Thinkpads Forum

Hi all,

I'm thinking of upgrading my i3 T420i to an i5 or possibly i7. I'm also looking at a hybrid hdd (since they are a higher capacity). Hopefully, these two will have a significant boost in speed.

Does anyone know what socket types are accepted for the motherboard? I think a G2 but I'm not sure - service manuals haven't been much help

Thanks!

I'd recommend an SSD before a CPU upgrade, no question, unless you're 100% sure that CPU is your bottleneck. For most people it's not, and an SSD is an easy and cheap upgrade and thus a better value for most people.

But yes, I believe the T420i is socketed. You can look up the socket type used by any Intel CPU over at http://ark.intel.com

I actually just discovered mSata, so I'm going to go that route; with a 60gb drive in the WWAN slot. My real concern was storage space, but this allows my main drive to stay.

I"ll hold off on the CPU for now, for under $100, the SSD will likely have the biggest "bang for the buck".

Thanks!