Acer Aspire 6930G upgrade from T6400 to Q9100

So I know its possible, I just wanted more tech savy people to confirm it before I go ahead and buy the CPU.

So I got this laptop for my girlfriend for Christmas;

Acer Aspire
Intel Core 2 Duo T6400
4GB DDR2
9600M GT

It has the Intel(R) ICH9m LPC Interface Controller - 2919
It's Chipset is Intel PM45 Socket P Rev. 07


I got it for her to play some light gaming and browse/skype on mostly, WoW runs fine on it but Guild Wars 2 is bottlenecked by the CPU, so I am looking to upgrade it.


Thanks everyone!

 

Sure, it will have about 3x the performance, but the it will run hotter, have lower battery life and may even throttle if the cooling system is not able to sufficiently cool the substantially hotter processor.

Is that worth it for you/her?

It isn't for me.

Others will have other suggestions, I hope they chime in soon.

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

Right now the T6400 idles at 53-54c

I only got this laptop a couple of days ago, I suspect reapplying thermal paste will lower temperatures, surely the Q9100 won't get to the point where temperatures are dangerous if no overclocking is done and the chip is in good condition? (I'm new to Laptops, but been building desktops for years)

 

I was going to add that the Q9100's TDP is 45W vs. 35W of the T6400 (about 30% more).

See:
ARK | Compare Intel® Products


With your current idle being so high, I would guess the notebook's cooling setup is not optimum for a QC processor.

If you're going to re-apply the TIM anyway, you may want to try ThrottleStop 5.00a to see if you're currently throttled (thermally...) before and after.

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...arket-upgrades/531329-throttlestop-guide.html



You don't need to be overclocking to have an effectively lower performing setup with the Quad Core if the notebook's cooling system is subpar (for QC's...).

Good luck.

 

I will first try new thermal paste and see how the idle temperatures are then proceed.

Do you think if the idle temperatures drop drastically it could be worth picking up a Q9100?

Normally I'd be happy to just upgrade to a T9800 or something similar but the Q9100 is such a huge leap, especially in Guild Wars 2 where 4 cores is a big deal.


Thank you again


Edit: Oh and the CPU hasn't been throttling, I've checked the speeds in cpu-z whilst testing it at max load

 

Will cpuz show throttling? I don't think it can? (Other things than GHz can be throttled...).

And idle temps are not what we're worried about here: load temps are (use real world workloads - not 'stress tests').

Check out the TS link I provided: it may even allow you to undervolt your cpu and get further temp drops.

 

Your motherboard not supports quads. The max you can use is the T9900.

 

Are you absolutely sure?

 

Man it doesn't matter, just chill on the quads dude! Your girlfriend doesn't need a quad to browse the web with! Don't even bother with the risk!

I'm pretty sure Kirr knows that for a fact that it wont work and I am about 99% sure. Core 2 Quad mobile support does NOT depend completely on the chipset, socket type, or even supported TDP of the cooling system. It depends on the motherboard circuitry, most little acers like that will NOT support quads.

 

I tried my Q9200 in many machines for example in a gx620, g50vt, 6930g and in a thinkpad. None of them have the needed power circuit around the socket. The chipset, the socket, everything fit perfectly, but the mobo can't support enough power for a quad. There was a discussion about this in the gt627/628 topic, that you have to have a special type of motherboard even in the same notebook, to support a quadcore.

 

Alrighty, thanks everyone! :3

I think I'll just go for a T9600 then since the T9900 is far too expensive

 

T6400 - PGA478
T9900 - BGA479
the bga479'ed cpu into pga478 socket - really ?

Product search reasults for Q9200 - no results found, i guess you want to say 9100?
and about power -
T6400 - Voltage Ranges min and max to operate (1.000V - 1.250V) - max is higher
Q9100 - Voltage Ranges min and max to operate (1.050V - 1.175V) - min is higher
But the range,especially if we get the max voltage which this mobo can support, is quite enough for quad cored cpu.

The main question here is - bios, as acer modifying bios firmwares and instructions set..so that, at last staying only one thing to us - just test it in real

 

It was a Q9200, base clock 2.4GHz (Q9100 is 2.26GHz). Its an unofficial chip by the way, fully unlocked like the QX9300. Mine was a super beast high OC sample but it was an oven.

 

Yeah, I had one too. Actually since it wasn't ever released (doesn't has official name) and it was unlocked, it's safe to say that it was QX9200 Mine got to 3.6GHz in a friend's M570TU, with modified dual-core motherboard to support quads (the idea and most of the technical stuff from me, while he was doing the soldering). Imagine with an extra phase (the dual is a 2 phase, the quad has 3) what would've done

 

T9600 would be an optimal choice, go with X9100 if you need maximum power and overclocking capability.

 

http://ark.intel.com/products/37033...2M-Cache-2_26-GHz-1066-MHz-FSB#@compatibility

only q9100 should work with this, can anyone reply, anyone tried this model with this notebook? cos I have read many articles here, only people try with q9200 and q9300, but of course they won`t work.