Upgrading a GX720

I have the following configuration.

MSI MS-1722 ID1 (GX720) 17" WS...
Display-WSXGA-WUXGA: WUXGA 1920 x 1200 Widescreen Non-Glare
MXM Graphics Module: NVIDIA Geforce 9600M GT 512MB DDR3 + Turbo Cache-DX10
Optical-DVD Or Blu-ray: Integrated DVD Super-Multi-Dual Layer W/Software
Core 2 Duo Processor: Intel Core™2 45nm P8600 2.40Ghz 3MB 25W 1066MHz
Compound-Heat Sink: Mirror Polished CPU/GPU Heatsink With Arctic Silver 5
2.5 Hard Drive: 320GB WD Black SATA II 7200 RPM 3Gbs 16MB Cache-Free Fall Sensor
Turbo Memory: No Turbo Memory-Click Here To Add-Vista Only
Memory-DDR2: 2GB KINGSTON DDR2 667 PC2-5300 CL5 Dual Channel Kit
Wireless: Intel WiFi Link 5300 802.11 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO Mini-PCIe

I am running Vista Ultimate 64. I would like to upgrade this computer, at least the memory, and possibly the CPU and GPU, depending how much they will cost. I am hoping the costs have dropped for these items since I first bought this in mid 2009. I have been reading the threads here and it seems fairly straightforward to replace the memory and CPU. The GPU is apparently another story. I am looking for practical upgrades that won't break my meager bank, but that will increase my computer's capabilities with proven technology

For the memory, I will, at minimum, get another Kingston card to match the one I have. This brings up a question about the, I think, Latency Numbers associated with these cards. I have seen in the threads here the numbers 5-5-5-8. I was looking at a Kingston 2GB card at Office Depot today and the card had 3-3-3-6(I think, may have been 5) on it. May I presume if these numbers are lower, then the Latency of the memory card is less? Its other specs matched the one listed above, except I don't remember it saying CL5 Dual Channel Kit. Ideally if they do not cost too much, I would like to get a matched pair of 4GB cards. Any suggestions?

For the CPU, I would like to go with the Quad Q9100, Q9200, or Q9300. It is my understanding from the threads here that this should just drop in, in place of my P8600 Dual. Is this correct? Or will I need something else in addition? Is the heatsink the same for the Quad Cores as the Dual Cores? If not, what would be a good upgrade in a Dual Core that would use the same heatsink? Do you know how much the Quad Cores are running nowadays? What spec do I look for other than Q9*00?

For the GPU, I have seen in the threads here where several other GPUs have been tried, but I haven't seen yet how successful they were. Especially in regards to getting a proper heatsink on them. The main thread for the GX720 is a bit daunting to look through at 86 or 89 pages. I have read the first 40+ pages and nothing decisive has been posted yet. A lot of promising ideas, but did any of them actually work? Such as the 3870, or the GT160M? Or dare I ask, the 4850 (if one can be found?)? I know the main problem is getting a heatsink to fit and still get the back cover on correctly! MSI sure didn't make it easy to upgrade the GPU in this little beast, but at least it isn't soldered in like so many laptops.

One other upgrade I wanted to enquire about is Turbo-Memory. Have these been shown to be worth the price? This computer has an extra card slot that can use it, so I was wondering how much difference in performance it would make with a Quad Core, 8GB of Ram, and using Win7 Ultimate 64, which I already have waiting to be installed. Also, should I go ahead and install the Win7, or wait until after I make any upgrades? Does it make a difference in how successful the upgrades are?

I have the tutorial from here about disassembly of the GX720, and it all looks pretty simple, except the heatsink compound. I presume I will need some of that on hand. This computer currently has Arctic Silver 5, but I see the new upgrade in builds is something called "Diamond..." Are these available from places like Tiger Direct and NewEgg?

All in all, I need to know what will work, and where I can get it reliably. Thank you in advance for any help and information you can supply.

 

intel turbo mem = bs.

When you get a CPU, if you want a good price check out ebay. You can get an ES Q9100 (some es versions of this CPU are extreme, unlocked multi) for around $200. Then you can overclock to about 3ghz with throttlestop:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...unlock-core-2-extreme-multiplier-windows.html

If you go for an ES CPU, google the Spec Code and make sure that the CPU is good (has temp sensors and isn't an early es).

