Samung NP300E5C CPU Upgrade i3-2370M & B950 to i5-3210M

[Legion]

I have two Samsung Notebooks that belong to my teenage sons,
NP300E5C-A06US
&
NP300E5C-A0AUS (shows as a NP300E5C-A07US in CPU-Z, I will call it the A07US from now on)

I want to upgrade the processors in both of them to the highest ones I can after seeing on the Samsung support page for the NP300E5C the i5-3210M was the best option available for the NP300E5C. Go to SPECS to see (This is a screenshot of the Samsung site showing what CPU's came in the NP300E5C)

The A06US has a i3-2370M & the A07US a B950.
So the i3 has HD 3000 Graphics& the B950 just HD Graphics, the i5 will have HD 4000 Graphics.

I do know the B950 & the i3 use Sandy Bridge and the i5 uses Ivy Bridge but can be backward compatible? If used on certain Southbridges? And the A06US & A07US both have the HM75 Southbridge according to CPU-Z (this is a screenshot of his CPU-Z report)

and from what I have read the i5 should work according to what this page says, HM75 CPU Support List unless I am missing something?

I have looked and it seems like a cheap upgrade. From what I have seen on Youtube videos the graphics upgrade alone will be a big deal compared to what they have, especially the B950. Are there any reasons this won't work or anyone who has done it or may have any advice?

 

[Obakasama]

No advice, just a few thoughts.

Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge generally refer to a particular generation of Intel CPUs. What determines compatibility are motherboard chipset (and the socket) and the BIOS version. If indeed the netbook uses the HM75 chipset then this is more definitive: http://ark.intel.com/products/64348/Mobile-Intel-HM75-Express-Chipset

The one stumbling block I personally anticipate is whether the CPU is soldered on. Unfortunately it seems the CPU is soldered on as it is a BGA chip: http://ark.intel.com/products/65708/Intel-Core-i5-3210M-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_10-GHz-BGA

If there is further advice for upgrading a soldered CPU then it would need to be presented. As is, and from my limited understanding, it may not be an upgrade you can pursue.

 

[Legion]

No advice, just a few thoughts.

Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge generally refer to a particular generation of Intel CPUs. What determines compatibility are motherboard chipset (and the socket) and the BIOS version. If indeed the netbook uses the HM75 chipset then this is more definitive: http://ark.intel.com/products/64348/Mobile-Intel-HM75-Express-Chipset

The one stumbling block I personally anticipate is whether the CPU is soldered on. Unfortunately it seems the CPU is soldered on as it is a BGA chip: http://ark.intel.com/products/65708/Intel-Core-i5-3210M-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_10-GHz-BGA

If there is further advice for upgrading a soldered CPU then it would need to be presented. As is, and from my limited understanding, it may not be an upgrade you can pursue.

Hello,

After some further reading you are right the Sandy/Ivy Bridges are names of the processor architecture. But I thought it had to do with the motherboards too, but I guess not. So the deciding factors are the Southbridge/Chipset, Socket & BIOS.

Southbridge/Chipset = HM75
Socket = Socket 988B rPGA, also known as Socket G2
BIOS = P09RAP

The Samsung NP300E5C Notebooks CPU's Processors are not soldered on, they use Socket G2, which is the only reason I would attempt this. I don't have the skills to unsolder and solder a CPU.

The website for Intel's HM75 shows much higher CPU's than the i5-3210M but Samsung's site doesn't? I would love to go higher than the i5 I asked about but I feel the risk becomes greater on whether or not they would work.

I have gone ahead and ordered two used i5-3210M CPU's for $20each they should be here Monday. Is it going to be worth a $20 upgrade? I don't know yet but we are going to find out!

Thank you Obakasama your thoughts are welcome and greatly appreciated.

 

[Obakasama]

If they aren't soldered on then an upgrade sounds possible. Make sure you have good thermal paste as cooling is one of the major factors we can't do much about due to the form factor. It's also why the TDP of the CPUs play a factor in what is theoretically possible and what is practically possible. A higher end processor could generate more heat than the netbook can dissipate.

As for whether it's worth $20? I'll go with the dodge answer of 'it depends what software you were running on the netbook'. I'm sure some things will work better because of a better processor.

 

[okcnaline]

What are you using the computer for?

 

[Legion]

If they aren't soldered on then an upgrade sounds possible. Make sure you have good thermal paste as cooling is one of the major factors we can't do much about due to the form factor. It's also why the TDP of the CPUs play a factor in what is theoretically possible and what is practically possible. A higher end processor could generate more heat than the netbook can dissipate.

As for whether it's worth $20? I'll go with the dodge answer of 'it depends what software you were running on the netbook'. I'm sure some things will work better because of a better processor.

What does TDP mean if both CPU's use 35watts? I didn't consider that aspect? I looked at the stock fans for both the i3, B950 and i5 and they all look identical and have the same voltage and AMP fans on them so I hope I'm ok there.

 

[Legion]

What are you using the computer for?

