Precision M6500 - Questions

So I have a Dell Precision M6500 with the dual-core M520 and the FirePro M7820. I have 3 questions...

1.) If I wanted to go with the RGB LED display, what all would I have to change, and what motherboard code would I need to go with if I do...

2.) Do any models of the M6500 support Sandy Bridge? If so, which motherboard codes do?

3.) What is the highest binned processor I can put in it, with the motherboard for the RGB-LED?

Don't think of it as feasible. I like this laptop and will be upgrading what I can. It'll be sitting on a dock any way, and basically I want a nice docked desktop.

Thanks, in advance!

 

@H.A.L. 9000

m6500 came out with intel clarksfield (1st gen core i7 and i5).

The extreme edition mobile processors were i7-920xm and i7-940xm. The top of what you could purchase with the laptop new.

http://ark.intel.com/products/famil...ation-Intel-Core-i7-Extreme-Processor#@Mobile

mobo cpu socket is PGA988.

2nd and 3rd Gen core i7 mobile uses socket FCPGA988

I don't know if those later gen CPUs are compatible with 1st Gen PGA988 socket of the M6500. And even if they fit in socket (they do have same # of pins), it is dependent on the BIOS if it works well or not at all.

I'm curious though to find out if later gen 2 or 3 Intel CPU works in an m6500. However, I'd rather upgrade the drives. The early samsung PM800 SATA II SSDs that shipped with the late 2009 and early 2010 M6500 are very slow by today's standard. An inexpensive modern SATAIII drive (even though M6500 only supports up to SATAII) is actually a good upgrade. I put in a 500GB SATAIII SSD into our M6500 and was a big improvement.

 

Hmm... I have an old broken Vaio I could pull an i5 2540m from to just test. For science.

I currently have it setup with 8GB of RAM, i5 520m, Sandisk Ultra II 240GB SSD boot drive, western digital 1TB 7MM SSHD storage drive, a 128GB PCI-E SSD with Ubuntu for IDE's, Intel 7260 2x2 AC/BT, Dell 5620 WWAN, 7mm BD/RE.

The only thing I feel it's missing is a really good screen. The RGB LED would be the best of the bunch. The only issue is that I don't know if the FirePro m7820 (5870m) will work with that display. I've read somewhere that the RGB screen model's are Quadro only. If that's the case, I'll probably just leave it as is, leave it docked, and buy another M6700.

 

You just need a RGB LED display with the appropriate cable and the M7820 will support the display. That is assuming you are going to re-use your entire display lid and bezel.

There is no difference in the display connector between a Quadro and M7820. I have the M6400 and M6500 and I have the FX3800 and M7820, their display connector on them are the same.

The M6500 uses 1st Gen core i5 and i7 mobile cpus. Any other Gen core i5 and i7 is not going to work.

The highest binned processor in this case will be the i7-940XM. The display connector is not on the motherboard but on the graphics card and so you will not need to change the motherboard.

One thing to note is to make sure you have the correct the heatsink for the CPU as the i7-940XM heats up quite a bit when put under heavy loads. IIRC, there were two cpu heatsinks one for the lower wattage cpus and one for the higher wattage cpus. Can't remember the exact details, have a quick search in the main thread for the M6500.