Acer Aspire 8942g CPU Upgrade General Guide

[^nox]

Hey Guys

So after many weeks of searching and searching i found the right cpu along with the perfect thermal compound and proceeded to upgrade.

My old specs: i3 330m 2.13ghz
My new specs: i7 820qm ES with Shin Etsu X23

I already had 8 GB of DD3 1333 ram in the machine that was downlocked automatical to 1066 due to the i3 cpu. Now with the i7 i can take the full advantage of my ram as well as 1333.

With this guide you do not have to dissasamble the whole machine !!! Only take the back cover off as if you wanted to plug in another HD or more Ram ! I was so glad to notice this, when I bought this machine as my old HP was not that upgrade friendly !

The steps were as follows:

1. Take the cover off by unscrewing mutliple screws on the back side of the laptop:



2. Unscrew the Heatsink "make sure you go by the numbers on your laptop which screw goes up first"



3. Turn the lock to unlock position

See image above for general idea.

4. Lift the heatsink and carefully remove old cpu "remember the position at which the original cpu came out because the new cpu will go in in the same position" (eg. watch the tringle in one of the corner)

See image above for general idea.

5. Put thermal paste on the new cpu "I used the line method as suggested by kizwan that is I applied a line of Shin Etsu across the middle of the cpu" The heatsink will do the spreading.



6. Punch the cpu in the socket (again make sure it is alligned the same way the old cpu was sitting in the socket and gently push the cpu in). Turn the cpu lock to lock position. Then screw the heatsink back following the same method on the screws as to which goes in first.
7. Put the back cover back on !

Good luck and I take no resposibility for any problems as usual.
Initial Thoughts and Results (GPU ATI 5650)

• Old i3 Idle Values : CPU 29 - 32, Thermal Sensor 31, Assembly 31
• New i7 Idle Values : CPU 39 - 43, Thermal Sensor 40 - 43, Assembly 34 - 35, GPU 39 - 40
• New i7 Under Load : CPU 72 - 73, Thermal Sensor 72, Assembly 38, GPU 73 - 73.5 (OCed to 725/1000)
• Prime95 Stress : CPU 70 - 73 , Thermal Sensor 71
• Prime95 and GPU Stress: CPU 82 - 83, GPU 79 - 80 (This is worse case scenario and GPU was overclocked to 720/1000)
• 2 Hours in Crysis 2 : CPU 72 - 73, GPU 73
• 2 Hours in Skyrim : CPU 72 - 74, GPU 70

Also here are the before and after WEI scores :




And 3Dmark06 Comparison between i3 330m and i7 820qm

I3 330M 2.13Ghz CPU Stock


I7 820QM 1.73Ghz/3.06Ghz CPU Stock


I7 820QM 1.73Ghz/3.06Ghz CPU GPU OCed 725/1000


Note : all temps are in degrees celsius !

All the best !

[searcher?]

Wow, thank you!
This is a fine guide.

All the best to you

[ellalan]

Thanks for posting this guide, I have a question, how did you take off the heatsink without removing the fan? just curious.

[^nox]

Thanks for posting this guide, I have a question, how did you take off the heatsink without removing the fan? just curious.

Hi ellalan

All I had to do is unscrew the 4 bolts then you can just lift it up high enough to swap the CPUs on that end. No need to take it apart or remove the whole heatsink

Wow, thank you!
This is a fine guide.

All the best to you

Hey searcher

I'm glad it helped, I will post more benchmarks in terms of temperatures later this week ! You gotta show me how to work that fan adjusting software though I'd like to increase the fan activity to counter the new higher temps

All the best to you too !

[searcher?]

I'm glad it helped, I will post more benchmarks in terms of temperatures later this week ! You gotta show me how to work that fan adjusting software though I'd like to increase the fan activity to counter the new higher temps

All the best to you too !

