Vostro 1400.

I cant tell you what do, you asked for our advice so I am giving it. I think things can be done to try and prolong the life of the GPU (copper mod) but in my personal experience and from what I have seen here I would not consider purchasing a system with one of these GPU's. There are people here who have gone through 3-4 system boards in less than a years time because of this issue. Luckily they had warranty because the cost of each repair is in the hundreds.

 

There is an actual flaw in the manufacture of the chips that makes them more prone to fail under normal circumstances. If I recall correctly, inconsistent thermal expansion and contraction of the chip, the packaging, and the motherboard, stresses the solder joints connecting chip to the motherboard. If the BGA material is substandard and cannot endure this thermal cycling, it will fracture, and that is roughly what is happening with many 7x00 and 8x00 Nvidia parts.

Copper mods and cooling mods in general reduce the difference in expansion and contraction between the chip and the motherboard and will thus theoretically decrease the likelihood of BGA fracturing, but because the quality of solder joints also vary, cooling doesn't really guarantee anything.

Or something like that.

 

Thank you guys for all the advice, I really appreciate it. I will take it into consideration. I will also make another thread on the forums in search of another type of laptop in the event I take your advice and do not buy this high risk product off my friend.