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

Hey 9800xpv here is a link to the couple of posts I made in the C90S modders club thread when I used the C90P heatspreader for the C90S GPU. As you will read it is not worth using the C90P CPU heatsink as you have to cut alot of it off making the original aluminium one more effective.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=176690&page=23 post 228 onwards

Hope this gives you an idea of what needs to be modified and what it looks like etc.

 

Thanks King of Interns,
Yes, I remember we've already spoke about.
But I've in mind to try something, because I like that.

@+

 

i have heard news that the 9600m gt is no longer in production and that zepto are having difficulties getting their hands on them. they might go permanently out of stock. so be alert. let's hope the gt 130m will be able to successfully replace it.

 

Yes I spoke to zepto and the 9600M is done, they had only one more left in europe as of monday. If we cannot get the GT130m to work it looks like my C90 will be replaced sooner rather then later.

 

Hey guys,

Really sorry I haven't been around for such a long time, I've been extremely busy. I bought a house, and was in the middle of switching my career. Anyway, let me see If I can chime in on a few things here...

King of Interns,

Sorry I didn't finish answering your questions about the 9650 card not working. I am willing to bet heavily that the reason your 9650 didn't upclock was because the performance tables were not adjusted correctly in the vbios.

This was exactly the same problem I encountered with my 9600 at first. If someone has a copy of a "Zepto Samsung chipped 9650m GT", send me the vbios and I'll tweak the settings and we can test it out.

C90S Rookie & Atvaark,

As far as the new GT130m cards working in a C90 I'll say this...

As long as the cards are truly "unlocked MXM-II cards" they should work just fine. If the card has the memory chips placed in the same spots as the 9600 series cards the custom heat spreader should also fit right on without an issue.

I would stick with Zepto for cards. So far they have been one of the only companies I have found that sells "unlocked" or "true" MXM-II cards. Also, both the 9600m GT and the 9650m GT used a standard "MXM-II mounting plate" which means that as long as the new cards continue to use this mounting plate design the heat speader will continue to work.

Obviously this is not a guarantee, but I see no reason that this wouldn't be the case. If anyone is willing to give it a shot I'll be sure to keep checking this thread more often now to help out whenever possible. This makes me wish I still owned a C90 so I could continue tinkering with it and testing these things out.

Also, I would like to thank everyone again for their gracious comments about my guide, it makes it all worth it. It's awesome how much everyone in this thread has come together to help each other out and work towards a common goal... fixing what Asus never did : ) Thanks again guys!

 

NIGHT! I was so happy when I saw I had a message from you. Even if you do not own a C90 anymore your still epic in this community. I hope all is going well.

So now we have to hopefully move onward as we are starting on the next generation cards. If I pick up a GT130m are you able to mod the BIOS and we can see if we can get this card working?

To think if we can get this working and possibly have a Quad core to put in we might have close to G51 numbers going here.

Awsome to hear from you Night and lets see what we can get done guys.

Lol should we start a new thread?

 

C90S Rookie,

Sure, I'll have a go at it. I would highly recommend sticking with Zepto cards though. If Zepto claims their GT130m cards are MXM-II cards and "unlocked", I would bet they would work after some vbios tweaking. Keep me posted, and I'll help out wherever possible.

 

Hello NightWalker,

That's thanks to you that I managed the upgrade of my C90S, and I'm very happy of the result.

It's nice that you come back and visit us.
I send you all my thanks, sincerely.

I wish you a nice weekend
@+

 

Hello C90S Rookie,
Please, just have a look to pm, about drivers for 64 bit.
Thanks
@+

 

Hey NightWalker, cool to see that you're back

Im just ordering the gt 130 m at zepto... suppose it will be shipped early next week. I will definietely give it a try. I got a heatsink coming thx to Mightylobo and organized other stuff... so it just depends on how fast shipping to Europe works

But im a bit scared to hear about the 9600m gt... if I shouldnt get the 130m to work...
cause up to now i always thought i could get one of those in the worst case...

 

Zepto CEO e-mailed me this morning and the GT130m will be in stock next week at 279.00 USD free shipping, im waiting on confirmation that it is indeed MXM II unlocked but im pretty sure it is. Ill let everyone know when I get it and will post pics, I will also send you a PM night.

