turned cheapo NR series laptop into penryn screamer

Hello Notebook enthusiasts,

I just thought I'd share this success story with you guys. I have read how some people have taken cheap laptops and beefed up the processor. I thought that was adventurous, but a nice move in terms of longevity in case it succeeded.
The reports of upgraded laptops were few - and all about Acer 5315 laptops (some Wal-Mart special with Intel GL960 chipset and Celeron M540).
The Celeron M520 and up are Socket P processors, as are the Pentium Dual Core processors. All are Merom-L chips.

OK here's the beef: I got this Sony Vaio VGN-NR220E (NR200 series) which features the cheapo GL960 chipset. The laptop also featured a Pentium Dual Core T2330 1.6GHz (Merom-L Core 2 Duo with half the L2 cache and no virtualization technology). It also came with 1GB of system memory and Windows Vista (that was slow).
I bought this laptop off of someone who had it at the pawn shop for $150.

Thought I'd do the experiment since the thing was cheap - $150, why not have some fun. On ebay, I bought a brand new Penryn T8100 2.1 GHz (Penryn-3M, it features 3MB L2 cache). Triple the L2 cache of the Pentium Dual Core! Got it for $120. I also ordered 2GB of system memory from the egg, doubling what was in it before. I have read about the limitation of the GL960 chipset to 3GB max.
Also, I needed to replace the keyboard in the laptop since it was badly gunked up, the original owner did not take good carte of it. That was another $30 on ebay.

Today, the kayboard arrived (had the other parts already waiting). I took the darn things apart - it was difficult since I did not really know what I was doing (but I have previous experience in taking apart a laptop). I was careful, but it was harder than it needed to be because I had no access to any sort of maintenance manual that explained how to take it apart. I can tell you that I LEARNED A LOT about opening the VAIO NR series laptops, and if any of you plan to do the same thing, contact me - I will save you headaches.

Anyway, I removed the T2330 Pentium Dual-Core, plopped the T8100 Penryn processor into the socket put it back together. Installed the new memory. I made one mistake and hibernated instead of shutting it down, and because I swapped the memory, the hibernation file was no good.
Turned on, and the machine WAS FLYING!! It now screams. I put the Core 2 Duo sticker on and Presto! $150 + $120 + $30 + $30 = $330 for a Penryn Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz. SUCCESS!!
CPU-Z is showing a Core 2 Duo Penryn with 2109 MHz and an 800 Mhz FSB, whereas before, it
was 1600 MHz and a 533 MHz FSB.

I will post pics if anyone is interested. I am sure the entire VGN-NR200 series will open the same, NR220, NR240, NR 260E/S etc etc.

 

nice, would be curious to see the pictures you snapped of the entire process

 

I'd like to see the pics as well. Nice mod.

 

Nice work!! How difficult is it to change the processor? I'm wondering if I should with my Gateway M Series. How much of the increase in proformance was due to the processor you think? I upgraded my Acer 5050's RAM from 1GB to 3GB and it made it sooo much faster, it was running a Turion single core at 2.2 GHz with both. I'd like to see the pictures too.

 

Sorry guys. I was not very clear in my post. Having posted my article and re-read the thing, it reads like the whole process of replacing the processor was hairy as hell and only for the strong of heart. I should clarify:

With the opening of the laptop, I was pursuing two goals.
First was, to install the replacement keyboard. Secondary goal was to install the new processor.

Swapping the processor was EASY AS CAKE. What was difficult (because I had no documentation) was the replacing of the keyboard.

To swap out the processor, all I needed to to was to remove all the screws from the bottom of the unit (and keeping track of where they all go). That got me immediate access to the heat pipe assembly and the processor socket. I took off the heat sink assembly (that was really easy). The processor sat on a socket, I turned the little dial with a swiss army knife, releasing the ZIF mechanism (zero insertion force). Swapped processor, cleaned the heat sink surface, re-applied some heat-sink grease, spread that thin with a razor blade. Put the heat sink assembly back on. Put the bottom to the case back on with its screws. Put in new memory, turned it on and voila, Penryn Power.

Replacing the keyboard was much harder because I had to strip the entire laptop down to do it - I had to remove the main board with all its little flat cables and such.
But the processor mod was VERY VERY easy. It was not frightening at all. My worst fear was that the BIOS would not support it since NONE of the VGN-NR200 series actually feature Core 2 Duos, not to mention Penryns with SSE 4.1 instructions. BUT IT WORKED! I say TAKE THE GAMBLE.
I will post some pics as soon as possible. Tomorrow probably.

 

Nice work.

2 tips: get a fast 7200rpm harddrive and not sure if you already have 3GB but Vista runs faster with 3GB.

 

Here are some pictures. The whole process of swapping processors was, as I stated before, really simple. It was just a matter of removing the bottom cover, removing the heat pipe assembly and then just working the socket. Oh, not to forget, polish the CPU tops and reapply some heat sink grease to the T8100.

 

Oh just for the record, two more pictures. Before and after.

 

Great work. Thanks for posting. Have 2 questions:

How does multiplier change from 6 to 8?

I don't know if CPUZ is accurate, it displays the same 8x multiplier, and same core speed as yours, and yet I have SU9300 which is 1.2 GHz.

 

this is the kinda things we come on NBR for