W510: Full Disk Encryption with i5-560M

[jdk]

Good evening,

My new W510 has a i7 CPU Q720 processor that does not support AES-NI. Is it possible to "upgrade" to the i5-560M (it seems some W510's were sold with this option), and would doing so allow AES-NI to work?

According to Intel, this processor supports AES. Here's hoping there isn't some BIOS setting that blocks the feature.

[jdk]

Apparently there are multiple motherboards for W510. Anecdotal evidence suggests that someone who went the other direction (from i5 to i7) could not boot. It may not be worth the $30 to even give this a try.