CPU Upgradeable from Solo to Duo!

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DrBunsen's picture
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CPU Upgradeable from Solo to Duo!

All riiiiiiight! The days of CPU upgrades have returned!!!

Apple Core Solo to Core Duo upgrade.

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Am I the only person who's a

Am I the only person who's a little dubious of this mod? There are no actual pictures of the CPU being removed or replaced, and no solid details on this portion of the mod....

I think it would be fairly easy to just take screenshots from Apple System Profiler on a single core model and then on a double core model...

Jon
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Er, yeah I agree. He's got p

Er, yeah I agree. He's got pics of disassembly, and two scren shots. Not even a single shot fo the original CPU out of the machine. And not a mention of where he ordered the dual-core from. Or, even how he modded the clock freq...

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Re: Er, yeah I agree. He's got p

Er, yeah I agree. He's got pics of disassembly, and two scren shots. Not even a single shot fo the original CPU out of the machine. And not a mention of where he ordered the dual-core from. Or, even how he modded the clock freq...

I'm personally convinced. The shot of the motherboard shows a screw-actuated ZIF socket, so getting the CPU out shouldn't be a problem.

As to "modding the clock frequency", well, all shipping Intel CPUs have fixed clock multipliers, and the FSB is the same for the 1.5 Ghz Core Solo and the 2.13 Ghz Core Duo. No "modding" required. It'll just work.

Whether doing this is worthwhile given that the Core Duo Ala Carte will set you back better then $600 is another question.

--Peace

Jon
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It's not that I doubt that it

It's not that I doubt that it could be done to a Core, as I've read elsewhere that it's socketed. I'm doubting the guy there actually did it. Like you point out, the cost of a bare Core Duo just isn't worth it to "prove" it.

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Re: Er, yeah I agree. He's got p

Whether doing this is worthwhile given that the Core Duo Ala Carte will set you back better then $600 is another question.

--Peace

Whether true or not (I'd personally think that someone wouldn't go through all the trouble for something so easily disproven), the economics are a good reason why this is a "because it was there" project; from The Register:

"It's really news you can use in the future. Right now, with a list price of $637, the Duo costs more than a new Mini itself. But when the chip becomes EOLed in 12 to 18 months time, owners will be able to find an upgrade for $200 plus labor."

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not that expensive...

not at all questionable... since no "jumpers" or anything need to be changed... and, a recent scan of newegg.com shows 3 core duos, in retail packaging....

1.667GHz CoreDuo : $245.00
1.833GHz CoreDuo ; $294.00
2.000GHz CoreDuo : $417.00

thats pretty damn inexpensive... and in about 3-4 months when every laptop in the known world (just about) starts shipping with that chip, it should drop considerably.

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Re: Er, yeah I agree. He's got p

I'm personally convinced. The shot of the motherboard shows a screw-actuated ZIF socket, so getting the CPU out shouldn't be a problem.
--Peace

I am too. I saw a few weeks back an article about someone who managed to swap out the CPU in an iMac Core Duo to a faster one; there's no reason it wouldn't work for a Mac mini.

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i think it would be possible

I think what the CPU was in was a Zif slot, so it has to be possible to switch it out. I would also be stupid for apple to have intel design a board that if the board went out, they would have no way to pull the CPU off for salvage. It would be a major PITA to pull it off, and Intel is not know for making soldered-on CPU/board combo's, and since Intel is designing the board layout for apple, intel might as well have a say in how the PCU goes on. The CPU on a board thing is one of the reasons that laptop boards are so expensive in macs. The G4/G3 chips would have been hard to pry off a board if the board went south to savage the CPU.
So the point I am trying to make, is that it would be stupid for intel to make the CPU soldered on, therefore it is possible that the CPU is in fact Zif

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Re: Er, yeah I agree. He's got p


As to "modding the clock frequency", well, all shipping Intel CPUs have fixed clock multipliers, and the FSB is the same for the 1.5 Ghz Core Solo and the 2.13 Ghz Core Duo. No "modding" required. It'll just work.

And THAT is why I love my AMD machine Coius hugs his AMD Sempron 2800+ (well 2500+ but overclocked to 2800+

I can't stand having a machine that cannot be clocked up. It's just one more way intel tries to keep people putting out more money for low end CPU's. And to top it all off, AMD still rocks Intel's speed

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