Dell Inspiron 15R 5520 Virtualization passthrough support and CPU upgrade questions

[taskz12]

I have a Dell Inspiron 5520 with an i3 3110m. I'm experimenting with virtualization on the go and this is the only laptop I have to try this out with but I'm running into an issue. I'm not a hardware person so I'm kinda stuck.

I'm hoping to get Vt-d passthrough support but the i3 doesn't support it. I thought that by upgrading to a compatible i5 or (preferably) i7 I'd get that but I don't know if my laptop's motherboard will support Vt-d passthrough in the first place. Near as I can tell the motherboard has an MH77 chipset but I can't find out if Vt-d passthrough is supported or not, nor can I find out which CPU socket I have. There seem to be two possible ones.

I'm not looking for passthrough for video, by the way. I already know that won't work. It's for other hardware like the Wifi card, USB ports, etc which should work based on what I've read. I'm planning on running different vm's in a KVM hypervisor. I've done it on my desktop with the same generation of Ivy Bridge Intel stuff.

TL;DR

On my Dell Inspiron 15R 5520, how do I find out what CPU socket I have and how do I find out if my motherboard supports Intel Vt-d passthrough?

EDIT: I mistakenly Called the laptop a Latitude a couple times. It's an Inspiron. Edited to reflect that.

 

[fagetti]

https/ark.intel.com/products/65700/Intel-Core-i3-3110M-Processor-3M-Cache-2_40-GHz?q=i3%203110m

look advanced technologies it should support vt-d

 

[taskz12]

Thanks for the info but I think I should have been more specific. The i3 doesn't support VT-d according to intel. The i5 and i7 do as far as I can tell but I need to know how I can find out if the motherboard itself supports VT-d and which socket I have on the motherboard because according to intel the i3 can either have a FCBGA1023 or FCPGA988 socket. The latter is the one I need.

 

[fagetti]

Go to bios at startup and look for VT-d Options

 

[taskz12]

Apparently there are no options there so no VT-d support. I appreciate your help

 

[fagetti]

If your cpu supports. I think your motherboard does also but its bios locked ny the manufactor for disabled. You could modify and flash your bios for hidden optios such as vt d and overclocking. Look site bios mods for your model, if not found you can ask. I dont want to so its abit risky. There is a small change motherboard will be bricked. Fix would be reflash bios chip with working file