I hope you're looking at notebook ram and not desktop ram, I have never seen 3-3-3-6 or anything cas 3 for notebooks that run ram at 800mhz/667mhz. You need DDR2 (?) sodimm ram.

Not sure about what GPU is supported, I put a 3700m in my MSI gt627, runs really hot though. You might want to stick with a cool running 4850.

 

Get a QAVR or QAVS Q9200 (has temp sensors).

 

Some MSI wont boot at all with ES cpus.
Also don't get q9300 its qx9300, make sure you don't accidentally get a desktop CPU.

Also I believe I remember someone tried a 3700m and it worked but they had trouble getting it to run at full clocks.
If it works though then it probably means all g92 cards have BIOS support, even if you have some trouble getting it to run full speed, it means it probably supports all g92 based cards meaning 9800m GT, 8800m GTX/GTS, gtx 260m and 280m (mxm type 2.1 and not type 3.0). gts 160m is g94 based but it is highly likely it will support that as well and the other g94 which are 9800m GS/GTS and fx 2700m. The only one that is remotely cheap right now (other than the 3700m) is the 2700m:
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2700M 512M GDDR3 MXM-III G94-700-A1 - eBay (item 230571278393 end time Feb-06-11 10:53:23 PST)
These are qualification samples quite obviously however he will let you return them if there are any issues, including shutting off at 80c or anything like that. I have dealt with this seller and he is good.

For all of these cards you will still need the other heatsink, or you can modify yours similar to this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi...2-1-type-iii-cards-9800m-etc.html#post7085984

The 4850 will work too. I have one but I want to get my own gx720 to put it in.
Want to trade laptops? I have the 4850 in a clevo m570tu right now, but this card only works with it on external monitor. You wouldn't need to modify the cooling to use all of those cards on the m570tu, and its cooling capacity is quite good so the 3700m (most powerful) does not run hot at all.

 

Hi, an welcome here. So let's start from number one
1. So you wrote that you have "Memory-DDR2: 2GB KINGSTON DDR2 667 PC2-5300 CL5 Dual Channel Kit", which means that you actually have 2 by 1Gb memory sticks. So if you want to upgrade it to 4Gb (2x2Gb sticks) you need to get rid of your current ones. Then the brand is of no matter, although I prefer brands like: OCZ, Patriot, G-Skill. Ones that are actually overclockable, so you can use your Turbo button, without getting BSoD. I'm talking for modules running at 800MHz and when you start Turbo-24%, the memory goes on 1000Mhz, so you need a good memory to run at that speed. Oh, sorry, if you're going to go for a quad, this means that the Turbo won't work, so actually any memory will be good, when you don't overclock.
2. For the CPU you don't need any modifications of the heatsink. If you're going for an ES from E-bay, then actually look it to be QS (E-bay sellers write that), this means that the CPU is good, otherwise as niffcreature said it might not boot at all. Here is important do you want to use your Turbo button to overclock or you'll do it by the hard way with throttlestop. If you're goind to overclock at all.
3. Well the GPU ... this is the hard thing here. If we're talking for upgrade this means that you for sure must go to a MXM 2.1 Type III (your current one is MXM 2.1 Type II). So this means that you need either to do your own heatsink or to find one from GT725. All the cards you noted and the suggestions here are MXM 2.1 Type III. There is no better card than your current one for MXM 2.1 Type II. Although you can overclock it to match GT 9700M just with one BIOS flash. I can send you that BIOS if you want. I've tried an nVidia 3700M, but ES version and for sure is not working with this machine. It starts, but when you try to install nVidia driver it says that you don't have nVidia card inside, so you don't need that driver. Funny, isn't it I suppose that people here talking about running that card, they mean not an ES version. As of my experience Mobility Radeon HD4850 is the best card for this machine (look at the signature )
4. Turbo memory is not that good as it was advertised So in my opinion is wasted money.
5. Also from my experience Arctic Silver 5 is good enough, of course the Diamond one is better but we're talking for 2-3 degrees here ... same thing here more money for meaningless advantage.
That's for now, hope to be useful

 

Well of course the 4850 is the best for this machine.
If you are going to bring up extremely rare cards, there are a few better MXM 2.1 II cards. gt 130m, gt 230m and of course the ati 4670. Just saying.

The fact that drivers would not install has nothing to do with the fact that your card was ES btw, I'm sure you could get around those driver issues somehow.
I guess QS is a little different too, those were the cards I suggested.

