Adventures in cpu replacement :)

Well I finally found my self a su9600 bga cpu. 50 bucks, its ordered, and on its way to my house.

The su9600 is the faster version of the su7300 that is in my r1. It sits at 1.6ghz, and should overclock to just over what the pin mod su7300 cpus get.

I will be sending the motherboard out to have the new cpu installed since I dont have the tools needed to solder it in.

my r1 went out of warranty 7 days ago, so its time to do some real mods

 

How much are they charging to unsolder the old cpu and replace with new cpu?

 

Not sure yet, I still have to find a place

Im aware that I could sell my r1 and buy a r3 also for those who are about to ask me that.

 

respect bro, it will probably be good 100bucks for them to solder it on, but seriously, respect.

neither cost nor performance efficient, just to make something cooler than everyone elses R1s true hardcore mode this. wish i had the special soldering table for reballing and resoldering the cou/gpu onto motherboard, would totally rock it with a GPU upgrade.

also, have you verified with alienware or dell that bios will support the new CPU? i assume the upgrade one will require more wattage than old cpu as well?

wish you best of luck with this! make sure to find a reputable place to do this.

 

Im sure dell will not tell me if it will work or not, so I compaired the specs on intels website.

Everything seems to match up power wise.
the 9600 lacks a few features of the 7300, but has a nice bump in power.
Compare Intel® Products

 

Alright, CPU is here!

I will try to get some photos of it soon. Going to pull the motherboard this weekend.

 

Do you think you could pinmod the su9600 to get even higher clocks?

 

i dont think the chip will work without bios that support it.

 

There is a place 3.8 miles from my house that does this kind of stuff, System Design Advantage is the name of the place.

ok, just got off the phone with them while typing this.. $50 bucks, no warranty, who knows if it will work or not.... going to drop it off on tuesday.

Should have the laptop back together by the end of next week!


If this works, then next up is the macbook air 11 lcd swap

From what I have been finding, a pin modded su9600 should clock in at 2.2 and may even go all the way up to 2.5-ish

It may, and it may not... eitherway, im still doing it. Cant make progress by not taking chances... even if my progress is a giant step backwards from current tech

battlefield 2 doesnt play nice with the i5/i7 cpus, and thats the only game I play, so I have to stick to the older tech.

 

If this works, will you try to replace the GT335 with a GT445 or someother rebranded higher scaled Nvidia Chip?

 

Yea probably... I guess I will just keep pushing it to max specs on it and to further the m11x world.


If this works, then I would think that a r2 or r3 could be pushed even further.


GT445m n11e-ge-a1 - for future ref.

Here is the new CPU in all its 1.6ghz glory

 

Nice ejohnson, I'm looking forward to seeing the outcome.

Especially the MacBook Air screen mod...

 

clever project!

 

cant wait for the results.

if this works im so following in yur foot steps...

now to search ebay for mobo prices.

 

So cool, if it doesnt work, I hope that you'd be able to solder the su7300 back on...or would that be too much of a cost prohibitive risk?

 

If it doesn't work them I will buy a new mother board, it would be cheaper than re balling the old chip and installing it.

 

Can't wait for the result

 

Can you solder a socket to make it CPU swappable?

 

Cant you just reach those rebrands by modding the new bios onto the old card? Like I think some people flashed their 580Ms into 675Ms, and I know one person flashed their 540M to a 630M

 

The 335M could never be replaced by a 445M or otherwise. 335M is DX10 while 445M is Fermi and DX11. 100% would not go.

The only thing I could see the 335M being plausibly replaced by is a 360M, and I highly doubt that would work. Maybe replacing the GDDR3 with GDDR5 is a better idea?

 

now this would be some DIY project hell... adjusting heatsinks, soldering like 200+pins, plus finding a socket to solder onto there, spacing everything as i doubt it would fit straight on... man oh man that would be fun and hell at same time.

picture from cpu looks like it isn't a retail unit though, seems like something kidnapped off a production line lol. (i mean the packaging) but yeah, will be awesome if it works.

also, a new graphics card upgrade would possibly work, but with some serious BIOS mods... never done it so got no idea on complexity of such task...

 

I don't know... I've read that GDDR5 creates a considerable amount of heat over GDDR3, which would be bad in such a small case with no dedicated GPU fan.

 

A different GPU would be impossible, so it's the only bet.

 

I was told that gddr3 and gddr5 have different ballouts and are not compatible.
I did look at a couple of data sheets and it seems to be the case.

Though you could probably swap them for faster gddr3 chips.

 

Tomorrow is the day of truth!

Hoping they can do the job while I wait, otherwise I will have to leave it there.

In regards to the gpu, I think I may just leave the 335m in there. I only play a few games, and all of them run fine on the 335, the cpu is whats killing me in most of them. My main game being battlefield 2 doesnt work on i5/i7 cpus either, so thats why I am swapping out to a su9600.

Installing a socket so that I can hot swap out the cpu, while being the ultimate in street cred, would be pointless I think. The heat sink and bottom plate would have to be modded pretty good to allow for the extra thickness the socket would make. Then all I would be able to do is pull out the cpu and plug in another one... Im just going to jump to the top of the range cpu from the start.

