Upgrading a processor on a proprietory Acer mobo

[Andybbop]

Hi I have an acer aspire M1930 with an i3 2100 stock which has 65W TDP. I was considering upgrading to an i7 2600 but this is increasing the TDP to 95W.

Is this a problem with these processors? I have seen other chats about them saying the voltage regulator is on the CPU with core i series processors, does this mean increasing the TDP is ok?

I don't think the PSU will be an issue as this is rated for 500W and will just have a low spec graphics card and two HDD's. It's a midi tower case so not too worried about changing the heat envelope but not sure if the mobo can handle the additional TDP. Acer support as usual deflect the question. They also say there may be driver compatibility issues, I assume this is nonsense as the processor is abstracted out of the equation? Thanks

 

[Archaic59]

One thing to consider is whether or not the motherboard bios supports the cpu you want to use. Proprietary system builders have little motivation to do more than what is required for the original use of the product. I'm not saying the board does not support an i7. I'm simply saying it may or may not and you need to find out before buying it. If it does not already support the i7 and you install one, it won't boot. Simple as that. Does Acer have an updated bios for your board? You'll have to find out from them. So you have 2 questions to ask them.

 

[Andybbop]

Isn't the BIOS just an issue if you go to newer processor generation on the same socket? Thanks

 

[Archaic59]

If the builders included all the current generation cpu's in the bios you are good to go. It's likely they did. It might be possible to gleen the info from some obscure pdf in their support documentation to find out for sure, or you could wing it and see what happens.

 

[Andybbop]

Can anyone actually comment on the TDP issue though? Thanks

 

[Archaic59]

Voltage regulation was moved from the chipset to the CPU with release of Haswell (LGA1150). You could use the i7-2600S which uses the same 65 watt TDP.
http://ark.intel.com/products/52215/Intel-Core-i7-2600S-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz

 

[Andybbop]

Yeah they're a lot more expensive though. Acer support were quoting stuff in their internal documents that said 65W/95W for the board, but I don't know if this is some kind of peak load versus average or if it means it can handle a full 95W TDP. If the Mobo could not handle the 95W would installing one potentially damage the processor or board or would it just not fire up? Thanks