Acer Aspire 8942G Core i7 Owners Lounge

Cheers

[kizwan]

Hi ^nox,

If HWMonitor read i3-330M TJMax (90C), this means the i7 CPU temperatures are 10C low. Which means correct temps are:-

• Old i3 Idle Values : CPU 28 - 31, Thermal Sensor 31, Assembly 31 (degrees celsius)
• New i7 Idle Values : CPU 34 - 40, Thermal Sensor 35 - 38, Assembly 34 - 35, GPU 36 - 38.5
• New i7 Under Load : CPU 72 - 73, Thermal Sensor 72, Assembly 38, GPU 73 - 73.5 (OCed to 725/1000)
• Prime95 Stress : CPU 83 - 85, Thermal Sensor 84
• Prime95 and GPU Stress: CPU 92 - 93, GPU 79 - 80 (This is worse case scenario and GPU was overclocked to 720/1000)
• 2 Hours in Crysis 2 : CPU 72 - 73, GPU 73

I think your i7-820QM idle temp will around 35C to 40C at best (my i7-720QM can idle around 40C to 44C at best, on hotter day 47C to 49C). When during gaming 70C to 78C are what I expected from you (my i7-720QM when gaming also around the same). Remember, the X23 still curing, around 100 hours if I'm not mistaken. So, you don't get optimum result yet. In my opinion, I think the result you already get right now already good.

[^nox]

Hi ^nox,

If HWMonitor read i3-330M TJMax (90C), this means the i7 CPU temperatures are 10C low. Which means correct temps are:-

• Old i3 Idle Values : CPU 28 - 31, Thermal Sensor 31, Assembly 31 (degrees celsius)
• New i7 Idle Values : CPU 34 - 40, Thermal Sensor 35 - 38, Assembly 34 - 35, GPU 36 - 38.5
• New i7 Under Load : CPU 72 - 73, Thermal Sensor 72, Assembly 38, GPU 73 - 73.5 (OCed to 725/1000)
• Prime95 Stress : CPU 83 - 85, Thermal Sensor 84
• Prime95 and GPU Stress: CPU 92 - 93, GPU 79 - 80 (This is worse case scenario and GPU was overclocked to 720/1000)
• 2 Hours in Crysis 2 : CPU 72 - 73, GPU 73

I think your i7-820QM idle temp will around 35C to 40C at best (my i7-720QM can idle around 40C to 44C at best, on hotter day 47C to 49C). When during gaming 70C to 78C are what I expected from you (my i7-720QM when gaming also around the same). Remember, the X23 still curing, around 100 hours if I'm not mistaken. So, you don't get optimum result yet. In my opinion, I think the result you already get right now already good.

Thanks abunch i am adjusting my thread as we speak !

[kizwan]

I have done prime95 Small FFTs test before but this is fresh one, running today. This is screenshot after 35minutes running prime95 Small FFTs test (it still running). Room temperature 30C - 32C.



This is after 2 hours (while running prime95, I use the computer; replying email, downloading & reading PDF files; so temps spiked a little bit):-



BTW, according to Intel Core i3-300 mobile processor series specification update, i3-330M LFM frequency is 933MHz (TDP at 35W) which means it should idle at 933MHz. ( i7 quad core: http://download.intel.com/design/pro...hts/320765.pdf ) i7-820QM LFM frequency is 1.2GHz (TDP at 35W) which means it should idle at 1.2GHz. i7-720QM LFM frequency is 933MHz (TDP at 35W) which means it should idle at 933MHz. So, comparing yours & mine (i7-720QM), I think your result is OK considering it idle at 1.2GHz.

[^nox]

That looks pretty good ! Considering the room temperature is 30 - 32 C !!!! Here it is about 20 C so thats probably why i am seeing lower temps.

I jsut finished playing Crysis 2 for about an hour and i noticed micro stuttering in sound im nto sure if this is temperature related or driver related. I might reinstall my OS just to be sure , have you experienced anythign liek that ? Btw my CPU maxed at 75 C and GPU at 76 C.

[kizwan]

I don't have Crysis 2, so I can't comment on that but micro stuttering doesn't look like it's temperature related. Probably your graphic/video settings are too high. Crysis 2 should utilized all 4 cores. Did you see any improvement on the gameplay experience? I played Bad Company 2 & Left 4 Dead 2, I got the same CPU temp 75C. If I'm not mistaken both also utilize all 4 cores.