Acer 4920 CPU Upgrade - which CPUs?

Hello,

I just tried to upgrade my Acer 4920. It has a T5450 CPU and I really thought a P7450 would work. It's supposed to work with GM965 as well as GM45 according to what info I can find. My Acer uses the GM965 chipset. The P7450 does not work though. It fails to boot. I did update the BIOS first to v1.21 - which supposedly has Penryn support.

I've read that T9300 and T9500 will work. But I was really hoping to use one of the Penryn low power chips to gain some speed and maintain lower temperatures. Also, the P7450 is priced much better.

Can anyone who knows about these Acer notebook series say what CPU upgrades do work? Any hope of a P series upgrade?

Thank You, for your experiences/help.

 

From what I can see, the laptop has a FSB Speed of 800 MHz. A T7300 should work, as well as a T7100.

"Although it may seem identical, Socket M is not pin-compatible with the older desktop Socket 478 or the newer mobile Socket P; it is also incompatible with most[2] versions of the older mobile Socket 479. Pentium III-M processors designed for the first version of Socket 479 will physically fit into a Socket M, but are electrically incompatible with it.[3] Although conflicting information has been published, no 45nm Penryn processors have been released for Socket M."

Source: Socket M - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The T9300 and T9500 are also socket P chips, which I don't believe will work. Wait for some more forum members to chime in!

 

My 4920 is definitely Socket P. The T5450 is Socket P.
It's also 667 memory, which I guess means FSB too.

I have a mini-itx system using the P7450 but with GM45 chipset (Jetway NF93). That board will use both T5450 and T7450 quite well (done it). Reading up on the P7450 led me to believe it would work with GM965 so I decided to try swapping the CPU into my notebook. Apparently the Acer will not support Penryn-3M with P7xxx chips. Maybe due to voltage restrictions on motherboard? I'm not sure but would love to hear some definitive info. The P7450 Penryn is supposed to have FSB scaling and so should work with 667 memory.

 

You might be right.

Here's a chart displaying the differences:

Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile P7450 (Penryn) vs Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T9500 (BGA)

So from what I see, the T9300 and the T9500 should work

 

Ya, they're pretty similar in the ways I care about. I'm not looking for max speed but for a decent speed boost for minimal $$. The P7450 I have cost $55 but T9500s go for over $200. Also, I wanted to see if using the 25W TDP chips would help keep temps down. I'm not worried about VTx though it may be nice someday, I would only pay about $10 max for that extra.

I suspect it may be voltage that is the problem but I don't know what the Acer mainboard is spec'd for or capable of. Or maybe something else like BIOS problems stops it from working. It powers on, clicks the DVD drive, flashes power lights, repeats a few times but never gets off the ground before shutting down. So disappointing, but glad nothing ended up being fried.

 

This acer have GM965 chipset what's mean that it can use cpu with 133(533)mhz, 166(667)mhz and 200(800)mhz fsb. All P series processors use 266(1066)mhz bus that's why they will not work. Will work T series like T5750, T5850(667mhz), T5670, T5800, T5870, T5900(800mhz), T7100, T7250, T7300, T7500, T7700, T7800 - based on Merom core. T8100, T8300, T9300, T9500(800mhz) based on Penryn core. Offcourse if bios will support them. Maby You should look for t8100 or t8300, they're cheaper then t93(5)00 and based on newer Penryn architecture aswell, they might be a good choice.

 

Thanks for that info!

I'm thinking a T8300 is a good compromise, price vs. speed.
It's approx. 63% faster than my T5450 (Passmark score), which is good enough to keep some life in my aging notebook (which I happen to really like!)

Can anyone confirm the 1.21 BIOS will work with T8300?
I already updated to this version a few days ago in preparation.

I saw that there was an updated Acer 4920G released with T8300 from factory and was reviewed on a Chinese site (it also had ATI GPU added). And also saw in the release notes for 1.14 and later BIOS that Penryn support was enabled. This leads me to believe that these Santa Rosa Penryns (T8300 etc) will work. But it sure would be nice to hear someone say they've done it before buying one.

It's a very easy upgrade because the CPU is very accessible in this model - just a few heat sink screws and swap the CPU. But I wonder now if the T8300 will require 800MHz memory or if my 667 will continue to work fine...

 

If it's in the BIOS notes, then it should not be a problem.
There are users on the forum with similar models, myself included, who have upgraded to a Penryn T8x00/T9x00 series CPU.

If you're thinking of getting a medium-voltage CPU, you can always undervolt the T8300 if you decide to get it; I did! True, you might not be able to get 0.1V below stock voltage like me, but it'll still help keep things cool.

You should swing by the Acer forum and see who else is running a 4920.

 

Memory will not be a problem. It will still running 667mhz. Core processors not require to run "synchronized" with RAM.

 

Darnok44, Thank you again.

TehSuigi,
I'm interested in the under-volting. Do you see much difference in power consumption?

I did a search of the Acer forum for "4920 upgrade" and didn't see too many posts. I figured this model is too low spec to be popular with enthusiasts here. Maybe it would be a good idea to move this thread over to the forum if it would get more notice from a 4920 owner over there?

I've got a 60GB Vertex 2 on the way too. I figure that will give it a nice little kick. So between these two things it should feel like a new system.