CPU upgrade from T7300 on XPS M1330

Hi everyone,
I've had this Dell XPS M1330 for 4 years now. It's worked really well for me, and it's still going strong. I'm hoping to get at least another year out of it. I just upgraded to 4g of memory because it's come down in price a lot. The installation was easy, too.
I am curious about upgrading my CPU now though. I have a Intel T7300 2.0GHz. Would upgrading to say the Intel T9300 2.5GHz be a good idea? Cost effective? Easy-enough installation for an amateur? Would I notice a big difference? Is there another cpu I should upgrade to?
Any suggestions and/or advice would be well appreciated. Thanks!

 

With such an old laptop, unless if you have a specific need for a faster CPU, you'd be better off saving up for your next system.

A 2nd generation Core i3/i5/i7 system is much faster than a T9300, and the gap is only going to get wider with Ivy Bridge by the time you upgrade next year.

 

What do you use your laptop for? What is your average CPU utilization rate?

T7300 is more than enough for basic/medium-weight tasks.

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A couple of options:

1. Consider running a dual-IDA overclock to get 2.2Ghz/2.3Ghz/2.6Ghz/2.7Ghz out of a T7300/T8100/T8300/T9300.

2. Do a PLL pinmod overclock to get more performance. There's a M1330 implementation at http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...pll-pinmod-overclocking-methods-examples.html . A T9300 overclocked at 3.4Ghz performs at similar levels to a 1st gen i5.

The T9500 and X9000 are the top-end CPU upgrades for 965PM chipset systems like the M1330. They do however come at a high end price. An overclocked T8100/T8300 represents better bang-per-buck.

 

If you really want to as the M1330 has very easy access to the CPU, a T8300 or if you absolutely want a T9300 will get you the speed but also Penryn. They run cooler due to 45nm and you also get additional instruction sets.

 

Those XPS m1330's basically had little or no thermal margin brand new, largely due to using so much plastic in the case compared to the larger heatsink/thermal mass of the Latitude D630/D830 series.

I concur with the others; congratulations on getting 4 years out of the m1330 ( many didn't make it that long!) -- but seriously, the CPU upgrades on that platform aren't likely to be of any value, and will end up being de-rated anyways based on thermal considerations.

I'd personally suggest a SSD as an upgrade; a SSD you could move to a new machine later on.

 

That's just an amazing thought, @pitz. An SSD is better than any other upgrade.

 

..meaning a SATA III drive.


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