M6600 Owners Thread

I thought the mobos would be the same, the only thing I knew of was that only 2 DIMMs could be used on the dual, while you could use all 4 DIMMs with a quad.

As for the drivers, for game you can use standard Radeon HD 6xxx Series drivers. It'll recognize as a HD 6970M (or just 6900M series). If you're not running workstation programs, no need for Firepro drivers.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I am already on the Balanced Power Plan so it must be something else that's interfering with the AMD utility.

 

The motherboard is the same for all M6600 models. If you bought a dual-core CPU, you can only use 2 RAM slots. If you upgrade to a quad-core CPU, you will be able to sue all 4 RAM slots.

 

Are you 100% certain of that?? If so, I'll change my order immediately, lol

 

Somewhere earlier in this thread there is a report of someone performing such an upgrade successfully.

That said, the quad core is not a very expensive upgrade, I don't see any reason not to get it unless you are on a tight budget.

 

The thing is, in Canada, the configuration options are confusing. If you go with the quad core base config, it doesn't let you change to the FirePro. If you go with the dual core - there's no 2760QM option and I don't wanna pay 450$ extra for the 2860QM, since for 500$ I can get a OEM 2920XM.

 

I have done it with a 2720QM. Just remove the plastic piece covering the RAM under the keyboard. Once you have a quad core in, all 4 slots will work. If you try to put in 4 sticks of RAM with a dual core, I don't think it will even post.

Still would be cheaper and much easier just to buy the machine with a quad core.

 

Good to know it's possible! I hope the same is valid for the M4600 (the one I'm after)

Not right now. Like I said, for 450$ extra (2540M->2860QM, according to Dell.ca) I can get a OEM 29x0XM and sell my 2540M for 100$.

Plus, I have no issues with doing the work myself.

The question is, did you use the same heatsink for the quad core CPU?

 

The heat sink on the i7-2620M was the same as the i7-2720QM. The copper inset is the size of the quad core. The dual core chip is much smaller. So, if the heatsink has the larger copper section, you should be ok. Also, check the part number.

See Pics:

 

Thanks for the info, +1 rep!