GL40 Chipset CPU compatibility?

Anyone know much about GL-40's CPU compatibility? If I end up keeping this G50-104NR I was wondering what CPUs it might support. GL-40, at least on paper, only supports 667 FSB chips, which leads me to believe that the T5850 at 2.16ghz and 2mb L2 is the fastest chip that can be run in it, assuming the BIOS has an MSR for that chip. I've read a lot of threads that say many of the older budget chipsets could run at least one FSB "grade" higher than they were "designed" for. Anyone have any insight on GL40 if this is true, or how I can check the BIOS to see what CPU IDs are in it?

 

Actually one user, with a GL40 notebook, tried a Penryn-Refresh (on NBR) C2D (I think T9400), installed, and it didn't boot - FAIL!

His notebook shared the same BIOS with another GM/PM45 notebook which supported all the new Penryns. So, either the BIOS of his notebook was locked down, in order for the higher FSB CPUs to not work with the GL40 chipset, or Intel realised that they made a mistake during the Santa-Rosa era, and fixed the loophole or whatever there was with the GL960 chipset, and added a hardware lock on the GL40, to not support higher FSB CPUs.

So I guess, you'll have to try out the upgrade to find out. The new Core 2 Duos might be worth a shot.

 

sucks, I'm not sure a T5850 is even a worthwhile upgrade, it's got 2mb L2 instead of 1 and is 167mhz faster... If I could get a P series chip to work in this thing I might think about it, hopefully I can just sell it and get something else...

 

Hi, I'm also interested in upgrading my laptop as well. I have a GL40 chipset. My laptop is a WalMart special - Compaq CQ50-139WM. Currently I have a Celeron 575. I'd like to go to something faster. I've scoured the forums and haven't found a whole lot. The service manual for the CQ50 indicates that there is broad processor support but I'm assuming this doesn't take into account the different chipsets. http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01572022.pdf

So, anyone had any luck yet upgrading cpu's on a GL40 chipset?

 

I actually sold, well, more precisely was swindled out of that laptop I posted about originally, but the CQ should support a T3200, quite possibly a T3400. If my research was right the fastest cpu that would meet all of the paper requirements of the GL40 it was the T5850, but that chip was only marginally faster (larger L2 cache) than the T3200/T3400 anyways. You can probably get a T3200 pretty cheap now or in the near future since its a budget dual core installed in a LOT of oem notebooks.

 

Big Mike,

It appears you may be right on from what I've been able to find. I think I'm going to try out the T5850 and see how it goes. I found this link too. This ASUS laptop with the GL40 chipset lists compatible processors. It lists the T5900 as well which runs at 800 FSB I think. Not sure what the deal is there. I think I'll stick with the 667 FSB and see how it goes.

http://za.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=5&l2=74&l3=846&l4=0&model=2649&modelmenu=2

 

Another question - What would power consumption be like comparing a T3400 with a T5850. The lower price of the T3400 is very appealing unless the power consumption is much worse.

-- Nevermind, it appears that the T3400 is very similar to the T5850 (both are Merom) except that it has half the cache. Since the performance is nearly the same, I may end up trying the T3400.

 

the T3400 should be a 35w TDP, the T5850 would be a 34W chip from what I'm reading, so the difference is pretty negligible. The T5850 would be marginally faster, but you'll probably have to pay a pretty hefty premium for not much performance in a not all that high performing notebook. You can probably undervolt the T3400 pretty decently too, my T3200 was able to run at under 1 volt at full speed which was a substantial decrease from its rated voltage (1.25 i believe it was). Both of these chips are only slightly more demanding than the celeron which is 31W out of the box.

 

Not to mention, I think I read that the Celeron 575 does not support speed step. So, in terms of power use, it may work out better than the Celeron. Good deal, I had enough money left over in my budget to buy a 12-cell battery as well.

 

hey guys, I also had some quick questions about the GL40 Chipset; my brother recently picked up a GL40 Chipset based laptop and his laptop has a Dual-Core Celeron T1600; he just purchased a Core2duo T5850 which I will be installing to replace the Celeron, will the GL40 support this core2duo without a problem and will the performance be noticeable. He does some photoshop editing as well as some video & audio encoding but nothing too heavy.

Intel Dual-Core Celeron T1600 @ 1.66ghz 1mb L2 Cache 667mhz FSB

Intel Core2Duo T5850 @ 2.167ghz 2mb L2 Cache 667mhz FSB

this will be running on 64bit Vista Home Premium with 4gb of ram as well.

thanks for any input guys.

