ThinkPad 530i upgrades

Hi,
I want to buy a ThinkPad T530i because I can have it with the 1366x768 screen (I don't want a HiDPI one) and the old style TouchPad (I hate the new one with integrated buttons). And because of this I have some questions.

I know I can upgrade the CPU in a T530. Does the T530i make it different (I hope there is socket and the CPU is not soldered)? Can I take the i3-3210M out and put in a i7-3820QM (it seems to be the maximum non-Extreme available CPU for this model)?

Are there any differences in quality between the T530 and T530i or is it just the low-end CPU which makes difference? I've skimmed through the HMM and I don't see any T530i specific things there (it's a shame they stopped listing FRUs in HMMs).

Which components are whitelisted by the BIOS? I know WWAN cards are, but what about SSDs and RAM?

Are there any problems with Linux on this laptop (I will run exclusively Linux on it)?

 

Welcome to the forum!

RAM and SSD are not whitelisted, WLAN and WWAN cards are.

Theoretically, upgrading the CPU voids warranty. Whether that fact is an important one to you is a whole another matter.

 

While I will change RAM and SSD just after buying it, I will probably change the CPU later, but I haven't decided yet. I just want to know, whether the cooler in the T530i is as good as the one in the T530 and will be able to cool a quad core CPU.