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Changing out CPU
Hello;
I bought my Dell Precision M6500, with Solidworks in mind & it was supposed to be fine for that back at the end of 2011. A couple years later I purchased Pro Tools for recording music, & it's never quite cut it. I have 12 gb ram & while some suggest more ram which wouldn't hurt, I'm thinking that the cpu could be more of the problem. This is simply by looking at the performance read outs while I"m using the software. The physical memory remains at around 22 %, but the Cpu processes though they vary do go up to 100 %. I might not be reading things right, but it seems pretty straight forward. I get errors while using the software, & things freeze up.
At any rate I'm wondering what I could possibly do, concerning a upgrade. Right now I have Dell Precision M6500 laptop with Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q840 @1.87GHz 1.87 GHz.
Thanks in advance for any input;
Rob_D
ejn63
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July 11th, 2016 08:00
There's not much you can do with the CPU - which is still quite a capable unit. There are a couple of faster Q8xx models but they won't do much -- they're just not that much faster.
If the system is still running the OS from a hard drive, replacing that with a solid state drive is the single best upgrade you can make for that system.
ejn63
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July 14th, 2016 05:00
Replace the hard drive with a full solid state drive. That's the single best upgrade you can do.
Any CPU upgrade you can use just won't make enough of a difference, let alone be with the expense.
Sondrum
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July 14th, 2016 05:00
Hello;
Thanks for the reply. I had also seen a post on this site that seemed to give the impression that you could possibly change things out.
Here is the list of processors that could be ordered with the 6500
Arrandale
i7-620M, 2.66GHz, Dual Core
i5-540M, 2.53GHz, Dual Core
i5-520M, 2.4GHz, Dual Core
Clarksfield
i7-920XM, 2.0 GHz, Quad Core Extreme
i7-820QM, 1.73 GHz, Quad Core
i7-720QM, 1.6 GHz, Quad Core
Looking over the spare parts data base an I7 940xm was listed for the 6500 part number M72M1.
This isn't something that I have tried, so all I can say that you are correct in theory, and the system should be able to be upgraded.
If any of you out there have upgraded the processor in their 6500 please post here and let us know what you found out.
Am I missing something in my understanding? Do you know this isn't possible? As far as your suggestion I just have windows 7 on the Hard drive. When you say replace that with a solid state drive do you mean within the unit or some kind of external device. I'm specifically having trouble running Pro Tools & seem to need more Cpu resource, to eliminate errors. Whats a starting point for your suggestion.
Thanks,
Rob_D
TB
Sondrum
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August 13th, 2016 08:00
Hello;
Thanks for the reply. I talked to a local computer shop, & they were saying that some options where going with a 120 gig, 240 gig at $140.00 or 500 gig at $250.00. (Their labor is 88.00 per hour, & he said it would take around 1 to 1 1/2 hour). They have larger capacity but the price really gets up there.
Any thoughts on what might be best.
Thanks, again;
Rob_D
ejn63
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August 13th, 2016 09:00
You can easily beat those prices by nearly a factor of 2 by buying a drive yourself - and it's a 10 minute job to replace a drive, plus whatever it takes to install the OS.
Sondrum
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August 13th, 2016 12:00
Hello again;
One of the reasons I thought about a shop was some people said they had re-booting problems etc. after researching things a bit. If I did this do you know if on the Dell precision m6500 if there's room to add an SSD, or would I have to replace it. If I replaced it, is it advisable to get the adapter, & copy everything from the present hard drive to the ssd, through a usb port? What I'm thinking is then once everything's copied I could pull the one out & replace it.
Thanks again;
Rob_D
ejn63
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August 13th, 2016 12:00
The system can take two internal 2.5" drives -- you'll need to check whether the bracket is included for the second drive (just remove the base cover). If it's not, you'll need one to add a drive.
You can clone the existing drive or reload Windows as you wish.
Service manual:
ftp.dell.com/.../precision-m6500_service manual_en-us.pdf