 

The chipset will, the only issue that can arrise is if the notebooks BIOS doesn't recognize the chip. With as much commonality as there is in most platforms now its likely the BIOS is the same across a broad range of models and it'll be ok, but there aren't too many guarantees. The model of the notebook, and/or the model of the board (can be found out usually with Everest or SiSoft Sandra or CPUZ sometimes) would help. Also you should update it to the latest BIOS for the best chance of support. The extra 1mb of L2 will make it akin to upgrading from a dual core 1.66ghz to a dual core 2.3ish ghz performance wise, especially with photoshop and video stuff. Probably not a HUGE upgrade but if he got a decent deal on the T5850 it would be worth it.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, he picked up the T5850 new from a friend of his for about $75, I thought it was a pretty decent deal? but I haven't really kept up with computers recently so I'm not too sure if it that's the best price on that specific CPU; the current bios running on his computer seems to be the latest one for the GL40 chipset in his laptop, I believe CPU-Z detects it as Acer Version 1.14. Date: 10/05/2008. If so everything should be set then right?

thanks again,
nyry30

 

well theres still the chance it wont work, but it wont blow the laptop up or anything as long as you install it right. About all you can do is give it a shot unless you find someone with the same laptop that has done it.

 

Is this any good to you?

 

Thanks guys, I did some more research and I also rechecked the bios, apparently the bios he currently has is not the latest one, there are newer ones already, versions 1.15 and 1.16. Is it necessary to flash the bios still if the CPU works without the bios update? I'm not the biggest fan of flashing the bios because I'm so paranoid of messing it up. The bios the computer uses is made by insyde, if that helps.

thanks,

 

If it works no, but a newer bios sometimes has more CPUs supported and can be the difference between it working or not, that's why I suggested it.

 

oh ok, thanks a lot for the input! I'll be sure to post my results next week, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well.

 

Hi all, I thought I'd let you know how my upgrade went. Originally I had a celeron 575 (single core) on the gl40 chipset. I upgraded to a T3400. The latest Compaq CQ50 bios took it with no problem. Performance feels much better. Feels more like a mid-range laptop rather than a budget laptop. I'm very satisfied. The processor cost me around $70 new oem.

 

In this ranked list that T3400 nearly ranks in the top 20%, from where you were that could only be fantastic!

 

Nice, I figured the T3400 would be an easy upgrade for almost any GL40 notebook. I'd still be interested to see if nyry30's T5850 upgrade works or not. Probably not a huge step over the T3400 but the price his bro got it for was pretty good. Did you do any other upgrades? I found that the T3200 w/ a 320GB 7200rpm drive and 4gb of ram actually was an excellent performing notebook for anything short of heavy gaming, really the only downfall left once i did those upgrades was that it was a budget case and didn't have a lot of ports etc. I was tempted to keep mine but I couldn't pass on the 7805u at 1050 when I could get rid of my G50 for what I paid for it.

 

I upgraded to 4 gb ram. I'll have to check into the hard drive upgrade as well. I'm very pleased so far. I play a little wow every now and then. My fps went up around 5-10. It seems making the game much smoother on an 4500mhd intel graphics chipset.

 

Where did you find the T3400/New/OEM for $75?

 

I got the T3400 processor here: Compuvest.us

 

I'm looking to do the same to my laptop (Toshiba L305-S5915). I've already bought a T3400 from ebay. I may just end up paying a shop to install it for me though. Looks slightly too complicated for me at the moment. This thread made me pull the trigger on the T3400.

 

There was a service manual that I used. The whole laptop had to be gutted to get to the processor. Not bad if you've worked with similar things before but I wouldn't recommend doing it yourself if the most complicated thing you have worked on is a desktop computer.

I'm still enjoying mine!

 

nyry, did you manage to get the T5850 working OK?
I have just picked an Acer/emachines eME520 or I believe that's what it is (got it here and after hunting around both emachines and Acer's websites that seems to be what I got. It has the GL40 chipset so I assume (pending the bios) that both a T5850 (or T5750) and T3400 (or T3200) would work. Is there a big difference between the them, I can get a T5750, T3400 and T3200 all for about the same money give or take $10, the T5850 is about $40 more, so unless there is an extreme difference in performance I doubt I would spend the additional $40. Also I am coming from a P4M @3.06Ghz with an ATI Radeon 9100, am I likely to notice much of an increase in performance with this new laptop.

