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    Upgraded M9750 To Hd3870!

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by simonmpoulton, Jun 16, 2009.

  1. simonmpoulton

    simonmpoulton Notebook Deity

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    So today I received and installed a Hd3870 into my M9750 :)
    So far rock solid, temperatures seem ok and the performance increase from SLI 7950GTX's is certainly noticeable in games.
    3DMark06 Scored at 8111 Marks Which is 700 Marks more than the SLI 7950's which got 7406 Marks.
    I'll report any issues i encounter with this in this thread :)
    If theres any benchmarks anyone would like me to run then post in this thread and i'll be happy to run them and report back!
     
    simonmpoulton, Jun 16, 2009
    #1
  2. Frag

    Frag Notebook Consultant

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    Where did you purchase the HD3870?
     
    Frag, Jun 16, 2009
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  3. Rob41

    Rob41 Team Pirate Control

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    Hey great job man!

    First ichime and now you've done it.
     
    Rob41, Jun 16, 2009
    #3
  4. whizzo

    whizzo Notebook Prophet

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    when will we see crossfire and benchmarks? :D
     
    whizzo, Jun 16, 2009
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  5. JasonNH

    JasonNH Notebook Evangelist

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    ^^^^^ THIS!!
     
    JasonNH, Jun 16, 2009
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  6. THRUST

    THRUST Notebook Enthusiast

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    Does the M9750 mobo support crossfire ?
     
    THRUST, Jun 16, 2009
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  7. whizzo

    whizzo Notebook Prophet

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    ichime got it to work i think, yeah.
     
    whizzo, Jun 16, 2009
    #7
  8. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    nice work.
     
    dondadah88, Jun 16, 2009
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  9. THRUST

    THRUST Notebook Enthusiast

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    As far as he says in the thread, he couldn't test crossfire mode.
     
    THRUST, Jun 16, 2009
    #9
  10. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    no he got it to work it says it in there

    he scored 12000 in 3dmarks
     
    The_Moo™, Jun 16, 2009
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  11. simonmpoulton

    simonmpoulton Notebook Deity

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    Ok To Answer Your Questions, Wont be able to test crossfire since i only managed to get one card at present. I got the card from a guy who had a damaged M17 he was splitting out for parts. And whizzo just tell me which benchmarks you want to see and i'll run them :)
     
    simonmpoulton, Jun 16, 2009
    #11
  12. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    update your Sig :p

    Eurocomm has another 3870 you could get
     
    The_Moo™, Jun 16, 2009
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  13. ichime

    ichime Notebook Elder

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    lol, you got a higher score than I did when I used two cards. Just goes to show how much that T5500 really bottlenecked the cards. Anyways, congrats, and if you need help installing the 2nd card, look here. It's tricky because you'll have to connect the cables before placing the heatsink. Let us know your results (man I wish they had 4870s for the M17/W840 just to see if we can put one in an M9750).

    At first, I couldn't, but once I got around it, I updated the thread. Just follow the link provided above.

    Haha, I wish. More like 7400ish. But seeing how he got 8000+ on a single card with a T7200, I think it's safe to say that the T5500 I used really held the cards back big time.
     
    ichime, Jun 16, 2009
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  14. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    ichime i think you would be happy to put them in your Whitebook :p
     
    The_Moo™, Jun 16, 2009
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  15. simonmpoulton

    simonmpoulton Notebook Deity

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    Signature Fixed! Yeah I looked at Eurocom when trying to get the first card, they e-mailed me back and told me that they were planning to get them in but they never got any stock :(
     
    simonmpoulton, Jun 17, 2009
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  16. simonmpoulton

    simonmpoulton Notebook Deity

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    Heres an Up-To-Date 3DMark I ran Just 10 Minutes Ago :)
    [​IMG]
     
    simonmpoulton, Jun 17, 2009
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  17. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    nice compared to the centrino 2. single 3870 run the amount of ram doesn't make 3dmark higher.
    [​IMG]


    can you up to the the t9300 or the t9500 or the t8300 or montenia won't work(even though it will fit?????)
     
    dondadah88, Jun 17, 2009
    #17
  18. JasonNH

    JasonNH Notebook Evangelist

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    No, T7600 is the best that will fit. I'd be happy to benchmark this if he wants to send me his 3870. :D
     
