Quad Core Mods

[thealphaoverseer]

Hi everyone,
I'm not sure if this is where I ask a question like this, but here goes:
I saw a couple of old(er) posts about core 2 quads in T61's and the like, as well as iMac processors such as the E8335. I'm not really interested in doing it myself, but I'm curious about how this works. Sure, thermals are an issue and reduced clock rates, but it looks fascinating. I'm assuming these mods are done to the OG motherboard, rather than putting a new board from a more recent laptop in.

[atagunov]

quads in T61's ... I'm not really interested in doing it myself, but I'm curious about how this works

Hi, I'm a bit puzzled as to what you may wish to know if you're not going to do it yourself On T61 it is indeed done without replacing the motherboard. The quad-core CPU uses the same socket as the two-core CPU which is used in T61 natively. So you "just" replace the CPU. Well not just, because some pins on the CPU need to be isolated and some wires need to be soldered on the motherboard, I think.. I haven't done it myself yet either. If you want to use top of the crop CPU-s in a T61 you also need to convince the motherboard to worth with 1066Mhz FSB CPU-s, this is also some soldering on the motherboard and some messing with RAM sticks. You also need a BIOS version with "microcodes" for the CPU you want to use. Some custom BIOS-es are floating around, Middleton, Highsun.. It's a separate question how to convince the OS to use 4 cores not 2 since BIOS would only advertise 2 cores. It seems this is simpler under Windows but I'd need to make it work under Linux and this apparently would involve messing with "ACPI tables".

Here's a collection of links I'm keeping on the side to use on the day when/if I finally get around to attempt this project:

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=110620&start=270 1066FSB mod
https://translate.google.com/translate? ... ndervolten
https://translate.googleusercontent.com ... en_bringen

viewtopic.php?p=844321#p844321 points to https://thinkwiki.de/Frankenpad#empfohlene_Methode, https://forum.51nb.com/forum.php?mod=re ... d=25745018

[thealphaoverseer]

Thanks! That looks a bit complicated. And for why I'm not thinking of doing it myself, (a) I don't have a T61 and (b) there's really not much of a performance gain. Is it kind of the same process when putting a 3612QE in an X230 or a Xeon in a W530?

[thealphaoverseer]

Oh yes, and why I want to know how to do it - I don't know really. Sorry. It's a bit like going to the art gallery when you can get high res photos of the artworks online and view them at home.

[atagunov]

TIs it kind of the same process when putting a 3612QE in an X230 or a Xeon in a W530?

3612QE in X230 requires BGA rework, since processors are soldered in X230
however AFAIK apart from physically replacing the CPU no other changes on the mobo are required
in contrast T61 quad core mod requires some soldering on the motherboard
am I wrong about X230? are some other changes required?

W530 AFAIK has a socket so the process must be simpler
No idea how difficult it is to make a desktop CPU to run in a W530 though and how similar it is to getting a quad core run in T61

[thealphaoverseer]

Oh ok. I see. Thanks! Everything seems a litle bit clearer now.

[Screamer]

Xeon in a W530?

Impossible, unless you have a custom LGA1155-to-PGA989 interposer board made for that 'Xeon'. The underlying electrical pin-out and layout are all different when compared to the the W530's socket, assuming that the Xeon you speak of is an LGA1155 Xeon (e.g. Xeon E3-1290 v2). LGA1356 or LGA2011 Xeon processors would not work as they are slightly bigger than their LGA1155 counterparts.

[thealphaoverseer]

Has anyone done it before?

[thealphaoverseer]

Oops, probably not. My bad. Although I do remember a discussion about unusual CPU options for Ivy Bridge...