 

I would differ, and say, try to grab a new mobo.

With this you can get the arrandale cpus + the 5870 that the gx 740 have.

 

I would say that the total cost of such upgrade (MoBo + GPU + CPU + RAM) would be close to the total cost of a new laptop... Unless OP would find a buyer for his current laptop components (and at a decent price).

 

That should be assumed.

Seriously I don't even have a gx720 but if I saw a gx740 motherboard at a reasonable price I would buy it immediately.

My guess on a quote from a reseller is around 400$ which is not very reasonable.

 

Didn't you upgrade you motherboard from the ms-1722 to the ms-1727?

 

I've had that before with a toshiba notebook that had a quadro nvs 130m or something like that, you can force the driver to install through device manager. You can also mod the inf file to include your device ID.

EDIT: also an easy way to do it would be just to download the driver and modded inf from laptopvideo2go.

 

No, I bought a barebone MS-1727.

 

I would get PC2-6400 800mhz DDR2 sodimm ram.

Either 5-5-5-15 or 6-6-6-18.

 

Just to say about that FX3700M I've tried. It was May last year and I had it for about a week. I couldn't make it work and I've returned it back. Also there was an intervention on it by hand - somebody repaired it, because there were sings from a soldering gun at few places and also one cable was bypassing two points Only that was enough to return it back, but still I've tried it and I thought it is because of the fact that it was an ES. After it started I assumed that who ever did the repair do it right at that time ... may be not

 

Did it look like this (he also had an es version):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi...orks-fx-3700m-full-clocks-10.html#post7078964

Seems the ES version isn't great but I still think you could install the driver.

 

Anyone who could have soldered that wire to make a repair would have had to know what they were doing.
But I have seen a number of those cards with the wire. I think its a strange manufacturing quirk.

 

@ moral
Yep, the card that I had was absolutely the same
So I see now that there is new one for sale on E-Bay for around 200 bucks ... ah ... I want to test it ...
@ tucchase
be careful it seems like you don't make difference between DDR and DDR2 memory. It is PC-3200 and PC 2-5300 / PC2-6400. The first one is DDR and the other two are DDR2. You need DDR2. And listen to moral, take PC2-6400.

 

Sorry, I'm still learning the techno-speak for all this stuff. I see the difference between the PC2-5300 and the PC2-6400 is the bus speed of 667 vs. 800. Yes, I will want the PC2-6400. You mentioned in your first reply, #1, about a Turbo button. My machine does not have a Turbo button. I have the silver speaker panel and no Turbo. So if I go with overclocking it would need to be the old fashioned way. A couple of you mentioned throttlestop?

For the "Memory-DDR2: 2GB KINGSTON DDR2 667 PC2-5300 CL5 Dual Channel Kit", I was wondering if I had one card or two. I ordered 1 card of 2GB, planning to add a second card later. Is there a way to get the computer to tell me what it has, without opening it up? All it will tell me in Device Manager and System Info is that it has 2GB of RAM. Even "dxdiag" only says I have 2GB RAM.

Mr MM suggested maybe getting a GX740 MoBo. What would I look for? The titles in eBay do not specify what computers that particular MoBo will fit. Such as "MSI P45 Neo2-FR Intel C2Q Socket 775 DDR2 Motherboard ". It is at this link.

MSI P45 Neo2-FR Intel C2Q Socket 775 DDR2 Motherboard - eBay (item 190490559980 end time Feb-12-11 18:05:56 PST)

Do I need to go to MSI's website and find out which MoBos will fit a GX720?

Genna, you have a 4850 in your computer. Did you have to modify your heatsink? Or adapt a heatsink from a GX725? There are 70 items for HD 4850 in eBay right now. Most of them $100 or less. What would I need to look for in the title or description? I presume one from an ASUS, or Dell, probably wouldn't work, right? I also see you were able to use a 1GB 4850. Did you have to do anything extra to cool the extra memory chips?

For the CPU, what about a T9600 2.8GHz? There are a lot of these available. How does it compare with a QX9100 in real world terms? Or a QX9300? There is a QX9300 listed also, currently about $230. Others are $500 and up. Does the "X" designate it is for a laptop? There are a lot of Q9100s, but no QX9100s. Several of these Q9100s are marked ES. This means Engineering Sample, like niffcreature mentioned, right?

I am sure I will have more questions as I find out more information.

