I have an older Toshiba Satellite C850-P5010 with a Pentium B950, 6 GB of RAM, and a 128 GB SSD. I'd like to upgrade the processor for less than $10 and am considering an Intel Core i3-3110M or i5-2450M. The motherboard may be an HM70-based board with a Socket G2 processor socket, but I'm not completely sure. Which CPU is compatible and worth installing?
2 Answers
If the system really uses HM70, be cautious with Core i3 and i5 upgrades. Some HM70 laptops only officially support Pentium and Celeron processors, and unsupported Core CPUs can be limited or unstable even if they physically fit. Confirm BIOS support and cooling compatibility rather than choosing based only on the socket.
The exact motherboard and chipset revision matter here, because the C850 was sold with several different board configurations. The Pentium B950 is a second-generation Sandy Bridge chip, so the i5-2450M is the more likely match. The i3-3110M is a third-generation Ivy Bridge processor and may not be supported by your specific BIOS or chipset. Check the board identification and Toshiba’s CPU support list before buying.
I think the board is an HM70 model with a Socket G2 processor socket, but I’ll verify the exact motherboard number first.