advice with cpu upgrade on a lenovo R61e

Hello. I just bought a lenovo R61 15.4 widescreen version, which is fitted with a dual core T2330 1.60 mhz processor. I`m considering the possibility of upgrading the cpu with something like a T5550 core 2 duo or T5450, which can be bought cheap on the internet. I wanted to ask you if i have to change the cooler along with the cpu, or is it safe to keep the original cooler that came with it? i have noticed that the T2330 fitted at the moment never really heats up like i`ve seen on other laptops....any opinion is welcomed

 

I would go with a Penryn based CPU, though you might have to do a BIOS hack to get it working properly. Upgrading a Merom to a Merom would seem kinda pointless. Penryn, being 45 nm, will run cooler, has extra instruction sets and actually is the same price as Merom these days.

 

I agree on the Penryns too, I would look for T8xxx processors if you're on a budget as they run cooler and provide a decent amount of performance. And yes you can retain the original heatsink and fan but make sure to give it a good clean and reapply a fresh set of paste while doing so.

 

T8xxx is a good CPU to get, as they will be relatively cheap.

 

Thank your for your replies. I thought that a much faster cpu will require some modifications to the cooling system, and would also affect battery life

 

faster CPU doesn't always more heat and more power draw, speed can be increased by decreasing the photolithography of circuitry, changing the SSE instructions, changing the microarchitecture of the CPU can all help to increase speed Without requiring more power draw (and thus heat output).

 

Theoretically it should take any 800 FSB Core 2 Duo's. You could do X7800/X7900 or X9000 but their TDP is 41 watt and will run hot.

Your best bets is T8100/T8300 as they are ~35 dollars these days. T9300/T9500 if you want but they are pricier for only more cache and slightly faster nominal clockspeeds.