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    The best upgrade for older intel chips

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by JIC_E7, Mar 9, 2012.

  1. JIC_E7

    JIC_E7 Notebook Guru

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    Hi,

    I have an Acer Extensa 5235 and it has an intel celeron 900 (2.2ghz 1mb cache, 800mhz fsb) processor. I am upgrading it all and would like to know which would be the best processor for me to upgrade to without sacrificing much on battery life as it has a reallllly good battery life.

    I am not too sure but i think its a socket p as somebody on this site said but it says on intel website that it is PGA478.

    It has 4gb ddr3-10600 ram and windows 7 x64 ultimate.

    Thanks in advance.
     
    JIC_E7, Mar 9, 2012
    #1
  2. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    It has a GL40 chipset, so the highest performance CPU upgrades would be 800Mhz FSB Penryns with SuperLFM support, eg: T8100-2.1, T8300-2.4, T9300-2.5, T9500-2.6. The best bang-per-buck being a T8300. Suggest flash the dual-IDA modded bios to gain another 200Mhz out of it.
     
    User Retired 2, Mar 9, 2012
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  3. Thaenatos

    Thaenatos Zero Cool

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    The P series chips get slightly better battery life with similar performance to the T series.
     
    Thaenatos, Mar 9, 2012
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  4. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    OP's GL40 chipset cannot run 1066Mhz Penryn CPUs like P8600 or T9400. GL40 can use a 800Mhz Penryn like a T8300/T9300/T9500.
     
    User Retired 2, Mar 10, 2012
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  5. H.A.L. 9000

    H.A.L. 9000 Occam's Chainsaw

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    IDK, personally anything that shipped with a Celeron 900 wasn't a top-notch notebook anyway. I upgraded a friends Celeron 900 with a T6500 that is VERY close in performance to a T8300, but was much cheaper. I gave exactly $8 on eBay for the T6500.
     
    H.A.L. 9000, Mar 10, 2012
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  6. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    The reason I didn't suggest the budget Penryns like the T4200/T6400/T6500 is because the OP requested battery life improvements. Those budget CPUs don't have SuperLFM mode so can't idle at the low voltages like the T8300/T9300/T9500 cpus can.
     
    User Retired 2, Mar 10, 2012
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  7. H.A.L. 9000

    H.A.L. 9000 Occam's Chainsaw

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    I don't think the OP would see an actual noticeable difference in battery life between any of the three... but that's my $.02. The performance increase would be extreme, but battery life... not so much.

    If battery life is paramount, I'd go with a PGA-SU9xxx series... though I'm not 100% certain a GL40 would recognize that.
     
    H.A.L. 9000, Mar 10, 2012
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  8. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    The SuperLFM capable Penryns can be undervolted to 0.925V, making them equivalent to SL9xxx (LV) CPUs. The T4xxx/T6xxx budget Penryns cannot go below 1V, often at 1.1V. It does make a difference with battery life. However, if the OP can get a 9-cell battery + T6xxx for the same price as a T8300 then I'd go the former as that would greater net battery life at the same price with a small weight premium.
     
    User Retired 2, Mar 10, 2012
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  9. niffcreature

    niffcreature ex computer dyke

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    Actually you can use a pinmod to downclock the CPUs FSB to 800mhz and it will function but it will leave most of the P series at under 2ghz because its the same multiplier at only 200x.

    A p8800 or p9600 would give good battery life undervolted and at 2ghz.
     
    niffcreature, Mar 10, 2012
    #9