Upgrading old skt754 Sempron3100+ Laptop to a Turion?

Dec 30, 2004
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Anyone know anything about this laptop and upgrading a CPU?

The Sempron3100+ I bought it with comes with a 128kb of L2 cache...sad...
Anyways I've been realizing how slow it really seems, and was thinking of upgrading it if I can find one for cheap.
Current bus runs at 333Mhz, I can't overclock it (this version of sempron/mobile is locked) and so I don't know if the motherboard can support DDR400. It's currently DDR333.

My guess is that it can, but I'd like someone else's opinion.

edit: actually maybe it has 256KB cache, per this link: http://www.newegg.com/product/...x?Item=N82E16834115242
DDR333 and Mobile sempron 3100+. What kind of benefit would I get going to 512kb of cache, say at 1.6Ghz?

Or do you guys think the source of my problem is the integrated graphics (with non-integrated VGA memory). Even with full working 3d acceleration, stuff just feels slow in Ubuntu. I'm wondering if this is because it has to both be working with system memory for programs, as well as then communicating with the GPU for vga memory for displaying the program. Meaning, that going to a Turion with more L2 cache I would not see much improvement.

On my old Desktop overclocking my Sempron3100+ to 2.3Ghz was very nice speed wise. But it did not have integrated graphics.

I'm really not sure what to do here. I definitely want stuff to feel more snappy. If I can.

edit2: what about a BSEL mod to 400Mhz fsb?
edit3: friend brought up a good question, if the CPU is soldered in place. Anyone know off the top of their head? Or I'll just get some screwdrivers (mini) to take apart myself.

Thanks for reading.

update: per http://www.notebookforums.com/...ead.php?postid=1980215 it is not soldered.
 

Liberator21

Golden Member
Feb 12, 2007
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Well, I ran into this problem recently with my wife's old emachines notebook. It has a mobile Athlon 3000+ and I wanted to 'upgrade' to a Turion as well. The motherboard itself supporting it is questionable (if it's REALLY old) and from my understanding unhinging a soldered on Cpu is not as simple as 'taking a screwdriver and prying it apart'.

Anyway, what some people on notebookforums informed me of, even if I could get around those two obstacles, is the voltage factor. Athlons (I don't know about Semprons) apparently use a higher voltage than the Turions. This makes sense since all Turions are either 25 or 35 watts. And your virtually assured that there are no voltage adjustments in the BIOS. Maybe the Turion can run overvolted, maybe not.

So, the solution?:

Sell the laptop for a couple of hundred, and take the total opportunity cost (Profit of laptop + cost of Turion + Time, etc.) and weigh it against one of those $300-$400 laptops we always see on sale at Best Buy, Office Depot, etc.

I think you'll find like me, you can get a dual-core pentium that's lighter and can run circles around a 754 AMD laptop for a couple hundred or less.

Just my 2 cents.