Thinkpads Forum

The next ThinkPad on my workbench is a W510. I thought it was cool with the eSATA port as well as multiple USB3 ports, ExpressCard, DisplayPort, smartcard, memory card reader, DVD-CDRW, with a max 16GM of DDR3 RAM so it can run Win11 (if you are careful) or Linux/BSD with ease. This is the 2 SODIM slot model, so only 2 DIMMs.
No matter, this will be a good replacement for my workbench laptop for testing and wiping HardDrives and SSDs

But: the processor is only an i7-Q720 1.6 Ghz
This will be a dog with Windoz IMHO

So I am researching which & where to get a CPU upgrade. According to thinkwiki https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:W510 Some models came with an Intel Quad Core Extreme Processor i7-920XM (2.0GHz 1333MHz 8MB L3).
Researching here, there have been a handful of threads with similar topics in past years, but nothing recent or that answered my questions below. Also some posts say that a i7-940XM would work in a W510, but it is unclear if that is only the motherboard with the 4 DIMM slots or would it work in the 2 DIMM slot model as well.

Any thoughts on
a) where to find one of these CPUs at a reasonable cost (other than ebay or AliExpress)?
b) Is/are there other CPUs that would work in the W510 motherboard that would provide more bang for the buck?

TIA!

One option is to replace the motherboard with one from a W520 or W530 to get better CPU choices.

Interesting, thanks for the suggestion @SAIYAN48 - can I assume the boards from a a W520 or W530 have the same footprint/ports?

IMHO, it may be easier to just score a a W520 or W530 and replace this W510 then.

The W520 and W530 have different coolers. If you don't need the dGPU and 32GB of RAM, I'd go with a T530.

Now to determine which of these models also have an integrated eSATA port...

FYSA: followup post made at viewtopic.php?f=48&t=137065