Thinkpads Forum

How easy is it to upgrade the processor. I would like to have 64bit support in the future.

I have never opened my laptops up before....but this wasnt bad. Little tedious and time consuming, but not bad. Make sure you use the smallest amount of paste on the new CPU. Too much is easy to do.

I've swapped out CPUs on three Dells - Yonah to Merom. It's not that difficult. Just keep track of the screws and where they came from!

As mentioned in the previous post, make sure you only put a small amount of thermal paste on the actual core (the raised bit in the middle) - not the whole chip as you would with a desktop.

Also, be very careful when screwing down the heat sink on top. Desktop CPUs have a metal top for protection but with Yonah and Merom mobile parts, you're screwing down onto the core itself.

Overall though it's surprising how user-serviceable laptops are these days and CPU-swapping is relatively straightforward.

thanks guys...I will perform this later on in the year

Make sure your BIOS is Rev. 2.06 or newer.