Merom upgrade unlikely!?!?

If you've bought or are planning on buying a Duo Core notebook with the plans of upgrading to Merom after it's release in August, you could be quite dissapointed.

Don't jump to conclusions, but the Conroe chip (Desktop version of Merom) has a system called "Platform Environment Control Interface" or PECI which controls the different fan speeds based on thermal readings and presets. In order for a Conroe system to even boot, it requires a motherboad which supports PECI. From what I understand, PECI motherboads are not readily available and a lot of boards which should have otherwise supported the new chips... will not! If Merom also uses PECI, it could mean that most (if not all) the notebooks being sold now will not be upgradable.

The good news: PECI is a system which controls fan speeds. In a desktop system, there are multiple fans working independantly and in conjunction to keep things reasonably cool. In a notebook, there is only 1 fan... The lack of multiple fans could mean PECI is not nessasary and hopefully not required.

Source of speculation

 

Merom chips will be upgradable on current motherboards, at least that's what we're being told.

 

I still haven't read about one single Yonah laptop that didn't work with Merom. I think most Yonah laptops are designed with Merom in mind. Not surprising, since the Yonah platform is relatively new, and not like the two year old socket 775.

 

A couple of months ago some people on another forum put into there E1505's Merom processor and didnt need a BIOS upgrade or anything else. Also the Asus s96j for example is also Merom compatible and the only thing needed to make it compatible is a BIOS upgrade.

 

no i don't think they an upgrade would be possible as the new Conroe ship will probably use a different socket on a mobile motherboard.

 

You are incorrect Lil Mayz.
Most of the major notebook manufacturers and ODMs have already confirmed that Merom CPUs will work jut fine in Yonah laptops.
Some, like Sager/Clevo, don't even need a BIOS update.

 

Yeah, I just updated the BIOS on my Aspire 5672, which supports Merom upgrades.

 

The first round of Merom will be supported by the current motherboards, this has been widely stated by the industry, intel wants the initial batch of merom to be able to be a "drop-in" upgrade.

 

Intel planned Merom to be drop-in compatible with Yonah at the computer manufacturer's option. So far, Merom has worked in most computers tested without a BIOS upgarde. One exception is the E1705 which requires A01 BIOS not A00 to prevent downclocking. Also, so far it appears that the A01 BIOS for the XPS M1710 and M90 could prevent Merom upgrade. Conroe is a different story because there is no Core Duo platform for desktops. The current for desktops is Pentium D, which is a whole different story.

 

Do we really have to upgrade as soon as it release?
I mean merom pros is that it support 64bit that will run Vista better right?
besides Vista launch is next year and it won't be many 64bit apps until it release ,so why rush

 

Another working Yonah to Merom upgrade is the Apple iMac and Mac Mini. Both work even with current bios's with engineering samples of Merom.

 

Many owners are worried that there Yonah based notebooks will be "old" even though the speed increase isnt that much already from the Core Duo. As long as the Merom processor is out there, you could wait 4yrs from now and upgrade.

 

From what I've been reading, most Yonah based laptops have been confirmed to be Merom-compatible. Most of them don't even need a BIOS upgrade; just drop in the new chip.

Here's a post that Justin at XoticPC made about an actual test of a Yonah system with the Merom dropped in:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=65769

 

oh...

sorry for giving you incorrect information...I'll check what i post in the future....