Aurora M7700 Upgrade options?

Hello,

Can someone please help me with possible upgrade solutions to my laptop. Below are the specs. Thank you in advance.

EVEREST Ultimate Edition


Computer:
Computer Type ACPI x64-based PC (Mobile)
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
OS Service Pack Service Pack 1
Internet Explorer 7.0.6001.18000
DirectX DirectX 10.0
Computer Name CDECORTE-PC
User Name cdecorte
Logon Domain cdecorte-PC
Date / Time 2008-10-15 / 17:56

Motherboard:
CPU Type DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2200 MHz (11 x 200) 4200+
Motherboard Name Clevo D900K
Motherboard Chipset VIA K8T890, AMD Hammer
System Memory 2048 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
DIMM1: Micron Tech. 16VDDF12864HY40BF2 1 GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz) (2.5-3-3-7 @ 166 MHz) (2.0-2-2-6 @ 133 MHz)
DIMM2: Micron Tech. 16VDDF12864HY40BF2 1 GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz) (2.5-3-3-7 @ 166 MHz) (2.0-2-2-6 @ 133 MHz)
BIOS Type Phoenix (01/09/06)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 (256 MB)
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 (256 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce Go 6800
Monitor Generic PnP Monitor [NoDB]

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Realtek ALC850 @ VIA AC'97 Enhanced Audio Controller

Storage:
IDE Controller VIA Bus Master IDE Controller - 0571
Storage Controller Microsoft iSCSI Initiator
Storage Controller VIA VT8237 RAID Controller
Disk Drive GENERIC USB Storage-CFC USB Device
Disk Drive GENERIC USB Storage-MSC USB Device
Disk Drive GENERIC USB Storage-SDC USB Device
Disk Drive GENERIC USB Storage-SMC USB Device
Disk Drive HTS72108 HTS721080G9SA00 SCSI Disk Device (80 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA)
Optical Drive LITE-ON DVDRW SHW-160P6S USB Device (DVD+R9:8x, DVD-R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/24x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)
Optical Drive MAT****A CD-RW CW-8124 ATA Device (DVD:8x, CD:24x/24x/24x DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
SMART Hard Disks Status Unknown

Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 76316 MB (37586 MB free)
Total Size 74.5 GB (36.7 GB free)

Input:
Keyboard HID Keyboard Device
Keyboard Standard PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse HID-compliant mouse
Mouse PS/2 Compatible Mouse

Network:
Primary IP Address 192.168.0.12
Primary MAC Address 00-90-F5-4C-A1-4A
Network Adapter Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family PCI Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0) (192.168.0.12)
Modem Motorola SM56 Speakerphone Modem

Peripherals:
Printer Fax
Printer Microsoft XPS Document Writer
Printer Quicken PDF Printer
FireWire Controller Texas Instruments TSB43AB22 1394A-2000 OHCI PHY/Link-Layer Controller (PHY: TI TSB41AB1/2)
Infrared Controller IrDA Fast Infrared Port
Infrared Controller IrDA Protocol
USB1 Controller VIA VT8237 USB Universal Host Controller
USB1 Controller VIA VT8237 USB Universal Host Controller
USB1 Controller VIA VT8237 USB Universal Host Controller
USB1 Controller VIA VT8237 USB Universal Host Controller
USB2 Controller VIA VT8237 USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller
USB Device ET USB 2750 Camera
USB Device Generic USB Hub
USB Device Unknown
USB Device USB Composite Device
USB Device USB Composite Device
USB Device USB Human Interface Device
USB Device USB Human Interface Device
USB Device USB Human Interface Device
USB Device USB Human Interface Device
USB Device USB Mass Storage Device
USB Device USB Mass Storage Device
Battery Microsoft AC Adapter
Battery Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery

DMI:
DMI BIOS Vendor Phoenix
DMI BIOS Version 4.06CJ15
DMI System Manufacturer alienware
DMI System Product D900K
DMI System Version VT8341B
DMI System Serial Number 000001
DMI System UUID 0090F54C-A14A0000-00000000-00000000
DMI Motherboard Manufacturer CLEVO
DMI Motherboard Product D900K
DMI Motherboard Version VT8341B
DMI Motherboard Serial Number None
DMI Chassis Manufacturer No Enclosure
DMI Chassis Version N/A
DMI Chassis Serial Number None
DMI Chassis Asset Tag No Asset Tag
DMI Chassis Type

 

welcome to nbr

You can upgrade your graphics card up to the 7800GTX if you wanted to.
You would need the second revision of your board (version 5.2) in order to use up to the 7950GTX/QuadroFX2500M from nVidia.
I know you have version 5.1 motherboard, because the 6800ultra was only offered with that version motherboard.

