Core i7 2760QM in a T420

[Compgeke]

I have a somewhat trashed Dell L502x here with a 2760QM however it's a tad heavy for every day carry and the screen sucks. Getting to the question, has anyone tried putting an i7 2760QM into a Thinkpad T420?

I'm well aware that it'll run warm and battery life won't be as great as the stock i5 or i7 it would've come with (35W vs 45W) however is the BIOS stripped to remove support being as the quads would normally be found in a W series?

[ajkula66]

Someone on NBR performed this mod. I believe that BIOS had to be altered, though.

Good luck.

[600X]

This is a famous mod in the German forum. It works plug and play, no BIOS mods or other mods required. Battery life stays about the same.

[Compgeke]

Here we go, think I found it. http://thinkpad-forum.de/threads/170582 ... re-im-T420

Looking through the rough google translate it makes enough sense that nothing was really changed other than swapping the chip which itself isn't too hard of a task.

[brchan]

The T420 will accept the quad core processors just fine, but remember that the power consumption and heat will increase depending on which specific one. I wouldn't try sticking a i7 2960xm in a T420.

[Compgeke]

Oh yeah, I'm aware. I already have a 2670QM (not 2760QM...the models are so similar though) on hand.

I wouldn't imagine the heat\battery life of a quad-core T420 Intel graphics to be much worse than my T410 nVidia. 35W CPU + 14W GPU vs 45W CPU which has the graphics built in.