Trying to play Wind Waker

[admin89]

Quote: As for a CPU upgrade, you might be able to go up to an i7-2860QM

Uhm , no . He has a 1st gen Nehalem CPU which is based on Intel Tick . 2nd gen i7 Sandy is based on Intel Tock
Intel Tick Tock :
Tock = completely new microarchitecture .
Tick = Die shrink (65nm->45nm->32nm->22nm->14nm ....)

You may upgrade 2nd gen i7 2xxxQM Sandy -> 3rd gen i7 3xxxQM Ivy (require mobo bios update that support Ivy) but you can't upgrade 3rd gen i7 -> 4th gen i7 because 4th gen Haswell is based on Intel Tock . If you desperately want to do that , you will have to replace the motherboard . However , he's using a laptop , laptop components are really damn hard to replace

In short :
Tick -> Tock : Nope
Tock ->Tick : Ok (no need new mobo but you must update bios that support newer CPU)

1st gen Nehalem , 3rd gen Ivy Bridge , 5th gen Broadwell .....are tick
2nd gen Sandy Bridge , 4th gen Haswell ....are tock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Tick-Tock