T2330 Upgrade

I have a Toshiba A205-5804 laptop that I just purchased recently for 450 dollars (which I thought as a deal) until I started using the thing. It has the T2330 Pentium Dual Core processor in it, which is a joke. My question is, is it upgradable? I ran CPU-Z on it, and im getting some weird results. First, its telling me I have a T5200 Dual Core, that its Merom core, and socket P. Now, I know its not the T5200 core, and that the T2330 is just the T5200 cut in half for the most part (when it comes to cache) Now, CPU-Z is telling me that I have a GM965 chipset. Does that chipset support a 800mhz fsb? Or am I stuck with the 533? I would love to upgrade this thing, cause its killing me how this thing runs. If anyone could provide an answer to this, it would be greatly appreciated. Also, does this support an expansion slot for a new graphics card? It has the on board X3100, does that mean no, or does that give me the option to upgrade?

Thanks
P.s. Im new to laptops, this is my first, and I found CPU-Z from the forums. If anyone else knows any more software that will tell me more about my comp, let me know

 

The T2330 is indeed Socket P and the GM965 chipset supports an 800MHz FSB. Because of the IGP you cannot get a dedicated graphics solution, but you can still upgrade the processor.

 

Not to say that i dont trust your knowledge in this area, but could someone second that? 350 is alot of money to spend on a processor that wont work, lol

 

The commander has spoken. But you are good...honestly though 350 is alot...that's pretty much the price you paid for the laptop...dunno if it is worth it imho

 

What are the exact spec's of your laptop? If you're running less than 2GB, you should upgrade your memory first. I would also consider putting in a 7200rpm hard drive, or a faster one in general.

 

The T2330 is not a joke. i thought the same thing when HP had to replace my TK-53 Athlon based laptop with the T2310....I was like "no way...dual core is crap...'

Anyway, I researched it and the T2310 is a C2D running at 533/ 1 MB Cache...it was about 1.5% slower than the T5250 C2d running at 1.5 GHZ.

Like someone said, upgrade the ram...that's what I did and this machine really flies....well for a $450 laptop it's got some speed.

 

I’m quite sure processor is NOT the problem. How much RAM do you have? what Windows version do you use? how many background applications are running?

If you are still using the factory installed OS then a clean installation should improve things (depending on how much bloatware is installed; usually those sub $500 notebooks are loaded with bloatware to reduce the cost).

 

I have an Inspiron 1520 with a T2330, it is indeed a Socket P processor and runs on the santa rosa platform, which means you can run any of the 533-800mhz based Socket P C2D's The only thing you 'may' need to do is update your bios.

As for the GPU i cant really comment, I also have the GM965 chipset but have an 8400m GS installed, the mainboard is more than likely different on my dell tho.

 

Get hold of a copy of 'Everest Ultimate Edition' also, its a really comprehensive piece of software, lets you know just about everything to do with your computer

 

Can you upgrade to a Core 2 Duo or only to the best Dual Core?

Is there a different in the sockets or motherboards?

 

If the BIOS supports it, you will be able to upgrade to the best Socket P processor. Aka something in the T7x00 series or the T9x00 series.

 

T2330 and T2310 (Dual Core) Are same socket/ratings as the C2D...at least the T5XXX series.

 

Yes, you can upgrade to the Santa Rosa Core 2 Duos, that's T5250 T5270 T5450 T5470 T5550 T7250 T7300 T7500 T7700 T7800 X7800 and X7900.

However, as others have said, I doubt the cpu is causing issues. If you're running Vista you really need 2GB to make it sprightly. Also what hard disk do you have? I notice a big speed up getting a faster hard disk.

 

Sorry I havent replied in a while, I thought it would notify me when other people posted, but I guess I have to visit again for that. I do have the original install of Window Vista, but I took all the "bloatware" off and the OS seems to run fine. I upgraded the ram to 2gb (the max) and I believe the hard drive is a 7200 RPM. Windows gave my hard drive a 4.7 in the review, which is pretty good for a laptop hard drive. My comp does seem to be running a little better now that I upgraded the RAM, but when I go to play games like warrock, I get lag pretty bad (with the graphics turned all the way down) and I know that doesnt have anything to do with the gfx card, cause I was running with no lag on a 5200FX nVidia which is an ancient card.

 

I'm sure that the maximum RAM is 4GB, but 3GB is the sensible upper limit since this is what 32-bit Windows can address.

