The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Upgradable CPU from i3 to i7 in Future

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by bornnslippy, Oct 11, 2011.

  1. bornnslippy

    bornnslippy Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hi ive got £1000 to spend on a laptop was thinking of getting a i3 cpu but wanted to upgrade sometime in the future maybe to a i7 quad

    So does anyone know what ones are upgradable?

    THxs
     
    bornnslippy, Oct 11, 2011
    #1
  2. lead_org

    lead_org Purveyor of Truth

    Reputations:
    1,571
    Messages:
    8,107
    Likes Received:
    126
    Trophy Points:
    231
    which machine are you getting exactly?
     
    lead_org, Oct 11, 2011
    #2
  3. bornnslippy

    bornnslippy Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    God that was quick thxs for replying

    Ive no idea im open to suggestions
     
    bornnslippy, Oct 11, 2011
    #3
  4. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    4,127
    Messages:
    7,860
    Likes Received:
    10
    Trophy Points:
    0
    In 12.5", a Lenovo X220 has a soldered CPU so no upgrade is possible. A HP 2560P doesn't have this constraint with one user swapping out the delivered 35W dual-core i5/i7 with a 45W i7-quad here. That's laptop dynamite right there.
     
    User Retired 2, Oct 11, 2011
    #4
  5. bornnslippy

    bornnslippy Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Funny thing i rang Lenovo and they told me the only one that was upgradable was the Lenovo X220

    Lol

    Cheers for the heads up

    Any more guys
    THxs
     
    bornnslippy, Oct 11, 2011
    #5
  6. lead_org

    lead_org Purveyor of Truth

    Reputations:
    1,571
    Messages:
    8,107
    Likes Received:
    126
    Trophy Points:
    231
    X220, T420s and X1 are three of the ThinkPad classic machines that have soldered CPU.

    T420, T520 and W520 all have user upgradable CPU.
     
    lead_org, Oct 11, 2011
    #6
  7. bornnslippy

    bornnslippy Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Cheers Lead org

    So the bottom 3 are upgradable to a i7 quad in the future

    Thats good news
     
    bornnslippy, Oct 11, 2011
    #7
  8. bogatyr

    bogatyr Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    85
    Messages:
    693
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Just upgraded a low end T420 to the 2720 quad core processor. Worked flawlessly.

    However during the first boot, it reset itself a couple times at the BIOS screen which had me on edge... I assume the BIOS was detecting the new processor, adjusting settings and restarting.
     
    bogatyr, Oct 11, 2011
    #8
  9. lead_org

    lead_org Purveyor of Truth

    Reputations:
    1,571
    Messages:
    8,107
    Likes Received:
    126
    Trophy Points:
    231
    yes... you are correct.
     
    lead_org, Oct 11, 2011
    #9
  10. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

    Reputations:
    5,413
    Messages:
    10,711
    Likes Received:
    1,204
    Trophy Points:
    581
    So does Lenovo's BIOS allow for non stock CPU's to be upgraded after the fact? A long way since their Core 2 Duo days.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Oct 12, 2011
    #10
  11. lead_org

    lead_org Purveyor of Truth

    Reputations:
    1,571
    Messages:
    8,107
    Likes Received:
    126
    Trophy Points:
    231
    what do you mean? you mean whether you can use non-lenovo sourced intel CPU to do the upgrade?
     
    lead_org, Oct 13, 2011
    #11
  12. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

    Reputations:
    5,413
    Messages:
    10,711
    Likes Received:
    1,204
    Trophy Points:
    581
    No like how T61 can only support Penryn with the BIOS hack, it won't natively support 45nm CPU's.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Oct 13, 2011
    #12
  13. lead_org

    lead_org Purveyor of Truth

    Reputations:
    1,571
    Messages:
    8,107
    Likes Received:
    126
    Trophy Points:
    231
    that was due to the move from analogue heat sensor to the digital heat sensor. Also, some of the later motherboard does in fact support the Penryn T8xxx and T9xxx 800 mhz FSB CPU, as they were shipped with these CPU installed from factory.
     
    lead_org, Oct 13, 2011
    #13
  14. formerglory

    formerglory Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    168
    Messages:
    394
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    31
    That's really interesting... I'm probably going to get a T420 in the next week or so, and I'd be really interested in doing something like that. Mind posting a writeup and some pictures? Doesn't have to be too long or complex, just an overview.
     
    formerglory, Oct 15, 2011
    #14
  15. huberth

    huberth Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    57
    Messages:
    898
    Likes Received:
    49
    Trophy Points:
    41
    huberth, Oct 15, 2011
    #15
  16. bogatyr

    bogatyr Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    85
    Messages:
    693
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I already sent that laptop with an engineer to China or I would. If you pull up the HMM it has all of the steps, it's a very quick switch. The hardest part was pulling the plastic trim around the keyboard out.
     
    bogatyr, Oct 15, 2011
    #16
  17. PatchySan

    PatchySan Om Noms Kit Kat

    Reputations:
    3,971
    Messages:
    2,248
    Likes Received:
    221
    Trophy Points:
    81
    Info of the initial Quad Core setup on the T420 can be found here. While I had done this before I reverted my T420 back down to the original Core i5 setup as I found the Quad Core eats battery life quite a bit and throttles badly under stress in my experience which prevents it to have any sort of full usability.
     
    PatchySan, Oct 15, 2011
    #17
  18. formerglory

    formerglory Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    168
    Messages:
    394
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    31
    That's a shame about the battery life, but it makes sense. If I get that T420 I may do this mod anyways and do a before/after with the stock dual-core proc vs quad-core.
     
    formerglory, Oct 16, 2011
    #18
  19. fraushai

    fraushai Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    14
    Messages:
    307
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Well, if you have £1000 to spend on a laptop then I think your question is pretty much superfluous, since you can easily get a top-of-the-line thinkpad with i7, 16gb RAM and SSD from the get-go....

    In which case I would recommend the T420s with i7, dual SSDs and 8gb ram.
     
    fraushai, Oct 16, 2011
    #19
  20. bogatyr

    bogatyr Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    85
    Messages:
    693
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    My W520 with the 2000M dGPU and the 2720 processor got about 6-7 hours of battery life. I believe it uses the same battery as the T420 so your battery life should be a bit better based on the dGPU difference.
     
    bogatyr, Oct 16, 2011
    #20