[NW] Upgrade the C90S to a 9600M GT 512MB DDR3 [FIXED!]

Several people on the forum have upgraded to the 9600M GT including myself. If you follow nightwalker's guide it is guaranteed to work. The 9650M GT does not work however. The 9600M is available from zepto for around $300 dollars and it will churn out around 6-6500 3dmark06 points depending on how much you OC it. In comparison my 8600M GT topped out at 4500. So short answer it your question is yes but it does cost both money and quite alot of time.

 

Sorry for not responding in awhile guys, I've been very busy with college and trying to buy my first house!

Anyway, there seems to be a lot of confusion in the last couple of pages. I'll be busy this morning/afternoon but I will post back tonight to clear up a few things.

King of Interns,

Crap man!! I wish I would have known you bought a 9650M GT and were doing this mod! I could have had that baby at full speed for you within an hour. I know exactly what your problem was from what you were describing. I'll post more info later tonight.

 

I'm doing this for King's sake...
*repeatedly bangs head on brick wall*
there. you don't have to do it now...
thanks nightwalker. i was hesitating to get the 9650 instead of the 9600. i almost gave up on it because of king's test. now i will reconsider once again.

 

Lol. What is the miracle cure Nightwalker!? I managed to get refunded on it so I don't mind too much. Although I may give it another try with the C90P at some point in the future once ive got it quaded and 8giged out

Btw the cityscape does differ slightly on the 9650M GT when compared with the 9600M GT, so it might mean a slight change in the design of the heatsink needed

 

Anyone know if NW is still selling upgrade kits?

My card finally died -sadface-

btw, is this the right card?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nvidia-Geforce-...ryZ74957QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Yeah that is the correct card. Sorry to hear your 8600M finally gave up the ghost.

Maybe Nightwalker himself will be able to chime in to answer your other question although he seems a busy man!

 

yeah, i still havent given up myself for a kit...ever since i put the e7500 in my c90, it seems the fans don't need to turn as much as before, so the gpu gets hotter than before...and i can just feel my 8600 dying. artifacts in wow? yeah. almost game over...

 

Well I bought the card...now it's time to play the waiting game, which is the only game I can play since my c90s is in a coma

 

I can't find this model laptop on the ASUS Web site. Where is it sold?

NEVERMIND - Google to the rescue!

 

You can't buy this computer anymore. The updated version of it the "C90P" with the newer P35 chipset is still being sold however. Check out gentechpc.com or excaliberpc.com as they both sell it. I am getting one shortly so you can probably bounce questions off me concerning the C90P once I have it. Hope this helps.

 

that's it. my 8600 officially died. exactly 1 day after my guarantee expired! isn't that grand? now i'm gonna order a 9600 of course. however, i want to know if i should sacrifice myself and get the 9650 instead and wait for nightwalker to come back so he can help. would the performance be worth the trade? and i still need a kit done. i looked around, but my town doesn't have anyone that can cut metal. damn backwater village. well, it doesn't have to be him, anyone able to make one, or already have made one would do. just send me a private message with your price and we can talk. of course, I'll pay well for a good job.

on another note, i think what caused my card to die was the e7500 upgrade. as i said earlier, since the cpu is a lot cooler than the other e6600 or higher, less cooling comes from the fans. of course, less cooling is a bad thing for the gpu. in the last month of it's life, my 8600 gpu always hovered around 106-111 degrees celcius. anyone has had that problem as well?

 

Hmm that is odd. I don't think it is to do with the E7500. My 8600M GT hit max 85C with an OC 500/1325/485 with the E7500 installed and the fans kicked in suitably early with me. I think it is most likely coincidence that it died as it was nearing the end of its life coupled with hot temps. I would advise against getting the 9650M GT unless nightwalker can give you a hand. It would be definitely worth it over the 9600M GT but only if you can get it working it you catch me drift

 

well i probably had one from the defective batch...i wonder if a custom copper heat sink could have been made for it and prevent the overheating?
after all...i can't say i was dissatisfied by it. everything i ran on it did very well as long as i kept only shadows to minimum quality...everything else was maxed out on many games without trouble...maybe if i can find a non defective 8600 with ddr3 instead, it would be good...what do you think? ddr2 to ddr3 would still give a pretty good performance increase?

by the way, after playing prototype, i dunno why but i ended up having a grudge against gentech XD

 

I think all the 8600's (or at least most of them) are faulty in this way. They suffer from the nVidia "bad bumps" syndrome. A copper heatsink or better cooling would have probably prolonged the life of the GPU, but I don't think it would have changed the way it died...

