I5-2520M Upgrade for Music Production

[Albert069]

Hi,

i currently have an i5-2520M in my Toshiba C660D Laptop.
when i bought it, it had an i3 so a friend of mine upgraded it to the i5.
Meanwhile im using the Laptop to Record & Produce Music.
It often runs too Hot and the Fans spinn up to the max. (Not good for recording) i would also like more power like Quad Core, higher ghz etc..
Im planing to Upgrade the Ram to 16 gb too.

to which cpu should i upgrade?

thanks
Albert

[Calbris]

Are you absolutely sure that your laptop is a Satellite C660D? Toshiba made it clear that any model number which ends with a 'D', meant that the laptop was using an AMD platform. Or rather, an AMD CPU with an AMD chipset.

Hate to break it to you, but the Satellite C660/C665's cooling assembly is sub-par/horrid for cooling a quad-core mobile Sandy Bridge. So it would be wise to stick with a dual-core as there are no 35W TDP quad-cores available, which in your case, that would be the Core i7-2640M.

As for your current overheating issue, I suggest applying IC Diamond 24 Carat. Although, you could always try a different thermal paste. Just be aware that your heatsink might not provide enough mounting pressure to prevent some pastes from 'pumping out' (drying out in other words).

[Albert069]

Thanks Calbris!

Yeah, the cooling is horrible. Im getting 70-75C by starting cubase. When i load some Plugins, the fans start spinning max. im planing to solder a second heatpipe to it, maybe that helps..

but what about the i7-3632QM? is it an better option to the 2640M?

[Calbris]

There is barely any space left for a second heatpipe to function properly though. I wouldn't bet on it to actually help, if it even does.

It is, but it won't boot as your Satellite C660 does not support Ivy Bridge CPUs. I believe the HM65 chipset is used in most Satellite C660 models, so that is definitely a no-go. You're stuck with Sandy Bridge in this case.

[Guest]

well, thank you for your Help