HP4420s. Have some questions about updating my CPU and a few other questions some ol pros in here...

I would first like to say hello to everyone and would like to thank everyone for letting me join your forum. My laptop I am currently using is a HP Pro book 4420s Notebook and I really like it. I have upgraded it to 8GB of ram, a 120GB SSD installed where original hard drive was (runs my OS), and I also took out the DVDRW optical drive & put a drive caddy in with the original 500GB 7200 RPM sata II HDD. The specs on my pro book would be 2.4GHZ i3, 8GB DDR3 1333MHz ram, 120GB SSD #1, 500GB HDD #2 in place of optical drive, HP integrated graphics.

After moving the regular hard drive from it's original condition to where the hard drive caddy is located immediately dropped the heat almost 15 degree's. I don't know if it's because it's in a better ventilated spot because the optical drive gets used a lot in some laptops, I don't really know. I just thought I'd let everyone who reads this know that. I also took some .5mm dynamat and carefully wrapped the regular hard drive case and caddy in it to get rid of all vibrations and noise. This was cheap and also changed the laptop to have NO vibrations at all or sound when it runs. Another little trick I wanted to share.
To my problem....

Well I didn't realize until after I put the extra ram in this laptop that the HP integrated video card/graphics are not good to play games with. Is there any way I can upgrade this or is it just something I am going to have to live with?

Another question I have is can I change my i3 to an i5 processor?

I have been looking on eBay at some Elite book's and found quite a few where the seller had said they upgraded the i3 to an i5 although none of them would tell me how they did it or would give any advice. I can't seem to find out exactly what socket I have so I don't know what CPU I should be looking for. One of the sellers told me that it was easy to take out the i3 CPU and pop in the i5 mobile. He even went on to say it allowed him to use the i5 Intel turbo boost (I think it's called, sorry if I'm wrong) , he was running at 3.3 GHZ speed which is very fast for a laptop and this made me wonder if he was being truthful.

I had a problem with my BIOS master password needing to be reset and after everything I went through getting the SMB file to fix that and learning how the motherboards in laptops are usually built to use the parts that are in them I was having a hard time finding any info about this or believing you could simply just pop out the i3 and pop in the i5 CPU. I found a brand new Intel i5 mobile tech CPU brand new for $40 and after some digging found out it is the same one used in a similar pro book to mine. I would really love to upgrade my CPU to an i5 and have it running at 3.2 or even just 3.0 for that matter because that is pretty fast for a laptop.

My final question is do they sell fans that replace the OEM fans inside a laptop that are of higher quality or cool better?

I was just wondering this because on my older Dell Inspiron laptop I have a laptop cooler that's always been hooked up to it and that I8KFANGUI fan program blowing on high all the time and keeping the heat totally away from this laptop and taking great care of it has made it last 10 years and going!! when I use this one it's to watch Internet movies on my flat screen through the S video and it's awesome! I just ordered a laptop cooler for the HP and the I8KFANGUI only works with Dells. So I was wondering if they made or sold a high performance fan I could install in it. Just a thought. Thank you for reading this and thank you for any input or help. I appreciate it!!! Have a good day and ttys!!

Jason H.

Well thank you for your input. Although helpful on a few topics, I still have a few questions.

What socket size CPU should I be searching for?

Does anyone know exactly which i5 or i7 processor I should be looking for to swap the chip?

Can I put a 2nd or 3rd generation i5 or i7 chip in instead of the regular one?

The bios thing I knew, I was just using that as an example about how much I knew the motherboard was not to be tinkered with but I very much appreciate your input and thank you again!

Jason  

No matter how I saved it or tried to open it on here as a snapshot it wouldn't work. I even tried taking a screen shot and that wouldn't even open on Word.

So I sent it to a URL that you can click on and see all the info you wanted.

Thanks!

Are you sure that will work? This is what SPeccy says under PC

Cores 2
Threads 4
Name Intel Core i3 370M
Code Name Arrandale
Package Socket 989 rPGA

Just wanted to make sure......

I'm not going to tear the entire laptop apart which is what I would have to do. I'll just trust the Speccy program and 2 other people with Tech degrees that told me it is the Socket 989 rPGA

Thank you very much for that answer. That was exactly the answer I was looking for on both of those subjects. Very much appreciate the help. I have found quite a few i7 CPU's that have the 3 numbers (just like the 3 number i7's they sold my model with) that are actually pretty cheap. I guess it's because they are gen 1. I found 1 that was new for only $48.00 !!. It even had a 2 year guarantee!! The only weird thing is when I run SPECCY it says I have a 989RPGA type socet instead of the 988RPGA that you and many others have told me I have. Tomorrow I'm going to ask a an HP tech if I can buy that i7 and give them all the info to see if I can buy and drop the i7 in. For that price I think it might be worth the difference. Again, thanks that was very helpfull.

Jason

I see that you run multiple hard drives? I am capable of that with my Probook and was wondering what you thought of it? I am seriouisly thinking about putting the SSD in bay 1 and the reg HDD in the extra bay which would be my optical drive bay. I don't use the optical drive ever really and can just get an external optical drive caddy for the once in a great while moments when I do. I really want to see how much of a difference running a SSD with 8GB of ram compared to the 2GB of ram and reg HDD from when I got it.  Does it make a huge difference to you? Should I wait a little longer for the SSD prices to come down anymore?

Yeah right now I'm maxed out at 8GB of ram and I just ordered a 120GB SSD sandisk ulta drive. I'm going to put my current 320GB 7200 RPM HDD in the 2nd optical drive HDD bay. I've noticed a huge differnece since I've maxed out the ram and hopefully have another big difference in speed when I install a clean OS on the New 120gb SSD.  Before I realized that the graphics gpu were going to be the bottleneck in my MOBO I went and restored this laptop and maxed out the ram before I realized I wouldn't be able to play any high speed games on it without lag. It's very annoying that even gen 1 i5 or i7 CPU's are still at 300$ and that you can't upgrade graphics in laptops. I know, everyone says use a CPU!! Well I don't want to use a CPU with a big ass tower, I like being able to put my desktop in a small suitcase and take it anywhere!! LOL!

Yeah I don't think I'll ever be able to afford one of those $2,000 gaming laptops that weigh 15lbs!! LMAO!! In that kind of case, yes I would just use a damn PC. LOL! I guess I just want my laptop to be as bad azz as possible just like every other tech guy does ya know. Thanks again for all your input. You have been very helpfull and have answered every question I've had with s specific answer which is nice as compared to sometimes other people with similar experiece as me googling my questions and throwing whatever out there. LOL. Yeah it does happen a lot. Well if I have any further questions I'll let you know, until then thanks and have a good one!!