Upgrading M6400 GPU

Hmm, if I saw that without knowing that it was really an M7820, I'd think it was an error or typo. It's out of my price range anyway, at least if I wanted a new CPU, too. Good to know it's an option for future upgrades.

The Q9100 just arrived today and it's a QAVK. I'm waiting for the m7740 to arrive so I only have to disassemble the laptop once. Hopefully it'll be here by tomorrow. Anything I should watch out for when taking the M6400 apart? I've done plenty of desktops, but not so much on laptops.

 

This is a good thread...lots of good info here!

I've bid on some refurb M6400s, but haven't won one yet.

I intend to keep on trying. The recent sale prices on eBay are extremely reasonable!

 

Hi,
Just try to find a second hand M6400 which still has "On-Site Service warranty". so you can ask dell come to your place to replace M6400's components for free, if the component has some problem.

I replaced my screen, mother board, graphic card, power panel, palmrest touchpad and the whole cover, now it's almost a new machine

 

Success! I installed the M7740 and Q9100 and managed to boot up. 3dmark06 score of 11500 and 3dmark Vantage score of 6700, approximately doubling my old scores. There's a fly in the ointment, though. Video quality is only so-so, and I get plenty of tearing when I drag windows around on the desktop. Is there a way to hack the 4860 mobility drivers to work with the M7740?

EDIT: Never mind, after a couple of reboots the tearing seems to have stopped. Not sure why, but apparently it needed a break-in period.

Oh, the QAVK apparently does have temperature sensors - it just has half the usual number. Speedfan picks up Core0 and Core1 sensors, but no Core2/3.

 

Just wanted to make one more note here. I found the Core2 and Core3 sensors in Speedfan. Apparently the thread DGDXGDG linked to is wrong. The QAVK does appear to have all its temperature sensors installed and active. Furthermore, the chip is recognized as an Extreme model and I've been able to briefly overclock it to 2.5 GHz (same as QX9300) with Throttlestop. I want to test it out some more before I try overclocking it for long periods.

 

Oh, that's convenient. I wonder how far can it go? The QX9300 can go over 3 GHz easily (I played some flight sims on mine at 3.3 GHz, but didn't really try going higher).

Still hoping I might find an affordable M7820 to upgrade the FX3700M.. Extra performance and less heat is always welcome

 

Today is your unlucky day. This, and another just like it, just popped up on eBay:

Dell Precision M6500 Graphic Video Card VYGKK ATI FIREPRO M7820 1GB VYGKK | eBay

Both are going for >US$400. Ouch. Given that, I'm quite happy with my ~US$100 M7740.

As for the Q9100, I'll try pushing it tonight.

 

Yeah, once I ran into a low price M7740, but the auction was ending early morning so I didn't bother waking up just for that (expecting there would be more of those). Then I saw it went away for really cheap (e.g. $50) and regretted it ever since, as I never saw cheap cards again (I guess some people make a living out of buying the stocks of replacement cards and reselling them.

It wouldn't have been an improvement over my FX3700M, but I wanted a backup in case my card dies and the noticeably lower thermals as well (IIRC, 45W vs the 75W for the FX-3700M).

 

The reduced heat sounds promising for overclocking, though that wasn't my original intent. I intend to hang onto my 2700M and the T9550 in case something goes horribly wrong. Does the 45w apply to the M7820 or M7740?

 

Correcting myself. Just checked and the 4860M (what the M7740 is based on) is 44W supposedly, while the 5870M (M7820) is 50W.