[Guide] Installing AMD Radeon Mobility 6970 / 6990 in your M17x R2 (Single GPU and CrossfireX)

Awesome Malignant, welcome to the land of the 6900's

 

Lucky! How much did those run you?

 

920 plus 20 for shipping, so $940 total. 1 year warranty makes it worth it

 

Man. Got mine in the nick of time. So glad I did.

 

Heh heh...because of the sudden shortage, or the price Malignant paid?

 

Sorry for the double post. I got on eBay afterward. Might wanna check this out: 6970M $237 shipped. It says he has five available. Is the 6990M leaps and bounds above the 6970M?

 

Hilarious that my 6970s were $40 more from Myth. Guess I bought them at the wrong time.

 

Good price for used cards. I did see them but I couldn't pull the trigger. Scared to buy used cards I guess.

According to notebookcheck, some of the gaming benches don't show too much of a difference between the 6970s and 6990s. Some of the games were very close at ultra settings. I'd rather have the 6990s, but without 330 PSU support, I'm too afraid. Seems like people are having more success with 6970s.

 

Yeah I've noticed that some of the vendors who do have the 6990's are selling the 6970's for more, you'd think it'd be the opposite?

On a side note, the crossfire connector on his picture looks great, I wonder if that's one of the actual cards

 

Both

 

Lol.....

 

Well how much did you pay? I thought it was around the same price with the $80 shipping from pkhetan.

 

These are Eurocom cards by the way (see their logo on the bottom of the card)

 

I haven't been keeping up, unfortunately. The Eurocom cards aren't compatible I'm guessing.

 

According to ichime in the first post :

 

I think if you flash the Eurocom cards with the Clevo vbios then they work fine. Although Ichime will be able to comment further.

 

Guys the key is not how much you paid, but how much money you saved by not buying an M18X and keeping the best RGB LED screen laptop at the same time!

 

+1 on that

 

Yep I agree, besides think of how much fun we're having

 

For me the thrill is in the kill. I'll be having fun playing BF3 at 60+FPS....cards willing.

Most of you who have already done the upgrade are trailblazers and have set the path for people like me who were skeptical. We appreciate all the hard work and money you've put into it. +Rep to everyone who has put in work on this project!

 

Yes, they are indeed compatible. I'm using 1 Eurocom card and 1 Dell card. The Eurocom card with the Eurocom vbios didn't have any issues - neither fan related or sleep/hibernate related. The Eurocom card paired with the Dell card, both running the Clevo vbios results in fans stuck at 100%, but other than that sleep/hibernate works fine.

Two Eurocom cards should work just like the Clevo cards as far as I can tell. A single Eurocom card worked identically to a single Clevo card card in my system. I just wish I got my cards for that price lol.

 

Well the good side is, everyone is looking on where to get the cards (either 6990m or 6970m) at interesting prices and posting them here...

Eventually prices will drop... at least I hope so ^^

 

So AARPCard, What's the status of the 480W? I see it listed in your sig, did you get it to work?

 

Did anyone attemp to install the GTX 480M or 580M?

 

Ichime is working on getting 580m's in SLI, but one will work.

 

Yep, works perfectly. Read back several pages. Everything works fine. Throttling occurs when draw is over 280 watts, but that's not a power supply issue. That's something to do with the MB which I'm looking in to. All the information you need to make a working 480watt PSU is included in this topic.

 

Lol, I am afraid I do not have the ability to build something like you have shown. I have the clumsiest hands ever.

 

This maybe a dumb question...but isn't there a dual power supply with the for some Clevo models? Would it be possible to duplicate the architecture of it, with Dell PSU's or even use it instead with minor modification?

 

yes they do have a dual psu adapter, and it could be possible if you soldered different plugs on to it

 

The plugs are not the same? I thought that was standardized across all laptops.

 

haha no unfortunately not
here is a picture
you would need change the plug on the end and make/buy 2 adapters so your psu's in

 

The clevo PSU for the X7200 uses 3 rails for power delivery (kinda like a desktop). Alienware PSU's use 1 wire. As a result the innards of the converter box most likely would need some tweaking for use with the alienware PSU's (in addition to changing out the connectors.)

 

Bummer. I thought the adapters were standardized. Thanks for the info.

 

So the four wires are not: positive/active, negative/neutral earth/ground and ID wire (earth/ground being basically the same as negative/neutral like in a car?)
Does the x7200 use 3 phase power or is it different again?

 

He might mean the adaptor prives 3.3v, 5v and 12v rails (or some mixture).

 

I finished my 480 watt PSU and overall I am happy with it.

The setup is overkill, however the diode stays cold to the touch under full load. The cooler it stays the less the voltage drop is, so operationally this is perfect.

The fan is powered by a external 6v adapter, but this could easily be incorporated with a resistor or a pot.

The fan blows out, causing a suction of cold external air to flow in through the heat sink.

 

Douse, repped!

talk about overkill, that heatsink with heatpipe and everything looks really nice

great job

 

Nice job! Looks like a beast!

The only thing I would point out that with silicon, the resistance actually decreases with heat, while most other material's resistance increases with heat. So keeping it very cool results in a higher VF, but with the diodes you're using the max VF is so small it shouldn't really matter.

It's all a game between letting it get warm, but not hot enough to fry lol.

Where did you get your enclosure? I've had trouble finding one that would work with my adapter. I finally ended up putting an LED on one of the lines, so I can easily tell if a PSU has tripped. (so far they haven't )

+rep

 

Thanks

It is massive overkill, and I could see it being a problem if one were to move their laptop around. I don't move mine atm so it suits me.

I turn off the fan when I am not gaming as it isn't necessary.

@Aarpcard, Cheers! I didn't know that about the Diode, perhaps I could turn down the fan to force the heat sink to warm up a little...

eBay! I figured out roughly what size I needed and trawled and trawled until I found one that suited me. The height could be a little less...

Good call with the LED! You have to show us your finished result when you can!

 

Hey Douse, fantastic design!! Really impressed with how all of you were able to put these adapters together.

 

Thanks!

I agree, it is cool how everyone has come up with different designs to put it all together!

 

Very Nice ,

Now we need to see about getting you some GF cards to test that supply

 

LOL! yeah tell me about it

 

Found this site for the 6990m which is surprisingly enough cheaper than the 6970m... hmmm.
In any case looks like a fine price, though it's risky as usual because I see no stock # or anything like that, so be your own judge.

 

Nice find, crazy like you said that the 6990's are cheaper. Seems like a legit site

 

Seems to be a 1 yr warranty as well.....I think it is BS that some companys refuse to provide a warranty.

 

Hey Douse

Are you going to go for those cards?

 

Possibly, although I wont be doing anything until my bank can locate my money....

 

LOL!!

I have the same problem

 

Yeah whats up with those banks?

I'm thinking of borrowing some cash from a friend, I know he'd loan me cause of the dividends coming soon