Thinkpads Forum

Hi
I knwo this have been discussed a lot, in the past.

IU have searched around, finding no definitive answer: Does the W500 accept af QC CPU?

Im not too worried about temps. The W500 Works just fine with the T9400, with good temps. - and i think it can handle another 10W (espicially if it get undervolted)

If it can be put in, im going to buy either a Q9000, Q9100 or QX9300. It would really make the W500 capable, even today.

Best regards

From what I know, it is not possible to run W500 with QC.
YES, the temperatures won't be too high (42W TDP is still OK)
YES, the socket accepts QC CPU
But the BIOS won't accept the CPU. Many users across different forums reported black screen and shut down when they tried to run QX9300. On the other hand, W700 supports QC, so if anyone succeed in flashing W700 bios over one's W500, it may be possible.
I've searched high and low for such "modded" bios and so far, nothing like that exists.

So, my advice is - don't invest into QX9300, it's pretty expensive and even if someone releases their W700 bios, I'd be worried about stability under full load considering the CPU and GPU share the same heatsink.

It was the BIOS i was worried about...


I one might be able to make a completely whitelisted BIOS, it would be nice. But i doubt it will ever happen then