I want to upgrade my laptop's CPU

[Megatomic]

So I've got a Gateway 400SD4 laptop. Laptop Info The core logic on the systemboard is Intel 845MZ. Chipset Info The processor that came in it is a P4 Northwood "A" 2.0GHz. CPU Info I'd like to "upgrade" to a Pentium 4-M 2.0GHz CPU. Upgrade CPU Info The reason for the upgrade is to: 1) decrease heat output and 2) quiet the system down. I've limited myself to the 2GHz part due to financial constraints. A 2.2GHz P4-M is almost twice as expensive as the 2GHz part, and it just gets worse the faster the chip is.

Other planned system upgrades are a new 5400RPM hard drive of 100GB or more capacity and I'd also like to pull the DDR200 and replace it with DDR266.

My big issues are:
A. Is that P4-M CPU I listed above going to work? It's got the same pinout, the same multiplier, and the same cache size. The lower Vcore is the big question but there may be other issues I haven't considered.

B. One of the memory sticks is integrated into the system. Does anyone have any idea what it might take to upgrade it? Do these memory sticks get soldered in or is it likely to be an internal SO-DIMM slot that's it's installed in?

C. For some reason Gateway says that I can only install 512MB of memory, but Intel's literature shows that the 845MZ core logic is good for a gig of memory. If it turns out that the internal memory on the laptop is an SO-DIMM, should I try to install a gig of DDR266?

I'm also toying with the idea of trying to upgrade the video card in this thing. I'll have a look at it when I pull it apart later on to see if it's soldered in, but if it turns out that the Mobility Radeon is a plug in module of some kind I'll be pretty excited. I'd love to put an NVidia card in this thing to make it more linux friendly.

Thanks for all the help guys/gals.

 

[Megatomic]

45 thread views and not one reply.

 

[cmrmrc]

i dont think that your chipset supports newer Intel Pentium M processors...If you look at intel chipset webpage, you'll see that your chipset only support 400mhz fsb Intel Pentium 4-M or regular P4....

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/845mp/index.htm

 

[Megatomic]

You are entirely right, and that is why I went with the P4-M 2GHz. It has a 400MHz FSB to match the P4 Northwood A I want to replace. This is the exact chip I'm looking at buying: LINKY

 

[myocardia]

Megatomic, that's a $300 processor. That means you'll be spending $500-600 on upgrading quite an old laptop, assuming it's possible to upgrade the video. If you'll look around, you can buy brand new Pentium M laptops now for $600-650. They don't come with good onboard video, of course, but one with decent onboard video wouldn't be that much more.

edit: My guess would be that the processor you linked to would be a drop-in replacement, since you already know that your motherboard will accept Pentium M's, and the P-M you're interested in has the parameters that are required.

 

[Megatomic]

Memory4Less.com has P4-M 2.0GHz chips for about $125. I could give this laptop a new life for my boys with a low power chip and a bigger hard drive.

So I did some more reading and Gateway says that my lappie can only take 512MB of memory, so it must be a BIOS limitation. Intel's literature says that the 845MZ can accept 1GB. But I did find that both memory sticks are accessible, and one of them is DDR400(duh, I installed it myself when I got the laptop) so all I need is one more stick of the same stuff and I can speed up my memory quite a bit, well to DDR266 anyways. IIRC P4 chips were sensitive to memory bandwidth so that might be a worthwhile upgrade eh? Since the original stick is DDR200 the BIOS clocks the second stick at DDR200 also, so I should be able to get DDR266 speed (max for 845MZ).

The other upgrade I know I can do is a new hard drive. The one that came in this thing is a dog... 30GB 4200RPM. But I can put a 5400RPM ATA100 drive and speed things up a lot, I find this machine is diskbound frequently.

myocardia, you feel that a P4-M is a viable upgrade then? I only need one knowledgeable ATer to agree with me that I should be able to do it and I'm gonna buy the chip.

 

[myocardia]

Well, I don't feel like the Pentium M 2.0 Ghz is a viable alternative @ $300. For $120, I'd be buying one to try it out. Your problem, though, isn't going to be your chipset. It's going to be your BIOS. And, without finding someone with the exact same laptop, who has done the swap already, it's really impossible to say that it will definitely work. My guess is that it would, but then again, I haven't tried it, so I have no way of knowing for sure. Of course, if you knew for sure that they offered that chip in that same system, then you'd know for sure that it would work.

Although, it shouldn't be too hard to get at least $120 for the chip, if it doesn't work in your lappy, I wouldn't think.

 

[Cheex]

I don't really know that much about laptops but....What about getting a Merom system??

 

[Megatomic]

I'm not sure if anyone has ever tried it with this laptop, it was a special edition and Gateways are throwaway more often than not. That this laptop is still working all these years later is a phenomenon.

But here's my deal. I gave my desktop to my daughter and I'm stuck with this POS until I can buy myself a C2D lappie from HP (DV6000T more than likely or maybe a Macbook) and then I'll be giving this to one to my boys. So this old POS is all I have to tweak and upgrade. But once I get these couple two or three upgrades done then it'll be all set for a few more years.

This machine won't be too bad with some new parts in 'er.

ps - I got this machine from a buddy who thought it was dead, so all I've put into it is the stick of RAM and the wireless PCMCIA card. With the parts I'm thinking of buying I'll have just over $400 invested in it. Not too bad eh?

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: Cheex
I don't really know that much about laptops but....What about getting a Merom system??

When taxes come that's what I'm gonna do. But my two middle school aged boys will continue to use this one for quite a long while so it's an investment my wife bought into with little effort on my part.