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    M1530 Differences in Parts (especially heatsink)

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by loman, Oct 10, 2008.

  1. loman

    loman Notebook Guru

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    So I received a new M1530 because the one I received have a couple of cosmetic flaws that were due to poor worksmanship (dents, scratches, etc.). I've been playing and comparing these two M1530's and I've noticed several things. My old M1530 came with the Optiarc DVD+/-RW drive and the new M1530 came with a Matsh1ta DVD+/-RW drive. I know a lot of people have complained about the DVD drive being noisy. Well.. the Matsh1ta drive is quiet! The Optiarc drive is super noisy. On to more things.. The old M1530 came with a Samsung 5400rpm 250GB harddrive, the new M1530 came with a WD 5400rpm 250GB hardrive. None of that matters though because it has been replaced by a Seagate 7200rpm 320GB hardrive, and stuck the WD 5400rpm 250GB into my PS3.

    OLD M1530:
    Optiarc DVD+/-RW drive (SUPER NOISY)
    Samsung 5400rpm 250GB harddrive
    MADE IN CHINA 6-Cell battery
    Cheaper Heatsink Assembly (Metal alloy transfer surfaces)

    NEW M1530:
    Matsh1ta DVD+/-RW drive (PRETTY QUIET)
    WD 5400rpm 250GB hardrive
    MADE IN JAPAN 6-Cell batter
    Better Heatsink Assembly (Copper transfer surfaces)

    The heatsink assembly is a big deal because we all know these things can get pretty hot, and we all know that copper has very good heat transfer properties. On the old M1530, the transfer surface is copper ONLY FOR THE CPU, leaving the GPU and Chipset with some metal alloy. Well the new M1530 I received have copper for all the transfer surfaces! COPPER IS BETTER!

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  2. nizzy1115

    nizzy1115 Notebook Prophet

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    Oh wow! hopefully this solves the graphics card problem! ...or just hides it longer...
     
  3. zfactor

    zfactor Mastershake

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    a word of warning about that matsu drive good luck.. it is a horrible drive and firmware is non existant if you ever need it. imo i would swap it for the opti even though its louder its a FAR better burner for all grades of media.. ive owned both. imo the best burner out notebook wise right now is the samsung tsst 028h
     
  4. houstoned

    houstoned Yoga Pants Connoisseur.

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    the drive issue would probably end with yur personal preference. i've also read alot of negative stuff for the matsu drive. mines been quiet and has worked fine.

    i'm really interested in the heatsink differences tho. surprised nobody has said anythin or found out about them til now. keep us posted if u find out any new info on the changes.
     
  5. loman

    loman Notebook Guru

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    zfactor, so the opti drive is better than the matsu drive? If that is the case, I can swap out the drives, no biggie, relatively easy to do. I don't really care about the noise, just wanted to chime in for those people that are annoyed by it. I just want to have the better drive. Optiarc is Sony NEC.
     
  6. loman

    loman Notebook Guru

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    I did some benchmark tests earlier on both systems and as guessed, the coppered out heatsink has lower temps than the metal alloyed one (GPU about 4-5 Celcius cooler). That of course can be decreased even lower when AS5 is applied (I just gotta find where I put it).
     
  7. houstoned

    houstoned Yoga Pants Connoisseur.

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    not sure u want to apply AS5 if u still are covered under warranty. i think that if u take off the OEM compound, it'll void yur warrant. please correct me if i'm wrong. don't want u to void yur warrant.

    thats why most m1330 users do their copper mods after their warrant is over. they have to disassemble the heat sink and scrape off the OEM compound they have on the chips.
     
  8. loman

    loman Notebook Guru

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    houstoned, good advice, I wasn't even thinking about the warranty. The AS5 will have to stay hidden away from me. Don't want Dell to blame me when the nVidia GPU decides to stop working.
     
  9. Riton

    Riton Notebook Consultant

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