I have an old 2007 Macbook Pro 15" and Dell Inspiron 1720. Since the logic board on the Mac is damaged, I kinda combined it in Dell (I took RAM, WiFi card, HDD). It all works perfectly.
Since they are same age, and both use Intel. My question is, will Dell work with Mac processor inside as well? (Mac 2.4Ghz per core, and Dell is 2.0Ghz per core)
Best Answer
Technically speaking, yes the CPU would work (provided it was still functional). Apple makes no changes to the (Intel) CPU making it "Mac only."
However, (and this is a big one), where Dell typically uses a socket, Apple solders the CPU to the board - you can remove the Dell CPU, but you need to de-solder it from the Mac.
What you would spend on the labor just to remove the CPU is far more costly than surfing eBay for a deal on a compatible CPU.