Aspire 5742G i5-480M to i7-840QM

carlhook

Hi all.

Is it possible to upgrade from i5-480m to i7-840qm on my old 5742g acer?
It is the same PGA988 socket, so physically it would fit, but does the BIOS, the MB itself support it?
I am aware of the fact that i7 has 10W higher TDP, thats a problem for another day...

philetus

These are the CPU's that Acer lists for this laptop,

CPU INTEL PENTIUM DUAL-CORE P6100 PGA 2.0G 35W K0 MAX DDR3-1066 KC.61001.DPP

CPU INTEL PENTIUM DUAL-CORE P6200 PGA 2.13G 35W K0 MAX DDR3-1066 KC.62001.DPP

CPU INTEL CORE I3 350M PGA 2.26G 35W ARRANDALE, TJ90, VT, 3M L3 KC.35001.DMP

CPU INTEL CORE I3 370M PGA 2.4G 35W K-0 TJ90, VT KC.37K01.DMP

CPU INTEL CORE I3 380M PGA 2.53G 35W K-0 TJ90, VT KC.38K01.DMP

CPU INTEL CORE I5 460M PGA 2.53G 35W K-0 KC.46K01.DMP

CPU INTEL CORE I5 560M PGA 2.66G 35W K-0 TURBO BOOST 3.20/2.93 KC.56K01.DMP

CPU INTEL CORE I5 580M PGA 2.66G 35W K-0 TURBO BOOST 3.33/3.06 KC.58K01.DMP

Download CPU-Z and find which chipset the motherboard has and what CPU's it supports.

Which ones the bios will support is anyone's guess, but there is no white list.

 

mrpete

I thought I had a 5742G with a i5 460M but it turms out I also have an i5 480M @ 2.66 GHz.

You could try one (or more) of the processors from that same Arrandale Mobile family from the list at the URL below. It's going to be a hit or miss kinda thing. I would try the one 35 watt TDP i7 M CPU as opposed to the UM, UE, LM OR E CPUs. But you never know one of those latter ones might work.

http://ark.intel.com/products/codename/32724/Arrandale#@Mobile

That appears to leave only this: i7-640M,4M Cache,2.8 GHz,2 cores,35 watts TDP

It's totally unknown if that will work, but it is from the same family and has very similar characteristics.

I don't get how it gets to be called an i7 if it only has 2 cores. All that upgrade appears to get you is 1 MB more of cache and a fractionally higher GHz. Not worth it.

The i7-640M also (potentially) gets you:
Intel vPro
Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)

BUT, those two above probably have to be "baked in" from the outset (mobo chipset, BIOS, drivers, etc.). YMMV.

mrpete

I ran across the thread below from about a month ago while searching for something else entirely.

 

It seems to have pertinent info to the topic of this thread. Check it out.

 

Anyone running a i7 chip in their 5742g?

 

http://community.acer.com/t5/Legacy-Laptops-and-Netbooks/anyone-running-a-i7-chip-in-their-5742g/td-p/429125