There’s no more room for high-end upgradable laptops

Notebookcheck published an interesting editorial on a laptop feature that has almost completely disappeared from the market: the option to upgrade a CPU. A decade ago, it was common to upgrade laptop CPUs, and I even had the opportunity to upgrade two of my old laptops. However, with modern designs, upgrading CPUs is now nearly impossible.

The editorial highlights that the last bastion of socketed CPUs in laptops has fallen. Only one company, Eurocom, continued to offer socketed CPU options and MXM GPU upgrades. MXM is an industry standard that allows users to swap graphics cards entirely, provided the new card has the same TGP and is compatible with the laptop. Eurocom even offered upgrades for third-party laptops at one point.

The last laptop with a socketed CPU came with an Intel H670 socket, supporting up to a Core i9-12900K processor. This was the last laptop from Eurocom with socketed CPU. The company has since switched to Intel’s BGA package chips, aligning with Intel’s desktop-class variants, making the development of socketed CPU motherboards cost-ineffective. These CPUs are part of the Core HX-Series, which has seemingly ended efforts for any socketed CPUs for 13th and 14th Gen Core series.

Upgrade options for mobile super computers/AM4 system, Source: Eurocom

Currently, all mobile supercomputers/workstations, as these systems are called, are equipped with new HX-variants. There are no RTX 40 MXM GPUs available either, as the last option was the RTX 30 series. These new portable systems now come with soldered CPUs and GPUs.

While MXM GPUs are not entirely dead— Intel’s Arc Alchemist series is available for MXM—they are mostly used in industrial and embedded systems rather than gaming laptops. There are also some rare low-end RTX 40 models in MXM form factor, but they are not really for laptops either (but for AIO systems).

Worth reminding that Eurocom also offered an AM4-socket-based laptop supporting up to Ryzen 9 5900X or 3950X (16-core) CPUs. However, there was no AM5 upgrade available, and AMD has similarly shifted to HX-variants of their desktop CPUs, optimized for laptops.

As of 2024, alternatives include modular designs like Framework laptops, but these options are limited in SKUs and not cross-vendor compatible. Ultimately, given that Eurocom has not released a new socketed CPU option, it could really be the end of such mobile super computers.

Source: Notebookcheck