Core 2 Duo Laptop CPU Prices

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Anyone still using Core 2 Duo laptop in 2018? Well… yeah people still buy them, and there are still good sales for Core 2 Duos, old CPUs, HDDs & power adapters.

There are quite a few awesome laptops during this era. So good that a few forum members from the Chinese site 51nb wanted to make modern motherboards for ThinkPads. The T61 and X61 had custom made motherboards to use 7th Gen CPUs. However these motherboards cost $400+ new, there was a small production run, you had to be on a waitlist up to a year, you had to modify the board & it didn’t have the greatest quality control.

CPU Upgrade Paths

Not all of these CPU are drop ins. Here is what I can gather without going thru hardware or pin modding.

• Some CPU upgrades will need a BIOS update first
• “Napa” Core Solo/Duo (Yonah CPU) laptops that run 667MHz FSB can upgrade to “Santa Rosa” Core 2 Duo (Merom CPU) with 667MHz FSB
• “Yonah” Core Duo are 32 bit only CPUs
• Some sources say you can upgrade “Napa” Laptops to 800MHz FSB Core 2 Duo Meroms but the FSB will limit to 667MHz & it may downclock its power.
• Laptops with Socket P CPUs can’t be upgraded to Socket M. The pins just fit but the socket electrics are different.
• Some Merom laptops can be upgraded to Penryn CPUs w/ 800MHz FSB. This depends on the motherboard revision from your laptop.
• Core 2 Quad & Extreme upgrades depends on motherboard revisions/BIOS & the CPU cooler. Additionally if the laptop never offered these CPUs, extensive hardware modding will be required.

This guide is mostly just price out laptop CPUs. These CPUs have been out for about a decade, so there is loads of support forum threads to see if your laptop can take a CPU upgrade or what CPU’s just don’t work well. Getting the highest CPU clock could be nice but is it worth that price? 

Not all Mobile Core 2 Duo CPUs are included in this post & only one sSpec is listed.

Socket M | Core Duo | Yonah | 35W | 2006

• These CPUs are all 32-bit & have a 667MHz FSB
• Top 3 of the Yonah CPUs, the others are sub 2GHz or Single Core Solos
• My T60p had a T2500, surprisingly OK with ATI graphics
• Some laptops came out before the Merom refresh
• The T2700 is surprisingly expensive, there must be a certain set of laptops or desktops that have this as their max upgrade.

Socket M | Core 2 Duo | Merom | 35W |Q3 2006 – Q1 2007

• These CPU (and all after) are 64-bit
• The first two laptops run in 533MHz FSB, the others 667MHz
• T7200 is the best price/performance ratio for Socket M
• T7600 is the ‘fastest’ & most pricey,
• T7600G is the unlocked CPU & can be overclocked. Its passmark however is a fifth of an i7-2820qm at the same price.

Socket P | Core 2 Duo | Merom | 35W | Q2 2007 – Q4 2008

• First two CPUs run at 667MHz FSB, the rest are 800MHz 🙂
• T7700 is most likely best price/performance for Merom only Socket P Laptops
• T7800 originally cost the same price as the T7700 when new.

Socket P | Core 2 Extreme | Merom XE | 44W | Q3 2007

Socket P | Core 2 Duo | Penryn | 35W | Q1 2008 – Q3 2009

• These are 800MHz FSB CPUs only
• These might work with T61, check the T61 Wikia for the proper mobo. 
• T8300 imo is the best price/performance, T9300 can be costly for that 6MB Cache

• These are all 1066MHz FSB CPUs
• These have higher benchmarks than Pxxxx CPUs due to higher TDP & multipliers
• T61’s can use these CPUs but with a BIOS mod & hardware mods. ThinkPad Forums Topic
• Finding a T9800 under $20 is rare, but worth it
• T9600 is best price/performance & doesn’t require heavy duty heatsinks or 100% fan use. I may consider it as the best C2D Penryn CPU. 

Socket P | Core 2 Extreme | Penryn XE | 44W | Q1 2008 – Q3 2008

Socket P | Core 2 Duo | Penryn | 25W | Q3 2008 – Q3 2009

• These are all 1066MHz FSB
• P8800 is my recommendation for Price/Performance/Efficiency for Penryns
• P9700 is the fastest Pxxxx but barely beats the third best Txxxx in performance.
• Quite a bit of E6400 can have P9700’s, good value if you get one.

Socket P | Core 2 Quad & XE | Penryn | 45W | Q3 2008 – Q4 2008

• These are all 1066MHz FSB & quad cores!
• Q9300 is the QX9300, some laptops & people call it the former. It is the king for any Core 2 anything
• Q9200 is an (ES) Engineering Sample & is technically black market. Stability is at random. 
• Skip the Q9000, the L2 cache is lacking & the passmark result sorta stinks.
• Q9100 & QX9300 have overall PM scores better than: 1.73GHz i7-820qm, 1.8GHz i5-3337U, 2.3GHz i5-2410m, 7 2.1GHz i3-5015U.
• Consider that newer ‘slower’ CPUs have more instruction sets that can help programs run better than overall passmark score.

Saucey’s Recommendations?

First off, for a daily laptop, I still recommend something with a 2.4GHz or greater i5 from Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge era.

If you are thinking of getting a Core 2 Duo laptop, consider buying NOS OEM batteries a gamble, due to cell degradation from time. Even non OEM, if they don’t sell that often, chances are it’s NOS from long ago. 🙁

Third is if you want 8GB RAM; an 8GB DDR2 RAM set (2x 4GB sticks) cost from $70 to $130. If you got a later Core 2 Duo laptop, chances are it uses DDR3 RAM, which that would possibly set you back $40.

Socket M Merom
T7600 – 2.33GHz, its under $30, you’ll get the best. Nab a laptop for $30 to $70 before you consider going all out on refurbishing.

• 13″ – Black MacBook (BGA)
• 14″ – T60p 4:3
• 15″ – T60p 4:3, Z61p
• 17″ – XPS M1730, NW 9440

Socket P Merom
T7700 – 2.4GHz, just a tad lower than the pricier T7800, but its a sixth of the cost. I’d recommend going the Penryn route.
X7900 – 2.8GHz, for some reason this CPU can be bought less than the X7800, but oddly passmark shows worse scores.

Socket P Penryn
T8100 – 2.1GHz, this is the cheapest Core 2 Duo to buy.
T9300 – 2.5GHz, recommended by many from the ThinkPad Forums. Might not be the fastest, but everything faster runs way more hotter than this. 
T9500 – 2.6GHz, the best 800MHz FSB CPU. Might be the only upgrade for some T61’s, as the X9000 is 2x the cost for barely any performance boost.
T9900 – 3.07GHz, fastest Core 2 Duo CPU. Legendary, it has the best Single Core score out of all these CPUs.
P8800 – 2.67GHz, my cheap recommendation for DDR3 laptops, has a solid single core score & best under the 25W CPUs.
P9700 – 2.8GHz, nab this if you want to spend extra & want to get something cooler running than other Txxxx CPUs.
X9100 – 3.07GHz, it is cheaper than the X9000 partially due to it having a faster FSB. 

• 13″ – Unibody MacBook 2009
• 14″ – T61, E6400
• 15″ – M4400, MBP, W500
• 17″ – W700ds, 8730W, M17x R1, M6300

Socket M Core 2 Quads
Q9100 – 2.27GHz, going price for this CPU is a third of the faster QX9300, but the availability isn’t the best. 

That’s about it. If you’re thinking of getting a laptop, look at the T61, plenty of mods have been made on that thing & is still be modded to this day!