Sony Vaio VPCCW17fx, upgrade counsel please!

Hi, I own a Sony Vaio vpccw17fx. It was a christmas present from my wife about a year ago. I love this laptop, I use it for everything. I saw on this forum and on other websites where people have upgraded the cpu in this model of their sony vaio. Obviously, it's a socket P, being a T6600 that comes stock. I saw once on this forum where someone upgraded to a C2Q Q9100. This is to that person or any other people out there who own this laptop -- how have the upgrades worked for you? Have you noticed any strange behavior, incompatibilities, reduced clock speeds, over heating, etc? Have you had any issues caused by different TDP? Does everything run smoothly and normally? I am thinking of upgrading the CPU in mine to a Q9100 or such but I want to be careful that I don't waste 200 bucks on something that will trash my machine in 6 months.

Note: The reason I ask this is because years ago I had an old dell laptop and I upgraded the CPU in it. Of course, as anyone should, I made sure the socket was the same, etc. but...turns out the bus speed on the particular CPU I upgraded to was unsupported by the particular dell motherboard, which caused erratic behavior, unusual over heating and incorrect clock speeds and CPU readings.
Before I make that mistake again, I want to check with other people who have made this upgrade before to be sure that they have had good results with it. Thanks!

 

Although I don't own a CW, there are a few things you should be wary about when upping the CPU.

You mentioned heat. I recall the T6600 has a TDP of 35W. The Q9100 has 45W. That's a HUGE jump. You will experience overheating if the heat sink / fan assembly isn't designed for such load (most likely isn't). I know that Sony produced two different heat sinks / fans for the older VGN-Z (P vs the T series CPUs), each designed for 25W and 35W respectively. The highest-end VGN-Z came with a T9900, and that seldom stayed at the full 3.06GHz due to high temps, despite having the 35W variant cooling system.

That said, you can undervolt your CPU to help keep the temps low, though I'm not too sure how that could affect a Q series CPU.

This thread from a while back. Not the Q9 series but similar in regards to upgrade procedures.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...p8700-x9100-temp-rises-dramatically-high.html

I see that the Q9100 has 12MB of L3 cache. But I'd personlly suggest you opt for the T9900 (which has a clock of 3.06GHz vs the 2.3GHz on the Q9100). Though granted, the T9900 has a L3 cache of 6MB. And the Q9100 is more expensive.

So to answer your questions:
- Incompatibilities
There shouldn't be; your existing OS should install the drivers automatically on first boot after installing a new CPU, and the BIOS should update itself without issue after the first pre-boot.

-Strange behaviour
Not really (see below)

- Reduced clock speeds (issue caused by different TDP)
MOST LIKELY YES if you opt for the Q9100 (and maybe the T9900 too). The motherboard will downclock the CPU in order to keep the temperatures at bay. Which means you may not get the potential out of your CPU and lappie.

- Overheating (issue caused by different TDP)
VERY LIKELY with the Q9100 (less with the T9900). The max temp on the Q9100 is 100'C, but I recall the laptop is hardwired to FORCE a turn-off at 105'C (so it will just simply trip the power switch once that temp is reached). And you won't be able to turn it back on till it's significantly cooler (around 60'C).

If you do opt for the Q9100 I don't expect erratic behaviour, though I would have to look forward to periodic overheating and downclocking due to it. And that alone could cause issues when running in fullscreen (virtual machines, games, whathaveyou).

Computer components are designed to run at higher temperatures. But at 100'C+ it's going to affect usage life . ~90'C will affect usage life as well, but is just tolerable. And keep in mind laptops are not really designed to be power-machines; their small form factor prevents that (and hence why we have custom desktop rigs). No matter how fancy the hardware a laptop possesses, at the end of the day the form factor that is a laptop is a prohibting factor in getting the full potential out of said components. Sure they're bridging the gap between lappies and desktops. But you go try using your high-spec lappie LIKE a desktop; it won't last you too long...

Curious, but why do wish to up your CPU?

 

Thanks for the input.

I was considering upgrading in the future just to get a couple more years out of my laptop when it starts reaching the end of its usefulness. An expensive upgrade, yes, but it's still cheaper than dropping 700 to 800 bucks on a new laptop in the same class as this laptop when it was first purchased.

Although I will note that the cooling in the vpccw17fx is very effective, even under load. I have had no problems with excessive heat in this machine. But yeah, this is something I'll definitely be sure about before I buy.

I'm kind of a cheap skate I guess.

I guess I'll keep doing more research before I rule this out...and maybe see what other socket P 35W TDP options are out there too. The T9900, while it isn't quad core, would still definitely be a formidable upgrade from where I am now. Thanks for the info.