Can I replace the i3 with an i7 enough though..

[StrangeInstance]

I want to replace an i3 2100 with an i7 3770k and upgrade my ram, a few questions though:


http://www.cowboom.com/product/868144?gclid=CO7t5-GiibMCFREx4AodrDEAnQ


Thats the PC, how can I find out how much max ram I can use? I wanna put in 16gb but I doubt it goes to that, and also will the "Psu" on this thing handle an i7?

I want the i7 for rendering/helping out with fps a bit, currently I have intel HD 2000 and want to get to intel HD 4000 since it dominates it I`m not heavy gaming really, just some combat arms/minecraft for the most part.

 

[mocchan]

The power difference between the i3 and i7 is very small, thus leaving me with the conclusion almost any LGA1155 motherboard will be able to support anything from a LGA 1155 Pentium to an i7.

However, the heat output is another story. Your computer is an all-in-one unit I'm assuming, which has very tight space limitations (also means very little heat tolerance). I would highly doubt you would be able to put an i7 into your computer without it overheating/throttling.

As for RAM, I'm thinking your computer uses laptop-DIMMs. It would be a very easy upgrade so I would highly recommend taking a look at your RAM slots (physically).

Also, on a side note, since this computer is OEM, I highly doubt your Sandy-Bridge based system would be able to accept an Ivy Bridget CPU. Most H61, H67, P67, Z68 boards can accept Ivy Bridget with a BIOS update, however, since your computer is OEM, I highly doubt this is possible.

 

[jaguarskx]

Regarding an Ivy Bridge Core i7... definitely not. While it can physically fit in the socket, Dell would need to provide you with a BIOS upgrade so that an older chipset can support a newer CPU. There is also the issue of heat since a quad core CPU produces more heat than a dual core CPU does. You would need to install a better heatsink to deal with that heat.

All-in-one PCs are similar laptops. They have very limited expansion capabilities. The best you can hope for is more RAM (maybe) and a larger hard drive or SSD.. That's about it.

As for RAM, you can always call Dell to find out if more RAM can be installed.

 

[InvalidError]

There is also the issue of heat since a quad core CPU produces more heat than a dual core CPU does. You would need to install a better heatsink to deal with that heat.

65W for dual-core Sandy Bridge vs 77W for quad-core Ivy Bridge vs 95W for Sandy Bridge quads, not much of a difference between dual SB and quad IB.

Dell also makes i5-2400 variants of their all-in-ones and I would make the relatively safe guess that they use the same HSF design to spare themselves the trouble of also maintaining a different chassis design for fundamentally the same PC just like they do with laptops.

 

[mocchan]

65W for dual-core Sandy Bridge vs 77W for quad-core Ivy Bridge vs 95W for Sandy Bridge quads, not much of a difference between dual SB and quad IB.

Dell also makes i5-2400 variants of their all-in-ones and I would make the relatively safe guess that they use the same HSF design to spare themselves the trouble of also maintaining a different chassis design for fundamentally the same PC just like they do with laptops.

Keep in mind Hyperthreading adds a tremendous amount of heat, especially when you're talking about an i7; I would fully expect OP to be able to upgrade to any Sandy Bridget based i5, however, an i7 is a bit iffy. If Dell uses a similar cooler to what Intel uses, then there is a possibility OP may be able to upgrade to an i7, however, I would highly doubt it if they're using some sort of wimpy cooler that they deemed 'good enough' for an i3/i5.

 

[InvalidError]

Keep in mind Hyperthreading adds a tremendous amount of heat, especially when you're talking about an i7

The LGA1155 standard-power i7 (non-S/T) have the same TDPs as the same-generation standard-power i5. 95W for SB, 77W for IB.

So the i7-3770 OP was looking into would still be around 22W less than than an i5-2400 and only 12W more than the current CPU. Unless the i3 is already running unreasonably warm, the IB i7 should be fine at least thermally-speaking.

The main problems are the VRM and BIOS support.

 

[mocchan]

The LGA1155 standard-power i7 (non-S/T) have the same TDPs as the same-generation standard-power i5. 95W for SB, 77W for IB.

So the i7-3770 OP was looking into would still be around 22W less than than an i5-2400 and only 12W more than the current CPU. Unless the i3 is already running unreasonably warm, the IB i7 should be fine at least thermally-speaking.

The main problems are the VRM and BIOS support.

Yes, the TDP of standard SB i5's and i7's are the same, however, Hyperthreading adds a tremendous amount of heat. I'm more concerned about the amount of heat OP's rig can handle rather than the TDP his motherboard supports. With the stock cooler, I saw a difference in temperature of up to 15C on the stock cooler with Hyperthreading on and off.

 

[StrangeInstance]

Best answer selected by StrangeInstance.