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I have a Dell Latitude D830 laptop with a Core 2 Duo T7300 processor.

After a bit of research, it seems that a Core 2 quad would fit in the socket on the motherboard. The laptop currently runs a bit hot after a while of usage, so would it be wise to put a Core 2 quad in it or would that make heat problems worse, fry my motherboard or anything else on it?

I am not concerned with warranty, as the computer is already out of warranty and I have already opened it up a handful of times for other reasons.

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    replace a laptop CPU is never a good idea. Although it should works if "EVERYTHING" done correctly. make sure you got bios upgrade which add support to the CPU.
    – user218473
    Nov 10, 2013 at 13:12
  • My advise would be to buy a new laptop. It's not a good idea to open up the laptop, and you'll also void your warranty.
    – Forza
    Nov 10, 2013 at 13:23
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    What warranty? it's from 2006 and i"ve already opened it up a handful of times for other reasons Nov 10, 2013 at 13:27
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    Simply put, it just about never makes fiscal sense to upgrade a processor. You'll get much more for your money with a new (or just newer) complete computer. The faster, more powerful processor that fits a 7 year old computer is still incredibly sluggish by the standards of current, or even two years ago, computers. In addition, laptops are an extra pain as far as strange dependencies and conflicts, as well as difficult access and tendency to break when you swap parts.
    – Ecnerwal
    Nov 10, 2013 at 14:38

2 Answers 2

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If you want to replace the processor, first make sure you can get to the processor in your laptop.

Secondly, I'd much rather suggest to you that you try a Penryn Core 2 Duo (T8xxx, T9xxx) rather than a Core 2 Quad. Your T7300 is from the Merom family; Penryn is the update to Merom, so you shouldn't have problems.

Not only will you get better performance and better thermal results from Penryn, but you'll also notice the difference in performance (especially with the T9300 or T9500), depending on what you do.

I, myself, recently upgraded from a T5900 (Merom) to a T9300 (Penryn) and I certainly notice a difference, using Photoshop and playing Minecraft. Idle temperatures have dropped from around 35°C to 26°C, and full load temperatures have dropped from 60°C to 48°C.

A Core 2 Quad is simply a bad idea for a laptop, unless the manufacturer explicitly mentions that it can handle such temperatures. For the money, I'd much rather recommend a Penryn Core 2 Duo, than a Core 2 Quad. I got my T9300 for just £35 from eBay.

My laptop originally came with a Celeron M 575, and cost £220. Geekbench scores have doubled from 1524 to 3083, with most processor benchmark scores having quadrupled in size. Ignore anyone who tells you that it's impossible to upgrade a laptop processor. There's a reason why they use sockets, and pin-grid-array connections.

~ Experience in replacing my own processor, three times, as well as doing it for friends' laptops.

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The answer is that is makes no sense to upgrade a processor. The reasons are:

  • financial;
  • support;
  • old peripherals;
  • bios upgrades; and
  • it will probably worsen your heat issues

Having said all this it can be very fun to take apart an old laptop which is barely working and with a few dollars make it a usable computer again - even though this does not make financial sense.

I had a very old DELL laptop which did not even have wifi built in, I put in the wifi card, and upgraded the memory twice and the hard disk four times over 10 years, in the end the laptop just became a headless linux server, which I eventually virtualised anyway.

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    This answer seems to contradict itself. You say it makes no sense and cites financial reasons as a major reason why that is so, and then you say it's possible to take a barely-working laptop and "with a few dollars make it a usable computer again". Also, an old computer can certainly serve a purpose, even though it can't run the hottest-flashiest-greatest software of today. My laptop is a ThinkPad R31 built around a Celeron CPU at the time when Windows XP was the hot thing, and needs a new CMOS battery, but it's still certainly usable if one only recognizes what it is and what it is not.
    – user
    Dec 26, 2013 at 15:40
  • It makes no sense financially but from a learning stand point it is worth it, just because it costs a few dollars it ie is cheap does not mean that it is not fun and not worth it for the learning experience, I was just trying to summarise the comments to the question.
    – Deesbek
    Dec 26, 2013 at 15:44
  • And the question is about heating issues. Dec 26, 2013 at 15:44
  • Well @guisasso why don't you answer it then, I'll be happy to upvote you just for the effort
    – Deesbek
    Dec 26, 2013 at 15:45
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    @Deesbek because I don't know the answer to his question. No need to get all upset about it, but apparently you don't know the answer as well. Dec 26, 2013 at 15:50

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