A business laptop from 2012 that still can perform on the highest level (HP EliteBook 8560p)
In the beginning, Hewlett-Packard EliteBook 8560p had solid specifications: 15-inch screen, well build body, dual-core Intel Core i7 2620M processor with base frequency 2.70 GHz and 3.40 GHz turbo boost, 4 GB of DDR3 RAM and 500GB HDD.
A couple of years later, the RAM amount becomes not enough, so it was doubled. DDR 3 memory with the laptop’s highest supported frequency 1333 cost more than memory with 1600. Also, it has different timings and lower voltage. But it worked out just fine and worked on the speed of the slowest memory.
In 2019 it started to feel a little bit old without any upgrades. Windows startup took a lot more time than it could; fan’s noise was substantial; CPU become to overheat.
The first move was to upgrade HDD to SSD. But before this upgrade, I had to update Windows to 10s version for better SSD support and OS optimization (basing on random sources). Thank God this upgrade is free if you have Windows 7 or 8. Then I purchased the cheapest Transcend SSD and checked read-write stats of the disks.
It was good results but nowhere near the SSD level, and it looked like the drive worked on SATA 2 level. I checked the specs, and the computer has SATA 3 support. So the answer was to search through BIOS properties. I changed the “Max SATA speed” option to 6.0 Gbps. It helped.
The next step was to clean the fan and to upgrade the CPU. As far as HP 8560p does not require any screws to open back cover, and heat pipe and fan access are straight away. So all the process took me around 10 minutes.
The new CPU choice was no brainer because there were only three better CPU options, and all of them were quad cores. I bought the best one: Intel Core i7–2820QM Processor (2.30-GHz, 8MB L3 cache, 4 cores/8 threads, 45W) Up to 3.40 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology. The only doubt was related to TDP because the new CPU has TDP higher at 10 W. But as we will see in the future, this fact will not affect performance.
When I turned it on, I was extremely upset. CPU-Z showed me only two cores. I didn’t know what to do and did the only possible thing — restarted Windows. Next time application showed correct numbers.
Also, I had some hopes that RAM will work at 1600 frequency because the 2820QM supports it. But it looks like motherboard can’t handle such upgrade.
Benchmark test showed excellent results. Cinebench R20 showed an almost 2.5 score increase so that the laptop can render videos much faster now.
The last check was related to throttling. I performed some tests using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. The score increased from 353 to 637, and no throttling detected.
I’m happy with the results of this upgrade because it showed me that the business laptop from 2012 could be competitive in 2019.
