Processor Upgrade for my HP Dv7 6195us

Hello,

In late August 2011, I bought an HP Dv7 6195us with the Core i7 2630qm. Because the Dv7 Quad Edition was available with a Core i7 2820qm, I am fairly certain that a 2820qm would work in my laptop. Intel's max TDP for both processors are the same, too, so a little IC Diamond 24 should keep temps down, even with the faster processor. So, I was wondering: what about a 2860qm? Of all the mobile Sandy Bridges, the 2860qm seems to be one of the fastest, outpacing the 2920xm. I would really prefer an upgrade to a 2860qm, because it appears to be a significant upgrade, while the jump to a 2820qm seems to be a marginal upgrade. Would the BIOS not recognize the processor? Would Windows require me to buy a new license because of the upgrade? To those who have done upgrades from a 2630qm to a 2820qm: is there a noticeable difference in performance?

Thanks,
Squawk

 

Stick to CPUs offered by the manufacturer in the dv7. The i7-2860QM is offered in the dv7 Quad Edition right now:
HP Pavilion dv7 and dv7t Quad Edition series | HP Official Store

I have to ask though - what's the reasoning behind a CPU upgrade? If the i7-2630QM isn't fast enough, then the other quads aren't likely to be either.
The only way you will see a difference between the processors is in synthetic benchmarks (which don't matter) and lengthy encoding/rendering. Even if the 2860QM is 10% faster, that equates to the 2860QM doing something in 54 minutes that the 2630QM would do in 60 minutes. Not really a whole lot of return on investment there.

Invest in an SSD if you want to boost overall system performance.

 

I do 3D animation, gaming, and in the future, the computer may have to run physics simulations. If I can get a 20% boost in performance, I'll go for it. And hey- there's the geed cred in saying that one has upgraded the processor in one's laptop . The Dv7 Quad currently sold by HP- I would guess that it is a newer version-the last Dv7 6195us BIOS update was well before the 2860qm was released; perhaps that precludes an upgrade to a 2860qm.

Thanks for the response,
Squawk

 

No i don't think you should upgrade. 2630qm is quite an awesome processor and it plays almost all the games with minimum heat problem. So if you haven't upgraded yet, my suggestion is don't do it.