I have a Dell e5520 i3 laptop.8 gig ram(max)
Q can i just upgrade the i3 to an i5 or i7 cpu without any other components i.e just swap the CPU?.
regards topper.
Win 10 insider latest update as of 21/2/2020
I just took a look at the Dell spec sheet for the e5520.
It uses the HM65 Express chipset and DDR3 RAM, with Intel HD 3000 graphics. So, it is was likely introduced 8 or more years ago. I don't use laptops at all, but I'd assume no fairly recent CPU would work at all----and laptops generally are a pain to upgrade other than hard drives and memory.
I'd try to think of another idea rather than think of upgrading an 8 or 10 year old laptop. Put the money into a new machine of a recent generation.
The manual (available as a pdf here) says (unlike many laptops) the CPU is replaceable.
Apparently you could...
"...upgrade to one of the following processors.
Intel® CoreTM i7 (2640M)
Intel® CoreTM i5 (2540M, 2520M, 2430M)
You would not have to change the motherboard, but might have to change the AC Adapter..."
...according to this thread: https://www.dell.com/community/Lapto...878605#M652264
Presumably the AC adapter may need changing if your current one is too low a power rating.
Now where you'd get an Intel i7-2640M is another matter. Looks like a used one will set you back about £60 on ebay...
I would also suggest that on a laptop the battery may be a weak point if the replacement processor required more power, all the laptops I've seen in a number of years always work off battery power - even when plugged into the mains supply.
The reason for this and a good thing is that this way the system will always work as if it has a UPS attached, if the mains fails then there is no delay, and potential data loss, before the battery takes over supply
Does the laptop have an I3 2330M CPU now? If so, the I7 2640M is epecified with the same TDP: 35W. Battery life should not be any worse with the I7.
I question whether it'd be a major upgrade, though. The I3 has 2 cores /4 threads, with a base clock of 2.20GHz. The I7 also has 2 cores /4 threads, and a base clock of 2.80GHz. Maybe there's more to it than that (like instructions per clock), but it's not encouraging.
If the OP decides to proceed anyway, I suggest making sure that the laptop's BIOS is up-to-date.
thanks for the info.yes i am still not sure i gain much better performance with this option.i will invest in a ram upgrade first(clock speed can be doubled with 1600mb)x8gig.
regards Topper.
The default memory clock on the laptop is 1333 MHz. DDR3L-1600 will probably run at that by default. It may not be possible to change that by a BIOS setting, because it's a laptop. If you have 4GB of RAM now, upgarding it to 8GB (the maximum supported) may help under some circumstances.
The only upgrade that would give a clear advantage is replacing the hard drive with an SSD. That will make the laptop feel a lot quicker. If the 5520 has the original 250GB hard drive, a replacement at the same capacity will be not much over $30US 240GB, 256GB, 250GB, United States, SATA III, 2.5", New, Internal SSDs, SSDs, Components - Newegg.com. A 500GB class one isn't a lot over $50US. United States, SATA III, 525GB, 480GB, 500GB, 512GB, 2.5", New, Internal SSDs, SSDs, Components - Newegg.com
One thing to keep in mind: the 5520 is an old laptop (introduced 2011). It makes very little sense to sink much more money into it. It'd be wiser to save for newer hardware.
The i7-2640M has a cpu benchmark about a 50% higher than the i3-2330M.
Intel Core i3-2330M @ 2.20GHz vs Intel Core i7-2640M @ 2.80GHz [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software
Having said that, you're probably not going to see much difference in general use, only if you use it for CPU-intensive work like video processing.
Quote