Ivy Bridge LAPTOP -- Socket G2 / Socket rPGA988B upgrade (swap) ? ? ?

[Ociya Syndor]

Hello;
I'm the original owner of this laptop and recently found it tucked away in storage...
https://www.newegg.com/black-samsung-series-7-np700g7c-s01us/p/N82E16834131270?Item=N82E16834131270

All's well with it, but my urge to tweak kicked in upon finding it. I swapped out the HDDs with a some SSDs. Now I'm curious if the CPU/GPU could be swapped? I have never swapped out a laptop CPU/GPU before so I'm seek any guidance in relation to whether or not this Socket/Board could accept say an i7 3940XM EE? I realize that most chips are in fact soldered into the boards. I've scoured the www to no avail on this particular board/product, (but it is Samsung circa 2012). How would I be able to find that out? and if so, IS re-soldering the swap even an option?

Thank you muchly in advance to any light

 

[Caring1]

Your link returns as an unfound item.
Edit: If it's a second Gen CPU (Sandy Bridge) you can usually only upgrade to another of the same Generation, but if it's a 3rd Gen CPU (Ivy Bridge) they are backward compatible with 2nd Gen.
Use this as a guide:

Socket G2 / Socket rPGA988B

www.cpu-world.com

Be aware that stuffing a CPU with a much higher thermal envelope in there may cause throttling as they are designed for a certain capacity.

 

[Fouquin]

Yep this board does appear to be socketed, so it should take the 3940XM. Some systems can get picky about chips but as you said there's little info on this model. Some digging around I found a mention that some vendor somewhere offered the Series 7 with a 3920XM in-store upgrade upon order? I guess that's not exactly concrete evidence, but it's something.

Samsung opted to create their own GPU form factor using the MXM3.0 slot for this model, so you can slot a newer card in but it's not clear if it'll allow reassembly or even that it'll POST. There was a thread on another site years ago about trying to upgrade the GPU in these laptops and finding that there was no VBIOS support for them.

In the future: the easiest way to determine if a laptop has a soldered CPU/GPU or socketed is to search for a replacement motherboard. Sellers will usually have images of the bare board in question in the listing, giving you a perfect view of what's on it.

 

[stinger608]

Another possibility is to do some looking on the NotebookReview forums:

TechnologyGuide

Thank you for visiting the TechnologyGuide network. Unfortunately, these forums are no longer active. We extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire community for their steadfast support—it is really you, our readers, that drove

forum.notebookreview.com

Possibly also check their main site to see if they ever did a review of that specific laptop.

http://www.notebookreview.com/


I have an ole Gateway 7800FX that I found a lot of information on their site when it came to upgrading and what would and would not work.

Welcome to TPU by the way.

Keep us updated man.

 

[Ociya Syndor]

Your link returns as an unfound item.
Edit: If it's a second Gen CPU (Sandy Bridge) you can usually only upgrade to another of the same Generation, but if it's a 3rd Gen CPU (Ivy Bridge) they are backward compatible with 2nd Gen.
Use this as a guide:

Socket G2 / Socket rPGA988B

www.cpu-world.com

Be aware that stuffing a CPU with a much higher thermal envelope in there may cause throttling as they are designed for a certain capacity.

okay yeah, my link is from my NewEgg history circa 2012 so my bad for that / But yes i noticed the 10w bump power consumption between the cpus

Yep this board does appear to be socketed, so it should take the 3940XM. Some systems can get picky about chips but as you said there's little info on this model. Some digging around I found a mention that some vendor somewhere offered the Series 7 with a 3920XM in-store upgrade upon order? I guess that's not exactly concrete evidence, but it's something.

Samsung opted to create their own GPU form factor using the MXM3.0 slot for this model, so you can slot a newer card in but it's not clear if it'll allow reassembly or even that it'll POST. There was a thread on another site years ago about trying to upgrade the GPU in these laptops and finding that there was no VBIOS support for them.

