Is it worth it (or even possible) to upgrade my processor?

[craig0ry]

Over the years I have nickel and dimed myself on this machine. I upgraded from the 30 gb HD to 160gb, I upgraded the ram to the max it would allow (a paltry 512 mb), and I even threw a dual layer DVD burner in there. I could have bought a much better system by now, but I am an idiot who believes if it's worth buying once, it's worth upgrading (a terrible philosophy with 5 year old computer technology)!

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has done a processor swap on this chipset before? I know sometimes the cpu is soldered in, and I don't want to mess with that. I also cannot seem to find any good info on what the max processor my machine will support is. If anyone can help me out, I would really appreciate it. I'd like to get some extra oomph outta my machine, since I hardly use the laptop I don't want to buy a whole new machine soon.

https://dcse.dell.com/selfstudy/Associa...s/Inspiron/2650/productpositioning.asp

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins2600/en/sm_en/specs.htm#1119395

Thanks in advance for your help guys!
-Craig

 

[Lord Evermore]

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/s...ms/ins2600/en/sm_en/remove.htm#1103387

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins2600/en/sm_en/cpu.htm#1000550

If you can handle opening the entire machine (piles of screws), it's no big deal.

And you linked to the maximum yourself.

Processor Support Mobile Pentium 4 M up to 1.7 GHz

Note that that is the P4-M, not the Pentium M. Hmm. It looks like the later BIOS versions added support for faster CPUs, but they don't say exactly how fast is possible. The fastest 400MHz model is 2.6GHz.

Is it worth it? Depends what you have now. A 1.4GHz P4-M on Pricewatch is a hundred bucks. 1.7GHz is 169. 2.2GHz is 189. And don't forget to make sure you get the right bus speed CPU, it's probably a 400MHz being that old.

 

[TD77077]

You are probably not going to be happy with a processor upgrade at this point. By the time a comp is years old, the speed is more affected by slower memory speeds, drive bus speeds and video. Yours is about maqxed out and adding a processor that can run faster than the other slower components won't help much. A new computer is really the only good solution. You can get lots of help here tranferring stuff from the old one to a new one. There are lots of good systems out there for reasonable money.

TD

 

[craig0ry]

Lord Evermore and TD, thank you very much for your help.

Evermore, when I upgraded the bios last time, it said it supported faster processors, but not what speed, that's why I was wondering. So I was thinking if the machine could handle 2.6ghz and I can ebay one cheap, why not go for it? But since the prices you pointed out seem to be about the best I can get, I think I'm gonna take TD's advice and just hold off.

I really appreciate the help you guys, thanks!

 

[osage]

what cpu do you have in the lappy now ?

 

[craig0ry]

1.6 ghz P4-M, so basically, garbage.