Also just a thought for all who have the 9600 heatsink already, I was thinking about it and the bottom mem chips are not cooled anyways correct? So I bought 8 copper memory heatsinks normally for desktop GPU memory. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250395770859 These are only 4mm so im hoping they fit under the card to cool the bottom mem chips. If the heatsink doesnt fit the GT130 mem correctly im going to cut off the two parts that contact the top memory leaving a square just for the proccessor, then apply taller copper heatsinks on the top memory. This with my laptop cooler should work to cool them, anyone have thoughts on this? If these small ones fit under my 8600 im going to see how far I can overclock it with even cooling.

Kaliki looks like we will do it together! I too have mightylobo's heatsink, its actually on my 8600GTm at the moment until I get this new card, I dont see why we cant get it working with Nights help, lol no pressure Night.

I want a 8000 3DMARK Score

 

Wich is your actual configuration??

I'd like to test a quad core, I'm thinking in Q6700..what do you think?
E7500 dual or Q6700 quad??

Thank you.
ps- nice to see NightWalker here, I wish you were here last week, when I got my 9600m GT lol!!

 

I have the E7500, 4GB mem (only 3 Seen by system) and the 8600 512 DDR2 I currently have a 3800 score
If we can get a 3800 to 6700 jump from the 8600 512 to the 9600 512 I think 6700 to 8000 jump is possible with the GT130 1 GB

If somehow we can get a quad working on the C90s then maybe 9000? IDK guess we will see

 

Even the D0 stepping Q6600(Q6700 completely out of question) will create too much heat in the C90S and also I think it might be blocked in the bios. The Q7600 is the only quad that is likely to work with the C90S especially with the new bios update that one has to enable E7500 usage. Clock that baby to 3.5ghz and it will be better than any dual or mobile quad including the QX9300. Besides being 45nm and higher clocked than a Q6600 it should outperform the Q6600 relatively easily especially when it is overclocked (something that would burn a hole in the laptop if tried with the Q6600 if it worked in the first place)

With a Q7600 and The GT130M DDR3 card I reckon 8000- 8200 points will be possible.
9000 is unfortunately impossible I think, on the C90P maybe haha.... who knows if we can find a 4650 DDR3 card that is mxm 2 unlocked 9000 could become a reality

Tis good to see you back Nightwalker, hope your house move and career change went smoothly.

The GT130M seems to be the choice card now that the 9600M GT is out of production. By the time the price drops to circa $200 I will be able to afford one

PS: hey C90S rookie with the horrible inferior DDR2 8600M GT card asus gave me I mangaged to crank 4975 points, maybe you could push your DDR2 card a bit more. Mine did let me reach 543 (400 stock) on the memory though !

 

I just wanted to test a quad core, but I'm afraid you're right.
I can't wait until Q7600 is out...
Did someone OC the E6600 above 3,00 Ghz (stable)

I'm agree...
C90S Rookie what clocks do you have in 8600m GT??
I used 515 / 475 stable clocks (DDR2)
cheers

 

I have managed 3.15 ghz stable with the E6600 in my C90P (took it straight from my old C90S) It has the 1333fsb P35 chipset however which allows higher OCing. 3.2 ghz and it starts to become unstable I think because of voltage limits. Still 3.15 ghz is enough for a dual until decent quads become affordable.

 

wow 3.2!!cool
What do you think abaut this?

Is this right? I mean is possible clock E6600 to 3.00 GHz at 1.075 V.??

 

I should think so. Every chip is different. Mine probably wouldn't be stable at that voltage and clock speed considering at 1.35 Vcore 3.2 is already too much but other E6600's might, be it a rare sight. It also depends on the stepping. I haven't looked at what mine is but the B2 stepping is supposed to be best I can imagine that E6600 is a B2 stepping.

As for finding out I can't be bothered to download RMclock and test it. Yup truly lazy

 

hmm to me they quoted 250 - and about 30 or more for shipping.. as im in such a lil country in europe that might be a bit more expensive^^
am just waiting for an order confirmation. Hope it will be on the way early next week....

especially as my 8600m gt ddr2 is really giving up on me - i already baked it twice!
i feel like im a doctor resucitating it every time it collapses...
thats why i dont even wanna think about OCing it... before baking it the first time the card went up to 114°C before black screen... and i was only playing WoW...

