m15x (old) gfx upgrade questions

Any info on the following would be much appreciated. Basically, my 8800m gtx is dying and im looking to get a new card (no warranty).

1) want to confirm that the MXM for the m15x is 2.1- Type III / Type HE (the difference being the little tabby thing)

2) want to know if anyone has tried putting in an 260m or an ati 4xxx series card (i read the thread on the 280m).

3) does anyone know if the newer nvidia cards (260, 280) have the same solder problems as the older cards ( http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/39045/135/)? I believe my 8800m gtx is crapping out because of bad (high lead) solder bump (which is why baking the card has been working). I see options of purchasing another 8800m gtx, however, I don't want to buy a card knowing it will go bad in the future


Any input on any of the above would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

i have not read anything about someone trying a 4xxx series ATI card in the machine probably because those cards are hard to come by..

The 3870 seems to work fine in there though so id imagine if you got hold of a 4850 somehow it would work..

The 260 and 280 though are your best bet since there easily obtainable..


There have not been those issues with the Nvidia cards like there were in the past so you should be fine buying a new one..

Good luck..

 

The 260M and 280M are not an MXM 2.1 socket, they are MXM 3.0 and will not work. The max you can get in there is 3870, although in theory a 4850 may work, but you'll probably have heat issues, and they are near impossible to obtain.

 

http://web.eurocom.com/ec/ecu_pricelist(1,0) has some 260m and 280m's that are 2.1 type III... plus, there was some guy who put a 280m in their m15x.

I think someone in some thread mentioned that the 260 and 280s come in both mxm flavors...

 

I was in nearly the same situation as you. You're probably looking for an upgrade, but for a grand total of $187 including heatsink, shipping and everything I need to install, the 3870 from AW seemed a good deal for me. Then again, I'm going to be building myself a desktop soon for more serious gaming and just want something decent in my on-the-go machine. Just wanted to let you know more specifically what this option looked like.

 

Look into this thread Area-51 m15x and Nvidia GTX 280M, if the 280m works, there is no reason the 260m wouldn't.

Heat is the biggest problem, but the 8800m heatsink will fit the 260m & 280m.

I was going to do this as well, but I couldn't find a 8800/9800m heatsink, so I sold the notebook. Personally I would just take the 8800m out and run the m15x on integrated graphics, and get a new notebook.

 

Heh Rjtech carrys both 260mGTX and 280mGTX in the MxM2.1 variety... How do you think the Clevo 86 series and 57 series are running these cards ?? there both MxM2.1....

 

I magically got mine to work

 

Ouch. Eurocom's prices are outrageous. If they can really get those prices I should be in the MXM gpu biz. I think Moo made a thread about AW's gpu prices and I remember the 260 being around 3-400.

 

When I talked to AW a couple days ago, they said basically my only two options (b/c of availability) were a 9800 and 3870. The 3870 was $187 with everything and I dont remember the exact nbr, but they quoted the 9800 at or over $500.