OEM Lenovo CPU – BIOS compatibility?

[realfruitjuice]

Hi everyone,

I have a couple of questions regarding swapping the CPU on used OEM Lenovo desktop I have recently bought and have been upgrading for my wife.

The desktop is a Lenovo Edge 72 (3484 BCG).
So far it has: an i3-2100 (2.0ghz) CPU / 8GB ram / GT 1030 2GB GPU / 2 X HDD (1Tb & 500GB) / 450w PSU / Win 7 64bit.

I would now like to upgrade the CPU, as the current i3-2100 is actually a downgrade done by the original owner. (Apparently the original CPU was an i3-3220)

I was considering of swapping the i3-2100 (3.10 GHz) for the original i3-3220 (3.30GHz), or maybe for an i5-2320 (3.30 GHz) or i5-2400 (3.40 GHz). These are all LGA 1155 sockets, but I am not sure if they will all be compatible with the current BIOS or if there will be a potential power/tdp issue.

Does anyone know if I can simply swap the CPU or will I have to update the BIO first?
I am slightly confident that the i3-3220 will be fine, but I am not sure about the other two.
The MB is the original OEM MB and the current BIOS is: F1KT54AUS. Meanwhile, the only other BIOS I can find on Lenovo’s site for this system is: F1TK73A.

As a side note:
The reason I have picked these 3 CPUs is because I have the opportunity to swap my current i3-2100 (+ an old GT 610 2GB GPU) for one of them. The i3-3220 for free, the i5s for about £10/£12.

As for the build, this a simple budgets build for my wife to study, work and do a bit of light gaming (ex: Sims 4/GTA V/Skyrim). The games so far can be played at 1080p with decent FPS (some in high setting/other in med/high), but I think it could perform slightly better with a new CPU.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Obakasama]

Prebuilts can be touch and go on compatibility. If I had to the approach I would take is see what CPU configurations the manufacturer originally offered for that model. The reason being their BIOS which shipped with it should allow those CPUs with no issues. Any CPU not amongst their original offerings will depend on whether they updated the BIOS to allow other CPUs.

So I would suggest: https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/pd024645

The i3-3220 is on there, so it should be safe. The i3-2320 is not on there, so there's a possibility it won't work. The i5-2400 is on there but may require extra fiddling (I'm not sure on the 'stepping' it mentions).

 

[realfruitjuice]

Prebuilts can be touch and go on compatibility. If I had to the approach I would take is see what CPU configurations the manufacturer originally offered for that model. The reason being their BIOS which shipped with it should allow those CPUs with no issues. Any CPU not amongst their original offerings will depend on whether they updated the BIOS to allow other CPUs.

So I would suggest: https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/pd024645

The i3-3220 is on there, so it should be safe. The i3-2320 is not on there, so there's a possibility it won't work. The i5-2400 is on there but may require extra fiddling (I'm not sure on the 'stepping' it mentions).

Thanks Obakasama.

I have been leaning towards the i5-2400, as I had also noticed in that link that it was also used in other E72 models and I've seen it installed in similar E72 models being sold online . Although I will double check the BIOS and wattage issues just in case.

I'll later post what route I decide to take.
Thanks again for the advice.

 

[Obakasama]

You're welcome.