i7 2960XM processor in XPS 17

I've got an XPS 17 with the i7 2720QM processor in it.

I emailed Dell and asked what my processor upgrade options were for the future.

They said that I could upgrade to the Intel Core i7-2860QM (45 watt) processor.

Not sure if the Intel Core i7-2960XM (55 watt) processor would work.

They also said that a processor upgrade would void my motherboard and CPU warranty.

Any thoughts?

 

The cooling system may not be able to handle the extra heat from the XM CPU. The 2nd gen i7's have a 45W TDP while the XM has 55W. Also, you are spending a lot for a small CPU upgrade, the 2860QM is just fine and costs half as much.

 

The laptop chassis and cooler were engineered to house and dissipate the heat from 45 TDP CPUs. Given the fact that there is only one fan and the heatpipes of the CPU and GPU are connected, i'd guess that putting in the XM with its 55 TDP will raise significantly the temperatures of both and might cause overheating problems. There is also the question of motherboard support, as the 2960XM is not offered as an official configuration option and the BIOS might not support it. I'd say the 2860QM is your safest upgrade option. Can anyone verify this?
Also, i don't think you'll see a significant difference between the two CPUs, as performance will be limited by the GPU, unless you like playing on ultra-low resolutions.
BTW. you could always wait till Ivy Bridge comes out in Q1/Q2 2012 and see if DELL releases a BIOS for the XPS L702x that supports it. Even if they don't, at least you'd get a better deal on the 2860QM/2960XM, as prices will surely go down when the new CPUs are introduced.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/575934-xps-l702x-vs-i7-2920xm-heat.html

 

If anyone is looking at this thread thinking about upgrading their L702X to a 2960XM. Do not. I have thoroughly tested the scenario. It works no problem in the system, but the thermal issues that arise destroy many performance gains you would hope for. The massive mistake Dell made on this system was the single heat pipe coming from the CPU and then of course you have the GPU and its heat pipe sharing the same heat fins. The CPU should have had a two pipe solution and the 2720QM ,which I upgraded from, is proof since it tends to run in the 90°C area and sometimes even greater under load. Removing the mesh from the intake grill under the fan minimally reduces the heat by increasing the air flow. This system's TDP just cannot handle 55W and barely handles its native 45W TDP AND maintain full CPU speeds without major throttling which this thread and the thread I quoted fails to mention. Even with the best thermal paste out there you still cannot get around the lack of copper going on in the thermal design. If you are just looking to get short bursts of speed from the 2960XM then by all means have at it, but in my case I need sustained stable clocks with minimal throttling for the work I do. The 2960XM has dropped dramatically in price as well. I picked one for about $388 on Ebay new. Considering it was over 1k two years ago and it performs fairly close to today's mobile extreme CPUs it's a good deal.

The best test you can do is Intel's XTU stress test which will crank all your cores and threads to their limits. After about 2 minutes of this you will get a very good idea of what you are dealing with. With the 2960XM running this stress test on the L702X platform I continuously saw severe speed throttling due to excessive heat. What should have been all cores running at about 3.4-3.5GHz during this test (as I see on my M18x R1 with a 2960XM) eventually would throttle down to about 2.2GHz on all 4 cores just so the system would not shutdown. Another odd behavior I discovered once the 2960XM was installed was that the cooling fan in the system would not rev as high as it did with the 2720QM CPU that was originally in there. The RPMs were defintely slower even when they kicked into high gear. I have yet to find the cause of this. I even installed the A19 unlocked BIOS to see if I could adjust the RPMs, but alas I could not. One nice thing you can do with the unlocked A19 BIOS is get around the fixed 1333 DDR3 memory speed. This guy had some decent results. The unlocked A19 BIOS can be found here.

The 2960XM was meant for OC'ing anyway and with all that thermal throttling going on just at stock speeds it completely defeats the purpose.

I am going to test the 2860QM shortly (found new for $270 on Ebay), which is just a hair slower than the 2960XM and both have 8MB L3 cache and it is the fastest 45W TDP CPU I can put into the L702X. With the mesh off and some good paste it will be interesting to see if my temps come in much better, which I suspect they should.

The entire reason I tried this experiment was due to these two threads and I wanted to get more zip out of the L702X. In case someone out there was thinking of doing the same I wanted to save them the trouble of all this testing. I'll update as soon as my 2860QM comes in and gets installed. The L702X is still an excellent performer by current standards especially for intensive mobile photo and video editing, which I use it for, and getting a little more out of it for the next two years is worth it to me.

Hope this helps.