DV6z to DV6t Conversion

I own a DV6z with an AMD Liano CPU (A6 3410MX). I have made a solid use of more than 2 years on the system, but now it's starting to show its age. I know that intel platform performs much better than the AMD one, so I was thinking if a switch is possible.

There are many motherboards available on ebay, and the dv6z and dv6t platforms look very much alike so I am guessing the shell is a match. But I don't know much about other issues, screen compatibility and ports configuration.

Lastly I must say that I don't play games so I don't care about the GPU downgrade. I only use Linux so my main concern is power consumption / compatibility and raw CPU power / threading. Therefore, an upgrade to the i7-2820 would be of great importance to my system.

What do you guys think? Has anyone ever made something like this? Is it possible?

Here are some available links:
HP Pavilion dv6 DV6T 6000 Intel HM65 Motherboard 665347 001 100 Tested OK | eBay
HP Pavilion DV6T 6100 Intel HM65 ATI HD6770M Graphics SYSTEMBOARD 650800 001 | eBay
For HP dv6 DV6T 6B00 dv6 6C54NR dv6 6B19WM Intel HM65 Motherboard 665351 001 | eBay

 

First off we need a Product Number to verify what laptop you have to start with before even deciding if board swap is possible and then we need to know what CPU socket type it is - that will determine which family line of AMD cpu you can use?

Looks aren't everything. You have to have your board and their board side by side physical or picture of all sides to verify it is a match to slots and screw points otherwise your wasting good money. And sometimes it easier to just by a newer laptop that has iNTEL and that will give you more bang for your bucks.

Power concern...go with a iNTEL processor based board AMD is no match here. But as I mentioned before considering your laptop age a newer iNTEL processor laptop AMD/Nvidia GPU or Intel HD would better serve your needs for the money you will spend trying to upgrade a AMD. AMD in terms of raw performance doesn't match up to iNTEL. Put this way want long term usage and power go iNTEL-want budget go with AMD. AMD isn't on the same scale of performance and power with iNTEL now matter how you slice it.

 

Do not even think about getting anything with AMD switchable graphics. As one user delicately put it:

 

Well the exact Product Number is DV6-6100EV. I am not interested in switching to a better AMD CPU. I already know that the best AMD CPU I can fit is the A8-3550MX which is not much better.

I also know that the DV6z and DV6t laptops share the same shell, so their motherboards are compatible. Buying a completely new laptop is... well very expensive, at least compared to switch

I know that Intel processors are much better compared to the AMD one, I have lived with it for more than 2 years. Changing to an i7-2860 (which is the best CPU with 45W TDP I can fit on the HM65) will get me very good performance. Very close to a 4700MQ!

As far as the mb is concerned, I have seen in the manual (page 85-86) there are many different options.

Well this is exactly what I am currently thinking. I think my options pretty much round up to these:
Intel + HD6490 1/2GB, BACO and USB3
Intel + HD6770 1GB, BACO and USB3
Intel and USB3

However I don't get why there are so many different options. For example what's the difference with 659145-001 and 641488-001? There is a BACO category (65xxxx-001 motherboards) and a non BACO category (64xxxx-001 motherboards). Is there a difference?

Lastly, I don't really need the AMD graphics, but the OpenCL support I get is not that bad. Switchable graphics has always been an issue in linux, but HD3000 has no OpenCL support...

 

At the price of a new board and cpu, you may aswell get a used laptop from ebay and it will be better overall. The usb 2.0 port on right side may not work IDK why.

AMD Dynamic Switchable Graphics (PowerXPress 4.0 / BACON) vs. Nvidia Optimus - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

So I guess with BACO, it mean it can use dynamic graphic swithc (mux).

The 641488-001 I bought don't have dynamic, the dgpu is either on or off. However, I recently find a mod bios that allow it to use dynamic switching (with whitelist removal and all the goodie).

The dv6 is light and have a small footprint for 15.6 but really really annoying fan xD.

 

Well, the bad thing is that I live in Greece and most (good) laptops being sold in ebay are from the US. This means import taxes and customs. I have also spent some money upgrading the DV6 (SSD, new FHD AUO panel), so keeping it for a while (reviving it as your said) is not such a bad idea. Buying the MB and CPU will cost me about 250-300 euro and selling my AMD MB/CPU will give me back about 100 euro, which means a total cost of 150-200 euro. Nothing compared to the cost of buying a new quad-core i7 laptop with a full hd panel.

Well, dynamic switching does not work on Linux, you have to restart the X server either way. To be honest, even with my current dual GPU setup, I almost never use the HD6750. I don't play games so I have never used it. However, I am planning on developing for OpenCL eventually so the HD3000 is limiting on that issue (no GPU OpenCL). Having the (optional) HD6770 gives me that advantage. Graphics switching is the big disadvantage, I already know how problematic this is and, trust me, it's even worst in Linux.

So right now my only consideration is whether it is worth getting the MB with the dgpu or without it. Without it I would get better battery life and lower temps, but with it I would get OpenCL support (Boost.Compute has made large steps forward).

One last question, why is that the HM65 supports only the QE series of the 3xxx (Ivy Bridge) series CPUs?