 

OK, first that thing with the "mobo" just forget it - it will cost you a ton of money Motherboards for laptops are expencive and in most cases if something goes wrong with it, its cheaper to get a new laptop. The one you showed at that link is for PC.
To see your memory you need to install CPUz, very useful and freeware program. Install it and play a little with it, you'll see how easy it is. On their site there is breaf info how to use it.
No other brand heatsink will fit in you laptop. You need either to do it yourself or to find one from GT725, GT728. There are no other options.
Now ... my 4850 .. it was pain it the a** I bought a heatsink for GT725 (it designed for 512Mb version, not mine - 1Gb). Also you'll need an additional bracket, wich is placed on the other side of the GPU and it holds the heatsink (it's good to ask the seller of the card for it, because your current one will not fit) - I couldn't find one, so had to do it myself. I also did cut small copper pads to cool the bottom memory chips, but still is not good enough for overclock ... Only works at stock setiings. I've checked E-bay too and no one sells one right now (you need to type ' Mobility Radeon HD4850').
For the CPU, it depends what you'll use it for ... and as I see Q9100 is 200$ wich is very good prise for it. I can't tell you how does it compare to 2 core CPUs. I myself haven't tried one yet, just don't need that power yet. I'm not a guy who likes higher numbers on some benchmark ... but since that price is not too high and it is considered for future upgrade I think it's better to go for 4 core CPU. And 'X' designates Extreeme Edition See here.

 

There is the option of modifying the bracket on the heatsink like I mentioned, though it will probably not work well unless you add copper ramsinks.
...And there is possibly the option of a gt735 heatsink, you would have to find a picture to be sure. On the gx630 everything about the graphics card is the same but the CPU is totally different so you cannot use a gt627 heatsink, but with their 17" there are 2 separate heatsinks so it is more likely to be possible.

Genna, is your 4850 an Alienware card?? Not the one that will fit r1 or r2 of course.
Did you have to flash the VBIOS? Mine is original from the gt725, and not working on built in LCDs of other laptops but the alienware version will work I'm sure.
I think I need to flash the VBIOS to the alienware but I'm scared to do it.

 

Oh, yeah, the good GT735, I forgot that, please to be excused The heatsink from it is also compatible, because it is just the same as the one in GT725.
@niffcreature
Yes, mine is Alienware card. I didn't do any BIOS flash, as of the matter for making it work. After I took its own BIOS and just lowered the clocks when on battery, just to drain some more minutes. I didn't like the fact that with this card my laptop runs on battery for only 45-55 minutes ... but the power drains power This is also the reason not to put 4 core CPU inside, it's another 20 Watts.
This is interesting you say, that MSI's cards don't run other built in LCDs - first time I hear that. And don't worry about BIOS flash, if you have good BIOS file and do all the steps as written it is save.

 

Good to know the heatsink is the same! I wish I had something as obscure at the gt735. I wonder if thats what you mean by 'good old' (I love having things unique to the point of rarity regardless of their power).

Its not MSI cards that will not run on built in LCDs, its the 4850 card in particular. Also it is HP fx 3600m and 8800m GTS cards
I ask about the BIOS flash because I want to use it on my m570tu built in LCD. I am talking about flashing the Alienware BIOS to the MSI card. Do you think that is a bad idea?
If you upload your BIOS for me I will probably try it I'll also try it in my gx630 I guess. That would be a funny setup.

 

OK, it sounds like the GPU will have to wait for a future upgrade. If I understand you correctly, if the description does not specifically say "Mobility Radeon 4850" then it is likely for a desktop PC. Is this correct? If so, then they appear to be still as scarce as hen's teeth. I would probably need to browse online, and newspapers, and any other classified ad for a used computer that happens to have one.

The MoBo I listed was just an example of what nomenclature is being used. Which doesn't tell me a thing as to whether it would fit my computer. Would "CPUz" give me that information? About what I currently have anyway?

The CPU should be an easier swap, shouldn't it? How much faster and more efficient would a T9600 be than my current P8600? I remember it was one of the top options in Dual Core for this machine when I first bought it. I use the computer for browsing the net, and other fairly simple things, but I also play WoW on it. Since Cataclysm came out I have been having increasing problems with my computer taking a long time to exit the game and get back to normal processing. I am running Norton Antivirus (free from Qwest) and it keeps telling me that either WoW, IE8, or Vista is causing the computer to suffer from High Usage. When I shut down WoW it can take as long as two minutes to finish before I can open a website, or shut down Ventrilo. I am hoping the increase in memory will help this problem, and swapping the CPU might help also. Am I on the right track?

