posted by MontyBrunswick
many things
1. laptop CPU's are inferior to desktop counterparts. if you're rendering video, you're wasting money by getting laptop chips. They're designed to be efficient/power conscious, not for heavy lifting. buy a desktop rendering machine. A desktop i5 would run laps around a laptop i5 and be cheaper. if you go this route, look at ryzen-based machines. they have more cores than equivilent intel chips and they're cheaper.
I've actually considered this. Were it not that I had to travel for work as much as I do, I probably would have gone this route.
Having said that, I was just looking at one of these NUCs. Given their size, they would seem to be fairly portable, so long as I'm willing to bring my keyboard (Logitech G710+) and my mouse (an ancient Logitech Marble Mouse). That doesn't solve the issue of needing a larger, hi-res monitor/screen, but I usually end up having to find an alternative to that anyway, since I end up using two screens when traveling.
In any case, I came across an Intel NUC with a built-in i7 which tests in the 3-4Ghz range.
posted by MontyBrunswick
2. the cooling solution in laptops are specifically designed to cool a chip with a certain wattage in mind. generally speaking, better processors in a specific generation will consume more power and thus generate more heat. therefore, if you drop a new cpu in a machine and don't upgrade the heatsink, you risk the chip running hot and throttling so it stays under it's tjmax. the increased wattage/throttling might result in a slower processor than the one you were replacing in the first place. Also the motherboard may not be designed to handle the increased wattage drawn by the cpu package, and eventually warp/fail. furthermore, you are extremely likely to destroy the heatsink trying to get at the cpu. they aren't designed to be removable and they usually cool mulitple components besides just the cpu.
This is really helpful. I'm assuming they've gotten better at this over time, as well. My last laptop, the ASUS ROG g73, had an early-generation i7 and an at-the-time strong dedicated GPU (Nvidia GTX Geforce 540M). For about five years, I never had an issue. Now, it seems like I have to clean the fans every other month if I'm using it regularly. On the plus side, it still works like a champ (sans the battery, which is shot) as long as the fans are working, despite being eight years old.
It was great for traveling and still being able to do what I needed it to do, for the most part. It was huge, and probably the least portable "laptop" I've ever seen, but it worked.
With regard to the above NUC, I'm guessing the cooling system is sufficient for that level a processor, since it comes stock.
posted by MontyBrunswick
3. Hypothetically the new cpu would work in the board but you can't guarantee that it will. there's a reasonable chance the bios has locked out all cpu's except specific ones.
I hadn't even considered that. Another vote for the NUC, probably.
posted by MontyBrunswick
4. you'll obviously void any warranty left on your computer by tearing it apart and replacing crucial components. windows is likely going to deactivate as well because the guid is very likely to change since you're swapping a critical component. so in other words you probably need to factor in the cost of a new windows license as well.
I bought the current laptop from a friend about three years ago. He'd only had it for a couple months, but he wasn't getting any use out of it, which is why he sold it. As such, the warranty isn't an issue.
Also, I use Linux for most of what I do these days, so Windows isn't a problem for the most part.
