Is it possible to upgrade my Asus N61ja laptops' i3 - 350m CPU to a better one?

[aretas77]

My notebook has became really slow so i want to upgrade it's CPU. To what processors it can be upgraded?

Socket is 989 rPGA, CPU i3 - 350m

 

[MarkW]

Very unlikely. Nearly all laptops have CPU's soldered into place.

Asus is normally pretty good about listing compatible CPU's with their motherboards, but apparently, not with their laptops. On the support page for the N61j, no list of compatible CPU's is listed.

 

[boosted1g]

CPUs are typically soldered directly onto laptop motherboard.

IF the cpu is even removable you can only upgrade it to the very short list of cpu's that the motherboard bios supports
(did a quick search, could not find anything definitive if cpu is removable or not).


Have you done any system maintenance on the computer?
Upgrading a CPU will not help the fact that a bunch of startup programs are eating up your memory, that your hard disk is heavily fragmented, or that you have thousands of un-needed registry keys.

An i3 is a decent cpu level that should be just fine for anything that is not heavy use (gaming, video editing, etc).
Money would be better spent upgrading memory to 8gb or getting an SSD drive.

 

[Eximo]

I would think so. Wouldn't really be worth it though.

i5-580m would be the best candidate at 35W.
i7-740m has a slower clock, but more cores, and at 45W

 

[Eximo]

Definitely a PGA chip, and I found a few models with the i7-720m so it looks like a TDP of 45W is acceptable for the cooling.

ASUS guards their service manuals well, unlike other OEMs, so it is sometimes hard to find info.

Ah good old youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP-2iSJlpqQ

 

[boosted1g]

After looking at your pictures of your motherboard, it is in fact socketed and thus supports removing your CPU.

Now unless I know for sure it will support it, I would be weary of getting a CPU with higher TDP then what you currently have.

As stated above though, the cpu change will make little difference, while fixing whatever is slowing down your computer will make a far bigger change.
And an SSD drive upgrade will make a massive difference in your laptops speed/responsiveness.

 

[aretas77]

Thank you all for your responses, i once took it apart to clean the fans but i didn't checked if the CPU is soldered or not, but i think you all got a point, i should buy an SSD drive. And i checked through Task Manager what was eating my laptop's power, while browsing internet, CPU is ~60% busy and RAM ~50%, and HDD was almost always 100%