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View Full Version : CPU mod possible?

Kevin C. Tofel
07-10-2003, 07:08 PM
Does anyone know if the PXA250 chip is a "drop in" or is it soldered into the board? With the various benchmarking posts regarding the Axim on PPC2002 vs. WM2003, I was thinking if it was worth purchasing a PXA255 chip with the 200Mhz bus speed to complement the WM2003 upgrade.....I'm sure it would void the warranty, but....

:cry:

Thanks!
KCT
ghostppc
07-10-2003, 07:31 PM
Does anyone know if the PXA250 chip is a "drop in" or is it soldered into the board? With the various benchmarking posts regarding the Axim on PPC2002 vs. WM2003, I was thinking if it was worth purchasing a PXA255 chip with the 200Mhz bus speed to complement the WM2003 upgrade.....I'm sure it would void the warranty, but....

:cry:

Thanks!
KCT

I would love to do something like that too. But, I think it's a surface mount soldered chip. I'd fry the whole thing trying to put a faster chip in. :rawr:
GoldKey
07-11-2003, 01:07 PM
Are those chips even available for purchase by regular consumers?
Kevin C. Tofel
07-11-2003, 02:10 PM
Are those chips even available for purchase by regular consumers?

Not sure....may have to buy in bulk if everyone wants to "chip" in.....

It would be nice if Dell offered some type of CPU upgrade service for a reasonable fee.....

KCT
GoldKey
07-11-2003, 02:15 PM
Remember, Dell is not building these, so they probably don't have the ability to do this. Also given the cost of these, I don't think anyone would want to pay what it would cost to do this considering the shipping both ways and the labor. Even if it is a 10 minute job, they would probably want $20 for the time, plus whatever the chip costs plus shipping. Probably not the bang for the buck you would want.
boyo
07-14-2003, 05:43 PM
It's a BGA (ball grid array) package, with a couple hundred miniature solder balls on the bottom of the package. You'd need to heat the entire device to a specific temperature, apply the right amount of pressure with exact alignment... Not really a do-it-yourself job.

I think even though the pinout has stayed the same, some of the electricals have changed. Slightly lower voltage for the chip, I recall. You'd need the upgraded OS ROM image to set this correctly.

Long story short...probably not an easy fix.

-Boyo