John

 

processor has very little to do when it comes to 3D gaming performance.

Nope, not necessarily .

FX 5200 maybe ancient card, but it is not much slower (if at all) than an integrated X3100. Remember, Integrated cards sucks for gaming. A quick google search turned up these : According to this review, a standard desktop FX 5200 scores around 6138 in 3D Mark 2001SE, while X3100 only scores 5372. However I think X3100 performs better than a FX5200 in later versions of 3D mark and newer games , but most probably not by much.

 

Well that sucks. I was reading a review that said that the X3100 was able to run half life, far cry, and a few other games with livable frame rates that my 5200FX wasnt able to play at all. Hmmm, I think im going to look for another laptop then.

 

X3100 should be fine with war rock, my x200m can handle war rock fine. It's probably INtel's rubbishy drivers.

 

I got a Gateway ML6720 with the same spec as your Toshiba except my CPU is T2310 (1.4GHz). my laptop got GL960 chipset but CPU-z reported GM965. According to Intel spec, GL960 support celeron and 533FSB.

I want to upgrade my laptop to core 2 duo T5450 which is socket P but it is 667FSB. I am not sure to take this risky upgrade. can anyone confirm if this C2D T5450 upgrade is possible with GL960 chipset

 

The problem im seeing is not the intel drivers, its Toshibas drivers. Toshiba told me that I cannot install the Intel drivers for some stupid reason, so im stuck with the X3100 7.13 driver which I think is lame when dell has 15.7

 

Why upgrade? Your really not going to get a great speed increase....at least for the time, $ and trouble. Why do you want to change your processor? Increase the ram for now and when the 2.0 Ghz C2D's drop in price then I'd take "the plunge".

If you really want to....read this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=210436

 

I happen to have T5450 on hand. I successfully upgraded to this Core 2 Duo T5450 cpu even though my laptop got GL960 chipset which supports only 533FSB.

I also upgraded to 3 GB of RAM even though the laptop spec said that it can only be upgraded to a max of 2 GB.

Here are some performance differences (my two laptop CPUs and two Desktop CPUs):
T2310 1.4GHz 2M PI calculation: 1min and 40 sec
T5450 1.6 GHz 2M PI calculation: 1min and 18 sec
E6300 1.8GHz desktop 2M PI Calculation: 1min and 13 sec
Q6600 2.4GHz quad core desktop: I will test later

2MB of cache that T5450 got help abit. its perforance is very close to E6300 whereas T2310 is far less.

 

Is there any other options of upgrade for T2330 1.6GHz processor?

on the review (link below), it states the CPU is soldered
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4202

 

Just to finish up this thread and let everyone know, I have successfully upgraded my Inspiron 1520 CPU from a T2330 Pentium Dual Core to a T7500 Core 2 Duo.

No problems encountered atall, it was indeed Socket P (purple ZIF socket) took me about an hour in all start to finish, the only real obstacle was dismantling near enough the whole notebook to get to the actual CPU

For anyone wondering about the upgrade it is indeed possible

 

Sipha,

Give us the scoop, how much faster does it appear to be? Are there some activities that are noticeably faster and others where there appears to be no difference?

 

Well to be honest I've not tried much yet, no benchmarks etc, but the Startup process seems to be alot quicker, theres less lag if you like between when you open an application and it actually starting, for instance Adobe Photoshop seems markedly faster.

I wouldnt say its a Vast difference overall tho, but its definately noticable

I'll try some editing and DVD ripping in a bit see how that gets on..

Si

 

Congrad! what chipset does your laptop have? check your device manager if it displays T7500? did you have to upgrade BIOS?

 

Thanks

My Chipset is a GM965 although certain software shows it as PM965!

As for device manager I had to uninstall the T2330 CPU for it to register as T7500!! Weird, why is that ? Everything else saw it fine obviously.

I didnt have to upgrade the bios atall either Just popped in the new CPU and all was well.

 

Just found this, seems to explain it..

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930861/en-us

 

CPU-z showed that my chipset is GM965 but in fact it is GL960. I know this because I opened the laptop and look at it myself. Both GL960 and GM965 is in the same family which software report the same. GL960 is a lesser one

 

Its definately a GM965, I looked also

 

thanks for the tip. I upgraded mine to T5450 but the device manager still showed T2310. I thought I had to upgrade BIOS which is not available from anywhere. anyway, after uninstall and reinstall cpu, it showed correctly. Never thought about CPU driver before.