Acer 8942g Processor upgrade

Hi,

I am going to upgrade my i3 8942g to a i7 720qm. Is it as straightforward as taking the old one out and putting the new one in or do I need to do anythig else too?

Thanks

 

You need to also have some thermal paste to cover the cpu die. IT will increase the heat conductivity between the CPU and the heatsink.


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I highly recommend using some ESD-protection when doing this... otherwise you're likely to kill the CPU before it's in the socket.

 

Hi,

Thanks for that. I'm aware of the paste and ESD-protection, I've been building and repairing pc's for years, perhaps I should have said, sorry. I just haven't done much work with laptops, just memory and hard drives etc. I was offered an i7-720QM for £70 and the processor looks to be easily accessible so I decided to go for it.

What I was trying to check is whether there are jumpers on the board or settings in the bios I need to change or is it just a case of swapping them out?

Thanks

 

As long as the BIOS supports the CPU (which it does as far as I know) it's a simple plug-and-play operation... and it seems you know what to do so it's gonna be pretty easy.

 

Excellent, thanks.

Screwdriver here I come!

 

hey tatty27, i replied to yor post in another thread but im curious if you were lucky to upgrade the cpu ? I did take a peek under the hood and saw that the processor is conveniently located right next to the memory modules. So is it as simple as unscrewing those 4 screw from the heatsink and lifiting it up swaping the cpus applies thermal paste ? I have built many desktop pc's as well, with laptops i usually stay awaya or did in the past from replacing cpus as they were usually almost unreachable.

On another note do you know if the acer 8942g supports memory with 1333 mhz ?

Thanks and hope it worked out for you ...

 

+1 on how the swap turned out. It will be good to know if you have any tips.

 

Hi,

The upgrade went well, very well. Just popped out the i3 and put in the i7, it took me about 3 mins and it's made such a big difference in speed. The rating for the processor in the Windows experience went from 6.2 to 7.

I simply unscrewed the screws on the heat sink and lifted it just high enough to flip the old proc out, put a bit of paste on the new chip and popped it in.

I'm putting a 120gb SSD tomorrow and I can't wait to see what difference it makes to the system (I really need to get out more!)

Also, yes, it supports 1333mhz memory

 

Congrats tatty

Glad it all worked out. Just to make sure before i go ahead. You did not take the laptop apart jsut unscrewed those 4 screws on the heatsink and you were able to lift it high enough to take the old cpu out nad put the new one in ?

Thanks again memory is coming in soon for me and SSD soon as well. On another note do you know where can you buy the brackets for the HDD for the second bay ?

Thanks and enjoy the cpu !

 

Hi Nox,

Thanks and yes, that's all I did, lifted the heatsink high enough to flip the processor out. There is a lock on the proc socket which you just turn with a screwdriver, it's black with a lock and unlock symbol on which you can't miss. You just have to be careful when you are putting the new one in because it's not that easy to see if it's lined up before you push it down. Just mak sure you line it up in the same direction the old one came out and keep lightly trying it until it goes in easily and then lock it in and then screw the heatsink down again.

Obviously you need to put some thermal paste on the new proc, I put it on before I tried to seat it.

I upgraded the mem to 8gb but I can't say I noticed much difference but I already had 6gb.

I bought the bracket from laptopbits.co.uk for £34.

Hope that helps

 

Tatty

Perfect info. Thanks again mate that really helped now i just gotta look around and see if i can find an i7 for a good price ... With the bracket i suppose you used this one - Acer Hard Drive Fitting Kit 33.PDA07.004 (i thought all u needed was the little iron carrier that was on the primary harddrive)

Im glad everything worked out enjoy the speed !

+1 rep btw !

 

The bracket I got was the same as the one on the primary drive. To be honest it was a while ago when I ordered it so I haven't got any part numbers etc.

Thanks for the rep!

BTW, the SSD went in the morning and my system is flying, you won't regret getting one

 

thnks for the rep btw , so it seems that it went well with tatty i will do mine in couple of weeks so maybe ill take some pictures and post it step by step otherwise im getting 8gb of 1333 memory for now and a hdd caddie for a swap ...

 

Hi,

As I see all of you are "experts" Do you know whether an i7-940XM processor can be changed from a 720QM currently working in my 8942G? On support.acer.com the spec says that i7-820QM is the highest CPU. I really don’t want to pay ~1000$ if it won't work. Another question: Will I benefit from if I change the factory installed Samsung 2*4GB M471B5273BH1-CF8 RAM to a Kingston HyperX KHX1600C9S3K2/8GX notebook RAM?

 

Get the CPU from someone who will let you test and return if it does not work.

The ram wont at stock no, but if you change the timings via a program on boot it would offer a small performance increase.

 

Thanks for the reply

Unfortunately, I can only buy this CPU from the two crabbiest distributors in my country. I’m 1000% sure they won’t let me test-drive a nearly $1000 component. That’s why I’m trying to figure this out, because I not only have to change this Acer 8942G’s CPU, but 1 Dell Studio XPS and 2 Sony VAIO. I’m reading now the Intel specifications. If a notebook installed with a PGA988 socket CPU is it possible that this motherboard does not support a same category but faster CPU? I mean if the factory installed CPU is i7-720QM is it possible that it will not work with i7-840QM? The only difference is the speed according to the compare chart at Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Server and Embedded Processor Technology - Intel. And for the Extreme Editions the difference is the “Max TDP” 55W vs. 45W from the “normal” edition. And of course the Bus/Core Ratio witch I don’t know what the hell could be. I’ll try to contact the Intel support tomorrow, but if you Meaker or anyone had to solve the same problem, please let me know how to deal with this.

 

It probably won't work. I seriously doubt there will be BIOS support. I don't suggest you even try.

 

TBH mate if you are buying a $1000 CPU upgrade you should consider a different notebook, putting that cash and selling your current one.

You could get a beast.

My cpu upgrade only cost me about $100 after selling my original one.

 

My point exactly. Get a G73JH or something and pop it in although would be better to do it in an M17x