I want to upgrade the CPU in my personal notebook. My purpose is to upgrade to a CPU that supports hardware virtualization so that I can run Hyper-v under Windows Server 2008.
I have built a few hundred desktop systems and opened up and worked inside more than 100 notebooks, so I feel completly comfortable working on this system. I have replaced a CPU in a notebook but I have never upgraded a notebook CPU before.
I currently have a Core 2 Duo T5450 processor and all I would have to upgrade would be to a T5550 (a couple of the T5500s support virtualization but they are the wrong socket), or anything higher to get hardware virtualization capability. I figure that since I'm upgrading anyway that I might go with a somewhat faster CPU instead of just the minimal upgrade.
I'd like to know what CPUs will work for me. I have a Sony Vaio VGN-NR285E with a Core 2 Duo T5450 processor.
Here's what I'd like to know: To what CPUs can I upgrade this computer?
As a secondary question, I think that even if I could upgrade to a faster bus speed, that my memory speed would be limited to its current speed. Can anyone comment on this with certainty?
The most valuable answer to me would be information from people who have acutally upgraded Sony Vaio notebooks. Information from people who have upgraded other notebooks would be helpful as well. Even information based on theory or general knowledge would be useful too.
Here are some things to consider:
This notebook is a Sony Vaio. Sony, whose notebooks I love, is the king of the orginal rootkit and might do things in the BIOS to restrict my upgrade options that might not otherwise be intrinsic to the motherboard.
The current processor has a 667 Mhz FSB and a 2MB cache. It is a socket P (Micro-FCPGA).
There are several lines along which the upgrade might be limited:
-I might be limited to using another processor with the same amount of cache. If that is the case I would be limited to a T5600 as my highest processor.
-I might be limited to using another processor with more cache but the same bus speed. In that case, the T7600 is the fastest 667Mhz processor.
-I might be allowed to use an 800Mhz bus speed, but still limited to a 2MB cache. In that case I might be able to use a T7250 which is the fastest processor with 2MB cache.
-I might be allowed to use any bus speed or cache size but be restriced to CPUs based on 65 nm technology. If that was the limitation, then a T7800 might work.
-I might be allowed to use any C2D processor, which would give me the maximum flexibility.
It seems like I have read somewhere that the Intel spec was that any motherboard which supports the socket P should support an 800Mhz FSB, but just because that is the spec doesn't mean that the motherboard/BIOS would actually support it.
I don't yet know what upgrade I will put in this notebook, but I would really appreciate knowing what my options are.
I hope that everything I've said in here is accurate. If anyone finds any mistakes, please post corrections.
Thanks in advance for any answers.
In the following post, I will provide the results about the current system from several utilities in case it will provide any assistance. Note that I have edited this information to remove things I knew would not be related. I realize that most of the information is repeated between the different utilities.
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