 

Well, I don't know MSI to have 4850 with 1Gb memory, so for sure is BAD idea. You can flash any BIOS of any manufacturer as long as things are the same: PCB board revision (sometimes this is of no importance, since I've seen cases where different PCB revisions work with same BIOS, but it's a risk), amount of memory (this is very important!!!) and so on ...

 

Amount of vram wasn't important when it came to desktop cards (flash GTX 470 vbios onto GTX 465).

But I'm not saying you should try flashing the alienware bios onto the msi card.

 

This is the way AMD (formerly ATI) brand their cards 'Mobility Radeon' series are for laptops and 'Radeon' series are for desktops. nVidia for example use 'M' after their cards name to define that (example your GT9600 M and the desktop model is GT9600).

Yes, CPUz will give you information about your mainbord, but this is not the way to find it. In the mobile market they don't use the same nomenclature just because these things that we are doing here are not intended to do . If you want it that much, simple write your laptop model and mainboard/motherboard after it.

Yes, CPU, RAM and Wi-Fi antennas are the easiest swap in all laptops.

Well, WoW is RAM eater game, so for it the memory amount will increase performance. Also as you write that you use IE8 to browse the net ... it is also using a lot of memory, compared to other browsers.
As I see the comparison table of Notebookcheck for CPUs T9600 is much faster compared to your current one - pos. 42 against 88. You'll see the advantage of the newer CPU in boot time, application load, multitasking.

 

Actually there are some BIOS' where the amount of vRAM is not mentioned in BIOS, but I don't know what will happen in this case with MSI's card.

 

Ha wifi antennae easiest to swap. I guess so.

Can you upload the vbios anyway? I want to check if it could be the same board ID.
I might try finding or learning about vbios headers as well and copying it with a hex editor. It has to be possible.

I am mostly scared about the MSI and alienware difference in general and the fact that it is ATI. There are some Nvidia cards that have one version with vram on both sides and another with it on one side, but they are identical and one side of one card has solder marks and empty spaces for VRAM. in that case I do not see how there could be a problem.

Board ID is also not as dangerous as you think, what matters most is what the core is based off such as g92 vs g94 or g84 vs g86, all bad ideas and also the vram type, ddr2, ddr3.
You can use all kinds of g92 BIOS on other g92 cards, just usually fails to start drivers and there is no danger.
Also I think if it is the exact same card there is no danger at all, the fx 3700m bios from Lenovo and HP are cross compatible but one has a p612 board and the other a p398.
Also many companies that make MXM cards do not even use Nvidia board ID system but use normal vbios.

but this is all nvidia. I wish I had experience with ATI.

 

Yeah, I meant to mention differences with the cores and memory, but I thought that is known by default . When I go home I'll see where did I put that file (original vBIOS) and upload it for you

= Edit =
There it is
Alienware HD4850 master card, Original vBIOS - 1Gb version

 

I was thinking more RAM would help, and I would like to go all the way to 8GB.
Thanks for the comparison table. I bookmarked it for future reference. Am I correct in presuming that any of the Penryn CPUs can be used in my computer? If so, that will give me quite a bit of leeway in choosing one. I can look at multiple choices and if I find a bargain on one of the higher CPUs, like one of the Extremes or a T9600 to T9900, then I will be that much better off. The top three Core 2 Duos are placed 33, 34, & 35. They are the X9100, T9900, & T9800. The next three Penryn's are also grouped, at 41, 42, & 43. They are, respectively, P9700, T9600, & X9000. All-in-all, there are 18 Penryn CPUs rated higher than my P8600. Are you familiar with any of these top six Core 2 Duos? Are there any I should be wary of? Or are any of these incompatible with the MSI MoBo I have?

 

I ran CPUz and it seems to confirm that, even though I ordered a single 2GB RAM card, I received 2 1GB cards. So now I have no choice but to buy two new cards. CPUz says I have cards in Slots #1 & #3. Is this a default in CPUz that it always indicates 4 Slots, or does it mean I actually do have 4 Slots? I thought this machine only had 2 Slots for RAM. Maybe 4 2GB cards would be less expensive than 2 4GB cards? Is there an advantage to having 4 cards? Or do just 2 cards run more efficiently for the same amount of total RAM?

