8920G CPU upgrade... the monster is alive

well I decided to do a little monsters garage edition to my new 8920G thats less than 3 days old

I installed an X9000 cpu and it couldnt have been easier.

Take cover over, take two screws out from heatshield holder, take out old cpu, put thermal on new cpu, put screws back on, power up and enjoy.

pics enclosed

Dont laugh, this came from China


The inside of the 8920, very accessible


turn the screw 1/2 turn to release the cpu


ahhhhhhhh


Start your engines



Now all I have to do is wipe the drives clean and install vista 64bit and I am good to go.

The crucial memory for this lappie rocks

Anyone want to buy a slightly used 1.8ghz mobile proc

 

Do the Overclocking options come up in the BIOS, if so can u upload a pic of that.
And keep an eye on the temps with that ES..

 

I completely forgot to check. be right back.

I am going to be surprised if they do

 

sorry no go on the bios. I had a feeling.

cpu at a cool 39c

 

Thats bad. Guess you are stuck to OCing through software then. Else it is as good (or as bad) as the T9500. I had a similar problem when I slapped in the X9000 in my old Dell D630, but I had to get a custom BIOS made, for the OCing options to show up.

 

nice work !

 

where did you get the custom bios made ???

 

nice work aleicgrant

Phil

+Rep

 

BIOSMAN, and I guess your notebook does have the 8-pin PLCC BIOS package, so the BIOS chip is removable. But I am not sure if BIOSMAN will do any more BIOS customizations since he has grown big as a BIOS chip supplier.

To be completely honest, if you are not into OCing and are not able to do so, sell the X9000 and get a T9300, since you will not notice any performance difference between the two. (and you will save a bit of money from it)
X9000 was intended for notebooks which had a BIOS actually made to support them and its features.
I was about to downgrade to the T9300, but I came across BIOSMAN before I did so, and now I have installed X9000s on 3 D630s, with the same BIOS.

But if you want to keep it, try out overclocking through RMClock or Crystal CPUID (but keep an eye on the voltage, temps and 100% CPU utilizations)....

 

Nice work , but you are lucky ... your laptop opens at easy .

I did the same work yesterday at my 2414WLMi .
I replaced the Celeron with one Pentium 2MB cache at the same clock speed.

I am expert , but it took me long time , the laptop disassembled totally .
Any way , by this event i gave it, one in depth cleaning too .

 

Bit of a dumb question, but did you remove the thermal grease already on the heatsink, or just leave it on?
I can tell you used AS5 on the X9000 at least.

 

not dumb but yes I made sure all the grease was gone but to be honest there was hardly any there to begin with.

 

Hmm...if that's the case with my 6920G, it might explain its propensity to overheat.

 

i had a question y would u need to wipe the hard drives clean? like do u need to do it if u are going to install another cpu?

 

^ Maybe because he wanted to install Vista x64 (4GB RAM recognition), which requires a fresh/clean install.

Some notebooks need to have their OS reinstalled, which kind of resets the thermal table and related stuff, but that is normally required with the GL960, not with the 965GM/PM.

Acer could have provided a pre-installed X9000 - 8920G, since the notebook is 17"+, but either there must be some drawback to it or they might be wanting to keep their notebooks cheap.

(But nevertheless, the updated BU-code, micro-code and kernel code were added to the BIOS to support the Penryn XE versions.)

 

GPU Upgrade anyone?

 

it looks like you can since its on a removable chip. I have the 9500 GS so I am not sure if anything is even available to upgrade to.

 

You can upgrade to the 9650M GS. It's available from AcerParts.com for 250 Euros before taxes.
Still got the cash to do the upgrade?

 

The 9650M GS is a good upgrade, but I think you can even stick in an 8800M or higher MXM-III type GPU, if you can go about flashing the right VBIOS into it.

 

Yikes........might have to hold off until there is a price drop to do that upgrade

 

Or until these things become available on eBay, either or.

 

http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/acer-aspire-8920g-gaming-laptop-geforce-9650m-gs-first-impression


this quotes the 8920 as having a 9650 option???

 

That's right, Aleic - the 8920G can come with either the 9500M GS or the 9650M GS. That's why the upgrade is possible, and why AcerParts.com had the 9650M GS for your system available.

 

I would consider the upgrade if it wasnt so expensive

 

where do you see it on that site?

 

http://www.acerparts.com/index.php?cPath=561_562_21152_22387

The "Acer VGA Board MXM/8PGSH/512MB w/HDCP" is the 9500M GS, and the "Acer VGA Board MXM/8ESEH/512MB w/HDCP" is the 9650M GS.

 

wish there was a place to order this in the US

 

Well, they do ship Stateside, if that helps.

 

I work for Staples Canada and I should be able to order the 8920 with the 9650 from my vendor. If you go into your local Staples they should be able to do that for you as well.

Also, I'd give you $50 for that CPU if you haven't sold it yet.

 

^ hey Phaleron

where are you located? curious to know how much the whole deal would be then with the "custom" order. i never knew Staples would do that! NCIX has the T9300 + 9500; would love to see one with a T9300 + 9650.

 

$50 for my old CPU ?

 

I cant bring myself to pay over $200 for a video card which given all my other upgrades might seem illogical. I wish I could find some specs between the two so I could compare.

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Graphic-Cards.130.0.html


"The 9650M is a higher clocked 9500M GS and the successor of the 8700M GT (same chip but other spinning). Therefore, the performance should be on par with the 8700M GT."

more: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9650M-GS.8837.0.html

"[The 9500M is a] Middle class GPU that ist about 10% faster than a similar clocked GeForce 8600M GT graphics adapter. Therefore, the card does not deliver enough performance for very high details with DirectX 10 effects of demanding games like Crysis."

more: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9500M-GS.8167.0.html

 

well I have been giving this upgrade some thought and even went so far as to put on in my shopping cart on that page and then I did some currency conversion. Its almost $400 shipped..... UM no thanks. It would have to put me in a virtual 3d world every time I played a game and I dont think that is going to happen

 

Heh. In that case, wait for Acer to inevitably release MXM-III upgrades in the 9 or 200 Series of GeForce cards.

 

1st Hi to all of you!

sorry if i make any mistakes...the 9500M GS is a MXM III type?
this means that at the 8920G-934G50BN model it is possible
to add a 9700M GT(saw a new model of acer that comes
with that GPU the aspire 8930),,
or even add a 8800M GTX or 9800M GTX GPU to the 8920G?
if this is possible how it can be done?
i asked at Acer/Greece service and they only told me
that they upgrade only HDD and Ram. swoon: )
and here at this thread it has been an upgrade of the CPU!
(which is awesome by the way )
Thanks in advance for any replies...
and again if i post in a wrong thread sorry about that..

 

9500M GS -> MXM-II
9650M GS -> MXM-III

9700M GT/8800M GTX (MXM-III/IV)/9800M GTX (MXM-IV) -> Max MXM-III for 8920G, due to TDP limitation. And will the BIOS support it ? -> No. (And GPU upgrades normally cost a fortune)

CPU Upgrades -> Any conflict with the H/W or S/W due to the upgrade will not be covered under the warranty by Acer, so CPU upgrades are rare (but not in this forum )

 

so i am stuck with 9500M GS or 9650M GS right?
good...i suppose...
Thanks

and what is a TDP limitation?

 

TDP - Thermal Design Power

MXM-IV is 45/50W & above, MXM-III is 35W & above, MXM-II is 25W & above, not sure about MXM-I

Yeah, you're stuck with those two for the moment....