Motherboard fitting in laptops?

NeonTechMan

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Aug 19, 2015
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Hello reader!

I've had a HP Pavilion 11 x360 for about two weeks now, and i have released that I will need to upgrade the CPU if I want to do any serious gaming on it. I asked HP for help, and they said I had to install a new motherboard into the laptop BEFORE inserting the processor. I'm worried about getting a new motherboard, as for laptops are much smaller. Would most motherboards fit the case of the laptop well? I'm getting an ASRock H81M-DGS, if that helps.

Thanks in advance.

 
Laptop and desktop motherboards are not interchangeable. Motherboards for laptops MUST be specifically designed and intended for THAT laptop chassis. There is no motherboard standard for laptops that allows you to just buy one and use it in whatever model laptop you want. Only the motherboards that were intended for use in that particular chassis will work. That being said, there are often multiple models for each particular chassis, as the same chassis may be used for several sub models of that laptop.

Furthermore, it's a crapshoot when it comes to finding models that the CPU can even be removed in. Half of them are BGA, meaning that the CPU is fully soldered to the motherboard, unlike desktop LGA and socketed AMD processors that can support a variety of CPU models and allow you to swap them out or upgrade. You would need to identify your current motherboard model and your chassis model, and find a board that fits it. You would also need to investigate that motherboard model to determine if it is a socketed motherboard or has a BGA processor that's soldered and cannot be removed.
 
That's my point. Unless you have access to a bunch of used parts that are compatible or can find a great deal on good used hardware, which is always a crapshoot unless you're buying it from somebody you know and trust, it's usually an endeavor that ends in misery. You just can't know the history of a used part or whether it's been abused and new laptop hardware is not worth the investment because as you say, you can generally replace the unit with something more in line with what you're wanting for less.
 

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