 

Excellent please keep us updated !!! God Bless

 

I play BF2 just fine on the i5 2520 in my m6600

 

He means that it has issues, not that it completely doesn't work.

 

Crash to desktop is the biggest problem I have with bf2 and the i5 in my x51... I have to turn off all but one core so I dont crash... but then the system runs so lean that I get a punkbuster boot for heart beats stopped every time I play my fav weekend worriers wake island map... most other maps work fine, but rendering all that water just kills the i5 on a single core.

Basically, if I want to play bf2 and not get booted or crash, I have to run it on the m11x.

 

Hey in regards to the BIOS, you might want to ask around on biosmods.com to see if anyone can make one that will work with the su9600. (Ya kno, if the regular one doesnt)

 

Good point, I will toss it out there and see if someone wants to make a few bucks.

Just made a request over there. Hope someone can come up with something with in the next 24 hours... computer goes under the knife tomorrow at 3:30pm

 

Haha when I saw the name of this post two things came to mind,first, "Sweet!Somebody brave enough might actually be doing this!" then suddenly, "Wait no,its probably ejohnson,not brave,just awesome."

I've really liked all the experiments that you've done,though something comes to mind,how many M11X's do you have? I know there is this the tablet and the white,but do you have more?

 

I have 2 working ones and a pile of random parts from a few others. Probably enough parts to build a few more working ones. But, motherboards is the one item I am lacking alot of. All the broken ones I get usually have water damage, or a cooked motherboard.

Working on getting a macbook air right now.... doesnt turn on, hinges are broken... probably needs a logic board or whatever, but the lcd should* be good.

 

Well once you get the lcd of an Air on an M11X please inform us,I've been dying to replace my screen.

 

Been doing lots of searching on the macbook air lcd.

Seems mac didnt seal up the lcd on the air, when you take it out, it comes out in 5 layers! so we may have some mods to do to the lcd itself before it will even fit in there.

EDIT

Took the computer down to the mobo this morning, took 15 minutes

Anyways, here is a picture of the 2 chips next to each other.


From the guys over at bios mods
Looks like right now we have a green light to go

 

Here hoping the operation is a sucess

 

*waiting impatiently...

 

Still 2:30 here in minnesota
one more hour till I drop it off.

edit, 3:00, leaving work now.

 

Best of luck.

 

In a world where customers don't risk their sub-1000 items on modding .One will rise to take on the challenge. He will show what is possible with an attidute of a true DIY-man. His name is EJOHNSON

Coming this fall Directed by Quentin Tarantino Starring Ejohnson as Ejohnson

 

refresh
refresh
refresh

Not like I'm ever gonna do this no matter what, but it's still awesome.

 

Well the mobo and CPU are dropped off.... Now the waiting, the lady at then front was not sure how long it would be, but said it could be done tomorrow, or could be next week . Either way, I'm excited

 

Our thoughts and prayers are with you in your time of need. lol

 

Thanks

What city you live in? You seem to be in the same state as me.

 

I live near Forest Lake, you?

 

Burnsville, but I work in Saint Louis park... Your a good 45 minutes north of me.

Nice to see a local on here

Well this is a buzz kill

EDIT: The company that was going to install it called me this morning... the techs in the back refuse to replace the cpu since its not the same as the one thats in there.

OK, back to the drawing board on places to install this thing.

 

Did you express to them that you are aware that it's different and that you are doing an experiment? If there's no warranty on the functionality, I can't see why there would refuse to install a CPU that uses the same socket.

 

I am going to call them back on my lunch break, see if I can talk to the techs that are doing the work on it.

I had told the person I talked to on the phone that it was a test and I knew it very well may not even work, maybe she just didnt relay the message.

edit

Haggling with the tech on the phone right now, he isnt comfortible installing it due to warranty implications, possiblity not working right, not being able to test... all that junk. I told him I dont really care about any warranty, just need it soldered down, no warranty, no tests, just installed.

sitting, on hold right now.


\edit again

tech doesnt want to do it

Time to find another place I guess.


New edit,

Talking with a another company about getting it done. Had to leave a message, just waiting for the call back.

More edits

The second place I called told me that since I am jsut doing a single board, it would probably cost too much, but gave me a phone number for someone who can do it.... and he also happens to be just down the road from me So now, I am talking with Dimation to see what can be done.

I am having my father pick up my mobo and cpu since I work when the place that has it is open.

Hoping to get ahold of Dimation this afternoon, and dropping off the parts tomorrow or friday.




Last edit,

Finished talking with the guys over a Dimation, super nice guys, seems like its a small shop type thing, but he was more than willing to give it a shot. I am meeting with him friday afternoon to have him take a look at the project.

Oh and the guys a Dimation, they can do the job while I wait The owner usually hangs around a few hours after the place closes to work on things.

 

Will be waiting to see your results. I am loving my M11x. I still haven't talked to dell about the screen replacements since I have read on here they don't want to replace the screen only give you a refurb R2. I want to stick with my R1. If this works out for you I may have to get the number from that shop. I have a Toughbook I want to do the same thing too.

 

This has been one hell of a roller-coaster, l have been following it with baited breath (or fetted breath as l am suffering form tonsillitis atm, and why l am up at 0142 GMT instead of being asleep).

Keep us posted