Upgrading Laptop CPU

[Deleted]

Hey guys, i'm looking to upgrade my laptop's CPU as I want to play games like Guild Wars 2, and my CPU/GPU are linked, i don't entirely understand it. However i'm looking for a new CPU. My current CPU is a i3-2310m (2.1gHz) I was thinking of upgrading to an i5, or anything within the £100-£200 price region.

Any Suggestions?

[Ghâzh]

Won't work with a laptop.

[Tehterokkar]

You cannot upgrade CPU/GPU in a Laptop, only buy a new laptop that has better CPU/GPU.

[Deleted]

You can change CPU's in a laptop, so I don't understand why it wouldn't work?

[ChetaPaw]

Sounds like your notebook has integrated graphics. If you could upgrade the CPU (which varies), it wouldn't help much for playing GW2, because you definitely can't upgrade GPU.

[Deleted]

Well, it's Intel HD 3000 graphics, which means the graphics runs along with the CPU, so the better the CPU, the better your graphics in theory...

[vesseblah]

You can change CPU's in a laptop, so I don't understand why it wouldn't work?

In 99% of all laptops sold today both CPU and GPU are soldered directly on the motherboard. Those are not user-changeable, but manufactured with different chips.

if you're one of the 1% with laptop that has upgradeable parts, you should check out from the manufacturer what upgrades your laptop actually supports, because things like heatsinks are meant to work only so far, and if you'd for example change twice as fast GPU than the computer used to have, you'll suddenly have the laptop running 20C hotter than before.

[Unionoob]

Check if you really can upgrade CPU for your laptop, your socket might support better one, but at same time motherboard might not support diferent CPU, And if your laptop cooler can handle stronger cpu and if your laptop can give enough power for it.

Usualy in most cases laptop parts arn't meant to be upgraded ( but rams ).
Sorry about my english.

[mercutiouk]

In 99% of all laptops sold today both CPU and GPU are soldered directly on the motherboard. Those are not user-changeable, but manufactured with different chips.

if you're one of the 1% with laptop that has upgradeable parts, you should check out from the manufacturer what upgrades your laptop actually supports, because things like heatsinks are meant to work only so far, and if you'd for example change twice as fast GPU than the computer used to have, you'll suddenly have the laptop running 20C hotter than before.

You might want to double check your 99% figure cos frankly, that's complete bollocks. Yes in most laptops the graphics card isn't upgradable. That's accepted and taken for granted. There's VERY few "regular" laptops (i.e not Atom/netbook/etc) that don't have the option to upgrade the CPU though.

In this case though, I wouldn't expect too much, you MIGHT get lucky and with a bios upgrade be able to drop an ivy bridge chip in (as most of the regular 1155 boards can take em with an update) which would give SLIGHTLY better graphics. You have a fairly vanilla laptop though which isn't going to be much good for gaming on.

[hanketsu]

In 99% of all laptops sold today both CPU and GPU are soldered directly on the motherboard. Those are not user-changeable, but manufactured with different chips.

if you're one of the 1% with laptop that has upgradeable parts, you should check out from the manufacturer what upgrades your laptop actually supports, because things like heatsinks are meant to work only so far, and if you'd for example change twice as fast GPU than the computer used to have, you'll suddenly have the laptop running 20C hotter than before.

You are WAY off on that my friend. The CPU is NOT soldered to the mainboard on the 99% of laptops. Do some homework before spouting off such non-sense, please.
The CPU can be upgradeable in a laptop so long as it falls withing the TDP for the laptop and the socket design. The Panther Point chipset mainboards were made backwards compatible with Sandy Bridge processors as well as capabilities to use Ivy Bridge processors. If the laptop can support a TDP of 45W, just find a CPU that fits the socket and supports the 45W TDP.

