphics card also?

2.) What performance differences will I notice with this upgrade?

3.)Im not sure on the difference between the "P" processors and the "T" processors. I am aware that the Thermal Design Power (something like that) on the P processors is 25W while the T processors is 35W. What does that mean as far as performance is concerned. (battery life etc)

Thanks a lot for any help.

 

1) Yes the GPU is integrated on the MB. Not sure why they are replacing it though as the two CPUs are 100% compatible.

2) Unless you run CPU intensive apps I seriously wouldn't bother with the upgrade. The T9800 will run much hotter than your P7350 and there will be hardly any difference performance wise during average day to day usage.

3) Yes you have that spot on. Battery life will be reduced due to the higher power rating, higher max clock speed, higher temps and greater fan activity.

My previous laptop was a 3.06GHz X9100 monster and I hardly notice any difference running my P7350. I love the fact that I can undervolt the P7350 to 0.925V across all speed ratings. It means very low temps, very minimal use of internal fans and thus great battery life.

I also tried an X9100 in this laptop and it ran so hot the GPU was instantly downclocked during gaming. This is with a laptop cooler and AS5 thermal paste applied to the CPU and GPU.

Cooler the better in this laptop.

 

well that sucks to hear.. What about stuff like burning a dvd? Will that be any faster? Also you are saying there wont be any increase in gaming performance but a decrease from a 2.14 processor to a 2.93 processor? I have the 3670 mobility graphics card currently

Edit: I forgot to ask. Will I have to reformat my harddrive with the replacement?

 

DVD burn speeds are constrained by the speed of the DVD burner. You can upgrade this device, but you won't find anything significantly faster than what you already have. You probably won't notice much gaming performance difference between the two processors either; I'm sure the 3670 is the gaming bottleneck in this system.

 

Just for future reference what type of work would I need to be doing to justify buying a 2.9ghz processor over a 2.14ghz processor. My current usage is maily web browsing, lots of downloading, mid range gaming (call of duty), watching 1080p movies. I do lots of multitasking such as buring a dvd while surfing the web and downloading files. I usually have a lot of windows open at the same time. I dont do any graphic design(unless MS paint counts)

 

None of those things really require a more powerful CPU IMO. The things that typically use a lot of CPU are video rendering/encoding and mathematical calculations. Btw battery life won't be significantly affected since it will downclock/downvolt via speedstep to similar values most of the time.

 

Well I do do some video rendering/encoding from time to time so thats at least one benefit.


Edit: Does anyone know if I will have to reformat my harddrive after getting a new motherboard and processor?

 

You can use your ATI GPU and AMD Stream for video encoding though so you don't even need a powerful CPU for that.

No you probably won't have to reformat and reinstall.