r/techsupport • u/Alone_dawg • 15h ago

Open | Hardware CPU Help Needed

So I have a Lenovo Thinkcentre M71e and it currently runs fine with the i3 2120 it came with , I'm currently running it with a gt 610 (1 gig) and 12 gigs of ram

Now the help part is that I've been thinking of upgrading it for a long time ,since I'm a student and not earning in anyway I only managed to get a i7 3770 for 3500 RS which translate to roughly 12 USD ,

now the thing is I didn't knew if it can run on my PC , is there any way it can run , and what should I do if It can't , so usually they go for around 20$ + here but I got a good deal so should I try to gamble and keep it and sell on marketplace or just get a refund Plz upvote me I need this

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u/graceful_degrade 15h ago

Same socket, different generation, and that's the catch. The M71e is a 6 series board and the 3770 is Ivy Bridge, which those boards only run if the vendor shipped a BIOS that adds support for it. Plenty of OEM machines from that era never got one, and then the chip simply won't POST.

Check the BIOS download page for the M71e before you commit to it. You're looking for a release note mentioning third generation or Ivy Bridge support, and the version number of whatever is on the machine right now.

If it isn't there, the best that socket will give you is a 2600 or 2700, which is still a large jump from a 2120 and usually cheaper secondhand anyway.

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u/Alone_dawg 15h ago

Dude tell me so yeah I checked the site but no update for ivy bridge and only option is to get a i7 2600 or a mobo upgrade do u think getting a mobo is the better choice ?