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I have an old Gateway MT6450 laptop which shipped with an AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50 processor; the CPU has the following specs:
- dual-core
- 1600 MHz clock speed
- 31 W TDP
- Socket S1
I located a Phenom II quad-core mobile processor for $45, with the following specs:
- quad-core
- 1800 MHz clock speed
- 25 W TDP
- Socket S1
Unless I'm mistaken, that processor should work in the laptop. The TDP is lower so the laptop should be able to handle the heat dissipation, the socket is the same so it should seat into the motherboard etc.
Here's the problem. I've already updated the BIOS to the latest version available from Gateway (I did that back in 2010 when the update was released). Judging by the fact that the Phenom processor was released in 2010 as well, I presume that BIOS update should have included support for those chips as well. However, when I swapped the CPUs on my board, the laptop wouldn't boot. It just powered on, flashed a couple of lights, the screen was completely blank, then it would power off and start all over again. So of course after seeing it repeat that process once, I figured I'd turn it off and swap back. So it's back up and running on the Turion chip again.
What I can't figure out is why it wouldn't POST or let me get to the BIOS or anything with the other chip in.
I checked the BIOS settings again to make sure I didn't miss anything, but there's no option for me to configure the power/bus/etc. in the BIOS so I assume it's got to be automatic based on the CPU, right?
The only thing I can think of is maybe Gateway used a board that can only support a dual-core chip? That's the one thing I hadn't considered - that the Turion chips were released in 2006 or 2007 and I don't think there was such a thing as a quad-core chip at that point, at least not outside of the server market maybe. So my fear is that the motherboard doesn't support a quad-core processor, but I don't know if that's even a limitation that is possible, or how to check that, etc.
Kudos to anyone who can help solve this little conundrum for me.
Brian
Posted 2012-10-18T18:39:23.080
Reputation: 133
1Glad to see youve done the majority of your homework. One thing you didnt mention is memory. I would recommend looking that up for both chips. Unless im mistaken, the Turion utilized DDR2 and the Phenom uses DDR3. It could very well be that the chip is incompatible even though the socket is the same. Memory design is more than likely different. Tough to put a V8 in a Geo without the supporting parts..if my analogy is not horrible. – None – 2012-10-18T18:48:21.970
1Ah crap. Yeah the Turion chip has a DDR2 controller and the Phenom has a DDR3 controller integrated into them. I take it a DDR3 controller isn't going to work with the 2 gigs of DDR2 ram installed in the laptop is it? – Brian – 2012-10-18T18:54:29.600
That would be my assessment sadly. :-( – None – 2012-10-18T18:55:30.590
Doh lol do you know off the top of your head if there is such a thing as a motherboard that supports a socket, but not a number of cores on the CPU? So if I were to find a CPU that was quad core Socket S1 and had a DDR2 controller on it do I have to worry about the motherboard not supporting the 2 extra cores? Or am I pretty much good to go lol – Brian – 2012-10-18T18:58:34.137
1Sadly on a board that supported a turion, I wouldnt honestly be able to recommend it even if there was one. The rest of the design of those older boards is antiquated by todays performance standards.
However, in this case Im thinking the only quad core that supported DDR2 was the old Intel Core 2 Quad series on the 775(or was it 1155...?) platform, it supported DDR2, and there were boards that supported Core2Duos (dual core) but didnt support the Quad Cores. Tough to remember what AMD was doing quad core wise those days.... – None – 2012-10-18T19:02:16.290
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Also, while the two processors use the same socket (Socket S1), they're of different generations (S1g1 for the Turion and S1g4 for the Phenom), and as the linked article says, "Different generations of processors used variant pinouts of the S1 socket; processors were not necessarily compatible with a socket even if they fit mechanically."
– Indrek – 2012-10-18T19:02:24.897Well thank you both for your input :) I guess I'm gonna see if I can find a Socket S1 laptop with DDR3 ram and a crappy processor for cheap so I can pop this into it lol I've had this Gateway laptop for years and it's been great to me :P I just wanted to give it a bit of an upgrade if possible to reward it ;) as of right now it's running Ubuntu and Windows 7 (since most of my software unfortunately doesn't run on Linux /fail lol) Anyway thanks again :D – Brian – 2012-10-18T19:06:55.937
1If you still want to upgrade that Gateway, it should support the Turion 64 X2 TL-64 (2.2 GHz), and possibly also the TL-68 (2.4 GHz). – Indrek – 2012-10-18T19:12:43.823
Thanks :) I had enough trouble tracking down those old S1 CPUs to get the Phenom for a price that wasn't insane lol but the main goal was the core upgrade. I mean an extra 800mhz wouldn't be bad, but for the price I'd pay for the CPU it didn't really seem worth it compared to 400mhz more plus 2 additional cores at 1.8ghz a pop :P That seemed a lot more justifiable to me ;) But I might go poke around ebay and see if one of those models pops up cheap :) Thanks :D – Brian – 2012-10-18T19:16:48.920
@Brian Glad to help. I've posted a slightly expanded version of my comments as an answer. Feel free to accept and/or upvote if it helped answer your question. – Indrek – 2012-10-18T19:34:41.550