laptops- cpu changeable by end-user?

[trenchfoot]

anybody familiar with swapping cpu's in laptops? can laptop cpu's be bought and installed by consumers? if can, are they easy to get at in the case? are they integrated on the boards, special tools, etc?

 

[mpg]

i'm interested also

 

[Sugadaddy]

I'm not sure but I think most are integrated to the motherboard, making it impossible to replace them.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Most mobile CPUs are soldered into the system board. Every now and again you come across a laptop with an upgradeable processor, but mostly they are non-upgradable.

Zenmervolt

 

[trenchfoot]

thanks for the replies all. i guess the word "upgradeability" is nowhere to be found in any laptop ads huh?

 

[OS]

For most laptops, the answer is no.

 

[bacillus]

I believe that the p3s over 500MHz come factored so that it's possible to remove it easily & upgrade but where does one find a laptop cpu for sale to the general public?

 

[mmnatas]

You also have to consider that your laptop is engineered so its power supply will be running your orignal processor. If you upgrade it, you likely will need more power, which will create more heat. The odds of your system staying stable would become much lower, as some laptops hot enough to make their bottoms' almost too hot to touch. Adding an extra 5°C would likely either damage internal components, lower stabilty, or reduce your battery life. Just spend your money on maxing out the laptop's RAM, which will give you a significant speed boost.

 

[thornc]

Ok, you should no that with the big brands there is no solution,

BUT with the oem brands....it can be changed....I have a Mitac Laptop, with the processor
on a normal ppga-370 socket....I even took it out to check it, you can put another one in
there one just has to find to correct jumper settings for a dip switch bank that is near....

 

[hans007]

most laptops you can do it. Toms hardware had an article about it. Depends what form factor you have , be it mmc1, mmc 2 (which both go up to 466 celerons and p2-400s if i remember right), micropga, others etc.. for intel anyways. YOu can buy CPUs usually on e-bay, or try pricewatch. Sometimes you can get a real good deal, some old pentium 166mmx - 233mmx laptops used mmc-1 chips, and you could just go out get a new mmc-1 celeron 400 or something and extend the life of that notebook for just 100-150 dollars on egay.