 

well. ordered a 9600...I'd rather not take chances after all. sooo..is anyone here able to make a kit for me? state your price!

 

anyone know what size screws to use for the heatsink?

 

I tried this mod and as a result have the necessary screws and washers. PM me your address and I can send them to you as I have no use for them now.

 

Did the 9600m GT mod on my 5520G acer.

Running the CPU @ 2.3ghz and GPU @ 600/1700/1000 (2000DDR) I get:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=11227538

 

you changed the resolution when i get that right.. so this can not be compared to other systems correctly

pls correct me if i'm wrong

 

Haha you're right I had not noticed that. Will have to plug it into a monitor to sort that I think

 

i found someone who claims to have successfully installed a NVIDIA Quadro FX 770M in his c90s...should i believe him and try this upgrade? the card seems to have very similar stats to the 9600...

 

any proof ? steps, etc ? gudluck.

 

MY C90S LIVES AGAIN! woot!

Now to see what the 9600m GT can do.

 

Did you receive those screws and washers yet? Have fun with the 9600M GT

 

Yeah, thanks again for the screws.

I am having trouble breaking 6k in 3dmark though, but it runs all the games I played fine. Now I can finally beat GTA IV!

 

Now you just need to upgrade that e6600 to a e7500 I am gonna see if I can push 6k with a C90P and the lowly 8600M GT. Wish me luck!

 

sigh. received my 9600. now i have to find some place to cut me some copper heat spreader...neighborhood towns here i come.

*edit* got a very important question... according to this site
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-240M.17654.0.html
the geforce 240m should have the power consumption on par with a 8600m gt. is there any chances at all that this card could come out as a MXM II? i couldn't find any info anywhere about the interface. if it is, I'm returning my 9600 right away and I'll be one of the first to test this one out...unless the card costs like 600 bucks, of course.

 

Hi
i just got my 9600M GT and made a nice cooper heat spreader for it. All went well. Now i just wanted to ask if somebody get the 3d and/or extramode to work in anyway or is it possible to switch manually for it? Mine just switch between the 2D and Thrtl but is most in Thrtl because i use 2 Monitors (think there is less power in 2d for it). When i just use the normal laptopscreen it wont change to thrtl that much. So i dont need the full power at thrtl always.

Would be very nice if some of u could give me a lil help

 

I would like to see the fix for the 9650. My 8600 just crapped out and I am in need of a new card quickly, but don't want another problematic 8600 in it.

 

I have been following this thread with interest since I discovered it and now my old 8600M has bit the dust and I'm looking for an upgrade for my C90S. I have been in touch with Zepto and they suggested a 9650M GT as well as the 9600M that I asked for. I would absolutely love to install a 9650M in my Asus, but I'm not a guru, I love to tinker and know my way around a bit, but I'll need some help with the vBios.

NightWalker, if you're still active here, could I enlist your help with this? I'd be ecstatic if you could lend your expertise. I have to replace the card anyhow and for only $60 difference I want to get the best I can.

I understand the 9650M GT will need a different vbios to the 9600M GT to run at full speed on the Asus C90S, any help with regard to that modified bios would be amazing.

Thanks!

 

A quick question to those who have successfully done this: What did you use to fill the gap between the memory and the copper? Nightwalker says to use Lairdtech Thermal Thermagon Gap Pad Material T-flex 6200, but I cannot find anything except the company's web page for it and how to request information on purchasing in bulk. Is there another material that will work?

 

i just searched on ebay for some thermal pads. something between 1 and 2mm thick should work well.

 

I was wondering because the type of pad Nightwalker recommends is .200 inch or ~5mm. Is there that much of a gap or am I missing something?

Also, I have found copper sheets cheap on Amazon. A 3"x12"x.125" sheet of 110 copper is $20 including shipping. It is through a company called Small Parts Inc. In fact, I will only need a third of this sheet and would be willing to sell the rest if anyone needs it.

