A31 cpu upgrade

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Xelait · #1 Post by **Xelait** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 4:26 am

Hi to all.

I'm an happy owner of an A31 (2652 myg) with 512 Mb of RAM. I have a second disk adapter and a NEC ND-6500A DVDMulti-Burner 8x DVD-RW Ultrabay 2000 Drive.
I want to know if it is possible to upgrade the cpu maybe with a Pentium 4 M 2.5 or 2.6.

Thanks for your answers and excuse my bad english.

JHEM · #2 Post by **JHEM** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 8:37 am

You can upgrade to a 2.6GHz CPU and MAX the RAM out at 2GB.

The CPU is very expensive at approximately US$600 to US$700 IF you can find one.

Please update your profile with your location. Not required but it's appreciated.

Welcome to the Forums.

Regards,

James

Xelait · #3 Post by **Xelait** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 9:46 am

JHEM wrote:You can upgrade to a 2.6GHz CPU and MAX the RAM out at 2GB.

The CPU is very expensive at approximately US$600 to US$700 IF you can find one.

Please update your profile with your location. Not required but it's appreciated.

Welcome to the Forums.

Regards,

James

Thanks for your answer. I had some doubts because I saw posts and messagges only from people with the A31p and not the "simple" A31.

I've update the profile

FrankK-F · #4 Post by **FrankK-F** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 10:54 pm

If someone discovers a source for 2.5 or/and 2.6 GHz chips would you post (link) such source?

Frank K-F

JHEM · #5 Post by **JHEM** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 11:05 pm

FrankK-F wrote:If someone discovers a source for 2.5 or/and 2.6 GHz chips would you post (link) such source?

Don't worry Frank, I'm still looking.

Regards,

James

dperron · #6 Post by **dperron** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 9:57 am

Hi,

I recently bought a 2.4 GHz for about US$80 (CAN $100) on Ebay. I'm just wondering if I'll need a new and more powerful power-supply...? Like the 120W PS of the R50...

What do you guys think? (anyone who has upgraded his CPU...)

DaveO · #7 Post by **DaveO** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 5:33 pm

FrankK-F wrote:If someone discovers a source for 2.5 or/and 2.6 GHz chips would you post (link) such source?

Frank K-F

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 01057&rd=1

JHEM · #8 Post by **JHEM** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 6:04 pm

DaveO wrote:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 01057&rd=1

5 Days to go? I predict the final price will be right around $600.

Regards,

James

DaveO · #9 Post by **DaveO** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 6:33 pm

I have a spare Mobile P4-M 2500mhz SL6WY.
I'm thinking of putting it on ebay soon, but if
I get a good offer here.........

#10 Post by **daeojkim** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 1:01 am

dperron wrote:Hi,

I recently bought a 2.4 GHz for about US$80 (CAN $100) on Ebay. I'm just wondering if I'll need a new and more powerful power-supply...? Like the 120W PS of the R50...

What do you guys think? (anyone who has upgraded his CPU...)

I don't undertand why would anyone pay $600 for 2.6GHz when you can get 2.4GHz for $100. Is there a big performance gap between these two to justify the cost difference?

dperron · #11 Post by **dperron** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 9:05 am

The only reason people want the 2.6GHz is because this is the best CPU they'll ever be able to put in their laptop. Theorically it's only 8% faster but in reality it's probably less than that...

I use a small freeware called "esearch for ebay" to scan ebay every 30 minutes.

http://www.mazepath.com/eSearch.htm

All you have to do is enter the correct S-Spec ID:

2.4 GHz: SL6K5 and SL6VC
2.5 GHz: SL6P2 and SL6WY
2.6 GHz: SL6WZ

I found my SL6VC listed in the desktop CPU category, I guess that's why the bids didn't go too high! Normally it's around US$130-140

#12 Post by **daeojkim** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 10:58 am

dperron wrote:The only reason people want the 2.6GHz is because this is the best CPU they'll ever be able to put in their laptop. Theorically it's only 8% faster but in reality it's probably less than that...

