Nehalem upgrade after Montevina

Hello,
I'm planning to buy a new, Montevina-based laptop in the next month or two but I would like to know if I will be able to upgrade it with a nehalem cpu later on? Will it work?

Thanks

 

most likely not

current processor = penyrn, Socket P
next processor = nehalem, lower TDP, probably different socket.......

 

Wow, montevina isn't released yet, slow down.
But no, you wont be able to. Nehalem will be a major upgrade, different cpu package and chipset.

 

I don't see why not. Montevina should support Nehalem processors.

Edit: My mistake!

 

No more FSB, integrated memory controler. Not gonna work.
Why upgrade a CPU on a laptop anyways? Laptop CPUs are costy, and laptops are portable work machine. If you wanted performance, buy a kick ass desktop + a functionnal laptop for the same price as a kickass laptop.

 

Nehalem looks really promising!!!

 

Id love to have more then 2 cores in a laptop, but my current Penryn does so much multitasking without skipping a beat it would be hard to justify getting Nehalem when it comes out. Either way this question seems to come up several times when a new CPU platform is announced. Yonah to merom then santa rosa ect... If you want nehalem just wait for that to release and make things easy on yourself.

 

Nehelem uses processors with a new pin-scheme

Current/penryn pins = 775
Nehelem pins = 1336

The chips are also a bit bigger

 

All good points, but fundamentally, the reason it will simply never work is, as Spare Tire points out, is that the Nehalem architecture is fundamentally different from the current FSB-oriented architecture.

In a nutshell, FSB is a common communication bus, sort of like in the days of early telephones, where everyone's transceiver unit was connected to the same, single piece of copper wire, so that anyone who picked up their earpiece could hear a conversation between two other parties, even though he hadn't been rung up (go watch some old-timey movies for an example ). In order to have proper communication on a line like that, only one conversation at a time can happen, and anyone else who wants to make a call must wait until the conversation already going on is finished.

By contrast, the Nehalem architecture will use a point-to-point system Intel has now officially christened QuickPath that will permit individual conversations to take place irrespective of who else is already having a conversation.

Since the Nehalem-class CPUs will necessarily have to use a QuickPath type of communication system, and since all pre-Nehalem motherboards only have common FSBs, there is simply no theoretical way that a Nehalem-class processor could be retrofitted into a pre-Nehalem motherboard without essentially rebuilding the motherboard to the point where it would simply be cheaper and more expedient to just buy a new computer that already comes with a Nehalem-based motherboard.

In addition, as Spare Tire points out, the memory controllers are, finally, moving on die (something AMD did years ago).

 

No disrepect talin, but to say Nehalem would be a major upgrade is an understatement ...from my little knowledge I definitely know it wouldn't be possible to upgrade to it from Montevina. Unless ur an Intel technician...just read up on Nehalem and u would know OP...it's in a class by itself!

 

Thanks for the replies everyone. I know all about the FSB and QPI, but the reason I thought it might work was because I was sure I read somewhere that Montevina would use Nehalem processors when they are released.

Anyway, now that there's news of Nehalem being released in September, I might wait a little bit longer and buy a nehalem laptop.

 

Those are desktop, notebook Nehalem (Calpella platform) are not coming until summer 2009.

 

Nahalem WILL be a better upgrade. A memory controller onboard will pretty much put AMD out of business. I love AMD and that was the advantage they had on intel. The only thing bad about Nahalem is if your willing to wait a year for the notebooks.

 

This is great information. Thanks.

So, the Calpella platform is already out for desktops? Sorry if I'm super late. I haven't really been paying much attention to desktop computer news.

 

Yeah Core7 desktops have been out for a couple of months at this point.

Nothing as of yet for notebooks though

 

So is Montevina essentially without a future beyond the very expensive X9100?

Dang it, I just got this Montevina notebook! Stupid technology..

 

Wow. I'm behind on the news. Thanks, Kamin.

 

yeah essentially the x9100 is it. Their might be a minor release or two for it (like the XX50 CPU's) but for the most part except the initial move to DDR3 Monevina was a pretty lack luster release to me anyway (others might feel differently).

The next "tock" in intel's cycle is nehelam and its sort of a big deal in my opinion

no worries, anytime.
I mostly deal with laptops now, but i try to keep up with the desktop hardware a bit. Check around the forums there are a good few people with i7 desktops, they should be able to give you a better heads up on the feel of the new tech. (quadzilla on the gateway forums is a nice bloke to chat with)