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Anyone ever upgrade a soldered CPU

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ThinkPad560X
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Anyone ever upgrade a soldered CPU

#1 Post by ThinkPad560X » Thu Oct 17, 2024 8:19 pm

Did anyone ever desolder like a Core i3/i5 for a i7 on a ThinkPad and did it work? I've seen videos of people upgrading the soldered ram from like 8GB to 12GB or more on certain laptops and Apple laptops. "New Apple laptops are now impossible as the CPU and RAM are together and many people failed to unsolder it without damaging it." Luckily Lenovo on new model ThinkPads are bringing back 2 DIMM slots. CPU still soldered but WiFi maybe still soldered as well.
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A22m,A22e,A30,G40,R31,R40,R50,R60,R61,R400,R500,
T20,T23,T30,T40,T43,T60,T61,T400,T400s,T500,W500,W700,
X21,X30,X41,X41T,X60,X60T,X200,X200T,X300,X120e,Z60m,Z61t
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SAIYAN48
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Re: Anyone ever upgrade a soldered CPU

#2 Post by SAIYAN48 » Fri Oct 18, 2024 3:07 pm

There are motherboards for the x220/x230 with quad core CPUs resoldered to them.
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Re: Anyone ever upgrade a soldered CPU

#3 Post by ThinkPad560X » Fri Oct 18, 2024 8:54 pm

I was just wondering if it was possible. Like upgrade a T480 with an i5 to a i7. So it works the same but more work instead of the simple socket.
IBM: 760XD,770Z,600X,240,560X,560Z,570,380Z,390X,i1200,i1400,
A22m,A22e,A30,G40,R31,R40,R50,R60,R61,R400,R500,
T20,T23,T30,T40,T43,T60,T61,T400,T400s,T500,W500,W700,
X21,X30,X41,X41T,X60,X60T,X200,X200T,X300,X120e,Z60m,Z61t
T410|T510 to T480|T580
L440|L450 to L480|L580
X220 - X280

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Re: Anyone ever upgrade a soldered CPU

#4 Post by ZaZ » Sat Oct 19, 2024 12:29 am

If you want more processing power, you're better served selling your T480 and getting a newer ThinkPad. Going from the i5 to the i7 won't make a difference on seven year old CPUs.
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Re: Anyone ever upgrade a soldered CPU

#5 Post by ThinkPad560X » Sat Oct 19, 2024 9:55 am

I was just using T480 as a example, I am fine with i5 on my T480. Just wanted to know if unsoldering a cpu to upgrade to a better one was possible as didn't know if the cpu was tied to the motherboard and wouldn't work with anything else. But it seems that it works but more work needs to be done than just swapping the socket like before. If I would upgrade to a i7 it be easier just to swap motherboard that has one as you still need to remove board to solder on cpu anyway.

I heard a few years ago Lenovo and other brands were ID-ing CPUs to the motherboard and a Lenovo cpu wouldn't work in any other brand like HP or Dell. Is that still going on?
IBM: 760XD,770Z,600X,240,560X,560Z,570,380Z,390X,i1200,i1400,
A22m,A22e,A30,G40,R31,R40,R50,R60,R61,R400,R500,
T20,T23,T30,T40,T43,T60,T61,T400,T400s,T500,W500,W700,
X21,X30,X41,X41T,X60,X60T,X200,X200T,X300,X120e,Z60m,Z61t
T410|T510 to T480|T580
L440|L450 to L480|L580
X220 - X280

axur-delmeria
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Re: Anyone ever upgrade a soldered CPU

#6 Post by axur-delmeria » Sat Oct 19, 2024 10:47 am

ThinkPad560X wrote:
Sat Oct 19, 2024 9:55 am
I heard a few years ago Lenovo and other brands were ID-ing CPUs to the motherboard and a Lenovo cpu wouldn't work in any other brand like HP or Dell. Is that still going on?
I've heard of this in Lenovo Tiny's with Ryzen CPUs, like this 5650GE.

AM5 Ryzen Pro 8000GE's came out early this year, so there's not many of them floating around.
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Re: Anyone ever upgrade a soldered CPU

#7 Post by i love old thinkpads » Thu Nov 21, 2024 8:40 am

All the people will tell you it's impossible to upgrade a soldered CPU
It's not hard to do this upgrade, it's really really really really really hard to do this upgrade
It's somewhat possible and not the hardest mod out there, but you need to be like Louis Rossman to do something like this
But if you have the equipment and a board to practice on, the sky is the limit

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Re: Anyone ever upgrade a soldered CPU

#8 Post by TuuS » Mon Feb 03, 2025 4:03 am

This post isn't going to help anyone, but j did once upgrade a soldered CPU on an IBM laptop L40sx it was a cyrix cou that clipped on top the Intel CPU. This model predated the Thinkpad name.

Swapped a modern CPU is possible and you might find a shop to do it in Asia but doubtful in USA. Too much work and not enough money to be worth the time.

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