CPU Upgrade for Acer Aspire 9500

[mikeg]

I have an Acer Aspire 9500 with only a celeron 380 and wanted to know if I could put a Pentium M CPU in it. Whats the highest CPU that this thing will take? Do I use a 400MHz FSB CPU or a 533Mhz FSB CPU? Anyone ever upgrade one of these laptops?
Mike

 

[fbrdphreak]

Mike,
Download CPU-Z and run it on your Acer. Report back with the chipset being used in that laptop.

 

[mikeg]

915GM chipset

 

[mikeg]

Ok running CPU-z It shows that the chipset as
Chipet i915GMS/i910GML
Southbridge 82801FBM (ICH6-M)

As for CPU its
Intel Celeron M 380
Dothan
90nm Technology
Celeron(R) M Processor 1.6Ghz
Family 6 Model D Stepping 8
Ext. Family 0 Ext.Model 0 Revision CO

 

[plewis00]

You could put either CPU 400 or 533FSB in it theoretically. Cost wise you might do best to get a 400FSB chip and pin-mod it. The fastest official chip Intel sell runs at 2.26Ghz (I think it's called the 780) but you can get that speed from a pin-modded 1.7Ghz 400FSB chip. You can usually reach 2.4Ghz comfortably with a 1.8Ghz 400FSB chip.

Given that your Celeron has the same effective core as a full-blown Dothan Pentium M you could pin-mod it to 533FSB at 2.13Ghz.

 

[mikeg]

What is the performance difference between the celeron 1.6 and a 1.86 533FSB CPU? Does a 533FSB make that much of a difference? How much will it impact on battery life
Mike

 

[plewis00]

There will be a reasonable benefit because the Pentium M has double the cache. It also has the fuller power management than the Celeron so battery life will probably balance out in the end. The 533FSB gives more bandwidth but I don't think it affects it that much even though I haven't had much experience, there are plenty of reviews on it.

That said, you would get more performance from pin-modding the Celeron you have to 2.13Ghz than plugging in a stock 1.86Ghz Pentium M (which you can't do anything more to).

 

[mikeg]

But then again you said that the Pentium M has double the cache and fuller power managemnet. One think that is important to me is the battery life so I think Ill go with the Mentium M for a small upgrade. Anyways Its a zero cost upgade because I can sell this CPU for as much as Im going to get the 1.86 for
Mike

 

[Ionizer86]

Instead of buying a 533 bus 1.86 I'd also spring for a lower speed 400 bus chip (1.5 - 1.7). They're great chips, and looking at peoples' undervolting results, pinmod success looks to be very high.

My 1.5, if I pinmodded to 2.0 on an appropriate chipset/board, could still undervolt by 17% on max speed, assuming linear clock/min volt relationship in the 1.5 - 2.0 range (I've plotted the relationship from 600MHz to 1.5GHz, and it indeed is linear). These Dothans are pretty incredible, especially if you get a Rev C0.

 

[mikeg]

Ok I got the 1.86 Pentium M Dothan chip in the laptop now and it runs like a champ. It took the 533FSB CPU with no problems
Mike

 

[JyYyM]

Hi Ionizer, one quick question, I have the same machine mikeg has, same chipset and all, I ran Centrino Hardware Control trying to undervolt and I couldn`t use that part of the program, is it because my laptop has a Celeron M instead of a Pentium M?

 

[mikeg]

I think thats why. I know that the celeron doesn't allow the cpu to drop power usage as much as the Pentium M cpus
Just my thoughts. But I love my new upgrage for my laptop. The CPU has let me extend my battery usage under normal conditions of up to 1 hr or at least 45 min
Mike