Upgrading my Ranger

Awesome! Congratulations

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I don't really know where to ask, so I'll just put it here, but theres a guy in my area who claims to have an intel ES CPU that is basically a 4700mq with a fully unlocked multiplier, I was just wondering if it is real as I have personally never heard of such CPU.

Here's and image of it:

 

Take your life into your own hands with ES chips. If it’s a decent price and you have return options then it may be worth a try


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Oh I don't plan to buy it, I was just wondering if it was legit, but I guess that's hard to know for ES CPU's. Seller was asking 200 USD firm on it, kind of overpriced in my opinion, but I guess it's one of-a-kind.

 

Super overpriced since you can get a legit extreme for less.


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I got my i7 4930MX for $200. It was a Qualification Sample, so yeah that 4700MQ is overpriced. The 4930MX has better binning.

 

Alright, I finally have the RAM and the X-bracket, all I need now is the heatsink and the 1070 to ship, it should arrive within the next 3 weeks.

 

Is it at all possible to get a display output while using the 120hz panel with only the iGPU?

 

I believe a member told me that the Intel HD 4600 does have the raw capability to do so but when in PEG the Intel HD is disabled and to my knowledge doesnt work in the Ranger.

 

Alright, I'm too lazy to install the 60hz panel to test the RAM, but i'll just wait untill the 860M or 1070. I did try with the HDMI port and I did get a very, very weak signal. A few feint lines would show up every 10-15 seconds, but it didn't end up working.

 

No. While the iGPU is indeed capable of driving the display, there is no wiring present for it to drive an eDP display. A physical connection between the iGPU and the eDP port does not exist.

Only the dedicated GPU can output to the 120 Hz display since that is the only GPU with a direct connection to the eDP output port on the motherboard.

 

I worded my question bad, I meant to ask if its possible to output to an external monitor, but thanks for the help anyways!

 

No problem!

Apparently you're supposed to be able to get an output through the HDMI or mini-Displayport ports without the internal screen, but I've never been able to get any output to an external monitor without an internal display connected to the laptop, regardless of whether the dGPU or iGPU was the main display output adapter. Therefore, I don't think you'll be able to get an output to an external monitor if you set the iGPU as the main display output adapter while the 120 Hz panel is installed.

 

I decided to clean the 880m as there's lots of thermal pad residue, bits of thermal paste near the die, and the glue from the X-bracket. I had an old container that I planned to throw out and I poured a bit of isopropyl alcohol into it, stuck the card in, and got a toothbrush that I'll never use and went to town on it. I cleaned most of it, but I let it sit in the container with the lid closed to let it "soak" so I could really scrub off the thermal pad residue from the VRAM chips as it was not wanting to come off.

The biggest mistake was letting it sit in the alcohol for a while.

I had been away from my room for a bit, and when I came back, it smelled terrible. There's no good way to explain it, but it smelt like burnt metal and rotten fruits. I immediately took the card out, and knew the smell was coming from the card as the stench was very, very strong. I immediately wrapped it in a towel and put it in my garage. I'm currently airing out my room and man do I regret cleaning the damn card. If you take one piece of information from this post, I remind you to NEVER, EVER leave any kind of computer component in alcohol for an extended period of time unless you want to torture someone.

 

The alcohol probably reacted with something (the thermal paste or thermal pad residue), but the GPU should still be operable. No way is that going to eat through the circuitry.

 

I didn't really worry about the GPU breaking as i'm 99% sure its already broken. The day I got the MSI 1070 and cut the chassis and the heatsink, the card was not giving any output whatsoever. My only guess was that when cutting the heatsink, a small shaving of copper or aluminum got onto the card and probably shorted it.

I'm usually one to be freaked out and annoyed when something breaks, but the 880m isn't a big deal. While they do go for 100-150 USD on E-bay, they are essentially worth nothing to me because I don't really see anyone getting an 880m. Someone could either buy a 980M for better performance at the same price, or they could get a 780M for more support on older machines and more stability compared to the 880m.

 

Alright, I'm currently helping out a guy in one of the discord servers I'm in and he was having issues with his Ranger. From the pics he took, it looked like his 860M was dying (many artifacts, and many lines everywhere.) I told him to re-seat the card and to check if any part of the card seemed broken, or burned just to make sure the card was okay. He took it out with ease as I sent him a teardown video of the Ranger and he sent some pics. Everything seemed fine and I told him to put it back and to re-boot (Note: He has the 120hz display, which is quite annoying as its directly connected to the GPU.) Upon re-booting, he sent a pic and the display DID have the backlights on, but no picture to the display. He told me that he could hear some sounds from Windows, which means that the laptop is fine, but he just cant get a picture. I'm thinking the card is dead, but why would it be able to just do the backlights and nothing else. Is it alive enough to ONLY be able to output the backlights, or is there an issue with the display?

Edit: I guess a better question would be does the GPU have control of the backlights, or is that just the display. I remember when I broke my 880M, I didn't get a backlight whatsoever.

 

Yes a dying card can present with a few different symptoms. My guess is it's just the card

 

Okay, I have talked to him some more and he said that he is willing to buy a 980M. The only issue I see is that he has the 2 heatpipe 860M heatsink. Would that be enough or would he need to buy a new heatsink?

 

Definitely needs the 3-pipe 100W heatsink.

 

Also, there can be problems with certain 980M's in Rangers. If they were pulled from 18's then there's a chance that it was pulled from the slave slot and the incorrect vBIOS will be on the card. If he finds he has no fan control then he'll need to flash a different vBIOS.

 

Yeah, I told him I'd follow up tomorrow, but he wants me to help him find a suitable 980M, so I'll be sure to find the right one, thanks!

