Thinkpads Forum

This Korean modder has installed a quad-core i7 3612QE in place of the i5 in his X230:

http://forum.51nb.com/thread-1602437-1-1.html

So this is just a drop-in replacement?

I thought the X230 CPU was soldered to the board?

X-series laptops all have soldered cpus on their motherboards. You would have to desolder and then resolder a different cpu. Specialized shops can certainly do this, but its not cheap.

Remember that the QC cpus use more power and generate more heat. Even with a successful swap, the motherboard power circuitry may not be able to handle it reliably.

brchan wrote:Remember that the QC cpus use more power and generate more heat. Even with a successful swap, the motherboard power circuitry may not be able to handle it reliably.

The 3612qm is still a 35w cpu, just like dual cores models, so it should run fine.