i5 in place of i3

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capital_one

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if i am buying a Dell or HP laptop with an i3 mobile processor

can i later on install an i5 mobile and take out the i3 ?

will the socket of Mobile Intel® HM57 Express chip-set allow me to do this?

is this manually possible and is i5 mobile separately available in the market from Intel?
 
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I have some 5-6 year old P4 Mobile laptops that are running Windows 7 on 1gig of RAM, so an i3 should be good for just about anything for 3 years, and lower end (future lower end that is) for another 3.
I would spend the money now on the faster CPU, upgrading laptop components is not without issues due to how crowded the components are, and purchasing the i5 unless you do it years and years from now will cost more than just buying a laptop with it.

Yes you can buy an i5 http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=759&name=Processors-Mobile

And yes the motherboard will work with it if you get an i3. Expecially if the vendor offers the same model laptop with several different chips. Just keep in mind that there are a couple of sockets for i5/i3 and match what you have. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_i5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_i3#Core_i3
 

capital_one

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tell me what about upgrading to max RAM of 8Gb (4GB x2) and installing a SSD drive in the laptop ?

will these two also be difficult to do in a given laptop?
 

Yes you can;however,it will void the warranty.
You also can install more RAM/SSD which aren't hard to do.(much easier than installing the CPU)
 

capital_one

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ok , so over all if i go for i3 which is a less costlier option, what do you think how many years will the i3 be good for basic computing and browsing? three years ?

given the developments in browsing apps/flash/office etc
 


Drive and RAM are much easier to upgrade, and really the only things that are made to be more or less easy to replace.

Just one thing, keep in mind when you purchase a laptop with say 2 gig and want to upgrade, check if the 2 gig comes on one chip or 2. Most laptops only have 2 memory slots, so if you have two 1 gig chips, you need to dump them to upgrade to 4. If you have one 2 gig chip, just purchase one more.
 

For those tasks,an i3 suffices
 
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