Upgrading Processor in Dell Studio 1745 (Core 2 to i5)

Yeah I unfortunately ordered after reading another post and then discovered it would not work. Hence I am not looking at upgrading the motherboard.

I looked and the 1747 and 1745 have the exact same physical appearance so I believe the motherboard from all I've read will work.

I am however having trouble locating a motherboard that I know to be compatible.

I looked at J507P on eBay and these listings are so generic it's hard to say.

On the picture one zooms in and it says PGA988 (the Intel socket) right in the picture, but then says it's compatible with the AMD Quad core.

Since I assume AMD and Intel aren't playing so nice they're sharing a socket, I can only assume they are <ADMIN NOTE: Substitute character removed as per TOU>

stock photos.

Any chance you know the model number of the Intel PGA988 board with the AMD graphics?

If I am gonna upgrade the motherboard for this processor, I'd like to at least get a GPU upgrade as well out of it.

I am also looking at LA-5155P, which seems to be from a 1749 so I am uncertain if that one is the same fityet.

I also understand if I upgrade the Motherboard to match this new processor I will also need to upgrade to the appropriate heat sink & fan for both the CPU and GPU as well as get pads. I'm finding these bare dell refurbished motherboards between $40 & $80 which to me is dirt cheap. I already upgraded the keyboard to the back-lit one, added Bluetooth,  added the TV tuner and got the kit to install a 2nd HDD. I figure if I can add a hundred or so dollars worth of refurbished parts and finish this into an i5 system with a good GPU it might be worth upgrading to the touch screen monitor and using this system for another few years and coming out way cheaper than buying a new laptop.

Any advice you can give on this? (besides don't do it lol, I may sound crazy but I'm not).

The 1745 and 1747 are close enough that the boards interchange.  I've never seen anyone swap a 1749 board (newer) into the older -5 or -7 chassis.  You can try it - but you  may find you'll also need to replace at least the bottom shell of the system - the mounting points could well be slightly different, despite the outside appearance.

One place you can ask -- where they will know - is parts-people.com.

Yeah I looked into it and used them to find the heat-sinks for the CPU and GPU. It "Looks" like it's a perfect fit and when I looked up the specs on the 1745 vs 1749 even in dimensions they are identical. I looked up many of the parts on their site and they look interchangeable so I think I'm good. 

Gonna be one heck of an experiment. I'll say this if it works I'll be set. I'll go from a mediocre Core 2 Duo T6600 @ 2.2Ghz to an i5 - 540M @ 2.53Ghz.

The Huge difference will be going from a bad Intel Graphics (Pre-"i" series) with no graphics ram at all to a  1GB Discrete HD 5650.

That is an awfully big upgrade for a total of $115. ($30 CPU, $65 MB, $20 Heat Sinks)

I already replaced my worn out keyboard with a new back-lit one for $20, added Bluetooth for $6, and got the bracket to add a 2nd HDD for $13.

Also, I swapped the RAM out of my ThinkPad before I sold it so it has 8GB now.

I put a 1TB 7200 RPM HDD and have been thinking of putting in a 256GB mPcie SSD that's like $160 and the TV tuner is $17.

I bought this laptop from the original owner when a pawn shop I was working on their computers didn't want to take it for $100, so all in all I think it's been a great investment. 

There is just one thing I can't figure out and that is what parts would be involved in upgrading it to a touch screen.

You think that's overboard?

I was thinking if I invest this money into it I'll have a far better machine than I could ever dream of touching for that kind of money.

Oh and I had made a new thread to ask about it since this one's original question had technically been answered.

Though I went with the 1749 motherboard LA-5155P which only seemed to require changing the heat sinks for the CPU and GPU.

According to Dell's web site it was available with touch screen. Even when I pull my system on Support & Drivers there is the option to download all the touch screen drivers, software, etc. I found a touch screen on eBay also that says it's compatible, though on the parts people I also found a cable that appears to be required as well.

There is no way you'll be able to add an internal touchscreen - there just isn't space for one in the display bezel.  You'd have to hack it with a semi-external rig that would prevent the system from being closed -- and probably end up with a half-working touchscreen.

Working touchcreens need mainboard support and other hardware - this system was never built with one. 

I have looked through every part for the Dell Studio 17 (45, 47, 49) and there seems to be nothing that differentiates between touch screen and non touch screen. Like with Motherboards there appears to be just 4, AMD w/ Discrete Graphics, AMD with onboard graphics, Intel with Discrete Graphics and Intel with onboard Graphics. The only thing I found different was a different connector cable for the monitor listed on parts people.

Dell Studio 1749 17.3" Touch Screen Cable - D655T

and of course the actual screen itself:

Dell 1749 LED 17.3" HD+ WLED Touch Screen LCD Widescreen - J13JX

Having a touch screen myself on my desktop, I can't think of what would be required on the motherboard. Do you know of any different part numbers for anything other than these two parts that differentiate between touch and non-touch?

Be careful to make sure your existing board  has the jack for the touchscreen cable -- I don't know about this model, but on the newer ones, the systems sold without touchscreens use a board that doesn't have the connector for one (not unlike the situation where systems sold without backlit keyboards lack the jack for the backlight cable).

I don't think the touchscreen version of this model was sold for very long - there may not be that many of them out there.

Could be - the Studio series were relatively high-end models - unlike the Inspirons, which are built down to a price. 

That's the thing about this system. I was noticing a lot of connectors for parts it did not come with.

Mine did not come with a back-lit keyboard, however it had the power ribbon slot right next to the normal one so I could add one.

It also didn't come with a 2nd HDD, but it had the SATA port for one and it didn't come with a bluetooth module, but it had the spot to add that too.

Normally when I've opened up laptops it's common to find that optional connectors were not included for parts it didn't come with.

However this laptop seems to be the exception to that rule every time I look.

I wonder if it's possible that they just didn't make enough to justify printing motherboards with different options?

I'm on the phone now with Dell support asking about adding a touch screen to my motherboard, I'll post what they tell me.