I use a small freeware called "esearch for ebay" to scan ebay every 30 minutes.

http://www.mazepath.com/eSearch.htm

All you have to do is enter the correct S-Spec ID:

2.4 GHz: SL6K5 and SL6VC
2.5 GHz: SL6P2 and SL6WY
2.6 GHz: SL6WZ

I found my SL6VC listed in the desktop CPU category, I guess that's why the bids didn't go too high! Normally it's around US$130-140

Thanks for the info. I hope that software is not any kind of spyware / adware / keylogger or something.

Anyways what is the difference between the two Spec ID for same speed processors? Are they both compartible with a A31p?

Sleep Machine · #13 Post by **Sleep Machine** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 11:42 am

I upgraded my A31p (2653-H5U) from 1.8 to 2.6 in December 2003 with the following:

Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor - M
2.6 GHZ-M 512K 400FSB S478 SL6WZ
BXM80532GC2600D
Mobile Intel 845 Chipset Family (845MP)
OEM RH80532GC06451

Processor cost $320 on ebay.

Also, IBM/HITACHI 60GB 7200RPM 9.5MM 8MB BUFFER NOTEBOOK HARD DRIVE Model HTS726060M9AT00 part# 08K0939

And 1 GB RAM, may go to 2 GB.

[BTW video was recently causing problems so IBM on-site warranty put in new motherboard last week. No more problems, and no comments about chip. Good tech, knew his stuff, thank goodness. 3 year warranty up in October.]

Sleep Machine · #14 Post by **Sleep Machine** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 12:03 pm

And of course, the classic "how to do it" by Mark Bell:

http://home.comcast.net/~electrosoft/a31p/a31p.htm

ksaisjja · #15 Post by **ksaisjja** » Sat Mar 26, 2005 3:07 pm

I am looking into doing the same thing with my A31. Can anyone recommend a good source for some instructions on how to do this? I don't have a manual or anything for mine and I don't want to risk damaging the unit during the procedure.

Also, can the A31 accept both types of CPU with the stock HSF? I mean the CPU with the heat spreader and the one without? I am looking at a couple of 2.4 models on Ebay right now.

Thanks,

Henry

a31pguy · #16 Post by **a31pguy** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 7:08 pm

I did this upgrade last week. I obtained the Field Service Manual via download from the IBM site (just googled it actually). A tube of Artic Silver Thermal Compound and a good phillips head and standard head screw driver was all that was needed.

I upgraded to the 2.4 from a 1.8 Ghz. Here are the benchmarks in comparison to my work issued hp nc6000.

HP 1.6 Ghz Pentium M
> Addition/Multiplication (SSE) : 2021.82 MFlops
> Division (SSE) : 513.98 MFlops
> Square Root (SSE) : 387.45 MFlops
> Addition/Multiplication (FPU) : 1295.27 MFlops
> Division (FPU) : 66.72 MFlops
> Square Root (FPU) : 31.84 MFlops
> Whetstone : 555 KWPS

IBM 2.4 Ghz Pentium 4-M (A31p)
> Addition/Multiplication (SSE) : 3658.76 MFlops
> Division (SSE) : 620.91 MFlops
> Square Root (SSE) : 624.83 MFlops
> Addition/Multiplication (FPU) : 1652.01 MFlops
> Division (FPU) : 53.88 MFlops
> Square Root (FPU) : 54.64 MFlops
> Whetstone : 360 KWPS

CPU temperature is 91.4 F. One of the easiest upgrades I've done and I didn't curse once!

Cheers!

ksaisjja · #17 Post by **ksaisjja** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 3:35 am

I found the manual online as well. It is very well done! I would have been willing to pay for it even.

I was all set to buy a 2.4 and then I found a 2.6 on Ebay for $249 BIN so I snatched it up as I found 2 others on auction going for over $400.

I also used the manual to order the antenna kit and I bought the mini-PCI wireless adapter on Ebay to go with it. I just finished installing the CPU and antenna tonight. I am just waiting for the PCI card now.

Thanks for the info!

Henry

a31pguy · #18 Post by **a31pguy** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 3:44 pm

ksaisjja wrote:I found the manual online as well. It is very well done! I would have been willing to pay for it even.

