Upgrading processor in my Asus G71G - A1 Notebook

[blackshirt42]

I have a pretty kick butt Notebook (dual Core 2.54 - t9400)Asus G71G A1 I want to upgrade the processor to a Q9000. Just wondering if this is possible because they offer Q9000 in my particular model.

 

[calinkula]

It's possible, but a notebook can be such a pain to take apart.

 

[amnotanoobie]

It also depends if the processor on your board is soldered onto the board or if it does have a socket.

 

[Maziar]

Yes its possible but it will void the warranty

 

[blackshirt42]

It also depends if the processor on your board is soldered onto the board or if it does have a socket.

The process or is not soldered onto the MB. By just taking off 5 screws and the panel, you have access to the Primary HD, Fan, all 3 slots of RAM and the processor. From my research my Asus G71G has the chipset and bios to switch the current T9400 (Dual Core 2.54) to the Q9000, Quad core. I did the switch yesterday and my notebook didn't turn on. I am thinking now that I will need to Flash the BIOS. Man, I hate doing that....If I can't figure it out, does anyone want a Q9000? LOL!!!

 

[blackshirt42]

Oh, I forgot to mention, that I am aware of the warrenty being void, but like I said it ran out anyways just recently so that is not an issue. Thanks you all for your advice.

 

[null1]

Any update on the upgrade? Success or Failure?

 

[blackshirt42]

Any update on the upgrade? Success or Failure?

Well, I switched it up and my laptop didn't boot up. I am assuming that I need to update the BIOS on it first. I don't know. Do you all think it is work switching anyways. It is currently running 2.53 dual and the new chip is a 2.0 Quad. Right now I am putting it on hold, may down the road I will see if I want to go through the Bios update or just use the new CPU (Q9000) as a paper weight or something.

 

[null1]

Well, I switched it up and my laptop didn't boot up. I am assuming that I need to update the BIOS on it first. I don't know. Do you all think it is work switching anyways. It is currently running 2.53 dual and the new chip is a 2.0 Quad. Right now I am putting it on hold, may down the road I will see if I want to go through the Bios update or just use the new CPU (Q9000) as a paper weight or something.

What BIOS version are you running now? I have BIOS 1102 pretty painless to install? Asus offer several methods of upgrading and one of which is directly from you NTFS partition. If Q9000 works then I would like to try to max the memory out at 12Gig.

I think that it should work since G71G-Q1/Q2 uses the same BIOS.

 

[null1]

Though I wonder why you want to upgrade that processor?
For most games it should actually be more of a performance hit, and the GPU is the main bottleneck there anyways.

Maxing out the RAM is a waste of money, unless youre using Photoshop and working on GB sized files, I dont see the benefits.

I use the laptop for software development, graphics and video editing. At times I run several virtual machines with various OSes. Having quad CPU will benefit me greatly. The alternative is to drop about 2k on a I7-820QM laptop. The HP Envy 15 can max out at 16GB Ram, 4 Core - hyper threaded (8 virtual processors). If only they had a 17" version.

To decrease HD utilization I turn off pagefile to force everything to stay in Ram.

 

[null1]

Oh, then nevermind, as for most people the lower clock speed would rather be a bottleneck.
(I thought you were gaming due the the model of your Laptop..lol)

The Envy 17 is coming out soon though, like June-ish with an optical drive.
Why don't you consider a elitebook or a Thinkpad? I think the W supports 16GB too.

I do like the ThinkPad line. I had a T42 some time ago, but the W Series is thicker than the Envy. After having to lug around the G71G I'm kind of leaning back to thinner and lighter models. The T42 that I had was noisy granted it is not as loud as the G71G.

Originally I was looking into a MacBook Pro. The Mac fan noise is negligible and is sleek. The draw back is that they do not offer the 820QM and ram limitation.

I think I might wait for the Envy 17" with built-in optical. Upgrading to the Q9000 would be a good stop gap until then. It'll be a good exercise as well

 

[null1]

The Dell M6500 @1.4'' and The HP elitebook 8740m are good choices, according to reviews both quiet, and well build. Though both are on the heavy side at around 8lbs. Though if you don't mind 8GB of RAM, there are many more options.

(PS. a mbp17-inch is not light though at 6lbs.)

The elitebook 8740m is a good candidate. The features that it includes are quite good. It being quite puts it over the top. I'll have to customize it to see how much it'll all end up. I'm trying not to exceed 2k by too much. HP tends to over charge on RAM.

 

[null1]

Itll probably be smarter to order it in 2-DIMM 8GB config and put in another set of 8GB into it later, upgrading the RAM doesnt void your warranty.

After watching the Envy 17" preview I think I'll just wait. At around 5lbs and ability to power multi-monitor at high frame rate and build in slot loading blu-ray defiantly give mbp 17 a run for its money. I might even get back into gamming I'm not sure what the actual specs will be as far as RAM goes, but if it's any thing like the current Envy it'll support the 16GB. Also 14hr battery life with additional slim battery pack.

 

[null1]

Gamming, lol.

I doubt the innards will be so different, its HP for goodness sakes.

The problem I have with the envys is that the 15inch seems real flimsy for a metal-frame and the "laser-etching" only looks good from 3-feet away in real-life, the screen covering also sucks as its flimsy plastic, though I heard you can go glass for the 17s. Also they tend to get warmer than the rest, though the one i felt at Bestbuy the other day was pretty normal.

The case is different from the 13" and 15". It's all aluminum with magnesium chassis.
According to slashgear.com it will be released tomorrow.

The aluminum etching doesn't do anything for me either. I might drop by BestBuy to check out their 15" to see how it feels first.

They got rid of the ugly vents on the new models.

 

[blackshirt42]

Well a quick update everyone. I ended up buying Intel X9100 dual core extreme 3.01 instead of changing over to the Q9000. I am very happy with my computers performance. I don't do much but surf the web and play games anyway, so don't feel the need to get 4 cores. It is very fast and surprisingly not bad with power even in overclock mode. Might just get a cooling pad just encase.

 

[blackshirt42]

My bad, I mean, 3.06 not 3.01