dell laptop CPU upgrade questions

[t78]

hi all.

I have a 2008 Dell Studio 1537 that gets everyday use and I am thinking of upgrading to increase it's lifespan.
the main tasks are image editing and the usual browsing/youtube, etc.


it's current spec is:

Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU T4200 @ 2.00GHz, 1Mb L2 cache
4Gb RAM 800Mhz (2x 2Gb) <- edited
Mainboard is Dell 0P132H which I think uses the PM45 chipset
320Gb HDD
OS: Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit


having done a little reading it looks like I can use a T9900 CPU (6Mb Cache, 3.06 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB). looks like these can be got off eBay for £20 or so 2nd hand.

any thoughts on whether this a) would work and b) is worthwhile?


thanks for any help!

p.s. later in the year I intend on fitting a SSD (poss the Crucial MX100 256Gb) so that should help with things too.

 

[AronSearle]

For £20 I can't see how it wont be worthwhile (putting aside the hassle).

That processor is a fair good upgrade (1150 over 2000 benchmark score)

But check if your image editing software supports multithreading, as this will largely determine how much of a benifit you will see from the CPU upgrade, assuming that this is an area where your processor currently lags.

 

[t78]

For £20 I can't see how it wont be worthwhile (putting aside the hassle).

yes, that's what I thought when I saw the price.

in truth, I was hoping someone would be able to confirm my thoughts about the CPU being compatible

was wondering about the 1066Mhz FSB - the RAM is 800Mhz, will this be an issue? or shall I see if I can find a 800Mhz CPU? (T9500 maybe)


thanks

 

[AronSearle]

Too long since I read up on this stuff.

Of the top of my head I don't think it matters, as either the motherboard throttles everything to play nice or you do, and you will still see an all round benifit.

/Summon Monkeh.

 

[Monkeh]

A T9900 for £20? You're 'avin' a laugh, they go for £50-100.

The RAM won't be a problem as the RAM clock is not locked to the FSB. It will simply switch ratio.

 

[t78]

A T9900 for £20? You're 'avin' a laugh, they go for £50-100.

yeah, I checked again yesterday and spotted that

there are plenty of options though - any of the T9xxx, P8xxx or P9xxx would be ok?

 

[TheVictorian]

Personally, I think you would feel more benefit from switching the hard drive to a SSD. It's also less likely to cause you issues with overheating etc.

Replacing laptop CPUs is fiddly at best, if you don't get it just right there is the possibility that it could overheat. Also bear in mind that the chassis of your laptop is designed to dissipate the heat (mechanically or otherwise) of the originally specified CPU.

Ubuntu is fairly light on resources (when compared to Windows at least) so I personally think you'd see more benefit in the short and long term by leaving the CPU alone and moving to a SSD.

 

[AronSearle]

SSD will only really affect boot and loading times.

When using image editing software the CPU and memory, in that order, will be the bottleneck.

FYI ubuntu is rubbish.

 

[TheVictorian]

Sorry Aron but any operation that uses virtual memory or reading/writing images to the disk would be significantly quicker.

Rendering times would not be improved, we don't really have enough info from the OP to go any further with this.

Ubuntu is what it is, I'm not sure you can say it's rubbish without qualifying that statement a little further.

 

[AronSearle]

8Gb RAM 800Mhz (2x 4Gb)

 

[t78]

good spot - not sure why I put that, may be a dream


4Gb RAM (2x 2Gb)

 

[AronSearle]

See how much memory you are using up, image editing can be memory hungry.

You won't see any real performance increase with an SSD except in boot and loading times (who cares?) unless as the lady says you are using virtual memory for operations.

And of course SSD's are still no replacement for memory.

No reason not to get one in a new system, I am completely unsold though as the benifits vs hassle as an upgrade.

 

[t78]

I am completely unsold though as the benifits vs hassle as an upgrade.

adding the SSD would be more of a hassle than the CPU upgrade, but periodically I do install Linux afresh - might wait until 16.04 LTS is released and use that as an excuse

the T9600 (2.8Ghz, 6Mb L2) CPUs seem to be going for about £25. think I might get one of them..

 

[t78]

just to follow up, I bought the T9600 and upgraded the CPU without a problem. BIOS showed the updated info on the next boot.

to be safe I had updated to the latest BIOS firmware beforehand.



thanks for the help guys.