I was all set to buy a 2.4 and then I found a 2.6 on Ebay for $249 BIN so I snatched it up as I found 2 others on auction going for over $400.

I also used the manual to order the antenna kit and I bought the mini-PCI wireless adapter on Ebay to go with it. I just finished installing the CPU and antenna tonight. I am just waiting for the PCI card now.

Thanks for the info!

Henry

Why don't you post your benchmark and settle the question of how much faster the P4m 2.6 is than the P4m 2.4 and PM 1.6. The benchmarks I used were from PC Wizard 2005 - freeware from http://www.cpuid.com/pcw.php

ksaisjja · #19 Post by **ksaisjja** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 1:30 pm

Ok I may have to do that. I'll check it out when I get home tonight.

--Henry

ksaisjja · #20 Post by **ksaisjja** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 6:36 pm

Ok here are the numbers for the 2.6 proc:

IBM 2.6 Ghz Pentium 4-M (A31)
Addition/Multiplication (SSE) : 3997.89 MFlops
Division (SSE) : 679.16 MFlops
Square Root (SSE) : 678.32 MFlops
Addition/Multiplication (FPU) : 1830.51 MFlops
Division (FPU) : 59.08 MFlops
Square Root (FPU) : 59.94 MFlops
Whetstone : 410 KWPS

In accordance with my "problem" I was informed by the app I was running in Battery mode and the results would not be significant.

I did have the AC connected and verified I was running at the full 2.6ghz before I ran the benchmark.

--Henry

Yukster · #21 Post by **Yukster** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 10:32 pm

Let us know how the WiFi antenna installation goes... I have been wanting to do that myself...

I also did an CPU upgrade... 1.6 Ghz to 2.4 Ghz. Its is a straight forward installation. I am hoping the antenna upgrade is also that straight forward.

JHEM · #22 Post by **JHEM** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 10:37 pm

I recently installed the antennae in an A30p, was quite straightforward and just time consuming. Required complete disassembly.

Should have taken pictures.

Regards,

James

ksaisjja · #23 Post by **ksaisjja** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 11:52 pm

The WiFi is great. I found out I am in range of 3 unsecured networks from my bedroom. lol I haven't used a regular PC card, but I think I might get better reception with the internal antenna.

The antenna is a cakewalk if you have the manual. You remove the keyboard and its bezel, the hinge cover and the cover for the LCD cable. Then remove and disassemble the LCD cover. I spent about 3 hours start to finish for the antenna and CPU upgrade. An FYI. Leave yourself as much slack wire as you can in the card bay. My NIC did not arrive until after I had done the antenna and I found out it was a little too short. So I had to tear it down again to free up some slack.

I can answer questions for you if you get stuck. In the long run I spent a lot more than a simple PC card would have cost, but it was an experience I would gladly repeat.

--Henry

jack NYC · #24 Post by **jack NYC** » Wed May 04, 2005 11:01 am

So for all of you who have taken the plunge to upgrade your A31 or related CPU what is the conclusion?

Did you notice significant performance increase?

What CPU did you go from and to?

How much did you spend, was it worth it?

What do you think the sweet spot is for price-vs-performance?

Thanks for any input

ps, is there a link with the absolute compatible CPU part no's for the A31P?

a31pguy · #25 Post by **a31pguy** » Wed May 04, 2005 12:03 pm

jack NYC wrote:So for all of you who have taken the plunge to upgrade your A31 or related CPU what is the conclusion?

Did you notice significant performance increase?

What CPU did you go from and to?

How much did you spend, was it worth it?

What do you think the sweet spot is for price-vs-performance?

Thanks for any input

ps, is there a link with the absolute compatible CPU part no's for the A31P?

