Help upgrading Fujitsu FJNBB06

[Paul Anderegg]

Hello, this is my first post, but I have searched the forums for time to time and found a lot of good information here that has helped me out.

I have an old Fujitsu AH530 laptop with an i3-350m Socket 989 processor. I am attempting to "eBay mod" it out, with a better processor, and a new cheap SSD. I will basically be using this little guy for Sony Vegas 12 AVC h264 rendering/transcoding, so I need some more raw CPU speed.

From what I have read, the highest end CPU I can go with is an i7-640m, not a QM, because I have no discrete GPU in this laptop. I wanted to know if my MB will allow any sort of overclocking of this processor. The BIOS (v1.12) is pretty lame, no OC anything that I see. All of my newer ATX MB's have lots of OC'ing screens, so I am not sure there is even an adequate BIOS update for this MB.

All that aside, if you guys can recommend a better priced eBay CPU for my Vegas rendering, please advise. The differences in L2/L3 size and i5 vs i7 really confuse me when I just need a simple transcoding device. No gaming for me!

Thanks!

Paul Anderegg

 

[ATMINSIDE]

You'd be better off buying a laptop with an nVidia GPU with h264 capability and using it instead.

 

[Paul Anderegg]

I don't thing a new (used) laptop falls within my $100 CPU upgrade budget.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I don't thing a new (used) laptop falls within my $100 CPU upgrade budget.

Didn't see a budget limit in the original post, so I recommended what would get you the largest performance boost.

Things to note:
- Replacing a laptop CPU is very difficult and time consuming (sometimes impossible, more on this in a minute). Make sure you know exactly how to disassemble and reassemble the laptop BEFORE STARTING.
- Make sure your laptop's mainboard supports the CPU that you are upgrading to. Not all the mainboards from lower CPUs are the same on the higher CPUs, even in the same laptop model.
- Make sure you can actually remove the CPU from the mainboard!! Some are in a socket, but a lot of laptops have the CPU soldered directly to the mainboard, meaning they can't be removed.
- Very very very few laptops allow any overclocking at all.

 

[Paul Anderegg]

Yeah, I was thinking OC'ing was not possible on my MB, but it intrigued me to see the i5 and i7 had that capability.

I want to make sure I can get a good performance boost with a new processor first, then once I see the cost of one on eBay used, I plan on opening up my laptop, and confirming it has an unsoldered rPGA989 CPU. CPU-Z says rPGA989....does that mean a 988 can also be accommodated in it's place?

I just put together an i7-3770 desktop for Vegas, but there are times I need to render in the field and upload quickly, so it would be nice if this laptop could do that faster than driving home to the PC for the task. If I were to get a replacement laptop, I will forgo the dedicated GPU for Intel Quicksync, which actually performs better for Vegas rendering on my 3770!

 

[Paul Anderegg]

OK, I popped the bottom cover off my laptop, and a few screws later, the CPU cover and fan assembly lifted gently off. A twist of a tab, and the little CPU popped free.

So, my new (used) i7-620m is in the mail from eBay. I installed the TurboBoost drivers in Windows, but is there anything I should do prior to powering on the system after I drop in the new CPU? Do I need to clear a jumper, or default the BIOS?

Paul