Fujitsu Lifebook LH531 upgrade options - CPU Sandy v Ivy

[limbrooke]

I realize this is a Thinkpad forum, but I figured there is good expertise to speak of regarding hardware and perhaps other laptops too.

I recently got a co-workers LH531 Lifebook, from 2011, and am tasked with trying to improve performance. As it stands, it has a SATAII/300 bus and can officially support up to 8gb of PC3-10600 SoDIMM (I have seen where its cited to use 16gb) so going from an Hitachi HTS547550A9E384 Travelstar 5400rpm clunker to any SATAII 2.5" SSD plus getting the max RAM seems suitable.

I was also checking the controller chipset, HM65 Express (motherboard is FJNBB16) and it seems to support Socket G2/BGA1023 CPUs, specifically Core Series Generation 2, or Sandy Bridge. However, the HM65 also supports some Ivy Bridge going from this site (http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Intel_(ch ... press.html) which could mean if the motherboard accepts the I5-3610ME/SR0QJ CPU versus the presently installed I5-2450M/SR0CH CPU it could go to Intel HD Graphics 3000 to 4000. I have a feeling it is not supported, the jump to Ivy Bridge but I thought to ask here.

[axur-delmeria]

The show-stopper in this case is BIOS CPU support. If there's a variant of this model that has Ivy Bridge, you have a fair chance of succeeding, or if there's a BIOS update that specifically mentions Ivy Bridge support.