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NewSc2

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 4, 2005
1,044
2
New York, NY
Don't know if this has been answered before cuz it's hard to search this, but can you upgrade the soldered-on MBP CPU from Yonah to Merom? There are sites that upgrade the soldered-on Powerbook G4's chips to a faster G4 chip.
 
Wait, likely it'll happen ... someone will likely do it for some $'s.

But remember, if you bought AppleCare -- you will be flushing the warranty and AppleCare down the toilet.

Usually these kind of upgrades are for machines well past the warranty, and a were significant CPU upgrade for those machines.

Some people will say a 20% boost in number crunching probably isn't worth the double whack you take if you flush AppleCare, pay the money for the upgrade, and lose the warranty -- especially if the machine breaks later.
 
by the time people do the upgrading applecare is usually out, as for the upgrade if you did it under applecare apple would only not be liable for logic board repair, they are still obliged to fix unrelated problems.
 
The procedure shouldn't be that complicated.

The only problem being I haven't seen the backside of where the processor is located on the logic board. That could cause some trouble if anything is soldered onto there.

But for now I am certain the Core Duo will offer enough performance for 98% of the users out there ;)
 
I think its just about impossible to upgrade the processor; its soldered on, and these circuit boards are not exactly something someone can just re-solder by hand.

I searched for info on G4 upgrades, none exist for the powerbooks it seem (due to the chip being soldered into the logicboard)
 
It's also Surface mount soldered and doesn't have pins that go through the logic board. It would be pretty damn difficult to desolder the CPU thats already on there, nevermind surface mount soldering a new one on.
 
So basically...
1. if you tried this yourself you'd probably ruin your computer and either have outrageous repairs or have to buy a new one

2. if you paid for an upgrade it would be quite costly- possibly not worth it
 
it is soldered but with the correct machinery removing BGA soldered components, XLR8 do it for powerbooks and imac g4's.

basically it's like a grid of heated up pins are touched on the other side of the logic board and the cpu is pulled away and a new BGA cpu is placed on and the pins touched, usually they come with pre applied solder blobs for each pin.
 
The real problem with this is you are not going to be able to buy non-socketed processors from intel.
 
bbrosemer said:
The real problem with this is you are not going to be able to buy non-socketed processors from intel.

I bet you can if you order in large enough quantities heh :)

I know that is besides the point :p
 
yeah, xlr8 can order a batch of 1000 like any OEM pc manufacturer can.
 
Lets see 1000 memrom's = $20,000 - $80,000 , and that is assuming they are the same prices as the Core 1's = Yonoha (I can't spell) or you could just buy like 10 MacPro's and a few MBP's for the same price.... WWUD
 
Rovman said:
It's also Surface mount soldered and doesn't have pins that go through the logic board. It would be pretty damn difficult to desolder the CPU thats already on there, nevermind surface mount soldering a new one on.
Took another look, and it's not a typical surface mount package that people do replace.

However, it should become a hot scam -- send us $400 to re-do you machine while we sell it out the back door.
 
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