 

2 pipe = 75w
3 pipe = 115w

Should work ok with 1060 which doesnt draw as much power

 

I thought about recommending him a 1060, but doesn't that require a shim for the die?

 

No mods are required if you have the 75 watt Nvidia GPU heatsink. I didn't need any. The AMD version however does require mods.

 

Ahhhh ok. I'll talk to him about it tomorrow. Also, what do you mean by AMD version. I don't recall the Ranger coming with any AMD cards unless my memory is wrong.

 

The Ranger had 4 GPU options that I know of when it was released. These were the GTX 765m, GTX 770m, and GTX 780m from Nvidia, and the Radeon R9 M290X from AMD. It was refreshed with the GTX 860m, GTX 870m, and GTX 880m a year after.

 

Also, why did the R9 M290X exist when it was the exact same as the 8970M? Was it branding or did the M290X perform slightly better?

 

Laziness by AMD

Nvidia did it with the 675M. It’s a 580M


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Damn, I never noticed the drop-off between the 680M and the 675M. The 600 series is so weird now that I look at it, 675 and 670 aren't even Kepler based, the 660 and 650M are Kepler based, and the 660M has more cores than the 670M, but the 670M has more TMU's and ROP's and VRAM. Nvidia was going wild back in the day, sheesh.

 

Also, the 1070 finally left China today, the website that I'm using to track the shipping says it should be here by the end of the week. I'm going to take that with a grain of salt though.

 

My MSI 1060 required a shim on my 3 pipe heatsink, didnt make contact otherwise.

 

I had the 2 pipe heatsink and was using that with my MSI 1060 for a while. That one fit perfectly. I then got the 5 pipe modded heatsink from chichen for enhanced cooling performance, and that fit perfectly as well.

The temps with the modded heatsink are really good.

 

I’d like to see cicichen make the same 5 pipe heatsink, but add another pipe for cooling the VRM’s.

 

I specifically requested exactly that from him but he wasnt up for it since most people didnt use the MSI 1070 or those that had, had developed there own means of getting around it.

 

UPDATE:
The 1070 is currently in Ohio, and it should be here by the end of the week at the latest. I plan on making a 1070 upgrade thread for both GPU's as I have had the MSI variant and am now getting the standard Dell variant. I also cannot find an already existing thread that contains either upgrades with many pictures.

The heatsink and fans I ordered off of Receiver arrived today, I'm not home right now, but I will be able to check everything out tomorrow evening. Big thanks to Receiver for supplying most of the crucial things I needed in this project, I appreciate his dedication to helping me out

 

The upgrade for the standard Dell variant of the GTX 1070 should be like the upgrade with the MSI GTX 1060. It should be plug and play, with the exception of the driver modding part, which is pretty easy to do anyway.

 

With the Dell variant, assuming all I need is to add the hardware ID for the 1070, with the 240w PSU, aftermarket heatsink, what else is necessary at that point for that upgrade? Mind you I’m coming from the 980m.

I made a post about this but didn’t know this thread was shaping the way it did. Last time I checked this post he was trouble shooting the error code 43

 

You just need to mod the drivers using the hardware ID and you need the 240 watt PSU.

You may want to consider the 5 heatpipe custom heatsink for better thermals, but the stock 3 pipe heatsink should work fine. I've never had the stock 3 pipe heatsink though, so don't take my word for it. Logic says it should work fine though.

Nothing else is needed. That's it.

 

For the MSI 1070, you will need the aftermarket 5-pipe heatsink. If you get the Dell 1070, you can stick with the 3-pipe heatsink, but the 5-pipe one is recommended.

I couldn't tell you what they are, but to the left of the die on the MSI 1070, there are 2 power delivery looking VRM's that are small, but they are tall enough to cause the card to bend very hard when screwed in all the way with the 3-pipe heatsink. At the bottom right circle, you can see the indention for the 2 tall VRM's (I'm assuming they are some kind of VRM.)

 

Luckily I preemptively bought the 5 pipe so I’m good on that end. I just want a yes or no that my system will run fine with the 60hz and the modded driver at this point lol

 

You should be good to go with the 60hz panel. Though, with my MSI 1070, I could not get it to work with the 60hz panel. I think it was because the card was already broken. I'd double check with a few more knowledgeable people on here about the panel though.

 

Thank both you and [mention]Clamibot [/mention] for the straight forward clarification.

 

Both the 1070 and the 1060 will work with the 60 Hz panel through optimus.

The 120 Hz panel gives the best experience, but isn't required for these cards to work.

 

I just haven’t gotten to the point where I want the 120hz. It’s still a laptop I take places kind of but It is certainly not my only means for gaming so it’s unnecessary to me, for the time being.

Some point in the future I’ll do that upgrade. Thank you again

 

Alright, the 1070 finally arrived!

It seems to be in decent condition, its evident that it has been temporarily used, but they said that they would test the 1070 to ensure it worked before shipping. There seems to be this brownish goo-like substance on the MOSFETS (at least I think its called the MOSFET.) Is this something I should worry about, or is it probably residue from a thermal pad.

 

It looks like leftover TIM or thermal pad residue. You can rub it down with alcohol. It's nothing to worry about.

 

****, I just tried rubbing it off and its not coming off.

Edit:
I still can't figure out what it is. I will be installing the GPU in a few days when I can go over to a friends place to show him everything and so I can have lots of space. If the card does work, but the brown residue is something bad, I will either return the card or ask for an extended warranty. I'm just hoping it isn't any kind of corrosion or leakage.

 

structural integrity of the mosfet along with its solder is way more important but Im uneducated in this field.

@Khenglish if you have a spare moment would you be able to share your wisdom on this matter? Much appreciated

 

Looks like corrosion to me. Hard to tell though.


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