I'm just glad I'm not so alone anymore knowing that you and NightWalker are here too

 

@C90S Rookie
Hey! Thank you for the link with memory’s heatsinks. You are absolutely right to worry about different cooling of top & bottom memory chips. I’m glad to see someone who thinking in this direction. No doubt, it’s crucial to cool bottom chips too.

Don’t try to overclock 8600M! It’s unique GPU with its design & implementation flaws. The heating problem is only a part from the picture. With proper cooling, without overclocking my 8600M died after 2 years of use.

 

I do not know if my card just hates me but I cant seem to OC the memory at all. I have cranked the Core Clock to 575 but if I raise the mem anything over 410 about 15 seconds into the 3DMARK test it skips and then drops to only 9-11 FPS and it wont run right again untill I drop the mem clock and restart the computer. This is why I was wondering if it was the bottom memory heating up to much and ordered these 4mm heatsinks.

Zepto said they would e-mail me when the GT130 comes in, im expecting to order next week so maybe two weeks untill I get this all started. O and this is strait from the CEO: "The cards are with Nvidia Reference BIOS. So totally unlocked regarding everything" Excited.....I AM!

O and I hear you Angel, I just have mine set to 520/400 and mine has been going strong for 2 years, but maybe i just have luck on my side. I dont do much with it.

 

I've had to deal with Zepto quite a bit in the past. While I still recommend them, because they sell the best cards in my opinion, they are very difficult when it comes to actually obtaining the cards. Prices and stock status seem to change all the time. Hopefully this won't happen to you guys, but I am cautious in my assumptions...

C90S Rookie,

The 9600m series DDR3 MXM-II cards from Zepto only had memory chips on the TOP of the card. So the custom heat spreader took care of all the necessary memory cooling. I am hopeful that the newer cards are of the same design.

 

I have 3 more heatsinks if anyone is still interested...

 

Hi King,

Have you see the Q7600 will be with only 2 Mb memory L2 ?
And without SSE4 ?
How will it work with FSB 800 MHz ?
I wonder if it will be so good on a C90 ?

@+

 

Yeah it will work fine. For example my C90P chipset is native 1333 but is currently running at 1066 thanks to the E6600 installed. It does mean however that you can overclock all the way till either heat or more likely voltage become limitations.

2mb lvl 2 cache is a little crippling but it is only 1 meg less than a E7500. Put it this way you gain 2 more cores and potentially should be able to clock it much faster than 3.2ghz. At a time when multi-threaded apps are becoming more popular I would take the 2 extra cores over an extra meg of cache anyday.


One thing to know is that the C90S won't run the Q7600 at 13.5x multi and 2.7ghz. It will run at 13x and 2.6ghz as the chipset does not recognise half multipliers. It matters not however. 13x 266 = 3.458ghz and that will be stock C90S fsb. It will beat the crap out of the E7500 As for SSE4 I don't think the E7500 has it does it?
If heat is a problem I am sure it will be quite good to undervolt as these penryn's usually are.

Personally I would overclock to stock C90S fsb then undervolt it so it is using the minimum voltage needed to run at 3.458ghz. Another thought, using RMclock one might be able to force the processor at its full native 13.5 multiplier to help OCing even further.

 

same here to me for the gt 130m, as soon as my payment passes for it, i'll just have to wait for the card. I've requested a picture of it so we can find out early if there is changes to be made on the heat spreader. still waiting on that one. my goal is to put the strongest cpu and gpu in the c90, but i have no intention of overclocking anything. Nightwalker's return made me breathe a sigh of relief, as i know that if i am stuck with the gpu's vbios, there's hope with him around. tell me if you manage to get a quadcore working in the c90. i really think my cooling issue from the fans can be solved by a cpu that produces a bit more heat...the e7500 produces less heat than a dead fish...that's a good thing in a lot of situations, but unfortunately not for the c90's wonky cooling setup. i really, REALLY wish they would at least have made the gpu fan react to the gpu's temp..i mean, it should, since it's not hooked to the same port...

 

@ King :

_______________E6600 ____E7500 _____Q7600
L2 cache size : __ 4 MB _____3 MB ______ 2 MB
Bus Speed MHz : _ 1066 ____ 1066 ______ 800
SSE4 : __________NO ______ YES _______ NO

SSE4 : http://www.intel.com/technology/architecture-silicon/sse4-instructions/index.htm

But I dont know if SSE4 is very important in gaming, in video ?

