Dell Inspiron N7110 CPU Upgrade

[Longrung]

Hi,
I wonder if you guys could help me out please in relation to the possible upgrade of my Dell’s CPU.

I’ve done some research but need someone who’s a little more knowledgeable hence my post on here.

I ran HWinfo which gives me the details of the laptop as running an i3-2310M, (cpuid of 000206A7) on Sandy Bridge MB SV. It has the S-Spec of SR04R.

It mentions the socket as being Socket G2 (rPGA988B) which I believe is not a soldered CPU as if I’m correct this would be BGA****.

The chipset is Intel HM67 (Cougar Point B3) with Dell model number showing OYH79Y.

It has the integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 (Sandy Bridge-MB GT2, D2/J1/Q0).

I am wondering if is possible to upgrade the CPU to an i7 version in anyway and if so what is my best option?

Obviously its an old laptop now and was my mothers but she hardly used it so its virtually brand new and wondered if I could perhaps ‘up spec’ to continue using it, it wont be used for heavy workloads.

I have an old SSD in my drawer which I'm going to install and also got the laptops maximum capactity of 8GB memory upgrade for it off Ebay for £10.

Many thanks

[Wasmachineman_NL]

A cheap i7-2xxxQM will run circles around that i3.

[Calbris]

[svmlegacy]

The 2310M comes in both PGA and BGA flavours.
Open up the laptop and double check it's socketed before proceeding.

[Longrung]

Hi guys,
Thanks for the help along with fast and informative replies.

Wasmachineman, I've also read somewhere about the motherboard only allowing the QM variant of the i7 whereas Calbris states about using the i7 XM variant so this has confused me a little more, just when I thought I'd got my head round it

I was also under the impression that as my current i3-2310M is only 2 CPU cores and 4 threads I had to replace it with like for like core/thread count whereas the i7-2860QM is a 4 core, 8 thread CPU? and would this factor in having to upgrade the heatsink and fans also?

Also the core stepping is different between these CPU'S so I'm presuming this is not a factor in the chip replacement?

Svmlegacy, after the research I've done I thought that it might be easily 'swappable' but wasn't 100% sure so just went off the socket being PGA and not BGA but as I'm having to open it up anyway to upgrade the HDD to SSD I might as well have a look at the CPU to confirm before purchasing with help from you guys.

Theres also the BIOS to consider if moving from the i3 to i7 which I'm not sure about too.

I'm not after spending a great amount of money on it as I may as well go out a purchase a more recent second hand laptop anyway so this is perhaps more of a little tinkering project for myself using either eBay and other second hand parts or bits and bobs I have already...

I apologise for the number of questions but you guys are way more informed than I am in relation to this so thank you for your help so far.

[Calbris]

The XM variants are simply QMs with a 'unlocked' core clock multiplier and a higher TDP rating. That's all there is to it, so I don't see why wouldn't they work on your machine.

You have two options for the cooling assembly; one for the integrated graphics variant and the other for the dedicated graphics variant. The integrated graphics variant's cooling assembly consists of a single heatpipe heatsink coupled with a Forcecon DFS552005MB0T (5V, 0.5A), and the dedicated graphics variant's cooling assembly consists of a double heatpipe heatsink coupled with a Sunon MagLev MF60120V1-C130-G99 (5V, 0.4A). The fans seem to vary between these heatsinks as well, so my suggestion would be to not 'upgrade' unless you have a MagLev fan.

Purchasing the dedicated graphics variant's cooling assembly is pointless as the second heatpipe is directed to the dedicated graphics chip's die, not the processor's die. Which would mean that this cooling assembly is out of the question, and that means you're stuck with a fan swap. This entire 'upgrade' seems unnecessary to me, seeing as you have a 17-inch laptop (which has a lot of space for air to flow in and out). May I suggest doing something that most people do to their laptops in these kind of scenarios? Apply some decent thermal paste.

The core stepping is not a problem, generally speaking. There are a handful of machines that reject processors of the same architecture due to an unsupported stepping however, although I believe that this shouldn't be the case as I've seen another Inspiron 17R-N7110 with a Core i7-2860QM installed and running.

UEFI? Update it, assuming that you have not done that previously.

[Longrung]

Thanks for the reply Calbris.

I'm going to take it apart over this coming week to install the SSD and to see what I have in relation to the CPU housing.

If it's not soldered in I will start to look for the chips you mentioned in your above post so I will keep you updated and thanks for the system bios link.

[mavroxur]

Your chip isn't soldered, it's socketed. You will, however, have to stay in the Sandy Bridge family of chips. An Ivy Bridge likely won't work at all.

[Longrung]

Hi all,
Taken it apart today and your correct mavroxur, its on a socket so easily removable now just looking for a second hand chip....

Will keep you updated, thanks

[Longrung]

Just another quick update...
As I said I wanted to keep the cost low as it's only going to be used for light work and general, non stressing stuff so got hold of a second hand i7-2670QM at a good price so when that arrives I will stick it in, rebuild the laptop with the SSD and upgraded memory and see how we go.
I will update when done
Thanks

[mavroxur]

[Longrung]

[Longrung]

Hi guys,
Not had time to try and put the laptop back together until today due to work and family life and I've stumbled into the first hurdle, heatsink....

I've found a heatsink that fits the chip die for the new i7 cpu which is the Dell C78V7 but none available anywhere at the moment in the UK.

I did find one on eBay but this is in America and by the time postage and customs are added it makes it an expensive purchase so going to have to wait until one becomes avialable in the UK so not sure how long this will take..

[debs3759]

The cheapest I found is https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113680177380

If you get it shipped to AVICC (that's CPUShack in these forums) he will be able to forward it much cheaper than paying the seller to ship it.

http://www.cpushack.com/avicc-faq/ will tell you all you need to know (including his address, which you can use in eBay - 100s of us use his service)

[mavroxur]

Oof, I would've guessed they'd have used one heatsink for all configs.

Apparently it's not a common part so it may be worth it (depending on how much exactly) to get it anyhow.