Upgrading A Laptop CPU? Feasible? (Please Read!)

[GunXpatriot]

So I have an old Gateway M-1624 with an AMD Turion 64x2 TL-60... It's old, but the laptop in general, still works fine.

Through research, this laptop CPU shares a socket with many other CPU's in the Turion 64x2 series. I was looking to buy a 64x2 TL-68 and replace the existing CPU. But there are a couple of problems. This CPU has a higher TDP. 31 watts vs 35 watts for the TL-68. I already have trouble cooling the laptop. I would definitely have to come up with some kind of mod to improve cooling for this to work.

Another thing is that I would want to upgrade to 4GB of RAM. On the other hand, it'll probably end up costing $100 to do all this stuff. I wonder if I should put that towards a laptop with an APU. Or I could just do this as a project.

I think the main issue here is the increased power usage. So I'll need to figure out how to cool it. Overall, this should give a nearly 20% performance increase. Anyone think it's worth it to try, maybe?

Or I could just get an old Sony Vaio w/ Core 2 Duo that is significantly more powerful with same TDP for under $100... What do you guys think?

 

[1shado1]

Just curious. What OS are you running, and is it 32 or 64bit? Also, there were 2 versions of the TL-60. Did they both use an S1 socket?

 

[orlbuckeye]

Adding a CPU is only going to help you if you use CPU intensive applications. If you never use the current CPU to capacity you won't see much of a speed increase. Adding a SSD or more memory will affect performance more then a new porcessor.

 

[GunXpatriot]

Just curious. What OS are you running, and is it 32 or 64bit? Also, there were 2 versions of the TL-60. Did they both use an S1 socket?

Running 32-bit Win 7 at the moment.

Also, it is the later version as far as I know. The 65nm "Tyler", I believe? But yeah, the S1 socket, I'm 90% sure of it.

 

[GunXpatriot]

Adding a CPU is only going to help you if you use CPU intensive applications. If you never use the current CPU to capacity you won't see much of a speed increase. Adding a SSD or more memory will affect performance more then a new porcessor.

I'm definitely using it to capacity. The most intensive thing I do is render video, but obviously only in a pinch. I have a custom rig to do intensive stuff. Which is why I would more likely go to a used Vaio or something with a Core 2 Duo T4400. It's not ideal, but it's significantly better than the Turion 64x2.

Or I could stop wasting my time and go with an FX-7600p, which I could actually use for gaming as well... Which is good. But the Turion is hotter than the sun and lacks performance. If anything, it'd be another laptop for a family member if needed. Hmm... Either way, anything is a serious upgrade to that old laptop I have.

My new dedicated laptop will probably be the FX-7600p, whichever brand I end up going with... And speaking of APU's, that seems to be the most powerful mobile APU out right now, right? If it isn't, what other options are there? It seems to have the best performing integrated graphics in AMD's line-up, but the way they did their naming scheme, it's hard to tell much of anything.

 

[GunXpatriot]

Hmm... Instead of getting a current mobile APU.... I think I'll wait for Carizzo. Gonna have to be some kind of performance bump for the integrated graphics, I'm sure. Hopefully by the end of this year, they'll release something for Carizzo... I guess it's negligible for me right now. But then, maybe this upgrade could actually be sort of useful?