    JasonNH, Jun 17, 2009
    #18
  19. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    oh i see. 2.33ghz is still not bad. i wonder how much it will cost.
     
    dondadah88, Jun 17, 2009
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  20. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    when i refered to ichime i was talking about Xfire :)
     
    The_Moo™, Jun 17, 2009
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  21. simonmpoulton

    simonmpoulton Notebook Deity

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    Heres a little update after a few weeks, Card is still running well and I havent suffered any overheating so far :)
    Performance increase is certainly noticeable in games that didnt support SLI!
     
    simonmpoulton, Jun 29, 2009
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  22. simonmpoulton

    simonmpoulton Notebook Deity

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    I've also managed to order a T7600 processor so that should be arriving soon :)
    Although heres a nice 3dMark with the T7200 overclocked!
    [​IMG]
     
    simonmpoulton, Jul 2, 2009
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  23. JasonNH

    JasonNH Notebook Evangelist

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    How much was the T7200 overclocked?
     
    JasonNH, Jul 2, 2009
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  24. simonmpoulton

    simonmpoulton Notebook Deity

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    By 170mhz, i could probably push it higher since the tempsare at 80 Deg C under full load but not by far :)
     
    simonmpoulton, Jul 2, 2009
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  25. JasonNH

    JasonNH Notebook Evangelist

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    Nice work. I'll be interested to see how the T7600 improves things for you. I wish I could get my hands on one of these ATI cards.
     
    JasonNH, Jul 2, 2009
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  26. simonmpoulton

    simonmpoulton Notebook Deity

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    I estimate at least 9k, if i overclock the T7600 too i should be getting around 9.5k i would think :)
     
    simonmpoulton, Jul 2, 2009
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  27. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    dondadah88, Jul 3, 2009
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  28. simonmpoulton

    simonmpoulton Notebook Deity

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    [​IMG]
    Heres the T7600 Results :) Quite puzzling actually i would've expected it to give a greater performance increase than it did, but this isnt overclocked :p
    Quite interesting that it improved the graphics score as well as the CPU score, so seems these ATI cards like faster processors!
     
    simonmpoulton, Jul 5, 2009
    #28
  29. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    yes ati loves cpus. it is little more(alot more) cpu dependant then nvidia.
     
    dondadah88, Jul 5, 2009
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  30. haggard beats

    haggard beats Newbie

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    Just going through the forums and thought you guys might be able to enlighten me.


    Just ran 3dmark06 on my m9750:

    Intel Core2 T7200 @ 2.00GHz
    2 GB RAM
    SLi 512 MB GeForce Go 7950 GTX

    I got a score of 4034. Seems pretty low to me. Is my CPU bottlenecking it? What can I do?
     
    haggard beats, Jul 10, 2009
    #30
  31. Rob41

    Rob41 Team Pirate Control

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    The first thing I'd check is to make sure SLI is enabled.
     
    Rob41, Jul 10, 2009
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  32. haggard beats

    haggard beats Newbie

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    That was my first thought too, and it is.
     
    haggard beats, Jul 10, 2009
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  33. Rob41

    Rob41 Team Pirate Control

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    Your CPU isn't bottlenecking, I've got the same set up as you in my M9750 accept

    I don't remember exactly what I was getting, but if my aging memory serves me correctly, you should be getting a bit more than double that score.

    How are your temps?

    You are plugged in right?
     
    Rob41, Jul 10, 2009
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  34. haggard beats

    haggard beats Newbie

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    Hm, that's what I was thinking I should get.

    I'm plugged in and how can I check the temps?
     
    haggard beats, Jul 10, 2009
    #34
  35. Rob41

    Rob41 Team Pirate Control

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    Just download HWmonitor. It's free and small.
     
    Rob41, Jul 10, 2009
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  36. haggard beats

    haggard beats Newbie

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    This is probably bad.

    CPUs are at 166-170 F
    GPUs are at 177-190 F
     
    haggard beats, Jul 10, 2009
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  37. Marvie100

    Marvie100 On a Mission

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    Is that at idle or under load? Greater than 100 celsius (212 F) is bad under load, but if those are idle thats a tad high. At Idle i'm about 48C (114 F) on CPU and GPU.
     
