Lenovo ThinkPad T430 - CPU upgrade

Today we have been getting into the guts of our trusty little 14" Thinkpad T430.

In our previous video we fitted a LOVELY genuine Lenovo LED backit keyboard to the machine:


This week we have replaced the Intel i5-3320 running at 2.6GHz (3.3GHz TURBO) processor with an i5-3380 2.9GHz (3.6GHz TURBO). After a lot of research online it became apparent that while the T430 does support the Quad core 3rd Generation i7 chips, they run VERY hot, reaching temperatures of 100c and throttling back, meaning that unless you REALLY need 4 cores, which we do not, its better to have a higher clock speed dual core processor for its superior single core performance.

We then knew we couldn't settle for anything other than the fastest Dual core i5 CPU intel made for the 3rd generation, the i5-3380. So on the hunt we went trailing the usual for sale boards and websites. After months of no luck (and over priced chips) we ended up finding a cheap processor on eBay UK and now its time to test it out.