i5-450m to i7-640m

[dudeman509]

Just found out my circa 2010 Dell laptop has a PGA socketed chip, and that got me thinking.

The i5-450m in my laptop currently has around a 960 single thread/2145 passmark score. It currently has a SSD and 8 GB RAM, but it is getting a bit long in the tooth when doing general web/multi-tab surfing. Facebook threads are fairly slow to load, as are iTunes app updates.

If I could get an i7-640m (also 35W TDP - shouldn't overheat on the same cooler, 2 core HT chip just like the i5 - I think it SHOULD work in the motherboard) off Ebay for ~$40, would it invigorate a bit of life into this old laptop? 1302 single-threaded/2878 multi-threaded score - actually doesn't seem to be too far from most Ivy/Sandy Bridge and lower-power laptop chips like the Core M models today.

Would I be able to tell a very noticeable difference in web surfing/multitasking between these chips?

 

[iceblitzed]

Id would do these things before thinking about changing the chip:

If you haven't optimized your ssd, Id look at this guide - http://www.thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-ultimate-windows-8-edition/

 

[Quixit]

No I don't think you'll see a big difference surfing and multitasking. For a speed boost that will be very noticeable in everyday tasks you could get an SSD. Something like a 120GB or 256GB Samsung 850 EVO or Crucial BX100 (both of these are decent quality and inexpensive) would be a very noticeable upgrade for surfing and work tasks and make everything load faster.

 

[dudeman509]

Already done. SSD isn't bottlenecking the system whatsoever. Not held back by background processes either, which are kept to a minimum. It's the CPU that is for sure being the bottleneck - shoots to 75-100% usage pretty frequently on a couple commonly loaded web pages and apps these days.

 

[dudeman509]

Already have a 512 GB Crucial MX100 in it. Massive improvement to overall system speed.

 

[dudeman509]

Finally did this. Not as fast as my Broadwell/SSD work laptop, but it made quite a noticeable improvement to the computer's overall responsiveness. I believe the higher clock speed and turbo boost (2.6 vs 3.4) are making most of the difference - I no longer see the CPU usage pegged at 100% when opening a tab or two in Chrome.

 

[iceblitzed]

Finally did this. Not as fast as my Broadwell/SSD work laptop, but it made quite a noticeable improvement to the computer's overall responsiveness. I believe the higher clock speed and turbo boost (2.6 vs 3.4) are making most of the difference - I no longer see the CPU usage pegged at 100% when opening a tab or two in Chrome.

Was wondering how hard it was to physically replace cpu. Would seem impossible with my skills.

 

[dudeman509]

I was lucky enough to find the service manual for my laptop which shows how it comes apart. The keyboard, lid, and then entire motherboard has to come out - the CPU is on the bottom. Not horrible (I love working on my old cars and bikes on the side), but about an hour and a half of work to get it apart and all back together.