As far as the GPU, it really depends on the laptop model. The MSI GT60 and GT70 can theoretically upgrade the graphics card because they have the MXM 3.0 or MXM3.1 socket slot (the PCI-E equivalent for laptops). So long as you can find a heatsink that will fit the card and the mainboard supports the GPU required voltage it should be upgradeable.
Same thing with Alienware M17x and M18x laptops and the Sager/Clevo (yeah, how many people have heard of them?) NP9150 and NP9170.
Laptops do exists with potential upgradeability, you just need to know where to look and what you are looking for. Yes, some folks have successfully upgraded the GPU, others hit a wall and have discussed the details (Alienware vBIOS not allowing it to work in a Sager but could work in MSI that sort of thing).

For those that would like a further education in laptops, I highly recommend checking out the forums.notebookreview.com. I can't post links sadly... please feel free to check out the Sager/Clevo or the MSI lounges though. This is a very helpful community so feel free to post your questions there about your laptop upgradeability. Some of the forums are a little more active than others, just check for owner's lounges and the general discussion for your particular brand (Dell, Samsung, etc.)

Laptops have come a long ways, they still have a bit of work ahead of them before they can really compete with desktops for upgrades and performance but the 680M and 7970M (if the bugs get worked out) should be pretty close if not on par with the desktop GTX-570, which is fairly respectable given the size.

[Khenglish]

If you have a MXM gpu then by all means go for the GPU upgrade. You have to be careful though because manufacturers often don't follow the MXM spec exactly, so you may run into things like you can upgrade to AMD/ATI gpus only, but not Nvidia, so do your research first.

If you don't have MXM, then upgrading the CPU will help significantly, but it won't be huge. The HD3000 in your CPU runs at 1.1ghz, while the top ones (i7-2720QM and better) run at 1.3ghz. Your gains will be a little bit better than that speed bump though because the HD3000 can offload a decent chunk of the work it has to do to the CPU, so with a faster CPU it can offload more. (for those wondering, intel IGPs can offload vertex calculations).

An Ivy bridge CPU will provide a large upgrade due to the HD4000. Sadly, even though the hardware for all 6 series (sandy bridge) laptops supports Ivy Bridge, laptop makers decided not to bother with the BIOS update to support them so that they could force people who wanted an upgrade to buy new laptops.

It may be possible to hack in IVB support for HP laptops since they have a publicly known method for disabling flash protection security on the system's flash ROM, but it is very involved, more likely than not it won't work, and so far people have been afraid to try it (even though if done correctly it can't brick the laptop). The hack involves flashing Intel Management engine 8, which is a BIOS extension on the same chip as the BIOS. The problem is most laptops use the 5MB format, which grew beyond 5MB with ME8 despite being called 5MB... so it might not fit on a 6 series laptop's 8MB flash ROM (7 series laptops have a 16MB flash ROM). There is also a 1.5MB format, which will certainly fit, but on a laptop designed for 5MB, I don't know if it will work anyway or not. And even if ME8 does work flawlessly, this does not update the core BIOS at all, so you'd have to cross your fingers that updating ME only is enough for IVB support.

A very cheap thing to do for a decent chunk of performance if you're running integrated is to make sure you're running dual channel memory (requires 2 memory chips of the same size). This helps a lot (~20%) since the HD3000 uses the system memory.

[Deleted]

In 99% of all laptops sold today both CPU and GPU are soldered directly on the motherboard. Those are not user-changeable, but manufactured with different chips.

if you're one of the 1% with laptop that has upgradeable parts, you should check out from the manufacturer what upgrades your laptop actually supports, because things like heatsinks are meant to work only so far, and if you'd for example change twice as fast GPU than the computer used to have, you'll suddenly have the laptop running 20C hotter than before.

Soldering a CPU would kill it, kinda makes sense they don't do it.

[chazus]

You can upgrade the CPU, but likely with another i3. The "Intel HD 3000" is what you're stuck with. Period. You cannot replace the intel with an nvidia.

SOME laptops (Very few. Very very very few. Like, this is more fyi trivia, than your situation) have a video card that fits a certain standard, and is upgradeable. However, you do not have this, since you have an Intel integrated GPU. If. IF. You could find an Ivy Bridge cpu that fits your system, AND is supported by the motherboard, AND is supported by the TDP of the laptop so it doesn't burst into flames.... The best you could do is upgrading to an Intel HD 4000. Which is pretty much the same thing.

TLDR: You need a new laptop. Sorry.