I wish Nightwalker would come back, but family is more important.

 

We get many questions from C90S owners if they can buy a 9600/9650 MXM-II card. So just to be clear. Yes...we do carry these cards, and no...they are not on our website. Please email us if you need a "spare" 96xx card.

sales at zepto usa dot com

 

=( I have joined all of you. After 2 years of bliss with my C90s (minus the burn marks on my left wrist) the video card has given out. When taking my C90S apart and taking the video card out....I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. Asus sure has gotten cheap, not only did they make a cheap heat sink, they used very cheap thermal fill compound.

However thanks to this thread rather than buying a new $1500 Desktop, i can keep my precious C90S for 2+ more years =). This thread is a god-send to all C90S owns who are in this situation or will be in this situation very soon.

 

Unfortunately, welcome. I think it is a conspiracy myself, but anywho... I am going to try to put a 9650 in and upgrade the CPU to the T7500. It should last another 2 years after that!

Must ask though... burn marks?

 

he probably has a 7200 rpm hard drive.

 

haha yeah, above the palm rest on the left side of my C90S it got so hot the plastic is close to brown/black from the heat. I believe it was from my hard drive. So when i would be in a good session of gaming i would lose feeling in my left hand because i was resting it on a inferno XD.

I've Been waiting to get a SSD to solve this problem, but they are too expensive. I Will have to wait a year or so. But for now i need to focus on get a dremel tool from home depot to cut a copper plate and to get a 9600M GT video card.

BTW: What really got my about my C90S video card breaking is...it broke on the first day of a 4 day weekend off of work for me <.< Perfect timing, haha.

 

Hi just wanted to get my problem up again coz i didnt managed this for now. I tried to higher the clocks for 2d mode but it still switch to thrtl when i put a 2nd monitor on. So plz is there a way to get this solved?

ooh and bmounx9 could you plz post some pics of your fan-led-mod? Would be nice to know more about that

Thank you

 

ISoree: Here is where he posted those pics- http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=176690&page=18&highlight=c90+blue+led

 

thx those i've seen before but anyway thx.. what i look for is the inside maybe want to do that pretty nice mod also

 

The gap between the new copper heat spreader and 9600m GT, how big it is? I can't find any good thermal pads just cheap ones. Is the gap small enough that i could use a big dab of Artic Silver 5?

 

nope sorry the space between is to much, about 2mm, and its better to have a lil bit pressure on it to give the best contact i think.

 

oh sorry, i've been out. when i find a camera, i'll take shots of the inside.

 

Hello,

I'm going to upgrade my C90S to a 9600M VGA card, and have some questions :

What kind of " very small computer screws" do I need ? Anyone can tell me more ?

I've already dl the bios modified by NightWalker, and wonder what speed he set ?

@ King of Interns :
I read you installed an all copper GPU heatsink from C90P on your C90S.
Is it easy to mount ? Are the holes exactly at the right place, or did you drill another ones ?
I plan to get such one and monting it with the 9600M.

Thanks.
@+

 

The C90P heatsink will fit the C90S but only after you cut half of the copper fins off it. Unlike its aluminium counterpart the fin area takes up the entire left portion of the fan heatsink bay as there is no northbridge heatsink in the C90P. Once that is done it fits the 8600M GT's perfectly but not the 96xx GT's im afraid. Using the C90P it cools very well though the 8600M GT DDR3 OC in my sig gets to max of 70C in crysis or ati tool. That is ice cold compared with my old C90S lol

 

Thank you,
So it is not worth ordering this GPU heatsink ?


About thermal pads :
I find to buy either 0.5 or 1 or 2 mm of thickness.
Which of these must I get ?

@+

 

It is not worth getting. Making your own copper heatsink is the only proper effective way to cool the 9600/9650M GT as they have different "cityscapes" to the 8600M GT hence the C90P heatsink won't fit without modification. Get 2mm thickness.

 

Ok, thanks.
I've ordered this afternoon a 9600M, and a piece of copper.

I'm also in the way to upgrade the cpu, E6600 to E7500.

@+

 

can anyone make upgrade kit for me ? I will pay for it email - [email protected]

TY !!!