Dell Studio 1537 CPU uprade

Hi there, first time posting.
I have tried to find info on suitable processor upgrade for the 1537 that I am picking up tomorrow. It comes with the T3400 cpu which I am not a big fan of. I currently have a D630 with a T7500, and was thinking of putting the T7500 into the 1537. However, after some researching, realized that they come from different platforms with diff FSB. Would that be a big problem? is this upgrade worth it?
If not the T7500, What other processor would you recommand? I have seen people using processors with 800mhz FSB, but not sure whats a good processor to upgrade to...
any input would be appreciated

thanks!

 

The 1537 can use any Socket P Core 2 Duo of 667MHz, 800MHz, and 1066MHz FSB.

 

Centrino Montevina platform
Mobile chipset
an Intel Mobile 4 Express series chipset (codenamed Cantiga; GL40, GS45, GM45, PM45) with Intel's GMA X4500 graphics technology and ICH9M southbridge, 1066 MT/s (667 MT/s for GL40) front side bus. The GM45/GS45 graphics core is clocked at 533MHz and 380MHz for GL40, which contains ten unified shaders, up from the eight provided by GMA X3100.

* RAM support for DDR2-667, DDR2-800, DDR3-800, DDR3-1066 SO-DIMM. (GL40 does not support DDR3-1066)
* NAND flash-memory caching branded as Intel Turbo Memory (codenamed Robson 2).
* Gigabit Ethernet LAN controllers 82567LM and 82567LF (codenamed Boazman).[13]
* Main support for DisplayPort with an external connector attached to the motherboard along with full supplemental support of HDMI, DVI, and VGA standards.

Mobile processor Processors - Socket P / Micro-FCPGA / Micro-FCBGA

* a second-generation Intel Core 2 Duo (codenamed Penryn) 45nm processor with 800-1066 MT/s FSB with clock speeds ranging from 2 GHz to 3.06 GHz, also featuring SSE4.1 support, which adds 47 new instructions to SSSE3. It was planned to consume no more than 29W, compared to Merom's and first-generation Penryn's 34W TDP. But after release only a few models (P series) have 25W TDP and the rest (T series) still have 35W TDP, besides the Q series (Quad core) TDP is 45W.

Taken from Wiki, how do i know which one GL40, GS45, GM45, PM45 is on mine? So if I have a GL40, then its only 667 FSB? I am just confused...

 

You cannot put the T7500 in it. The T7500 is a 2nd gen Merom, while your laptop requires a Penryn processor.

 

Your Studio 1537 has the PM45 chipset if you have the ATi 3450 graphics, or the GM45 if you have the Intel 4500MHD. Either way, 1066MHz FSB processors will work just fine, excluding quad-cores.

Not true; the chipset can use Merom processors as well, as long as they are Socket P. There's just no real reason to get an older Merom processor over a newer Penryn, but there's no compatibility issues.

 

Thanks mastershroom. Your answer is what I am looking to confirm. Any suggestion on a good value/performance processor I should look into?

 

How much are you willing to spend?

 

Well, I think somewhere between $150-$200.

Penryn
For the Core 2 Duo E8xxx, P7xxx, P8xxx, P9xxx, T6xxx, T8xxx, T9xxx, X9xxx, SP9xxx, SL9xxx, SU9xxx, Core 2 Quad Q9xxx, QX9xxx and Core 2 Solo SU3xxx mobile processors, see Penryn (microprocessor).

How does the older T7500 compare to these new penryns? Just wondering if its worth the extra money to get newer Penryns if I already have a T7500? If the T7500 is a considerable upgrade to the T3400, I might as well swap these two cpus and just sell the D630 with T3400 dirt cheap!

 

The T7500 is not a significant upgrade from the T3400. The speed difference is only 2.16GHz to 2.2GHz, which amounts to 40MHz. Not really huge. The main difference is in the 4MB L2 cache on the T7500 compared to the 1MB of the T3400.

Of course, as you've pointed out, the nice thing about the T7500 is that you already have it.

If you do buy a new processor, though, I recommend the P8600. At 2.4GHz it's plenty powerful, and has a lower power draw than the T-series.

 

Ah yes, but depending upon what you are using the machine for, that increase in L2 Cache could make a nice improvement - see this post for info: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5117765&postcount=28

Now keep in mind that those figures are going from 2MB to 4MB L2 Cache. The T3400 only has 1MB L2 Cache, and the theory would be that you'd notice more of an improvement going from 1MB to 2MB than you would from 2MB to 3MB, so going from 1MB to 4MB (T3400 > T7500) could be quite a nice performance boost. It is difficult to qualify this fully though for each instance as we only have figures from what other people have found, and it depends on which programs you use and how they work.

Power draw of a P series processor is a consideration, but in my honest opinion people don't tend to buy 15" + notebooks to use anywhere that they don't have a power outlet available to them.

I'd say that unless you can find a cheap one, or power usage is of importance to you, then you'd be fine with a T series processor. I do agree that you'd ideally look for something a little beefier than the T7500, but I still think you'd see a bump in speed unrelated to the meager 40MHz clock improvement.

 

Thanks for both of your insights, and confirmed what I have been reading.
I guess I probably should hunt for a P series CPU since I am not sure how well the T3400 will work on my D630.

Would there be any concern with that setup? a newer T3400 cpu on an older D630 platform? What would be a good price to sell it at?

Its pretty much the basic D630 with 60G hard drive, not upgraded LCD display, no bluetooth, battery life is around 1 hr.

 

Hey, I take my 1555 to three university classes a day running off the 9 cell battery!