 

Thanks genna! sorry for hijacking your thread tucchase!

Those CPUs are higher power consumption, especially the X series, but still lower than the Quads.

I think the best thing honestly without price being an issue is the p9700. It will probably run cooler than all the others even if you overclock it - speaking of which, even tho you don't have the turbo button, it should be very easy to overclock your notebook. Someone else can probably tell you more about that, I'm not a g720 owner.
because it runs so much cooler, ultimately it will be much better than even the t9900 and even x9100 because you should easily be able to get it to 3.0ghz and higher.

You definitely do not have 4 ram slots. I don't know why it says that.

 

Yes, but better choose only those that use 1066MHz FSB.

You have to know that all 'T' and 'X' series Intel CPUs are hot. Easily hit 90-95 degrees C when loaded. Forget the X9000, it uses 800MHz FSB. In my oppinion the best CPU for you it'll be same as mine, or its superior - P9700. The 'P' series are 25-28 Watt CPUs - because of the lower consupmtion they are cooler and you have longer battery life.

CPUz reads the capabilities of the chipset - PM45 - it supports 4 memory slots, but you actually have 2 wired. So you have 2 modules by 1Gb each, which you need to get rid of if you want to upgrade.

 

800mhz FSB CPUs work on pm45 and chipsets supporting 1066mhz just fine. Downclocks and runs RAM at a weird ratio like 3:2.

I think it would be funny if someone bsel modded an x9000 to run at 1066mhz FSB, because normally that locks the multis at 6x but its an unlocked CPU.

p9700 and p9600 are quite expensive I think, try p8800 which is also 2.66ghz.

 

wow, yeah, actually I'm kind of glad to see that my CPU is still expensive I remember paying for it more than $500.
tucchase has P8600, he doesn't need another 8 series CPU. He needs more L2 cache in order to feel the difference. So it is either P9xxx/T9xxx/X9100 or quad

 

NOOOO......

L2 cache is a great way to save money
Because it does not affect performance AT ALL.

 

Bring out some tests to prove that, because I'm sure that you're wrong
It's not important for AMD architecture, but for Intel is of very big importance.

 

I too thought l2 cache was pretty important for the core 2 architecture, but yeah benchmarks would be the way to find out.

 

No Prob! Interesting stuff!

 

tucchase, for HD4850 you need this heatsink. You can search somewhere else for cheaper price, though.

 

OK, looks good. That would be for a Mobility Radeon 4850 512MB, right? If you have the 1GB version then you need to add more cooling on the other side, right? Or does this come with plates for both sides?

A question about ES CPUs. What do the four letters beginning with "Q" at the end of the description mean? Also, one of the vendors says to be sure that my system can handle an ES. Since so many of you have done so, may I presume that mine would be OK? Or how do I check?

 

This is for 512 Mb version. There is no heatsink for 1Gb, you have to make it yourself if you find 1Gb version.

You can type those 4 letters at CPU-World at IDENTIFY PART field and to see what processor you;re going to get. It is important to be one of the last ES, because earlier versions might not work well and also have some things cut, like temperature sensors. If you're going to go for an engineering sample watch the seller to identify it as QS, not ES. QS stand for Quality Sample and it is the last version of ES. With QS CPU you'll be sure that you'll have all the features that OEM CPU has, nut for lower prise

 

One of the vendors has a lot of T9600s marked QHBM. His description Title says ES, but in the text he say Qualification Sample Final. This is confirmed by CPU-World. In its sSpec Notes it also says "Qualification sample". This vendor also lists some P9700s with a code of QLMA. Neither he, nor CPU-World, say they are "Qualification Sample". CPU-World has nothing in their sSpec Notes. I don't believe I will have much problem with heat if I stay away from the Xs and Qs, since this system was designed to handle up to the QX9300. There are also some T9900s listed.

 

Sometimes you can tell about the temp sensors and stepping with the last letter in the code, I have heard that A and Z are bad. Might want to steer clear of the QLMA or just ask the seller if it has temp sensors, if they say yes and it doesn't you can dispute it.

I still think a p8800 is a better idea than the t9900, its not going to increase TDP 10 whole watts from 25-35 to run it at 3ghz.

