You can upgrade the CPU and use your existing motherboard. I have 3 E6440s that I have upgraded the CPU to Intel i7 4700MQ processors. They run just fine as long as you don't do anything dumb like set them on a fleece blanket that plugs the cooling air intake grill. If you do that they will overheat and go into thermal overload shutdown mode. They are very stable and ridiculously fast.
There are 4 motherboard SKUs that I know of for the E6440. Two are the base model integrated Intel 4600 video. Those two SKUs are "X8DN1" and "0852MV". The other two SKUs are for the motherboards with the AMD 8690M graphics Chip with 2 gigabytes of onboard VRAM. The SKUs for these two motherboards are "07KGN" and "N23JF".
I don't know why Dell has 4 different SKUs for what appear to be just two different motherboards. It's just what I have found by scouring eBay and laptop part vendor websites.
All of the motherboards run the Mobile Intel® QM87 Express Chipset using the 4th Generation Intel® Core i5 and i7 MOBILE processors. CPUs must be Socket PGA947 compatible. That socket is what the CPU goes in on the motherboard. If you go to Intel's website you can look up and find a handy dandy table that lists the 4th gen i5 and i7 mobile cpus, the socket form factors they are available in, and their respective sizes. The i7 4700MQ is the fastest one that is the same die size as the i7 4600, the fastest cpu that Dell will sell you.
The faster your CPU goes the more heat it will give off. The cooling system of the E6440 will handle up to 47 watts of heat IF you are in a air conditioned space no hotter than about ~80 degrees F. Any hotter or if you block the air vents it's going to overheat and act crazy before it shuts off. Use a high quality heat sink compound like Arctic Silver between your new CPU and Heat Sink. One of mine locked up on me when I had it out in my metal shop when it was about 110 outside. YMMV.
Here are a couple of forums with pages devoted to modding your 6440:
forum.techinferno.com
forum.notebookreview.com
Be fore warned that modding your laptop voids the heck out of any warranty you have. Dell will not have mercy on you about that. So read carefully, think very very hard, and don't let the magic smoke out because you'll never be able to put it back in.
This is one of the last systems that uses a socketed CPU -- there are a few upgrade options but note: most Haswell CPUs are not socketed. Most are BGA, which must be soldered to the system board.
The video chip on the other hand is either part of the CPU (and all of these have the same GPU aboard) or IS soldered and cannot be upgraded in any way.
Romeo7
1 Message
1
August 13th, 2015 22:00
You can upgrade the CPU and use your existing motherboard. I have 3 E6440s that I have upgraded the CPU to Intel i7 4700MQ processors. They run just fine as long as you don't do anything dumb like set them on a fleece blanket that plugs the cooling air intake grill. If you do that they will overheat and go into thermal overload shutdown mode. They are very stable and ridiculously fast.
There are 4 motherboard SKUs that I know of for the E6440. Two are the base model integrated Intel 4600 video. Those two SKUs are "X8DN1" and "0852MV". The other two SKUs are for the motherboards with the AMD 8690M graphics Chip with 2 gigabytes of onboard VRAM. The SKUs for these two motherboards are "07KGN" and "N23JF".
I don't know why Dell has 4 different SKUs for what appear to be just two different motherboards. It's just what I have found by scouring eBay and laptop part vendor websites.
All of the motherboards run the Mobile Intel® QM87 Express Chipset using the 4th Generation Intel® Core i5 and i7 MOBILE processors. CPUs must be Socket PGA947 compatible. That socket is what the CPU goes in on the motherboard. If you go to Intel's website you can look up and find a handy dandy table that lists the 4th gen i5 and i7 mobile cpus, the socket form factors they are available in, and their respective sizes. The i7 4700MQ is the fastest one that is the same die size as the i7 4600, the fastest cpu that Dell will sell you.
The faster your CPU goes the more heat it will give off. The cooling system of the E6440 will handle up to 47 watts of heat IF you are in a air conditioned space no hotter than about ~80 degrees F. Any hotter or if you block the air vents it's going to overheat and act crazy before it shuts off. Use a high quality heat sink compound like Arctic Silver between your new CPU and Heat Sink. One of mine locked up on me when I had it out in my metal shop when it was about 110 outside. YMMV.
Here are a couple of forums with pages devoted to modding your 6440:
forum.techinferno.com
forum.notebookreview.com
Be fore warned that modding your laptop voids the heck out of any warranty you have. Dell will not have mercy on you about that. So read carefully, think very very hard, and don't let the magic smoke out because you'll never be able to put it back in.
Don't be scared!
ejn63
9 Legend
•
87.5K Posts
0
August 14th, 2015 05:00
This is one of the last systems that uses a socketed CPU -- there are a few upgrade options but note: most Haswell CPUs are not socketed. Most are BGA, which must be soldered to the system board.
The video chip on the other hand is either part of the CPU (and all of these have the same GPU aboard) or IS soldered and cannot be upgraded in any way.