Yes - definitely worth it. Faster by far. The price point seemed to be the 2.4 was cheapest bang for buck. After reviewing the calculations from the benchmarks - there is about an 8% difference between the numbers of a 2.4 and a 2.6. But the price of a 2.6 is about $325 on ebay. The price of the 2.4 was about $100. To me, an 8% increase for $225 would have had my wife looking strangely at me - not that she doesn't anyway

That said - I probably should have gone to the P4m 2.6 for the 410 whetstones that the benchmarks revealled. Currently my a31p is on par with Pentium M 1.3 - 1.6 Ghz. The P4m 2.6 Ghz would be on par with a Pentium M 1.6 - 1.8 Ghz. Which is about the fastest the A31p will ever run - CPU speed-wise. To get the most out of a P4m - you have to run it at fast clock speeds because of architecture of the instruction pipeline and L2 cache for the P4m. The Pentium M has a larger Level 2 cache and an improved pre-fetch algorithm. But the P4m has faster SSE and SSE2 instruction execution - primarily due to having four instruction pipelines for SSE. The P4m has to work faster to keep up with the improved pipeline of the Pentium M. see this forum link:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=10202

So, yes, I noticed a speed increased - but to take full advantage of the speed increase - I had to tune XP and the hardware a bit. This meant defraging the hard drive, error checking the registry, tuning ACPI, BIOS settings, replacing slower hard drives, video settings, adjusting the speed of the interface, using msconfig to set the startup programs, and turning off uneeded services which build up over time.

So no silver bullet - but the machine is quite usuable over the next year or so which justifies the upgrades. A few hundred now instead $2500-$3500 for a new laptop and associated labor involved with migration.

So here are the specs:

The "2.6" $300-$600
Intel Mobile Pentium 4-M 478
Model SL6WZ
Package Type 478-pin Micro-FCPGA
Speed 2.6 / 1.2
Bus Speed 400 Mhz
L2 Cache Size 512 Kb
Technology 0.13 micron
Core Voltage 1.3 / 1.2 Volts
Case Temp 100 C
Core Stepping D1

The "2.4" $100 - $170
Intel Mobile Pentium 4-M 478
Model SL6VC
Package Type 478-pin Micro-FCPGA
Speed 2.4 / 1.2
Bus Speed 400 Mhz
L2 Cache Size 512 Kb
Technology 0.13 micron
Core Voltage 1.3 / 1.2 Volts
Case Temp 100 C
Core Stepping D1

#26 Post by **daeojkim** » Wed May 04, 2005 12:40 pm

The A31p that I am using with 1.7GHz has more than enough power to do everything tha I need.
The only bottleneck seemed to be the hard drive, which is 5400 rpm but with 2MB cache and it definitely runs slower and louder than T42's 5400 rpm HD.
I am upgrading to Seagate 5400.2 100GB next week, it had great reviews and 5 year warranty is very nice. Decided to go that route instead of 7200 rpm 60GB. I could use the extra 40GB

I will do a new benchmark and see how much HD improvement I get wih the new HD

fongj · #27 Post by **fongj** » Sun May 08, 2005 2:13 am

With my A31p (2653-XX9, based off of 2653-H5U, 1.7GHz) after I upgraded to 1gb + 256mb RAM, the processor is the bottleneck when I do video rendering, so a 2.6GHz or 2.5GHz upgrade looks very appealing...

If (hopefully "when") I do upgrade my processor, is there anywhere which will buy my old processor? how much can I get for it? or is it a better idea to keep it around in case something happens?

ksaisjja · #28 Post by **ksaisjja** » Sun May 08, 2005 2:48 pm

I bought a 2.6 on Ebay for $249. I suspect I can sell my 1.8 there as well. As for price, I think I would be very lucky to get $50 at this point seeing how cheap the faster chips are.

The chip will easily last me another year or two for what I use my A31 for so it's money well spent to me.

--Henry

jack NYC · #29 Post by **jack NYC** » Thu May 19, 2005 4:40 pm

Ok never mind about this post i ordered the wrong part!! DOH!

jack NYC · #30 Post by **jack NYC** » Sat May 28, 2005 1:10 pm

I've been hunting around for a list of the compatible CPU part no's for the A31 and A31p 2.2. ghz and above.
Does anyone know these part numbers? some are listed on another post but i dont think its all of them. Trying to hunt on ebay for the right ones 2.2 and above
thanks
Jack

A31 cpu upgrade

A31 cpu upgrade

CPU upgrade.

Post some benchmarks!

CPU Upgrade conlusions:

Re: CPU Upgrade conlusions:

Processor upgrade

Helppppp

Compatable CPU model numbers a31 and a31p

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