CPU upgrade: T9300 for T5470

[verhox]

My old 6720s has a Core 2 Duo T5470 processor. According to specifications, the max upgrade would be, if I well remember, a T7300 (or T7700?). But I would like better a T9300 (6M cache, 800 MHz FSB, 2.5GHz, Socket P). 

Is there any reason this wouldn't work properly? 

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

According to chapter 1 of the service manual, the T9300 is supported, so it should work just fine.

c01293339 (hp.com)

[verhox]

Thanks a lot, that's great. I've bought a big HD monitor and I've noticed that the laptop has become much slower. So I thought it's because the old T5470 can barely handle1080x1920 pixels instead of 800x1280.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

If you have not installed a 2.5" SSD, I highly recommend that upgrade.

While the official HP specs indicate that 2 x 2 GB of memory is the max, that chipset supports 2 x 4 GB of memory if you can find some cheap enough.  New it is very expensive.

I have the HP 6910p with the same chipset as the 6720s and it happily runs 2 x 4 GB of memory just fine.

[verhox]

I couldn't have imagined 8 GB on this motherboard. I already bought a caddy adapter for a SATA SSD, but more than 4G RAM is probably very good too.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

If you can find some used but tested and working DDR2-5300 or 6400 4 GB memory chips, it may be worth giving them a shot.

[verhox]

Thanks. What if I tried just one 4GB module next to one of the old 2GB? This would make 6, but asymmetrical.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Yes, that would work but the memory would only run in single channel mode because you need matching capacity memory in order to run in dual channel mode.

But moving up to 6 GB to test it out and make sure it worked would be a good idea.