Bought a Dell Precision M6400, have a few questions.

Just bought this laptop from a friend for $30usd, it came only with a QX9300 and a Quadro FX3700M, i added 4GB of ram and a 5400rpm HDD. The thing is, it came without battery and charger so i'm using a charger which doesn't delivers enough power (120w, stock is 210w) to run the CPU at max speed (it is capped at 1.5Ghz, original is 2.5Ghz aparently).

1.- I was wondering if it's any worth buying a new battery and a charger (40$ aprox. each one on ebay) due to the age of the laptop (2008).

2.- I'm currently using a Toshiba L755D (A6-3400M, HD6520G, 4GB, 5400RPM) for school (programming, AutoCad, SolidWorks) and a few games when i have time. ¿Is there a any performance upgrade between the Dell Precision and the Toshiba L755D?

3.- Whic is the best mGPU i can install on this laptop (donesn't matter if i have to do some mods)?, i read somewere it could be the Quadro 5000M but haven't found anything else about that.

Thanks in advance!!

 

It's worth it if you'll use it; only you can decide on that. It should be faster than your Toshiba, especially for games. The CPU can also be overclocked with ThrottleStop to at least 3.5 GHz by simply changing the multiplier as it's unlocked.

The best GPU IMHO would be an ATI M7820 (from Precision M6500) as it's comparable to 5000M, but has a noticeably lower TDP even compared to the FX3700M. No mods are needed, but it comes with a different cooler (so easiest to buy it as a set like I did).

Not sure if 5000M is compatible with the FX3700M cooler, though, but it heats up a lot IIRC so unless you need the Quadro for some special applications, I'd (and did) go with the M7820. It was also much cheaper and easier to find.

 

Thanks!!, that's what I wanted to hear =) , I'll look up for a M7820 on eBay.

 

Would you be willing to part with it? im in desperate need of a new lappy (currently on a e6400) and im thinking a m6400 will be nice bc its relatively cheap...