Upgrading a laptop?

Hey people! Got a question.

I have an old Dell Inspiron N5110

i5 2450M
6gb RAM
new HDD 500gb @7200 rpm with 32mb cash.

I DO NOT have the money to get a new working laptop, but I found a thread that you can upgrade a CPU.

initially n5110 came with pentium, i3, i5, i7.
I want to put an i7 2670QM. People say that the socket is the same. HM67 is fine, well, at that time, new, with i7, loaded, machine could compete to some high end workhorses. (laptops of course)

Questions are:
Can I really handle 10+ watts of heat with stock cooler if I add a laptop cooler pad?
I read that I may need to get new BIOS. May need A11 from HP.... (info from thread) Do I? Given the fact that laptops nativelly came with that CPU on that plaform with that socket
Also, CPU allows to have up to 32 GBs of RAM. MY mobo natively allows up to 8GB. Sooooooo will I be able to put 16GBs ( 2 x 8) after a CPU swap?
Would a win x64|x86 see those 16GBs??
I have a 90watt PSU, so thats fine.
Also planning to add another HDD instead of DVD rom... (Dont kick me in the nuts for having a small HDD now and for having this idea. I mean..... aint gonna loose anything, right?
The reason I a doing that is because this upgrade will cost me around 200-300 USD rather than 800-1+k which I dont have.

Soooooooooooooooooo how naive am I? How doobale is it?

It would make more sense to get a 500GB SSD, but thats just my take. Even if you can change the CPU, if the mobo chipset has limits you ain't gonna change that with a bios flash.
Two HHDs is gonna kill your battery, or at the very least, cut its life by a lot. I'd suggest a SSD+HDD if you wanna go that route
I don't really like the idea of cooling a machine with an external laptop cooling pad (mostly because those don't make much sense) cause you're passively cooling the outside of the unit, not the inside where the CPU is.

You found the one thread that contradicts itself entirely. Also, HP doesn't vendor BIOS updates for DELL. They are separate companies and do not support each other's products.

Update the BIOS from Dell regardless if you haven't, it really can't hurt. If you want to give the CPU swap a try it's worth a shot, honestly it will probably work fine. If it doesn't you can resell the chip and continue on with the i5.

Besides that, the biggest performance increase you can give (as others have and will mention) is getting an SSD for the boot drive. I'd recommend moving the 500GB into the DVD tray, and putting the SSD in the primary SATA bay. That at least is gaurenteed to work without any serious modification and will provide a noticeable improvement to responsiveness.

the laptop can run a i7 and 16gb ram no bios update needed. the heatsink will run stock speeds fine with good themal paste. but you'll need to make a heatsink from scratch using a copper plate if you want to overclock.

Before pulling the trigger on the CPU I would recommend disassembling your laptop to be sure the CPU is actually socketed. Or do some research to verify that other people with your exact laptop have been able to make the upgrade.

I have a Thinkpad T420s, which is from the same Intel generation as your Dell, and I found out that the CPU is actually soldered to the motherboard, not in a socket. The normal T420 is a socket, so chances are your "normal" thickness Dell would be too. Just something to keep in mind, though.

Chances are very good that 16GB would work fine on either your current processor or an i7. I put 16GB in my laptop when it was "limited" to 8GB. Only issue I had was it would act funny if I used 1600MHz RAM. It would post and boot, but I got all sorts of graphical corruptions. 16GB 1333MHz works beautifully, though. May be different with a Dell, may not. The performance difference between the two speeds is negligible at best.

Updating the BIOS is usually a good idea. If you are going to be putting "non-approved" components in the laptop, it's usually a good idea to have the latest BIOS. Sometimes they add support for newer, better hardware without really telling anyone.

Adding a second hard drive is a good idea. If you feel like the 500GB disk is enough space, I'd recommend getting a 256GB or 512GB SSD for your main storage and using your current 500GB hard drive in the optical bay for bulk storage.

The heat issue is definitely something to think about. My T420s has a dual core i7 (which it came with from the factory, since it's soldered to the board), and it frequently hits 100C. Granted, the laptop is thin and has a pretty small heatsink/heatpipe setup. Your Dell may have a bit beefier heatsink setup, so it may be able to handle a quad core i7.

To be honest, do you really need a quad core i7 in a laptop? Think about your use case. Do you do heavily multi-threaded workloads that would tax a normal i5? I would say 90% of the time a normal i5 would do everything that is needed. My dual core i7 is a power hog. I barely get an hour out of a battery.

Well, I clean my laptop about every 3 months. CPU is in fact socketed.
My battery is dead, plus, this particular computer has an issue that even on Performance, running off of battery, cpu still work in pussy mode.

I work with video and photos, so I need a workstation, but since I dont have a house, investing in a rig with 2 monitors, big case station and much more, is pointless.

I always work with my computer plugged in. But thanks!)

Well, my computer is off waranty for over 3 years, so that is pointless)) Support??? I got this forum under my hand hhahahaha
Anyways, Dell tested this mobo with particular CPUs (sandy bridge i3-i7) wich work fine - they claimed it)

As for BIOS - its just to allow mobo to see the new CPU in case right after it wont happen.
Considering that natively n5110 came with penium or i3 i5 i7 (SandyB) it shoudl work fine. In the thread guys said that it works fine.
Later on I will move to an SSD when I have enogh money. Plus, I do video and photo work, soooo I need a 5820k hahhahaha but for now, If I have this done, and if this will work, I will pretty much have a 2009 macbook pro)

I dont need battery life since I always work plugged. Off of batery laptops still work in pussy mode) Lenovo|Sony|Dell)) played on all of them) all of them are soft when unplugged)

btw, i've done some stress tests and was kinda surpised.

Rendering a 10 min video, full load, covered the hole, CPU never went above 87 degrees. And render did not slow down)

Well, why not? My laptop cools well) (read my other replyes)

Basically I have a great DeepCool paste, now, (changed it about a month ago) CPU under load never goes about 67-72 degrees.

Adding a pad cooler will provide an air flow under the laptop. Plus, cooling the case, (it has a lot of metal padding inside) will automatically sink the heat from mobo) (phyZZIkz) haahah In any case, having a pad is better than, NOT having a pad)
I mean, with a turbo you can get 260hp out of a 2L engine, but having a 2.4 litre, will definately help)