Thinkpads Forum

L.S.

I'm the proud owner of T500 named ThinkTank. It has had some extensive upgrades (love opening him up).. I have the second battery, a 180GB INTEL SSD, 8 GB RAM..

Now I considering upgrading the CPU. I have P8700 installed and I'm thinking of procuring a P9600.. there both 25 Watt TDP.

What are you thoughts about this?
Can I safely get the old CPU out and the new one in without any disadvantage?

Thank you,
Naxs

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grammar

Just my own opinion, CPU upgrades are almost never worth it unless you're maxing the CPU frequently. I don't know, maybe you are, but I've upgraded CPUs before and could never tell a difference. Good luck and welcome to TPF.

I'm with ZaZ on this one. Having said that I've upgraded all of my machines only because I can and I'm a geek. 90% of my usage is internet browsing, email, wordprocessing and Excel so I don't need the extra computing power. The other 10% of the time that I need the computing power, it's done on my desktop.

Naxs wrote:
Can I safely get the old CPU out and the new one in with any disadvantage?

Thank you,
Naxs

You most certainly can.

However, I agree with the two previous posters: unless you have a history of very high CPU usage, or are getting that T9600 for free, there's little reason to upgrade IMO.

Thank you guys (and girls? ) for your replies..

I usually have a ~90% CPU usage. Now that I have SSD the CPU has become the bottleneck. I don't have the money for a new ThinkPad and I want to upgrade the hell out of the one I have! I am just a little afraid what kind of hell it will be.
Planning to spent ~150 EUR on the 'new' Core 2 Duo.

So if I understand correctly then it's pretty much plug and play like with a desktop CPU? I build a couple desktops.. very straightforward.
I guess I am a little geek.

Very happy with the quick replies!
Naxs

My reasoning that the upgrade will be a noticeable upgrade

First of all, I have a SSD and an older laptop } CPU is the bottleneck (lets not talk about the ATI 3650)

Second:
My CPU is a C2D P8700. This barely comparable to the Core i3.
source: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Pro ... 436.0.html
position 137 (20121016)

The C2D 9600 or P9700 is ranked 101, 83. ( However this still low i5, high i3 range.. so perhaps the noticeable effect will be minimum?)

Third: The C2D 9xxx series had more cache. I thought this is useful when dealing with high CPU loads.

what do you people think about this reasoning
..if you exclude the 'I just want to upgrade the CPU' - factor, is it worth 100 or 150 EUR?

Thanks!

Hi,
I'm exactly in the same situation (P8600). I've bought SSD, upgraded to 8 GB RAM and now it is CPU turn, as I will do some FEM modeling.

I will buy the CPU from here http://www.ebay.com/itm/SLGQS-Intel-Cor ... 337a4fc517 but first I need to find some good manual, how to replace CPU.

Jakoob wrote:Hi,
I'm exactly in the same situation (P8600). I've bought SSD, upgraded to 8 GB RAM and now it is CPU turn,
... ...
find some good manual, how to replace CPU.

hmmz.. a manual.. dont think there is one really, usually it will say something like 'not recommended'.

try this for CPU? I think they are cheaper
http://www.alibaba.com/products/F0/p960 ... MOQT1.html

cheers!

For typical usage like Office, Media and Internet, there will be zero difference as the CPU is not the bottleneck. For every day usage my six year old R60e seems just as fast as my X220i. Now if you're pushing the CPU frequently doing stuff like video encoding or crunching databases all day, then it makes more sense, but it's not like the P8700 won't work. It'll just be a bit slower. I guess you'll have to decide whether that's worth $150.

HMM with instructions on "how to":

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... 630_01.pdf

ZaZ wrote:For typical usage like Office, Media and Internet, there will be zero difference as the CPU is not the bottleneck. For every day usage my six year old R60e seems just as fast as my X220i. Now if you're pushing the CPU frequently doing stuff like video encoding or crunching databases all day, then it makes more sense, but it's not like the P8700 won't work. It'll just be a bit slower. I guess you'll have to decide whether that's worth $150.

80$! see last link.. chatting with supplier now!
Ill post a chat log.

ZaZ wrote:For typical usage like Office, Media and Internet, there will be zero difference as the CPU is not the bottleneck. For every day usage my six year old R60e seems just as fast as my X220i. Now if you're pushing the CPU frequently doing stuff like video encoding or crunching databases all day, then it makes more sense, but it's not like the P8700 won't work. It'll just be a bit slower. I guess you'll have to decide whether that's worth $150.

What is the bottleneck in your opinion?

(supplier update: 80$ for P9600 waiting for reply for the P9700)

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90$ for the P9700

Naxs wrote:What is the bottleneck in your opinion?

For typical usage, the hard drive is usually the bottleneck as the system waits for data to be read from the drive.

ZaZ wrote: For typical usage, the hard drive is usually the bottleneck as the system waits for data to be read from the drive.

as stated in the first post.. I have a SSD..
so afther the HDD, what do you think is the bottleneck?

About the only thing left to upgrade on that machine is the CPU. Whether the price is worth it or not is dependent on how badly you need the extra computing power. I'd take the money and spend it on a good 3570K based desktop. Different tools for different tasks.

Naxs wrote: as stated in the first post.. I have a SSD..
so afther the HDD, what do you think is the bottleneck?

It could be memory, system bus, even badly-written software. But one thing is certain: as long as your CPU is not pegged at 100% for extended period of time, it is not the bottle neck.