@+

 

About the new 130m:
I'm pretty excited how it turns now with those new graphiccards from zepto. It would be just wonderfull if the produced heat by this card is even lower then the 9600m. Imagine a cool and quiet C90S with E7500 4GB and 130M GT *Woohoo*. Dreams would be come true...
Would also like to change if it succeed and get a new 130m instead of the 9600m i modded some month ago with the pretty good howto from nightwalker. Also modded my own vbios coz i used not those samsung chips (got it from ebay not zepto)


Things about QuadCore in our C90S:
If a quadcore with the c90s chipset is possible, its pretty easy to update the cpucode in bios. I did that a few times but never tried a quadcore. I always thought quad is not possible of course chipset limitation. So plz correct me about this if i'm wrong
If someone is able to test a possible quad i'll upload a new bios for you with enhanced cpucodes if u wish

Hi got my E6600 Overclocked stable at 3240MHZ a while ago when i was using Vista HomePremium 32bit.
The problem is that you have to overclock not only the cpu and ram via fsb then you must also overclock the pcie and pci clock to get things stable (also managed with clockgen). My Clocks at stable 3240 as follows...

Clock 3240
FSB 360
RAM 360
PCIE 127
PCI 42,33

 

Isoree OCing the Pci-e is quite unsafe. I did that with the E7500 and managed to get 3.5ghz stable with the E7500 lol. Still I would advise against it as it could fry your GPU. Also the GT130M will be cooler than the 9600M GT as it is manufactured at 55nm vs 65nm I believe-similar to a 9650M GT

@9800xpv I looked at CPU-z and it reports there is no SSE4 support with my E6600. I thought the E7500 has all the things that the E6xxx series had but that SSE4 was reserved for the E8xxx and Q9xxx?

edit: my bad the E7500 does have SSE 4.1 (not 4) the E6600 doesn't though It shouldn't really matter anyways. It is only an extra instruction set. 2 extra cores should still outweigh the lousy cache and lack of SSE 4.1 support

 

lol yeah thats why i sad "The problem is..."

YES!!! that would be very nice let us hope it will be as same or nearly sync to the E7xxx CPUs so no part will be more affected

Greets ISoree

 

@ISoree
Hi ISoree!

Regarding VBIOS 9600M: I suppose that you have video adapter with Qimonda memory chips. Can you post your modded VBIOS?
It’s interesting to me what you changed in your VBIOS? How stable is your system after that change?

 

@ King,

OK. I thought E6600 had SSE4. Sorry. So I edit my post.

I understand.
I only hope the cache is not too small.
Otherwise Intel would have named Celeron Quad.

So wait and see when Intel to sell this Q7600. And someone has to write a bios mod. I don't know how to do by myself.

@+

 

sooo...they answered me and gave me a "picture" of the gpu.
...
the picture was a link to nvidia's page about the gt 130m...no picture of the card there. really just, the gpu....

/facepalm

 

Haha will just have to wait :-D

 

Angel,

You will have to edit the performance tables the same way as a Samsung chipped card. Check the guide for more information.

 

@NightWalker
Hey! Thanks for the answer.

Once again I want to say thank you for your work, which help me to deal with Asus & NVidia problems and save my time. Without you my C90S was a piece of garbage. I wish you to keep and develop your attitude to solving problems. In our days this is rare human quality. I’m pleased to be part from your thread and you have all my respect.

 

Thanks a lot for the kind comments Angel! Let me know if you need anymore help.

 

Yes like Nightwalker sad.. its just editing the clock tables of the needed performance mode. You can easily overclock there also. Just follow Nightwalkers guide on 1st page. If u dont overclock its stable like its supposed to coz u just set up the original clocks for the throttle mode wich is normaly used by the c90s in games or stuff

 

Lol at at least they gave you a response. They just ignored my request for a picture haha.

@9800xpv yeah it pretty much is a celeron/pentium core 2 quad. Still it is the only quad that the C90S has going for it unfortunately. Good thing is it shouldn't need a a further bios mod. It should now recognise penryn processors.

