Thinkpads Forum

Good evening,

My new W510 has a i7 CPU Q720 processor that does not support AES-NI. Is it possible to "upgrade" to the i5-560M (it seems some W510's were sold with this option), and would doing so allow AES-NI to work?

According to Intel, this processor supports AES. Here's hoping there isn't some BIOS setting that blocks the feature.

Apparently there are multiple motherboards for W510. Anecdotal evidence suggests that someone who went the other direction (from i5 to i7) could not boot. It may not be worth the $30 to even give this a try.