These are 15.6" notebooks the boys use for typical school work, so office 365, chrome web browsing and casual game play ie Minecraft, Civilization V, C&C Generals, 911 Operator, unturned, wow, GW2 and maybe GTA V on super low. Most gaming they do on consoles, but it's nice to have one or two to play on PC too. They are high schoolers so mostly FB, Youtube, all stuff done in browser, but a boost up from Intel HD Graphics for the B950 and HD 3000 on the I3 would open up some options for games they have never had before.

 

[okcnaline]

Consider GTA out of it. HD 3000 can't even handle 1366x768 on low, which is the resolution you probably plan on playing at. I don't think it'll work because of BIOS, but have a shot at it. It's better than paying more than $300-400 for a decent rig.

 

[Legion]

Consider GTA out of it. HD 3000 can't even handle 1366x768 on low, which is the resolution you probably plan on playing at. I don't think it'll work because of BIOS, but have a shot at it. It's better than paying more than $300-400 for a decent rig.

Well we are going to find out, UPS came tonight! And the i5 has HD 4000 Graphics which I think can handle GTA V on low according to some Youtube videos I have watched, but I know you can't trust all you see on YT. I also bought 120GB SSD HDD's and Two 4GB RAM sticks to boost both up to 8GB's each and two DVD HDD caddy's so I can use their old HDD's for storage. So I have some work to do.

 

[Obakasama]

If they aren't soldered on then an upgrade sounds possible. Make sure you have good thermal paste as cooling is one of the major factors we can't do much about due to the form factor. It's also why the TDP of the CPUs play a factor in what is theoretically possible and what is practically possible. A higher end processor could generate more heat than the netbook can dissipate.

As for whether it's worth $20? I'll go with the dodge answer of 'it depends what software you were running on the netbook'. I'm sure some things will work better because of a better processor.

What does TDP mean if both CPU's use 35watts? I didn't consider that aspect? I looked at the stock fans for both the i3, B950 and i5 and they all look identical and have the same voltage and AMP fans on them so I hope I'm ok there.

Insofar you've chosen a CPU the manufacturer used for the particular line of notebooks I believe the thermals should be fine and manageable; the notebooks should have been designed by considering the heat those CPUs generate. (Hope that makes sense.) It's when you go beyond where possible thermal issues may occur. At least, that's my speculation.

Good luck with the upgrade.

 

[Legion]

UPDATE:

SUCCESS! I installed the i5's last night and they booted up!

Here is a side by side of the three CPU's i3-2370M, B950 & i5-3210M

I used Arctic Silver 5 and had to fix 1 slightly bent pin that prevented the CPU from dropping in the socket

I used a solder station wire holder with magnifying glass, the one that looks like a little robot friend to view it while I used a plastic exacto style knife I had from an old model set to straighten the pin, one light little push was all it took.

The RAM is installed, the SSD's are installed and the DVD HDD caddies are installed with their old HDD's too. Windows 10 had to be installed twice because I tried to install W10 Pro like I have on my desktops and forgot the notebooks are licensed for Home. And I had to go in to BIOS on the A07US the notebook with the B950 to enable Hyperthreading because windows only showed 2 cores in task manager.

Booting up is really fast now, but most everything else seems the same sadly? I did install Minecraft which was unplayable on the A07US B950 & it runs flawlessly! I also installed Civ 5 but didn't run it yet. I wish I had a way to monitor temps and frame rates but I guess it wouldn't help much since I didn't do it on the old CPU's to compare from?

(All the CPU-Z screenshots are from the A06US)

 

[okcnaline]

Nice! 😀

Totally going to do this onto my laptop now...

 

[Legion]

Nice! 😀

Totally going to do this onto my laptop now...

I would if I were you and had the i3 or B950 too, especially if you could get your hands on a i5-3210m at a decent price. My sons are ooohing and aahhhing right now over the speed and graphics in Minecraft and Civ V. There is a very noticeable improvement going from HD 3000 to HD 4000 Graphics! And I am not even going to talk about how big of an improvement going from just the plain HD Graphics to HD 4000 is because it is night and day.

 

[okcnaline]

Was Best Buy's NP300E5C-A07US combo. Though, I already have an ultrabook with i5-5200U...

 

[Legion]

Was Best Buy's NP300E5C-A07US combo. Though, I already have an ultrabook with i5-5200U...

Go for it! I bought my two off Amazon for $20 each free 2 day shipping. But eBay had some deals too but I would have had wait a bit longer and the cost wasn't much different. It is nice to see them excited to use their notebooks again. Best $20 upgrade ever!

 

[Obakasama]

Congrats on the upgrade.

And yeah, some things probably won't see a huge boost in performance due to coding.

 

[ahmad.aj1993]

it works fine i Upgrade my cpu from core i5-3210m to i7-3630qm with 10 TDP Different
just calculate your TDP with your battery and charger or the device will shutdown randomly duo to no enough power
i5-3210m has a 35 TDP and i7-3630qm has a 45 TDP and i'm planning to upgrade to i7-3840qm if i find a cheap one or 3940xm
i solder the gpu on the board with its ics,memos,fuses etc... its compatible 100% i did that for test
and i will upgrade it soon this one only 15W and i didnt find enough power supply for my planned upgrade

NP300E4C-S03AE

screenshot:
https://imgur.com/a/ZpVx3N9