 

Well I've received the T3400 and I found a shop to install it for me. After seeing what all I have to go through to get to the processor, it's best to just pay a professional to do it. The shop charges like $80 a hour though. He said it shouldn't take longer than one hour to do it. I'll update when the job is done.

 

hey, i just bought a http://explore.toshiba.com/laptops/satellite/L300/L305-S5901 and i was looking to upgrade the proc to the said t3400, i play a little bit of wow and the laptop has Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M with 128MB-830MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory. how do i set this up for the full 830 mb, anybody know?

 

When I'm out and about, I play WoW on my L305-S5915. I think it has the same specs as yours. You may want to add more ram to your system as well as a 7200rpm Hard Drive. I did and it made WoW much more playable.

 

when you say add a 7200 rpm hdd, you mean replace my stock one? then i'd have to re-install windows and all that good stuff?

 

Nope. Research this program called Acronis True Image. That is what I used to clone my old 160gb 5400rpm HDD to my 320gb 7200rpm new one. Works like a charm. All you need is an external enclosure, a hard drive cloning program like Acronis and about an 1-2 hours depending on how much information you're copying.

 

awsome, i'm looking into this right now. thank you so much for the help.

 

Hello everyone, this is my first time posting here. I bought a cheap-o laptop back in Dec. just to have something to bring back and forth to work and just to have something portable for around the house, I wasn't looking for anything fancy. But playing with my car and home computer the way I do, I've been bitten with the modifying bug. It seems like there are very limited options with upgrading on the GL40 chipset, but I have a few ideas in mind anyway and just want to make sure I get my facts straight.

If I throw in a CPU with a higher FSB, am I correct that even if the BIOS is locked there is still the chance that the CPU will run at the 667MHz FSB and the original multiplier? The 2 chips I'm contemplating are the T8300 and T9300. I would not be expecting to get the MHz increase, but the 3MB or 6MB L2 cache seems like it would make somewhat of a difference. The T8300 shares the same 12X multiplier as my current T3200, so I'm not sure if that would make it any more compatible or not since the FSB is still higher. The price difference between the 2 makes me want to try the T8300 first, but if I can find a decent deal on the T9300 I'm not afraid to try it anyway and take the loss on reselling the CPU.

I know it wouldn't be a huge upgrade either way. But much the same as my car, I strive for even the smallest improvement.

 

Actually you don't even need an external enclosure just a cross over cable and another computer with enough free HDD space for the data you want to clone. True it's twice the work to clone it off and back on the new hard drive, but also a free alternative to buying an enclosure.

 

I would be most curious to see whever your attempt with the T9300 works
hadoooken. I'm contemplating the same thing with my GL40 nb ....

 

Update: I got my laptop back. The guys at the shop said it was an easy task and there were no problems. It seems like a whole different laptop now. The T3400 really woke this laptop up. I've gained on average 8-10 fps in WoW. I also gained an hour on battery according to my toolbar. On my old Celeron 575, I only got around 2 hours and 40mins. After upgrading to the T3400, it says 4 hours at 100%. This alone made the upgrade worth it.

 

Interesting sighting of GL40 chipset supporting Dual Core T4200 w/800 mhz bus speed:

It is an ACER Aspire 4730Z-421G25Mn, which has *almost* identical mainboard as my Emachines D720 !

Let's have our finger crossed that GL40 supports 1066 bus speed procs!!

(Google cache)
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cach...aspire+4730z&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=10&client=opera

Or try this link:
www.bhineka.com/products/SKU00009212.aspx

My conclusion at the moment: Intel GL40 has no problem supporting as long as the BIOS code supports it.

 

Hi guys, this is my first post. I'am an italian guy and in these days I'd want to buy an Acer notebook, like 2930z-322g16mn.

Reading the spec-list it has the famous (or infamous) GL40.

So, reading this and other posts over the net, I assumed that it cannot support cpu with more than 667mhz fsb. But is this true?

Surfing true the worldwide acer's sites, i found 2 type of this notebook: 2930 and 2930z. These is quite different because they uses different mainboard:

Mainboard AS2930 UMA Intel GM45 ICH9 w/ Docking MB.ART02.001
Mainboard AS2930 UMA Intel GM45 ICH9 w/o Docking MB.ART02.002
Mainboard AS2930Z/AS2430 Intel GL40 ICH9 LF MB.ARU02.001

But... wait... 2930z is equal to 2430 ? For 2930z there's no bios update, but there's for 2930..... and also for 2430!

