Anyone thing special to look for when getting a used I7 920XM?

I am meeting a guy on craigslist later on to trade my 16gb wifi Ipad for his I7 920XM. He will put it in his laptop so I can see that it works and then after, he will take it out to trade for my ipad. I don't have any experience when dealing with processors so I would like to know if there is anything specific I should test when using it on his laptop. I also need to watch him closely to make sure he does not switch it with another processor. Also, can I get a decent return if I sell my old processor? It's the I7 720QM. Thanks to anyone who can help!

 

You are trading a useless tablet for an amazing processor. I think you do not need to think twice...

Concerning what you need to look for, I would suggest the following:

- Look for any burn marks or burnt smell on the CPU
- When the seller tests it, make sure you check the frequency and have him run a free 3DMark 06 benchmark with it to see if everything works well under load. If it does you should be fine.

Hope this helps.

One side note: I would not suggest the benchmark test if you bought it on Ebay as you would have some warranty or at least Ebay buyers Guaranty but here you are trading you ipad which has a value and there is no way for you to get it back once the trade is done. You need to be extra careful.

 

Cool Thanks. I actually just bought this ipad for only 400 on craigslist so the way I look at it, I'm getting the 920 for 400! I'm still kind of scared though because it's so easy to get scammed on craigslist.

 

Make sure the CPU on it physically says Intel 940XM. Here is a pic of my OEM i7 920XM side by side with my ES i7 940XM. The ES chip might not have "940XM" printed on it in black tape. Also take a thumb drive with CPU-Z installed on it. Just extract it when you download it, and install it in a CPU-Z folder on the thumb drive. Should look like this.
If it is an ES (Engineering Sample) it will say ES in the "Specification" block.

I would also take a copy of "OCCT" of Intel Burn Test on the thumb drive to stress test the CPU.

Pic of my OEM 920XM and ES 940XM side by side.


CPU-Z screen shot.

 

So should I be worried if it is a engineering sample? He said it came out of a HP workstation elitebook but I never bothered to ask if he worked at Hp.

 

ES CPU are fine. If it came from an HP Elite book it is not an ES version. You should be fine as long as you test the CPU and make sure you get what he tells you.

$400 for an OEM 920XM version is quite cheap.

 

Yea, your getting a good deal. I put up some good benchmarking scores with the 920XM but it was way overclocked. Just make sure you look for the details I mentioned.

 

i would follow what both DR & Barchuck said. make sure you bring some verification tools with you & benchmarking tools. i support running a 3dmark06 run on it to make sure its good under load. what a deal IMo i would sentiment Joebarchucks words exactly " a worthless tablet for an Awesome Cpu"

 

Thanks for all the input guys. Im about to meet him in a couple hours then I will install it tonight when the wife and kid is sleep!

 

first off great advice! for sure test it out under load and see how it performs. looking for burnt marks is a great suggestion.

I lol'ed at the tablet remark haha.

good luck with the trade and installation!

 

I just installed my 920xm last night, then proceeded to punish it with e-leet.

My 3dmark 06 fps/score increased by more than 40%, and my SC2 performance by about 20%-30%. This is an excellent upgrade for ANY m17x r2 user that wants a huge performance boost.

A great seller (sent from china to australia in only 3 days!) on ebay is a guy called extremeprocessor.
100% positive feedback, thousands of sales, and all the cpus come with original stickers and factory sealed with instructions.

-Ash

 

Yeah but not at the cost of $400.00 like that guy states he can purchase it for.

 

Ashtefere: Try downloading ThrottleStop and right click on it and then you can adjust the turbo TDP/TDC settings. If you haven't done that yet, you're probably going to find another significant bump up in performance. Head to the M17x benching thread for some more details about how to get the most out of your new CPU.

Here's how 5150Joker was doing in 3DMark06 with the TDP/TDC feature.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6434222-post3507.html

 

Ah ok, I have tried throttlestop and I didnt get much use out of it cos it seemed limited.

Obviously I never tried rightclicking!

Ill give it a shot tonight. Thanks!

-Ash

 

Based on my testing, I've found that there's plenty of room to actually drop the TDC from 62A to 52A and keep the TDP at 72W for everyday use with the 940xm. It seems the TDC has very little overall impact on the turbo function. So far I've even dropped it as low as 44A without any performance or stability degradation. Any thoughts on that Kevin?

 

According to the Intel docs, turbo boost can be limited by either TDP or TDC. How low can you go on TDC and still get full turbo boost? Maybe TDC is not a factor in the XM CPUs.

The basic formula is this:

Power = Current x Voltage

With a Power setting of 72W, you would think that dropping the TDC down to 44 amps would be limiting full turbo boost long before you got anywhere near 72 watts.

You might have to post some more testing on ImageShack® - Online Media Hosting
Too many people must be checking out your results on photobucket so now it's blocking your pics.

 

That's why I was a bit perplexed by it. I figured with a lack of Amperage, the current would drop and so would Turbo but it never happened. I think I remember you posting an Intel tech doc on the 920/940xm and it said 48A was standard wasn't it? Maybe I'm mistaken. I'll PM you about it today.

 

Here are the Intel specs for the Core i7 mobile CPUs in case anyone else is interested.



I think by default, the TDP turbo limit is set slightly lower than the TDP limit of the CPU.

Do you know what the actual voltage is that you normally run your CPU at?

 

I recommend people use flickr for photo uploads. No bandwidth limits there.

-Ash