studio 1749 CPU upgrade help/starting point

Hi guys

I recently got a new cpu for my 1749, from an i3 330m, to an i5 460m (£30 off ebay )

now i am gathering as much information as possible on how i go about it. Im not new to opening up laptops, and have built my own desktops for 14 years, so i do have experiance, but i dont pretend to be a whizz

So i have started with getting myself the below in preperation

Cleaning fluid for the cpu compound
Arctic Silver
Printed off what i believe i need from dell's website with the service manual

Can people share experiences and the difficulty of doing it?

do you guys have your own guide? i often find peoples first hand experiance and guides better than following service manuals

Many thanks in advance

 

Documentation

You have to remove the motherboard to get to the CPU, looks like a ton o' work.

 

im starting to think this maybe a little out of my expertise, im sure if i follow the instructions carefully it "should" be ok, just wondering what other users found, and how long it took, any issues found

 

It can be daunting at first, but I've broken down so many 1745/1747/1749's it's like clockwork.

The only two tricky things:

A> There is one screw not documented you need to remove for the palmrest/chassis removal. It is under where the wireless cables run

The motherboard has to be inserted/removed at a particular angle or it will not come out/can get stuck. Don't force it.

The Studio 1749's have very thin/flexible parts (including the motherboard), so be gentle with it. It isn't built like the Dell Alienwares or Precisions which are tank like.

As noted, you have to break the machine down completely and remove the motherboard because the CPU is on the bottom. Once you have it out, you might as well also remove the GPU heatsink (assuming you have the 5650 modell) and clean it up too and apply new thermal compound.

 

Well, though you may have good experience with desktops, but laptops are completely different kind of animals. Be real careful when handling laptops.

 

Its not that bad I installed a new motherboard and also heat-sinks (with arctic silver) in mine. Just find a way you can keep track of all the screws and where they go. I always lose at least one.

One thing to note when the manual recommends laying the screen back do that or else you can get it to where the screen is vertical and you can not get to the screws and can't move the screen....if that makes any sense.

And can you simply swap the i3 processor for an i5? This I'm not familiar with....just be sure its compatible before you go through the trouble of tearing into it.