 

i have a question. in the past i had a desktop computer with an asus motherboard, something that took a p4 if i remember right. back when i first got it, the maximum memory i could install on it was 2GB of ram. that's what we refer as the chipset limitation? because a few months later, a bios update enabled the possibility of slapping 4GB of ram on it. so i was wondering, is it possible by modding the bios to let the c90 chipset use and recognize 4GB of ram? or is that a different kind of limitation? i mean, if you put 4 GB in it, 3 will work, so technically, the ram is accepted by the system...

 

4GB will work but even with a 64 bit OS somewhere between 3 and 4 GB will be recogised. Tis the limitation of the 945G chipset which is quite old now.

 

Better get a C90P mobo, and you would get a bigger CPU range also.
It's my plan
cheers...

 

Lol well that is a possibility. However it might be a bit costly to make it worth it. The Q7600 and GT130M together would make current mid-range laptop's cower anyways.

As for getting better CPU's even though I can and want to get the Q9650 I may never get one as they are so expensive (even the Q9550 is alot). I guess it is cheap by mobile standards lol

 

has anyone news about ordering the gt 130m at zepto?

im just wondering... on friday i got the answer that ill get an order confirmation and now i fear as everyone is ordering my request might have been lost or sth *g*

 

I've gotten the Canadian sales manager on my side trying to get a response from the US HQ. he too finds it weird that i got no response from them either. it looks like we suffer from the same problem, Kaliki. at least i have a sort of conversation going through an exchange of emails with the Canadian Manager, ensuring that i get at least one response a day. i pester him about specs for the gt 130m, trying to get clues to see if there's a good chance of it working for us. i think he'll end up calling their HQ out of sheer annoyance soon.

but yeah...they are a hard bunch to deal with when it comes to buying something...perseverance is the key here.

 

Great Topic!
My vid card burned out too! just shy of 2 years old.
....and have since ordered the bare bone nvidia 8600 video card. However it does not include the x plate on the back to screw in the heat sink, so I need to transfer that over from my old card to the new card. What is the simplest way to do this??

(you can see what I am talking about by going to the first page of this topic, it is clearly marked)

Second, as a design engineer in thermodynamics i noticed that the heat removal can be better in the c90s and I recommend the following diy "upgrades":
1) the fins in the back should all make contact with each other so as to evenly distribute heat. this helps to remove heat more efficiently. OEM foamy pads should be removed and replaced those with something heat conductive. Glueing in a metallic (AL, copper) plate between the heat sinks (so they make contact) would not hurt either.
2) The two video card AL heat sink plates that mount onto each other should be sandwiched together with a heat conductive paste. I found there was a gap and that is no good.
3) cutting out the meshing on the case near the fans upstream and downstream will increase air flow = cooler. They serve no real purpose other than keeping out large bits of food and stuff.
4) drilling holes into the case just below the video card will help to promote air flow in that region. There is no risk of shock, so don't work about that.
5) lastly, keep the laptop raised an inch or more off the surface when gaming, this will reduce heat buildup and promote better airflow.


G.

 

Hello, gonzo76 welcome to NBR forum!
Interesting. Where did you buy your 8600M GT from? Asus e-store sells the DDR3 version for around $150 but I was certain that they would come with the mounting plate. Sounds odd lol.

The removing mesh idea did come to my mind lol, I think I will do it. Got a spare ace door anyways

edit: removed the mesh and found that the CPU temp dropped from max 69/70C to 64/67C in Crysis warhead. Also found that GPU temp dropped from max 80C to 74C.
CPU was OC to 3.15ghz and GPU to 575/1425/543.

Thanks for the heads up gonzo every C90 owner should do this simple mod. Grab a stanley knife and cut out the mesh

 

Excellent follow up KOI! That is a significant temp drop. I just removed mine by simply snapping them off and pulling on one end. took 5 minutes..

I have the C90S. I saw that card at the e-store, but it's the 256 for the C90P. i ordered the 512 DDR2 off ebay. Came out to 145ish with shipping. I will let you know how it goes once the card arrives, any day now.

The xplate I later realized is held on by double sided tape. A blow dryer should take care of that stat.

 

the card is paid for. i guess that means it gets shipped tomorrow. i can't wait!

 

Hi I just came across this forum somehow and it seems that you guys may be able to help with a problem that i have with my c90s. Problem is that when i turn it on the screen stays blank. Everything else seems to work fine but its just the screen that doesn't come on.