Can anyone confirm this CPU upgrade will be OK?

I have a Toshiba L850 with a 2nd gen i3-2350M (rPGA988B, 32nm, 35W TDP) and 8GB of 1333MHz RAM (max speed the CPU supports)

I want to upgrade it to a 3rd gen i5 (rPGA988B, 22nm, 35W TDP). I think it should be compatible, especially since there is another Toshiba model L850 with an i5-3230M

The only concerns I have are the following

The i5-3340M socket is "FCPGA988" whereas my i3-2350M is "PPGA988" however a Google search seems to suggest these are both fully compatible?

My current CPU supports "DDR3 1066/1333" RAM, whereas the i5 supports "DDR3/L/-RS 1333/1600" - will my RAM still work OK?

Also, will cooling be an issue? Going from an i3 to an i5, or will the fact it's 22nm instead of 32nm help?

Thanks in advance

 

It should be fine. FCPGA vs PPGA is laregly how the chip is situated on the PCB. If you have 1333MHz RAM it will run at 1333MHz still. The system may even detect it to run at 1600MHz if you're lucky or possibly OC it yourself to 1600MHz, but really won't be a big difference.

The smaller mfg process will result in it running a bit lower voltage and possibly cooler. It's the i3 vs i5 where you will get the performance difference. It will go from 2.3GHz fixed max speed to 2.6GHz minimum with 3.2GHz boost with the i5. The fact that this same i5-3230M is in another laptop like yours says it may very well run. You may want to see if there's an updated BIOS though, because it may be required to get it to recognize the CPU.

 

I have i5-3230m in my Acer laptop and it can run with either 1333MHz or 1600MHz RAM.

 

I agree with HTWingNut that you'll want to make sure your BIOS can support an Ivy Bridge processor. It's much easier to be backward compatible than forward compatible.

If BIOS accepts it, my guess would be it's pin-compatible with your old processor, but I can't find any definitive statements either way.

Since both the old and new processors have the same TDP value, cooling will work as well for the new as it did for the old.

 

Thank you so much guys.

Anything that supports a 3230M should support a 3340M right?

The only thing that was confusing me is how an i3, i5 and i7 (even from the same generation) can all have the same TDP

CPU Upgrade says it's compatible with the HM76 southbridge.

However next to "chipset" in CPU-Z says "Sandy Bridge" but I'm not sure if that's because I have a Sandy Bridge CPU right now?

Also the BIOS (which I updated with the latest version from the Toshiba website) is Insyde Corp 6.80, release date (10/01/2013) - is that DD/MM/YY or MM/DD/YY? if it's DD/MM/YY it could be a problem since the i3-3340M was released in the 1st quarter of 2013.

Although I just googled "Insyde Corp 6.80 i5" and found this Geekbench result which leads me to believe everything will be OK?

Edit: one more quick question, do I need to worry about FSB speeds being the same? And I have a Radeon 7670M also, would that cause any compatibility issues?

 

Intel's branding is based primarily on price point, not features. So multiple branding points (i3, i5, i7) can have the same thermal properties.

 

@laptopnoob678 you need not worry, just give it a try.

 

Thank you guys, I ordered one.

I'll let you know how it goes.

 

I installed it and it works fine.

Thanks everyone!