New MEROM BIOS for XPS m1210

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...=1&vercnt=3&formatcnt=1&libid=1&fileid=174395

 

great, great find. Looks like it will work, assuming that

1. Update Intel Processor Support, Processor ID: 6ECh.

2. Update Intel Processor Support, Processor ID: 6F6h.

meets the Core 2 Duo IDs...which it probably does

 

Good find! This means that they will soon offer the Merom option, directly from dell.

 

Yes! I guess M1210 is the first one to get the upgrade?

 

No I think they did upgrade on all of the Inspirons. The E1505/E1405 has a BIOS update, but M1710/E1705 do not have it yet.

 

does that mean dell will release the m1210 and the inspirons with merom at the same time, or did they just release the bios updates on the same day?

 

Actually, none of those. I don't we can say for sure that Merom will arrive on the same day, although, its probably likely.

 

Remember everyone, if you do decide to upgrade then you end up voiding your warranty. Unless Dell does it for you, but then you'll have to pay them.

 

If it is a supported upgrade by Dell it will not void your warranty. The only reason it would void your warranty now is that Core 2 Duo isn't even out yet for notebooks and Dell doesn't offer the CPU. Once the processor is out they will let you upgrade your computer to it without voiding the warranty. However, the processor will not be covered under your warranty unless you buy it from them.

 

Even if you buy it from them, you only have a 90 day warranty. That is the standard for all parts bought from dell.

 

this is great news if I plan to upgrade down the line.

 

Well.. until someone with a merom post something here I wont flash the bios, I HOPE that the id's are core 2 duo, Im planning to go for the t2400 XD

well. anyone with a merom? experiences? thoughts? jokes? ????

 

*RAGE* I KNEW I should have bought an m1210 ;(

 

100% sure its for Merom

 

nice, in about a year, merom will be quite cheap and a perfect time to swap out my yonah I dont think there is going to be a significant boost by doing it now.

 

hmm... but wot if i have 3 years of complete cover? i'm under the impression that as long as i'm under the complete cover i'll be, well, completely covered?

 

Guys, someone say I have to upgrade The Bios of my E1705 before I put Core 2 Duo !!! Have anyone know exactly what I have to do If Im planning to use Core 2 Duo on my E1705 ???

 

Not if you install it into a system that is under warranty. I was told by a Dell rep that if you buy a part from them and install it into a Dell system it has either a 90 day warranty or the warranty of the system, whichever is longer.

 

nice post on the front page of this site, doesnt look like Merom is worth it for Yonah people right now, igota admit this reduces any potential buyers remorse for me :

"Anandtech is running a very in-depth article comparing the Yonah (Core Duo) to the Merom (Core 2 Duo). They compared the Core Duo T2700 (2.33GHz) to the Core 2 Duo T7600 (2.33GHz) in an Asus Z96J notebook.

Overall, the Merom processor wasn't a big upgrade to the Yonah, but it all comes down to the fact that the Merom performed equally or better in every performance test without increasing cost of reducing battery life. Owners of current Core Duo laptops have no reason to worry about upgrading now; you're best off waiting for the Santa Rosa platform in 1H 2007 at the earliest. There will be a couple more weeks yet before you can get your hands on a Core 2 Duo notebook, but you should be able to grab one in the next month or so.
"

 

that benchmark that they did was not a real gamers benchmark. they used and x1600 for graphics. If they had used one of the dells or any other computer with a 7900 in it the results would have been much different. the processor couldn't do anything when paired with that video card. It would have ate it if they had tried to play fear on it. Not to mention that they didn't use any of the games that are currently cpu limited for benchmarks (IE BATTLEFIELD 2). the fpu(floating point unit) on the merom is a million times better for gaming ( at least on paper) and it EASILY outperforms ANY mobile proc ever made.

Not to mention that they said that the cpu was about 20% faster that any of the previous core duo models. That in itself is impressive.

no bios update is needed for the merom Core 2 duo on the e1705.

I will let everyone know if it is for real and I will post benchmarks when I get the t7400 cpu on August 12.

 

Unless you're doing heavy encoding/rendering/mathematical apps, you will not notice a difference between the Core Duo and the Core 2 Duo, and even then, the performance difference will be moderate. Current Core Duo owners need not worry about upgrading. Gaming performance is pretty much the same, and like I said, you won't see any noticable difference, if there is any at all.

 

with the 4mb cache i think that it will be a lot more on it's feet than the current core duos. Especially when you are multitasking. a little download in the backround while playing FEAR at high res. I think that I will notice atleast 10 fps average in my games from my current t2400 to the t7400. the t7400 super pi's at 24 sec ! my t2400 does it in 33.

 

The problem with the Merom right now is the Front Side Bus. At only 667MHz, it somewhat bottlenecks the CPU, and considering that both the Core Duo and Core 2 Duo are very similar in architecture, the difference in performance will not be as big as it could be. Once Santa Rosa comes next year with the proper 800-MHz FSB Meroms, we'll see bigger gains, but for now, the difference doesn't make it worth the upgrade from a Core Duo.

 

Yes, this batch of Core 2's is just a taste of what the new processor is capable of. Like Chaz said once the Santa Rosa chipset comes out with the higher FSB and the better socket, Core 2 will be shown in all its glory.

 

The Sanata Rosa will unfortunately be a different socket requiring a motherboard upgrade from what i read at intel last night as i am rather annoyed having ordered my dell ( impulse shopping Grrr) and then finding out about the upgraded cpu the next day. And from what toms hardware are saying in the test again with a x1400 they said its about a 17% increase in peformance but the with the same battery life so really it's not much of a difference not one an average user will notice even when playing games.

 

Has anyone actually put a Merom on an m1210 yet? Although anandtech and others report moderate performance gains, it could act differently on the Dell. It will be interesting to find out.

 

just a couple days a guy posted with pictures of his merom install on a m1210, check it out. He reported good numbers