In the future: the easiest way to determine if a laptop has a soldered CPU/GPU or socketed is to search for a replacement motherboard. Sellers will usually have images of the bare board in question in the listing, giving you a perfect view of what's on it.

right on! TY so much for that leg work on my behalf \♥/ gonna move forward in some further inquiry for board specs as you stated then in hunting down a *decent* deal for a 3940m and see what gives.

Another possibility is to do some looking on the NotebookReview forums:

TechnologyGuide

Thank you for visiting the TechnologyGuide network. Unfortunately, these forums are no longer active. We extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire community for their steadfast support—it is really you, our readers, that drove

forum.notebookreview.com

Possibly also check their main site to see if they ever did a review of that specific laptop.

http://www.notebookreview.com/


I have an ole Gateway 7800FX that I found a lot of information on their site when it came to upgrading and what would and would not work.

Welcome to TPU by the way.

Keep us updated man.

great! TY Sir for the link & whalecome, doing now!

 

[SupaSlamm]

I’ve yet to own a Samsung outside of their nice HDTVs, but i have a few now affordable 2010-14 era laptops .. Intel numbers generations from 2006, for the first technical dual core CPU, so after a four year period, you wind up with Series 5, Series 6 is Sandybridge, and soon to Broadwell in 2015, then a seachange occurs; Skylake prior to Kabylake, Coffeelake, Whiskey lake, Icelake and the like.
What i found is themals obviously true, latest BIOS revision always recommended, and dual versus four core applique only if heat build is within spec. an i7 dual core versus 4 will work on some laptops, the earliest issued Ivybridge may work in a 2011 into 2012 vintage notebook. but the second chipset number is most telling 6x, 7x, 8x where x represents a second class number, higher to 7 usually, that means a more capable chipset for the year, always think back to the year of availability when in doubt!

 

[trespot]

I suggest checking what CPU your chipset supports from intel ark.

 

[Ociya Syndor]

After a good while searching online (mostly EBay) for any upgrades, my options for GPU 'seem' slim to none; as the board has a unique cut-out for the MXM card. Most options within 100W range are rectangle. Does the shape limit my options as it seems to me?

CPU: there ARE upgrade options toward the 3940XM. However, they all seem to be residing behind the iron curtain of Hammer & Sickle. Never ordered anything from over yonder & ain't got much inclination to do so.

? ? ?

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

My advice is don't... You won't get a useful performance uplift from the CPU, the 10w doesn't make a big difference and the cooling will be a limiting factor... That's assuming the laptop even lets you go to 55w.

As far as GPUs go, it's even worse, because the BIOS of the laptop needs to support the vBIOS of the GPU. They are in effect vendor locked because the laptop BIOSes are normally not programmed to accept GPUs aside from the ones that the manufacturer will install themselves.

 

[silentbogo]

Even if it works - not worth it. That EE cpu will likely throttle like hell, which will make it slower and less reliable than your current CPU, regardless of clocks.
Plus, samsung and sony used to BIOS-lock some CPUs, which had very bad side-effects. A CPU would boot just fine, but if it's not whitelisted - your laptop will shut down after 10min. or so.
Had this thing on NP5-series and on some VAIO laptops that share the exact same platform.

 

[Ociya Syndor]

My advice is don't... You won't get a useful performance uplift from the CPU, the 10w doesn't make a big difference and the cooling will be a limiting factor... That's assuming the laptop even lets you go to 55w.

As far as GPUs go, it's even worse, because the BIOS of the laptop needs to support the vBIOS of the GPU. They are in effect vendor locked because the laptop BIOSes are normally not programmed to accept GPUs aside from the ones that the manufacturer will install themselves.

Even if it works - not worth it. That EE cpu will likely throttle like hell, which will make it slower and less reliable than your current CPU, regardless of clocks.
Plus, samsung and sony used to BIOS-lock some CPUs, which had very bad side-effects. A CPU would boot just fine, but if it's not whitelisted - your laptop will shut down after 10min. or so.
Had this thing on NP5-series and on some VAIO laptops that share the exact same platform.

whoah
at least it was a good experience for me none the less to take it apart & re-paste it. Much thank to you all !