Dell xps l502x cpu upgrade

[v6turbo]

Hi, and thank you in advance for any help and advice.

My current project is a cpu swap in my l502x that was originally equipped with a core i5 processor (I do not know the exact processor model) to a core i7 2630qm.

This is supposed to be a simple and affordable swap yeilding reasonable returns in performance. Yet it feels slower than the i5.

I went through several times, checking drivers, looking at hwinfo64, uninstalling a bunch of dead programs, ccleaner for registry and avast and malware bytes. My system is as clean as I can make it.

Suggestions? Advice?

Specs:
Cpu: Intel core i7 2630qm
Gpu: nvidia 540m 2gb ram
Memory: (not sure exact spec, but parity and speed matched) 8gb
Hds: 1 450gb Seagate hybrid, 1 750gb std drive in the optical bay
OS: win10 home (upgrade from 7 home)

 

[clarkjd]

It is possible that the BIOS doesn't provide full support for the new CPU. Contact Dell support and ask them what CPUs are supported and what BIOS levels are required for that support.

 

[hang-the-9]

Did you do any benchmarks of the system before and after the swap to compare it? An i7 QM model should be faster than pretty much any i5, in multi-threaded programs. Normal use, you should not notice any speed difference, especially if you did not note what CPU you have before and test it. Your original i5 may have been as fast in most benchmarks, and some things are just too close in speeds for a human to notice for sure.

If you want your system to run faster in all ways, get a standard solid state drive in place of your hybrid drive.

 

[v6turbo]

hang-the-9, no I did not benchmark the system. I didn't think to. The bios *should* be the most up to date version, a10, which is supposed to be compatible with the 2630qm. I will double check as this system has been out of service for about 5-6 months before I did the upgrade. I have read where a couple of people have done thus and the thermal load was too much. I will have to double check what hwinfo says my cpu temps are. I thought that everything was fine, but perhaps I missed something. The bios does throttle the cpu for thermal load.

 

[hang-the-9]

hang-the-9, no I did not benchmark the system. I didn't think to. The bios *should* be the most up to date version, a10, which is supposed to be compatible with the 2630qm. I will double check as this system has been out of service for about 5-6 months before I did the upgrade. I have read where a couple of people have done thus and the thermal load was too much. I will have to double check what hwinfo says my cpu temps are. I thought that everything was fine, but perhaps I missed something. The bios does throttle the cpu for thermal load.

So you did not use the system for about half a year, and it "feels" like it's slower.

I would put the old CPU back in, run a benchmark on it like PassMark, then swap the CPU and run the benchmark again.

Without a benchmark or keeping track of how long the system does something like encode a movie file with the same settings you will not be able to tell anything, especially since you did not touch the system for months.

 

[v6turbo]

I think I'm going to pass on that. Swapping the cpu on these laptops requires disassembling the entire laptop, as in you have practically have to remove the motherboard from the case. Anyway, the bios is the latest and greatest, verified last night. It does support the 2630qm. I did however find that one of the windows updates reset a bunch of settings, including the one that defaults the graphics to the Intel integrated graphics processor. So... as I mostly use this system for gaming, this setting would have a pretty major effect on how the system runs.

Case in point... with it set to run with the integrated graphics my cpu temps were 20 to 30% higher than with the nvidia gpu enabled. The graphics of the most common game I play, world of warships, saw a marked improvement in frame rate and a decrease in lag as well. I suspect now I was getting a bios induced processor throttling, something I wasn't getting with the i5.

Or not... I'm not pulling this system back apart unless something major comes apart just so I can benchmark the i5. It's running better with the nvidia gpu properly enabled. Just going to have to make sure windows doesn't upset the apple cart again.

Thanks.