Lenovo Thinkpad CPU Upgrade

I currently own a Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E520 and I LOVE IT! I have already upgraded it to 8GB of Ram and I would like to upgrade the processor along with it. I currently have a higher end Intel Core i5 2410M 2.3 GHz dual-core but MIGHT have the opportunity to buy an intel Core i7 2630QM 2.0 GHz quad-core for a good price. However, even though I COULD get the CPU for a good price, I would like to know if it would be compatible with the motherboard in my system before buying it. According to the website you can get this laptop pre-assembled with up to an Intel Core i7 2620M 2.7 GHz dual core, but does that nessesarily mean that that processor is the limit of the system? I know there must be a watt limit, so would my system be able to take the 45 W of the i7? I don't think heating would be a huge problem because WITHOUT a cooling pad, the 2-cores I have now gets only up to about 52 degrees C. If I upgraded, I don't see the average temperature getting up to a whole lot more (I'm used to it anyway, my old dell got up to 106 degrees celcius one time with the core 2 duo). And even if it did, I would just buy a cooling pad to use when the computer is under heavy load. So, my basic question is, is this processor (intel Core i7 2630QM 2.0 GHz) compatible with my system, and would it be a practical upgrade (heating/battery life, for example) and if no one knows, does anyone know where I could find this information?

 

the good news for you is that the core i7 2620 uses the G2 socket which is the same as the 2630qm. I believe your core i5 is also socket G2.
You'll have to find out if your bios supports the quad core 2630qm...if it doesn't, then it wont work

 

The specifications I seen say E520 has Intel HM65

compatible processors are :

Mobile Intel® HM65 Express Chipset


Looks like Yes ! the,, intel Core i7 2630QM 2.0 GHz is on the list,,now if your socket is compatible and the bios microcode for this cpu is there.

Cheers
3Fees

 

It's been a mixed bag with Thinkpad dual core to quad core upgrades. The T500/W500 and T400 didn't POST with quad cores, however, the T420 does run fine (although a tad warmer) with SB quad cores. Unless someone's tried it, there's not much you can do but try it yourself.

Before you plunk down a bunch of money for a quad core CPU, though... what are you hoping to gain from this upgrade?

 

I am currently running Fruity Loops Studio and Kontakt 4 which are 2 programs that when put together, can make music using recorded instrumental samples. Fruity Loops isn't the problem, but Kontakt is a little bit. Kontakt is a sampler that uses instrumental samples in the .wav format, so processing all of those in real-time is hefty work for a processor. I have the RAM, but the CPU seems to be slacking slightly, as in when I play the music in real-time, I hear little ticks and stutters and it tells me the cpu usage is too high. I was hoping if I got a quad -core processor that I may not have these problems anymore.

 

It should remove any bottlenecks you have. Perhaps the hard drive is at fault? These samples are being read in real time as I understand it.

The quad core upgrade, if possible, should remove any hiccups that you currently have. I believe both Fruity Loops and Kontakt both utilize multiple cores so you may see a huge jump in performance.

 

I would be looking at the state of your storage subsystem first.

You may want to download PerfectDisk 12 Professional and do a complete system defrag (one online, one during boot and another online one to complete the disk's optimization).

See:
Software Download Center - RAXCO Software

Or, direct link:
http://ftp.raxco.com/pub/download/pd12/PD12_PRO.exe


With your current cpu, 8GB RAM and a properly operating storage subsystem, I do not think you will be getting those ticks and stutters anymore.

If you are, then you must also be doing some real time sound processing too?

This may take a while to fully defrag your system, but I think the rewards will be obvious and beneficial.

See:
PerfectDisk 12 with RAID–First Impressions : Home Server Show

See:
http://www.gorillazsouth.com/software/defrag-comparisons-perfect-disk-12-review/7/


The above review shows how a defragged HDD uses a lot less cpu resources - this may be all you need (and not a cpu upgrade).

Hope this helps.

 

Well 1, my system is brand new, about a week old, so I would be 99.99% sure there is nothing wrong with my hard drive, unless it shipped faulty. 2, the samples are read in real time, but off of the ram, not the hard drive. The samples are loaded off of the hard drive onto the RAM before playback.

Ok, I will try these programs out. I would just find it hard to believe that a near new computer (a week old) would have anything wrong with it, especially the hard drive, but maybe I'm just overlooking something, Thanks for the Help!

 

There's nothing wrong with it. Just needs maintenance to be at it's best.

Also, being only a week old system:

If you haven't disabled sleep (or at least set it to 5hrs or so before it turns off), if you haven't let the system idle (before you turn it off manually) and/or if you have installed a lot of programs or Windows Updates, then try the following too:

Open an elevated command prompt (Start, type cmd, right click on cmd.exe and select open as administrator),

Run the following commands (individually):

Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

defrag c: -b



What these will do is start Windows optimization routines (normally run every three days if Windows is given enough idle time) and will also benefit PerfectDisk Professional too by Windows telling PD which files are the 'boot' files and which are not.

Could you also tell us how many processes are running after booting up to the desktop and leaving the system idle for 10 minutes? Also, how much RAM is used?

A screen shot of your Task Manager is probably the easiest way to show us this info.

 

I have already installed windows updates so that wouldn't help me unfortunately. On average, the cpu process idles at 0-1% after boot-up.

 

No, I don't mean you can't do it if you've installed Windows Updates, I meant especially if you've installed Windows Updates then the above cmd commands will/might help.

A screen shot would help immensely here. Of course the cpu is at 0-1% - but how many processes are loaded - how much RAM is being used - that is more important than where the cpu idles at.

Use the snipping tool (built in to Win7) to capture the Task manager window about 10 minutes after bootup. Thanks.

 

Here's the picture, I waited even longer to make sure it was truly at idle.

 

Thanks.

I am smiling out loud (Sol...?) with the 98 processes listed.

You need a clean install more than any other single thing right now.

What notebook manufacturer is this? Asus, HP, Acer? Sony?

Are all the drivers up to date?

Just because it is a new system, doesn't mean it is at it's best (by default).

 

It's a lenovo and yes, all of the drivers are up to date.

 

A clean install with just the necessary hardware drivers installed should be giving you around 35 processes running (or so...).

With 3x that amount, either you have major boatware installed and/or you have installed a ton of stuff which also runs in the background (or, at least some of it does).

If it's bloatware - try simply uninstalling any and all programs you don't use.

If it's your own (required) software, try to pinpoint which ones are taking so many resources and see if they can be tuned/tweaked (look in their options...) to not load at windows startup.

To me, looking at the above 'detective work' that you'll have to do to make this a little better - it is easier to just do a clean install and load the drivers I need to make the system usable.

But that is your call to do a clean install or not.

A cpu upgrade will help here (obviously) but tuning the system you have can give you an equally effective result too.

 

I am pretty sure bloatware is the cause, I will look into removing it, or preventing it from starting at startup. Also a few of the programs are mine, such as oovoo and a cpu temp monitor. Some of the software I'v installed actually doesn't have to startup either, so I will look into that. Thanks for your help!

 

You're welcome and hope to see a status report from you soon showing how much more responsive (and stutter-free) your system is.

Remember that all the various suggestions I have provided will provide the greatest impact if all are done and not simply picking and choosing which to implement.

Cheers!