Possible to upgrade Toshiba Tecra Centrino M?

[Rakewell]

Greetings all,

I hope I'm posting in the right forum.

Just got a hand-me-down Tecra A8-EZ8311 with a Centrino M 1.6 Ghz. No warranty.

The laptop has 2 GB of DDR2, 60gb 5400, ATI xpress 200m 256mb... it's not bad, but I would love to have a new CPU, if possible.

So...

-Anyone know the socket for this laptop's MOBO? If not, anyone know where I can go to find out?
-Is it possible to pry this thing open and swap out the proc?
-I've built plenty of desktops; how hard could it be to do the same with a laptop?
-How high could I go with the new proc? Do I have to stick with Centrino M, or can I slap a C2D in there instead?

Finally...

Anyone here ever done this? Was it pretty hard?

Cheers.

Rakewell

 

[Accord99]

You probably have a Sonoma platform Centrino system with a 1.6GHz Pentium M 730. The only meaningful upgrade to this platform would be either a Pentium M 760 (2GHz) or 770 (2.13GHz). Intel moved onto an incompatible platform afterwards for Yonah and Merom.

Typically upgrading a CPU is a pain on a laptop, you usually need to remove almost everything, from the keyboard to the LCD display, to get access to the CPU.

 

[Rakewell]

Originally posted by: Accord99
You probably have a Sonoma platform Centrino system with a 1.6GHz Pentium M 730. The only meaningful upgrade to this platform would be either a Pentium M 760 (2GHz) or 770 (2.13GHz). Intel moved onto an incompatible platform afterwards for Yonah and Merom.

Typically upgrading a CPU is a pain on a laptop, you usually need to remove almost everything, from the keyboard to the LCD display, to get access to the CPU.

Thanks for the quick response.

Is this what you're talking about?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819111005

Do you think that the performance increase would be worth the 112 USD price tag?

I'd be willing to give this a shot if it were worth extending the life of the laptop...

Look forward to hearing back from you.

Cheers,

Rakewell

 

[Accord99]

No, that CPU won't work as it's intended for the socket that replaced the one on your laptop. You need something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...1172&Tpk=pentium%20760

Given the age of these CPUs, buying used from Ebay is about the only place you get them for a reasonable price.

 

[Rakewell]

Ah... I see.

Accord, if you were me, would you think it would be worth the upgrade attempt via ebay? Would it be worth the performance increase?

Cheers.

Rakewell

 

[Accord99]

Personally, I think even upgrading to the top 2.13GHz model isn't that big of a jump that you would really notice it. What do you plan on using the laptop for?

 

[Rakewell]

Dunno... it has an ATI xpress 200m 256mb dedicated video card... thought maybe some light gaming when I travel.

Prolly sounds like it's not worth it, even though I found a 2.0 on ebay for 50 USD.

 

[Accord99]

Isn't the xpress 200m an integrated chipset with graphics?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xpress_200

 

[Rakewell]

Oops. Didn't know that.

I've always built my own desktops, this is really my first laptop. Well, guess I won't be doing much with this, then, proc upgrade or not.

Good thing it was free. Looks like I have a KILLER emailing rig.

Thanks for your help, Accord99.

Cheers.

Rakewell

 

[TurtleCrusher]

My laptop has the worst integrated ever.

Looks like IT will be the best e-mail computer.