The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Smallest laptop with i7 extreme CPU?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by briansusilo, Sep 23, 2014.

  1. briansusilo

    briansusilo Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hi, I have an OEM Intel i7 940XM extreme edition lying around. I want to put it in a laptop. What is the the smallest / lightest laptop that can take it?
    I don't plan to overclock it, and I have no worries about throttling whatsoever. As long as the laptop boots and runs stably then I'm fine with it.
     
  2. djembe

    djembe drum while you work

    Reputations:
    1,064
    Messages:
    1,455
    Likes Received:
    203
    Trophy Points:
    81
    To the best of my knowledge, there are no systems under 15" screen size or under 1" thick that would accommodate that.
     
  3. briansusilo

    briansusilo Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    So that, the possibilities are: Dell M4500, Lenovo W510, Asus G53, Alienware m15x R2. Any other suggestion for the lightest one that can accomodate 940XM?
    Does the BIOS of common quad core Nehalem equipped laptop usually blacklisted 920XM or 940XM? Or the problem is on the cooling itself?
     
  4. ajkula66

    ajkula66 Courage and Consequence

    Reputations:
    3,018
    Messages:
    3,198
    Likes Received:
    2,318
    Trophy Points:
    231
    That's going to be a hit or miss depending on the BIOS of the particular machine, but I'm fairly certain that W510 will boot with your CPU without a modded BIOS, since one of the factory options was 920XM.

    As for the cooling...that baby will be *hot*...

    Good luck.
     
  5. Karamazovmm

    Karamazovmm Overthinking? Always!

    Reputations:
    2,365
    Messages:
    9,422
    Likes Received:
    200
    Trophy Points:
    231
    I think the lightest would be the envy 15
     
  6. Kirrr

    Kirrr Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    253
    Messages:
    901
    Likes Received:
    39
    Trophy Points:
    41
    The Envy will be hotter than hell. :)
     
    ajkula66 likes this.
  7. Marksman30k

    Marksman30k Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    2,080
    Messages:
    1,068
    Likes Received:
    180
    Trophy Points:
    81
    The Envy has enough issues with the i7-720QM let alone an XM chip. I would say it is impossible.
     
  8. Althernai

    Althernai Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    919
    Messages:
    2,233
    Likes Received:
    98
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Is this a theoretical question or do you actually want to do this? It's amusing as a theoretical question, but actually doing it only makes sense if you have a compatible laptop lying around (or at least can get one at a negligible cost). The Nehalem laptop processors were the worst that Intel has made since the P4s (turns out stuffing a server CPU into a laptop is not a good idea). The 940XM is the best of them, but at stock clocks, it is significantly inferior to even the wimpiest of the Sandy/Ivy/Haswell mobile quad-cores. It runs very hot and thus cannot be overclocked with a thin-and-light so I don't see the point.
     
  9. baii

    baii Sone

    Reputations:
    1,420
    Messages:
    3,925
    Likes Received:
    201
    Trophy Points:
    131
    2540p? I know 2560p take quad, not sure about the previous gen.