Dell Motherboard question for upgrade to i5 or i7 from g1620 Please help!

[kdissette]

Ok serious question...I am upgrading a Dell Inspiron 660s for a portable gaming device for work...it has the 0XFWHV motherboard in it with the 55w g1620 cpu...now it says it only takes up to 3rd gen i5s...but the i7 3770's have the exact same specs and architecture...so Im wondering if it would work? the computer has a measly 220w psu but the 3770s have 77w (the same as the 3rd gen i5s)...also I added a low profile gtx 730 that runs off the pci slot....any help would be great as I want to make the purchase by the weekend. thanks again!

 

[nooneisback]

This upgrade will be quite hard because there aren't any online specs of this mobo. In my opinion, they aren't stating the i7's because of the power they require and probably because the mobo can't give them that much. I don't know what exact CPUs are compatible, but any normal (non-hardcore, overclocker) or low-voltage i5 or i3 will do. Yet, then every mobo has at least 1 or 2 non-supported CPUs. In other words, you will have to search already existing Dell builds to see what they use.

 

[nooneisback]

For now, I found that the i5-3330S works well with it. Also, an i5-3470 might work because it's a CPU from Inspiron 660, but it has a high TDP and I'm not sure so it isn't worth risking. Finally, I haven't found any i7's compatible with it and all because of the power limit. Also, not that that PSU might be too weak.

 

[kdissette]

For now, I found that the i5-3330S works well with it. Also, an i5-3470 might work because it's a CPU from Inspiron 660, but it has a high TDP and I'm not sure so it isn't worth risking. Finally, I haven't found any i7's compatible with it and all because of the power limit. Also, not that that PSU might be too weak.

I did look around and the issue I have is all the i7s and i5s use the same wattage so I just dont see the difference power wise...in fact the 3770s is lower watts than most of them...I can always go with the i5 too i just want to get as much out of it as I can with these low cpu prices right now id rather have an 8thread vs 4 if its possible.

 

[nooneisback]

Those 4 additional threads are logical not physical. In other words, there are 4 cores that work like 8 and IRL the only difference you'll see is in rendering and benchmarks.
And the reason why the i7 isn't supported is because Dell never made a PC with that board that uses that CPU, so they didn't add it to save up a few dollars.