W3J - Upgradeable processor?

I've been doing much research and many posts on this forum (thanks to all for all ur responses) to decide on my first laptop to buy.

The laptop ive been looking at has been the Z96J. One of my most recent concerns has been regarding 64 bit processors. Chaz recommended that i could just buy it with the core duo now and then buy the core 2 duo later if i really need it. This is good advice, however, I'm now looking at the W3J for its identical performance but much smaller, thinner, lighter, and more robust (anodized aluminiun chassis).

I've realised that the W3J is a substantially more compact machine and I'm wondering if it would also be possible for me to upgrade the processor on such a machine. The Z96J is much more open from what i've seen and thus upgrading is comprehendable.

Could anyone give me some info about this machines upgrading potential?

Thanks in advance to all for your much appreciated advice.

K

 

If the merom upgrade arrives for W3J (which will probably be released till Merom comes).Then W3J can be upgradable as you wish but even the upgraded Z96 (i know someone put a merom inside it-A bios upgrade was available at that time for Z96 ) but the machine grew Very Hot.I own a W3J an I know about it's heat,It's hot enough without outside help,So putting a merom inside a W3J might not be sensible,also removing the cpu voids the warranty so you can't look forward to a CPU upgrade sooner than a year,I think it's better to buy a W3J (it's very light and small) and perhaps forget about merom,(if you get a W3J unless you are a hardcore gamer you might not even need to use your CPU at full power)(I currently am working on Battery Saving mode and with 25% cpu speed an It's quite comfortable).
Anyway the last choice is with you,If you really care about being a 64 bittie,You might consider waiting ,even DX10 notebooks might be out for 2007Q1.

 

Sorry, I realise how obvious this may be to many...and how ignorant I must appear but I must ask...

So am I to gather that the core 2 duo isnt really a different processor as such...it just uses a different software or driver or something. And that this different version or whatever will be available to download?

Or is merom some hardware that you install in addition to the core duo chip that makes it core 2 duo once you have downloaded some bios thing?

Again...I clearly have no understanding of this whole concept...

If someone could very plainly and simply write it out point for point I would greatly appreciate it. Because otherwise all this good advice...such as that from mujtaba...will go wasted since I have no idea what he's talking about...


thanks heaps.

 

It's similar processor to Core duo, with some extra features (better floating point operations, maybe less power consuming etc.). Only the bios upgrade (for properly recognizing it) of core duo based laptop should be required to make it work (and swapping processor of course ).

Unless you will be making some heavy calculations or 3d rendering, you probably won't see the difference in performance (maybe in games it will be visible).

 

I've found the 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo chip in the newspaper for $489. They are talking about it with regards to desktops at the moment. Is this likelyto be a similar price for the chip for the laptop? Is it indeed the same chip? How much does it generally cost to do the upgrade? I'm asking these questions to see whether I should just be patient and wait a few more months for the core 2 duo to come out...or whether I should buy a laptop now with a core duo and then upgrade.

I know many people have told me that I probably won't notice any difference between the two chips, but it's a matter of longevity. I want this notebook to last as long as possible and with the impending 64 bit age, I might be better off holding out for the core 2 duo...even though not having my laptop is absolutely killing me....(money burning a hole in my pocket).

 

First for desktop it is big improvement, because it takes the best from P4 into Core Duo 1. Thus, for existing CD platforms it's not so big improvement.
If you can wait (at least 1 month or more) wait for merom, if not buy now and be happy.

Let's turn the tables and say if you had used any program lately in what you would need extra CPU power. If you are encoding something all the time, or rendering, then 20% will be noticeable. If not it wasn't worth it.

Even if your needs will grow with time there probably will be better and more powerful hardware by that time available (eg. Core 3 Quad).

About 64 bit I heard that intel implementations is not that efficient, but maybe I'm wrong. And optimistically 64bit will give about 25% improvements (100% is only possible in synthetic tests or very narrow type of applications).

 

thanks lucasd...i just really dont want to buy the core duo and then in a month the core 2 duo becomes available for a similar price, and i am forced to upgrade...thanks again

 

Well, you won't be forced to upgrade. Here is what you gotta do, seperate yourself from the hype. Merom will cost about the same as Yonah does now. It's is slightly more powerful than Yonah, consumes a little more power, has the same battery life. The main advantages are in number crunching and the fact that it supports 64-bit. The problem is that, for one, I don't believe 64-bit everything is better, it isn't always. Many programs run slower when they are 64-bit, i.e. a word processor. Not everything needs to address that much info at once. I think hardware manufacturers will force the upgrade by making nothing else available, but most people will never notice a difference. Also, by the time 64-bit is common, Core2Duo will be very obsolete. We are talking minimum 3 or 4 years. So the real question is, is it worth your losing your warranty and possibly screwing your computer for a difference that really shows in benchmarks and processor intense programs?