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W701 upgrade question

W500/W510/W520 and W700/W701 Series
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positive
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W701 upgrade question

#1 Post by positive » Thu Aug 13, 2020 6:17 pm

When upgrading the W701, does it require Lenovo specific CPUS and GPUs? I believe the fastest processor is the 940xm, and the GPU the 3800m, but do they need Lenovo FRUs to work properly?

Even though the 940xm is the fastest, is there another one that is more readily available and a sweet spot for price/performance?

Thanks
Last edited by positive on Fri Aug 14, 2020 11:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

RealBlackStuff
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Re: W701 upgrade question

#2 Post by RealBlackStuff » Fri Aug 14, 2020 12:29 am

CPUs are not Lenovo-specific, any Intel CPU that meets the W701 specs will work.
The only limit is your wallet.
AFAIK there is no faster CPU than the i7-940XM, but compared to the i7-920XM there is little improvement.
And put in as much RAM as it will take (4x4GB or can it also take 4x8GB?) plus a decent SSD or two.
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Screamer
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Re: W701 upgrade question

#3 Post by Screamer » Fri Aug 14, 2020 4:53 am

No, but I do seem to recall that the W701 and the W701ds accepted only quad-core Core i7 processors. The other processors, such as the dual-cores, did not work due to missing microcodes. I could be wrong though, but I feel that this is likely as the 4-RAM-slot W510 had an identical problem.

As for the MXM GPU slot, yes. There's a whitelist in the BIOS that prevents other MXM GPU cards from being used in the W701 and the W701ds.

positive
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Re: W701 upgrade question

#4 Post by positive » Fri Aug 14, 2020 6:44 pm

Thanks for the replies. It seems like the CPU is easier to find than the 3800m, which I can't find anywhere.
Last edited by positive on Fri Aug 14, 2020 11:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

TPFanatic
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Re: W701 upgrade question

#5 Post by TPFanatic » Fri Aug 14, 2020 6:47 pm

RealBlackStuff wrote:
Fri Aug 14, 2020 12:29 am
And put in as much RAM as it will take (4x4GB or can it also take 4x8GB?) plus a decent SSD or two.
It can take 4x 8 GB, for 32 GB total. :o :eek:

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