I have a 5 year old Toshiba Satellite L755-5258 laptop (HM65 chipset), which came with a an intel Sandy Bridge i5-2410M CPU in it (2C/4T), 2.3 GHz (base freq) to 2.9 GHz (TurboBoost). Runs Windows 10 Home x64 like a top. I've pretty much maxed out this laptop with a Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB SSD (on a SATA3 port), and 16 GB of Crucial Ballistix PC3-1333 CL9 RAM. Only thing left is a CPU upgrade.
What would be the likelihood of success if I attempted to upgrade the i5-2410M CPU to an i5-2540M CPU? The i5-2540M is about 14% faster, all around. The i5-2540M runs from 2.6 GHz (base freq.) to 3.3 Ghz (TurboBoost). I found one on eBay for $32 USD - the seller has a 99.99% satisfaction rating (for 711 sales transactions), 30 day return.
Both CPUs are rated at 35W TDP, both are rPGA988A / G2 socket, and both are compatible with HM65 chipset. I have opened my laptop several times now to clean it, and have observed that the CPU is removable, in a ZIF socket (not soldered to the motherboard).
My concern is about the base frequency of the i5-2540M CPU, at 2.6 GHz. Is it likely that some crystal oscillator or timing circuit on my laptop's system board is limited to 2.5 GHz, and would throttle down the faster CPU, or simply prevent the laptop from booting altogether?
ACPI flash BIOS is version 3.60.
A silly little endeavor, but I enjoy little projects like this.
Sandy Bridge laptop CPU upgrade? i5-2410M to i5-2540M (both rPGA988b)