This is the changelog for ver 1.15 =

+============================================================================+
JAT10 Release Note
+============================================================================+
BIOS CORE Version ................ Insyde EFI 2.0
CPUs Supported ................ Intel Merom/Penryn 667/800/1067 MHz
Chipset ................ Intel Cantiga
Bridge ................ Intel ICH9M
Video ................ UMA
LCD Size ................ 12¡¨ TFT WXGA
Memory ................ DDR2/3 667/800/1067 MHz
HDD ................ SATA
ODD ................ SATA
PCMCIA ................ N/A
Card Reader ................ JBM385 (5in1)
1394 controller ................ N/A
Audio ................ HD Audio Realtek ALC888
LAN ................ Realtek RTL8111C-GR
KBC ................ ENE 926
Clock Generator ................ ICS9LPRS387
Super I/O ................ N/A
BIOS ROM Part ................ MX25LV8005M2C/EN25F80 (SPI_FLASH:1MB)
Finger print ................ Authentec AES1610
+==============================================================================+
| MODEL NO. : JAT10 RELEASE DATE : 12/16/08 |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Major Version : V1.15 |
| KBC BIOS Version : V1.15 |
| VGA BIOS(discrete) : |
| VGA BIOS(uma) : 1659 |
| Kernel Version : 2037 |
| Cantiga Version : 1.00 |
| Ich9m Version : 1.18 |
| MRC Version : 2.30 |
| PPM Version : 1.02 |
| Flash Utility Ver : 1.2n |
| Phase Status : MP Build |
| Clock Generator : 01h,85h,ech,3dh,ffh,18h,00h,11h,50h,C5h,7dh |
| Checksum (FD) : 6543h |
+==============================================================================+

So bios should support 667-800-1066 cpu's (for example p7350 that is the one I'd want to mount on).

GL40 will finally support this CPU?

 

Another boost of faith of GL40 chipset supporting above 667MHz fsb:

Please google in keywords: t4200 GL40

...and see for yourself models of compaqs, asuses, etc with GL40 chipset supporting a penryn 800 fsb chip !!!

 

The final way is only try with some models... and some bios version, because the trick can be in bios, too!

For me, I decided to go on a gm45 based model.

 

hi all!
i have a notebook acer extensa 5230 with this chipset intel gl40. can i change the current cpu (intel celeron 575m) with an intel core2 duo t7300 (bus 667mhz) or t9300 (bus 800 mhz)?

 

Judging from the performance differences, I don't think it's worth it. It's not a very significant upgrade after all...

 

It's a gamble, you'd probably have better luck with the T3400, it's the fastest chip that works in virtually all GL40 notebooks, you should be able to find them cheap too as they're OEM in cheap notebooks. You can also find the T3200 which is a hair slower but not much. The celeron isn't terrible but it's a single core unless I'm way mistaken and it lacks speedstep as all celerons do so it's not very good for battery life, the pentium T3200/T3400 should give better battery life despite being duals.

 

After reading on the net trying to find out what processor i could upgrade my emachines E520 to i decided to take the gamble and put in a t9300. it works without any problems and the speed gained from a celeron m575 is great!

here's a screen shot from CPU-Z

 

that's a great news to know! a value chipset supporting premium proccie.

Any one care to report a 1066 FSB chip on this humble GL40, pleasee...

 

Just upgraded my L305 Toshiba from a celeron 585 to a t5850. Easy upgrade, much faster boot, and WoW runs much smoother. Well worth the $75.

 

isn't intel T4200 a better buy than T5850?

First and foremost, it is already a penryn based c2d.

Secondly, the FSB is already at 800mhz

Most importantly, it is more economical

CMMIW

 

Some BIOS's aren't working with 800mhz FSB CPU's to my understanding. rather than risk it I opted for a 667 chip. Also as of this writing I was not able to find the t4200 for sale to compare prices to see if that is indeed the case.

 

true, i forgot that t3200 - t4200 are oem of budget dual core processor.

It is very annoying that intel limit how low we can undervolt these things while charging arm and legs for ULVs since the day of yonah.

by the way, is there anyway to undervolt the chipset and its old friend ( south bridge)... Intel should start to worry about power consumption department before feeling the pain from ARM based mobile computing!

 

on a acer extensa 5230 with gl40 chipset.