As for the L2 cache, here is a comparison of t9500 2.6ghz 6mb & p8800 2.66ghz 3mb:
PassMark - Intel Core2 Duo P8800 @ 2.66GHz - Price performance comparison
PassMark - Intel Core2 Duo T9500 @ 2.60GHz - Price performance comparison
Almost the same. p8800 a little better.
Conclusion: 3mb vs 6mb L2 is approximately equal to 60mhz (0.06ghz) in performance.

 

a-a-a, no,no,no and no
You are comparing T9500 which uses 800Mhz bus and P8800 at 1066. Even using the slower bus it's clear that the T9500 is slightly faster. So take two CPUs that run at the same bus.
I've compared P9600 (2.66GHz, FSB:1066, L2:6Mb) and P8800(2.66GHz, FSB:1066, L2:3Mb) at Notebookcheck,s comparison table and if you see 3D Mark CPU test there is no difference, but comparing with other, much more CPU related benchmarks, you can see the difference for around 100pts. And I think that Super Pi is the best performance test for that matter, unfortunately there are no points for P9600. I didn't test mine at standard frequency But OCing it at 3.3GHz beats all Core 2 Duos with 14 sec for 1Mb and 32 for 2Mb

 

Thanks for the info on the last letter of the code. I had planned to steer clear of the QLMA anyway because there was no mention of "Qualification sample" or "Final". On your comparison, it looks like apples and oranges. I went to the Passmark site and looked up some more numbers. Here they are.

Intel Core2 Duo T9900 @ 3.06GHz 2288
Intel Core2 Duo T9800 @ 2.93GHz 2191
Intel Core2 Duo P9700 @ 2.80GHz 2124
Intel Core2 Duo T9600 @ 2.80GHz 2025
Intel Core2 Duo P9600 @ 2.66GHz 1954
Intel Core2 Duo T9550 @ 2.66GHz 1901
Intel Core2 Duo P8800 @ 2.66GHz 1877
Intel Core2 Duo T9500 @ 2.60GHz 1852
Intel Core2 Duo P8600 @ 2.40GHz 1606

The T9550 would be a direct comparison with the P8800 with both of these having 1066 FSB and 2.66GHz. As you can see, the P8800 comes up 24 points short. I don't pretend to know how much 24 points is in the real world, but it doesn't seem like much to me. However the higher T9s and P9s are MUCH higher, I presume because of their higher clock speeds. Although the P9600 is the same 2.66GHz as the P8800, its score is 77 points higher. So all other things being equal, I think I would rather have the P9600 over the P8800. Mostly it will depend on what I can get for how much. Straight retail is basically out of the equation. Even the "New" parts on eBay are generally priced well above $200. So it looks like I will need to get a used one, or an ES Final. So far, the only ES Finals I have seen have all been T9600s. Ideally, I think I would like the P9700. It is 28 watts, and it would still be overclockable, wouldn't it? So if I need a higher performance boost I could learn to overclock it and not need to buy another CPU. In looking at used CPUs, is there anything specific I would need to ask the seller, or to watch out for? Such as the machine it was removed from? Or does that matter with CPUs?

 

I can sell you my t9600 if i don't sell my gx720. It is the retail version which will include the box that i can sell for about $180 shipped if your in the states and still has a 2 year warranty from intel still (i have to double check). but well see the outcome on my ebay listing ill tell you by sunday or monday.

edit: bought the cpu in 1/26/10 so a little less than 2 year warranty.

 

Well, considering the OP could overclock quite easily to that frequency (I know I've said it several times but its true) saving 70 bucks might be more favorable especially when it will run even cooler and save more battery.

I mean its not like you need the 2.8ghz all the time, I just realized my laptop starts to 1.6ghz unless I run throttlestop or go in and out of standby.

 

Yes, it will mostly depend on how much I might have to pay. I may need 2.8MHz more than you may think. I play World of Warcraft, and approximately 60%+ of my time on the computer is while I am playing the game. My little P8600 @2.4MHz isn't cutting the mustard since Cataclysm came out. So I guess I will be doing a lot of watching on eBay to see what pops up. If a P8800 pops up and seems like a better deal than others, then I may go with it.

Heat should not be a problem since the GX720 was designed to handle up to the QX9300s. I have seen a lot of people post in here that their GX720s and GX725s are running much cooler than they expected, especially when overclocked. Now, more battery time would be a consideration, but not much, since 99% of my usage is plugged in to AC. This beast runs really slow in WoW the few times I have tried it on battery!