HP ProBook 4720s support for Quad-Core i7 CPUs?

[akranjc71]

Hi,

I want to game but I want to stick to this laptop. Is there any chance to upgrade to a quad-core i7? I want to buy at least i7-840QM, in best case i7-940XM, but the only i7 that is supproted is i7-620M. Is that because of thermal throttling? That is not a problem, I will water cool my CPU anyways. If the problem is number of cores, can I buy at least i7-640M? I know, it's not officially supported but my current CPU in this pc is i5-480M, which is also not supported. What can I do?

BTW, I will use an external GPU, graphics is not a problem, I just need more CPU horsepower.

Thank you

[Braslov]

Hi,

Before all manipulations, you need to update the BIOS to the latest version.

I recently installed in my laptop another CPU: i7-740qm instead of i3-380m. 

Everything is working.
I think there will be no problems with installing CPU i7-840qm.

The stock cooling system is not designed for these quad-core i7, but with water cooling it shouldn't be a problem.

An additional bonus of a quad core setup - support for max 16 GB (2 х 8 Gb 1333 MHz DDR3 SO-DIMM) instead of 8 (2 x 4 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SO-DIMM).

Regards, Serg.

[akranjc71]

Ok, what about i7-940XM? I want to get as much as performance as I can get out of this laptop because I am planning to do some hardcore gaming.

It has 55W TDP is that a problem? I heard that CPU must have the same TDP as supported. Best supported CPU for this laptop has 35W TDP. i7-740QM and i7-840QM have 45W. But you went from processor, which has 35W to processor, which has 45W. Does your laptop supports that and does TDP matter? I am gonna have it on a power supply and battery, so 65W power supply isn't a problem. Or is it?

Thanks for replying

[Braslov]

Well, I would not risk installing the extreme version quad core i7.

The main reason is that the power system on the motherboard is not designed for this. The components of the motherboard (power transistors and so on) may burn out and damage the entire notebook.

The second reason is that it doesn't make sense, because the performance of even an i7-940XM is too low for modern games. After all, this is the first generation of i7 CPUs, it was created ten years ago. There is no support for AES instructions, for example (unlike the i7-640m).

I'm interested in replacing the CPU, RAM, and testing performance. But there is no real sense in this, there will be no performance gain for modern games. Better to buy a new modern laptop for modern games.

Regards, Serg.

[akranjc71]

CPU isn't realy that important for gaming, I know a guy who games on i3 10th gen and this is pretty close to higher-end i7 1st gen CPU. 

So you are saying that i7-840QM is ok to use in that configuration?

I also spotted that all of i7 1st gen models (even quad-core) only support 8GB of RAM. Is this true? I mean, mine CPU supports 1066mhz, but I'm using 1666mhz RAM and it's working perfect. What's up with that?

Thanks for replying

[Braslov]

I think that i7-840QM is ok to use in your configuration, but it is highly recommended to change the cooling system.

I installed i7-740qm in my HP Probook 4720s, and under maximum load (stress test FPU in AIDA64), the processor temperature reaches 100 degrees after 7 minutes.

Yes, quad-core CPUs i7 gen1 support 16 Gb RAM. My laptop now has exactly 16 Gb installed (2 x 8 Gb DDR3 1600 MHz, it works in 1333 MHz in my Proobook), everything works fine.

Not every memory is working, sometimes you need to sort through the different memory to achieve success.

Regards, Serg.

[akranjc71]

Thank you