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Reviews (1)
27 November 2017
Affordable Upgrade
2 of 2 found this helpful I purchased this CPU to give my Sony Vaio VGN-CR410E laptop some performance boost. The laptop originally came with an Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 running at 1.83GHz. It was adequate for most basic tasks, like browsing most Web sites and typing in LIbreOffice (I'm a Linux user) or whatnot. But it was struggling to struggle when browsing certain Web sites, like YouTube. Thus, the upgrade.
Installing the CPU was very easy: remove 8 screws on one of the bottom doors, remove the door, remove the heatsink assembly, turn the screw on the CPU socket 180 degrees counter-clockwise to unseat the CPU, remove the old CPU, put in the new one, make sure it's seated correctly, turn the screw 180 degrees clockwise to lock the socket, reapply the thermal compound, and put everything back on. The entire operation only took ~15 minutes, which could've been less, because I decided to clean the heatsink fan while I was at it.
Anyway, the BIOS detected the CPU without intervention -- I didn't have to go into the BIOS to change anything -- and so did the operating system (Debian Testing with Kernel 4.4 x86-64). It performs almost the same as the old CPU, except YouTube and other sites that used to put the system to a crawl is no longer a problem. Another improvement I've noticed is thermals: despite being able to work at much higher clock speed (2.5GHz vs 1.83GHz), the T9300 is capable of finer clockspeed adjustments, which results in lower operating temperature and quieter fan. This is especially true under my typical use.
Overall, I've never been so happy with a cheap purchase. Recommended.