Question Upgrading Laptop CPU

[RaidHobbit]

Today I received a Chuwi laptop:

i3-1215U
12GB DDR5
512 GB SSD
2k Touchscreen
Total cost at exchange rate: £400

Yes, that is an amazing deal, hence why I ordered it from China. Its a very solid laptop with high quality keyboard and chassis. It will run GTA 5 on low settings 1080p with it being playable.

So the downsides for me are:
No dedicated graphics card
A mere i3 (2 performance cores, 4 efficiency)
And the odd amount of DDR5.

The memory can be increased to 32GB, and there is a slot inside for a M.2. I will put 1TB in. As I can only use integrated graphics you know what I`m about to ask about the CPU.

How do I find out if my laptop motherboard could in principle handle an i5 or i7? As for unsoldering and replacing the CPU, I`m fine with that. I`ve plenty of experience soldering and unsoldering electronics. I would like to plop in an i5 or i7 that is going to get me the best gaming experience I can have with their integrated graphics. Advise please.

 

[rgd1101]

with a solder cpu. it is unlikely they are support any other cpu

 

[punkncat]

The entire line of the "U" skew is TDP 15-55W base/turbo. They all have the same number of P cores, so would probably look at the highest level of onboard graphics (96EU).

Keep in mind that simply trying this could trash the machine. It would seem that you have already found it doesn't suit all your needs, so rather than risk damage as well as the other items you have seen as shortcoming in the RAM and storage solution, why not send it back and pony up the scale a bit with something that has what you want from the start?

 

[RaidHobbit]

The entire line of the "U" skew is TDP 15-55W base/turbo. They all have the same number of P cores, so would probably look at the highest level of onboard graphics (96EU).

Keep in mind that simply trying this could trash the machine. It would seem that you have already found it doesn't suit all your needs, so rather than risk damage as well as the other items you have seen as shortcoming in the RAM and storage solution, why not send it back and pony up the scale a bit with something that has what you want from the start?

Its fine, its not really meant for gaming but I would like to add that feather to its cap. The i5 model they sell is not touchscreen.

The RAM is easy to sort out, I think the odd 4GB stick is obviously to give the integrated graphics DDR5 to use. That might be why its running at a playable FPS in 1080p, albeit on low settings.

I don`t get why it would trash the machine, if it didn`t work I`d just stick the i3 back in. But how do I find out if I can do this before attempting?

I have 64EU so 32 extra, is it going to be worth it?

 

[hotaru.hino]

As for unsoldering and replacing the CPU, I`m fine with that. I`ve plenty of experience soldering and unsoldering electronics.

But do you have experience with BGA?

Besides that there's the issue if the firmware will even recognize the CPU. If the laptop generally doesn't come with an upgrade path to one of the higher end models, it may not boot.

I have 64EU so 32 extra, is it going to be worth it?

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Iris-Xe-G7-96EUs-vs-UHD-Graphics-64EUs_10364_11122.247598.0.html

96EUs gives about 20% more performance, but most games are still <30 FPS at 1080p low.