    Marvie100, Jul 10, 2009
    #37
  38. Rob41

    Rob41 Team Pirate Control

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    Please tell me those aren't the idle temps!

    If so, then yes, those temps are too high.

    It looks like you need to get a high quality thermal paste like OCZ Freeze, and remove the old paste and apply the new paste.

    I'm assuming you haven't done this. If not, it will lower your temps by quite a bit.

    Also, when is the last time you removed the bottom cover and cleaned all the dust out from the fans and the grills?
     
    Rob41, Jul 10, 2009
    #38
  39. haggard beats

    haggard beats Newbie

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    Idled.

    Just have a Safari window up.
     
    haggard beats, Jul 10, 2009
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  40. haggard beats

    haggard beats Newbie

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    Last time I cleaned was probably November.

    I've never done this thermal pasting, any how to guides you know of?
     
    haggard beats, Jul 10, 2009
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  41. Rob41

    Rob41 Team Pirate Control

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    Actually I'm not sure if there is a guide for that on the M9750.

    Once you get your thermal compound, unplug the AC adapter, remove the battery, then depress the power button for about 20 seconds. This will ensure there is no stray voltage in the system.

    Remove the bottom access plate and unplug the small electrical plugs for the two fans. All you're going to remove at this point are the screws that hold each of the heatsink assy's in place. Once that's done, you'll be able to remove the heatsinks. All of the old compound must be removed.

    You will be applying new thermal compound on both GPU dies, the CPU die, and the northbridge. These are the places you removed the old compound from. Then put a drop the size of a grain of rice in the center of each die. When you replace each heatsink assy, give it a bit of a wiggle to help spread the paste around.

    All that's left is to install all the screws you removed and don't forget to plug in the fans elec. connectors.

    When you turn on your rig, be sure to run HWmonitor to ensure your temps are in a reasonable range and that you did the procedure correctly.

    The Alienware site may have a how-to guide on doing this with pictures but I'm not sure.

    Good luck.
     
    Rob41, Jul 10, 2009
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  42. haggard beats

    haggard beats Newbie

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    Sounds like a plan. I'll be ordering some of that stuff tonight.

    Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it.

    I'll post my results and hopefully higher 3dmark06 score when I'm done.
     
    haggard beats, Jul 10, 2009
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  43. Rob41

    Rob41 Team Pirate Control

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    Actually, it's not nearly as bad as it sounds. You'll see when you get in there.
     
    Rob41, Jul 10, 2009
    #43
  44. simonmpoulton

    simonmpoulton Notebook Deity

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    If you have SLI enabled properly you should be getting about 7k with the 7950's. Also note that if you have old drivers and/or you are running 3dMark at a higher resolution than the default then it will reduce your 3DMark score.
     
    simonmpoulton, Jul 11, 2009
    #44
  45. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    +rep i hope you get crossfire to work when you get your second card.. :)
     
    dondadah88, Jul 11, 2009
    #45
  46. simonmpoulton

    simonmpoulton Notebook Deity

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    Just a quick update upon receiving the second card, now up to 10k 3dMarks.
    Max temps i saw during that run was 88 Deg C on the primary card and 75 Deg C on the secondary.
    [​IMG]
     
    simonmpoulton, Sep 26, 2009
    #46
  47. nacr05

    nacr05 Extreme Overclocker

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    Thats odd for crossfire, A member had a 3870 in a 1722 and score 10,385 with one card in 3dmark06.. His CPU I believe was a P8600..
     
    nacr05, Sep 26, 2009
    #47
  48. simonmpoulton

    simonmpoulton Notebook Deity

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    Check page 2 for someone elses 3dMark from a newer system ;) it was around 8.5k i believe
     
    simonmpoulton, Sep 26, 2009
    #48
  49. @tomX

    @tomX Notebook Evangelist

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    Can't wait to try this myself!
     
    @tomX, Sep 26, 2009
    #49
  50. zfactor

    zfactor Mastershake

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    i want just one of these cards and cant find one now.. arghh
     
    zfactor, Sep 26, 2009
    #50
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