Dell M6800 - School me on GPU X-Brackets

Hello All,

New member here, I was led to you group via several internet searches about doing a GPU Swap in a Dell Precision M6800, and I have some questions that I cant seem to find the answers for searching here or elsewhere.

Here's the story: I picked up a used, but near mint condition M6800 last week in my travels. It's fitted out with a i5 4200 CPU, and the AMD Firepro 6100 GPU. I think I got a good deal on it for about $100, but things weren't as they seemed. I didnt realize until later that I was given the wrong power supply for it, the wrong one having the right voltage, but only half the required amps. The pc booted, but ran like crap. I ordered a proper power supply from eBay this week and low and behold, I have a working laptop now.

The plan is to upgrade this laptop to a decent level with the primary use being CAD modeling on the go. I have a desktop PC for heavy duty work and gaming, so not looking to push this thing too far. The plan is to upgrade the CPU to a i7 4810, max out the RAM to 32gb, and upgrade the GPU to a Quadro K4100M.

I ordered the GPU first because I got a pretty good deal on it, $58 with shipping. I also ordered a new heatsink for Nvidia cards, and new thermal pads, basing the thicknesses of the pads on information pulled from another post I found here, i think. The only thing left is the X-Bracket, as the K4100M does not include one.

Here's where I need help: I get the impression that I cannot use the Clevo branded bracket because the threaded inserts are too tall, so I opted not to order one of those. Searching for a Dell specific X-bracket yields no results, however I found a listing for a supposed Nvidia branded bracket, model MXMXBF, and ordered one of those as the inserts appear to be the right length, though the picture seems to suggest they may protrude through the bottom of the bracket and dont sit flush as the ones I've seen pictured do. Has anybody used one of these in on Dell GPU? Will it work? Any leads to one that would work?

Thoughts?

 

Never mind, the bracket arrived in the mail yesterday, and it looks just like the ones I see shown in ebay listings for Quadro cards. Thanks anyway to anyone who put any thought into responding to my query.

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Hey so I hope you still log in here bc I have a Precision as well and got a k4100m and I'm not sure about the x bracket coming with it. May need a heatsink for it as well.

 

Where can I source an Nvidia heatsink for cheap?

 

You're in luck, yes, I still do follow this site sometimes, Tapatalk makes it easy when its cooperating....

Inevitablably, I cant help you out too much, as I am still waiting for my gpu to arrive from overseas. What I can tell though is if you look around at eBay listings for GPUs pulled from Dell M6800s, you will see the threaded inserts on brackets for those cards are close in height to the thickness of the card. The Clevo brackets have much taller inserts and thus wont fit right. I did do a cpu swap in my machine a couple weeks ago and had the gpu heatsink off, and this appeared to be the case with the AMD card bracket as well. You will however need to make sure your getting a Nvidia specific bracket, and other than the insert lengths, they appear to be the same otherwise. It shouldnt matter what NVidia you its listed for, only that it's for MXM 3.0b cards. You also need a Nvidia specific heatsink as well, if you haven't read up on the requirements, as well as heat pads if your new heatsink didnt come with them as mine didn't.

That's about as far as I've gotten so far with this project, can be more specific once it moves forward.



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eBay is where I sourced mine. I ended up with a lot of two OEM heatsinks for $25, actually, so pricing is not bad on these days.

For the time being, I will not be offering the second heatsink for sale until I finish my own installation, just in case...

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I saw the prices on Alibaba and thought I could score for less than $50 CAD but I cannot. eBay wants the price of the item itself for shipping. Perhaps if you follow through with the installation and all goes swell, you'd be willing to part with the spare?

 

I ordered the GPU heatsink for less than forty bucks Canadian so I'm happy!! Comes in 14 days

 

easiest way to get the right x-bracket is to order a very cheap Dell Nvidia GPU that shows the bracket in the pictures. Does not matter if it's a MXM A or B card, all that matters is that there's a dell part number sticker on the GPU.

For example: If you search ebay for "KDWV4", the first result right now will be a dell MXM-A Quadro 1000M that has the X-Bracket attached for $13.95 Or Best Offer. (and free shipping)

 

That's actually a pretty good idea... I did however complete my upgrade finally, and threw a bit more money at it in the process: I bought a Dell OEM Nvidia K5100M with an included bracket rather than waiting for international shipping channels to open back up to receive the K4100m I ordered from Poland a week or two too late... That said I have some observations to share with anyone looking to do this upgrade:

- The Heatsinks for the Nvidia cards are in fact different from the AMD cards. The only real difference that I see is in the width of the center flat that sits above the bank of components next to one of the RAM banks. It is shorter on the AMD heatsink, and thus would not cover all of those components if used on the Nvidia card. Likewise, the Nvidia heatsink with its wider flat probably wouldn't fit between the taller components on the AMD card, so the heat sinks are definitely not compatible.

- The X Brackets: for the Dell M6800, the proper X Bracket must have threaded standoffs that are only the height of the card's thickness, or only slightly taller. The Clevo style with the extra long standoffs are wrong for this machine, though they may work in some of the Alienware laptops. Here's the biggest surprise with the brackets though: the K5100m I installed came with a bracket, The AMD Firepro 6100 I pulled from the machine had its bracket, and I had the one I ordered separate from ebay as well. All three were exactly the same. At some point I guess they became a singular part, rather than two distinct styles. I don't know when this occurred.

- Thermal pads and paste: I used an OEM heatsink for the install, so this may differ if you use a non OEM unit: I used thermal paste on the GPU chip only. For all other components, regardless of copper pad height, I used 1mm thermal pads, save for two spots. This is reflected on the the AMD heatsink I removed as well. The two spots I used thicker pads were long thin sections along the heatsink's edge, and for these I repurposed the pads from the AMD heatsink, but I'm pretty sure they're 1.5mm.

Thats about it, the install was quick, easy and straightforward. Can add component photos later.

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The general rule of thumb for Dell MXM laptops is simple.
Nvidia MXM: Any Dell Nvidia X-Bracket and the Nvidia Heatsink for that model laptop
AMD MXM: Any Dell AMD X-Bracket and the AMD Heatsink for that model laptop
The only deviation from this is for laptops like the Precision 7720 that have MXM-A and MXM-B GPU options: You also need to make sure the heatsink is the correct one for your MXM card size. (The 7720 MXM-A heatsinks do not cover all of the voltage regulators on MXM-B cards.)