Can I upgrade my processor?

[stevo1152]

I am currently runnin windows 7 64-bit on an acer aspire 5551-a, with 8gb of ram. The processor in it is an AMD Athlon II P320 Dual-core at 2.1 GHz. I am looking at upgrading the processor but I dont know what is compatible with my laptop and will definitely work. Can I upgrade to an Intel i3 or i5 and is it worth it, or is there something else that is better than what I have that I could upgrade to?

Thanks

[Neon]

You cannot change between AMD and Intel processors.

Any AMD "Champlain" mobile processor should work. These use socket S1-generation 4. However, keep in mind that you have a 25W processor, and only some of the S1g4 processors are 25W, while some are 35W or 45W. This is important, because the higher wattage processors will run hotter, and your notebook's cooling system may not be able to keep up if it is only designed for 25W.

That said, 25W upgrade options include the "P" series processors:
Athlon II P340 (2.2GHz) or P360 (2.3 GHz)
Turion II P520 (2.3 GHz), P540, P560 (2.5 GHz) - these are dual cores with 2MB L2 cache instead of 1MB
Phenom II P650 (2.8 GHz) dual core, 2MB L2
Phenom II P820 (1.8 GHz), P840 (1.9 GHz), P860 (2.0 GHz) triple core, 1.5MB L2
Phenom II P920 (1.6 GHz), P940 (1.7 GHz), P960 (1.8 GHz) quad core, 2MB L2

There are also 35W "N" series and unlocked 45W "X" series processors, which may be suitable if your notebook's cooling can handle them.

[gshv]

The fastest one are Phenom II P650 (dual-core), P860 (triple-core) and P960 (quad-core). Be aware that Phenom II triple-cores run faster than Phenom II dual-cores only when your applications use all three cores. The same is true with quad-cores: they are faster than P650 and P8xx CPUs only when all four cores are loaded.

Gennadiy