You can also upgrade your cpu from the 4200+ to the 4400+, 4800+, FX60 or the Opteron 165, 175, 185 processors.
I recommend sticking with the athlon series because stability issues occur with the opteron processor. I have the d900k so I know from experience.

You can upgrade your harddrives if you like to 2 320gb 7200rpm drives, 2 500gb 5400rpm drives or 2 ssd's if you wanted to.
You can stripe the drives in Raid 0 or Raid 1 or you can leave the harddrives in spanning mode.

Other than that you already maxxed out the memory, so their are not other upgrades.

K-TRON

 

ok, thank you. I went to the local PC shop down the street and was not impressed with their level of knowledge.

I was however informed that if I stack 2 harddrives on top of one another, which as you know is the setup on the D900K that they will over heat one another.

 

I think it would be cheaper for you to get a pre-owned m9750 off ebay.

 

nah, lots of guys here have two HDDs stacked in their d900's and i haven't heard of any issues. however, as mentioned before, the planned upgrades might be cost-prohibitive.

 

I have two harddrives in mine, and well if you have two Hitachi 7K100's, you can have harddrive temperatures of about 180F after antivirus run.
The harddrive cooling part of the laptop is pretty bad, but it can be upgraded very easily.
I replaced the stock memory bay fan with a high performance ebm papst 605F, which pushes 17.1cfm of air, which is much more than the stock fan which pushes about 3cfm.
than I removed the plastic cover over the harddrives and replaced it with perforated steel so that the hot air can be blown away.
With the same 7K100's my peak hdd temperature was about 118-122F after antivirus runs. The mod cut 60F off the harddrive running temps.

If you want more info on how to keep the harddrives cool, let me know and I can send you a instruction list/pictures.

K-TRON

 

WOW! i didnt kno u could upgrade notebook fans like that! any chance to put something more powerful in the m15x? (lol, like a leafblower!)

 

you can upgrade your fans to something more powerful if you desire.
Its pretty expensive, so if you are all for it than fine.
You have two options,
1) you can send your fan to the EBM Papst manufacturing plant in Germany, where the guys their can design a fan which generates more airflow in the same package as your current fan. This costs upwards of $600 for a custom fan to be made, cause they need to make Cad deimensions of your fan and than use the 2d and 3d drawings to find out what they can upgrade your fan to. This also takes a lot of time, and time you cant use your system. You would need to have to send them the fan.
2) you can make the CAD files yourself and email them to EBM industries. Than you just need to set up a time when you can talk to one of their engineers and you can have a fan made for your system. This is faster and cheaper to do, around $300 or so. It takes some time, about a month to get a new fan.

Customized fans are expensive because the fan needs to fit into the same space as the stock fan, yet have a higher performance rotor and fan.
This means that since the fan is completely custom, only one is made, thus the very high price.

K-TRON

 

any other m15x owners interested in this? i'm getting a replacement GPU fan next week, so i could theoretically send them the old one... but only if other m15x owners would be interested, maybe a group order would be cheaper. 600$ is definitely too much for me, but if 10-20 other guys want in too, maybe the price will go down a bit?

 

count me in! if we could send one in to make the CAD image of, and then bulk order 10-20 of these, we could split the cost

 

yep, that's what i was thinking.

 

I'd contribute! As long as it's not more than $50 after everyone has contributed

 

yeah right, its not going to be $50 ever. Their smallest normal size desktop/server size fans are all over $50. Your talking custom build, so at least $500 even if their is a large amount of people buying them.

Not very practical, but I have a heart for EBM Papst, and sometimes things just happen even though economically its waste.

K-TRON