Can i upgrade my Laptops CPU?

[zashko]

YOOO 8D

Anyways I own a Acer aspire 5742 With a Intel core i3 380M 2.4GHZ on a Socket 989rPGA mobo, I read that i could upgrade it's CPU to an i5 on that socket, But again i am seeking assurance 8D, Always kinda wanted an i5 D:
But also would be neat to have the performance perk as it's a kinda...more powerful laptop of mine , so i do an occasional gaming on it.

 

[Steltek]

You can download a copy of the technical service manual for your laptop series (which shows how to completely disassemble your laptop) from the following link:

http://www.manualowl.com/m/Acer%20Computers/Aspire-5742/Manual/329270

The manual provides complete specs for supported processors. It doesn't indicate that a heatsink upgrade is required when going from the i3 to the i5 (though that doesn't mean anything, either, as it wouldn't be the first time that Acer left such information out of a technical support document -- in short, Acer product technical support often pretty much sucks).

However, you might do better with simply maxing out the memory and/or adding an SSD (you could upgrade to an SSD, then add a hard drive caddy to replace the DVD drive to allow you to install your old hard drive as a data drive in the DVD bay). Stuffing an i5 in that case will likely just result in a much hotter running laptop that throttles more often. It'll use the battery quicker, and you may not see much net real world improvement in performance. It certainly won't result in any improvement in the integrated graphics situation at all, either.

 

[Puppies04]

While it should be physically possible I wouldn't really recommend it myself. If you want a laptop with an I5 in it then sell yours and buy one.

 

[lehtv]

You sure you're CPU bottlenecked? If you use your laptop for basic tasks like internet browsing it's more likely your hard disk or RAM amount holding back

 

[Insert_Nickname]

You sure you're CPU bottlenecked? If you use your laptop for basic tasks like internet browsing it's more likely your hard disk or RAM amount holding back

An SSD would be a much better upgrade. It'll likely even use less power then your current HDD. Add 4-8GB of RAM and you should be fine for a couple of years...

 

[Charlie98]

Try the RAM first...

 

[k1114]

You absolutely can. If you have a i3-380M in there now, you can use any one of these "officially" supported i5's:

i5-450M
i5-460M
i5-540M
i5-560M
i5-580M

All of them have the same max TDP (35w) so your existing cooling should be just fine - just drop one in and go. Ebay-wise you can get one of the lower i5's (450/460) listed in the $40 range, and down into the $30's if you're willing to bid on an auction and wait it out. A couple things to remember:

* Unless you're gaming on that laptop, you won't really see a difference between i3 and i5. Even if you are, you still might not.
* Unless you've done this before, you might be disappointed with how it all comes back together (literally).

As others have said, you'll be much better off getting a SSD or more ram. Going to 8gb (2x4gb) would be very cheap (under $40 new, much less used), and getting a SSD would give you the most performance boost by far.