Is it possible to upgrade the motherboard like this?

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rav007

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May 7, 2012
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Hello

I have a 2009 model Toshiba L500 whose MXM GPU was upgraded from a 4570 stock to a 4650, and cpu upgraded from a C2D T6500 stock to a C2D P8600 and has 4gb 800mhz DDR2 ram. The upgrade runs cooler than the original build thanks to arctic silver paste.

Without going into tremendous possibly pointless details, I have a "KSWAA" motherboard in mine but half a year after my laptop was bought, the same exact L500 brand of laptop was released with core i3, i5, HD 5165 GPU integrated and DDR3 ram which I found is fitted to a motherboard named "NSWAA". I checked my motherboard against the NSWAA and found the screw holes, ports and slots are identical. The only major difference is the heatsink which has a different shape but can be acquired really cheaply via ebay... I know if I take out my motherboard and replace it with the new one, everything will fit into the same place: the fan, heatsink, HDD, CD drive, Battery slot, power supply, keyboard slot, LED screen slot, new RAM, power ribbon, usb ribbon, trackpad ribbon, everything.

In theory I think the replacement should work because it superimposes perfectly into the physical space and should connect perfectly too, but everyone always says such a replacement wouldnt work, so am I missing something? I was always under the impression that the motherboard did all the fun stuff so as long as the parts attached to the motherboard are compatible (which I checked and found parts that are) the replacement and upgrade should work, right? Surely someone out there has tried this!
 
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As long as you're sure that the physical dimensions and layout accommodate the chassis and components, there shouldn't be a problem. You may need to upgrade your PSU if the TDP of the new components you fit into it require it, but everything should be fine.

By the way, when I say "accommodate the chassis", you need to make sure the screw placement is the same also.

tpirog

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Jul 2, 2013
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Why would it not work? So long as all your connections (ribbon cables, etc.) are compatible I see no issues, so long as you are willing to reinstall your OS if needed. If it doesn't work you could always return the new Mobo.
 
As long as you're sure that the physical dimensions and layout accommodate the chassis and components, there shouldn't be a problem. You may need to upgrade your PSU if the TDP of the new components you fit into it require it, but everything should be fine.

By the way, when I say "accommodate the chassis", you need to make sure the screw placement is the same also.
 
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rav007

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May 7, 2012
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10,510


That is exactly what I meant when I said the layout is the same, the screw holes are the same too. I think Toshiba didn't bother refreshing the physical laptop chassis on the components upgrade and as a result the motherboard has the same footprint, just different shaped slots for DDR3 and i3/i5 processor, integrated graphics instead of an MXM card and a different shaped heatsink to accommodate the new CPU and GPU layout
 
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