Inspiron N5010 upgrades- I need advanced input

Hi, I'm new here. I came across this site while scouring the net trying to find ANY detailed info on this series of laptop. So, a little info thus far- A couple weeks ago I bought a used N5010-P10F001 Inspiron laptop. Came with an i3 2.26 350m processor, 4 gb ram, and the motherboard Y6Y56, no built in ATI Radeon. When I looked up the specs before buying this laptop, I saw that it came with an ATI Radeon 5650 (or 5470, I forget) with 1 gb video ram. After a little digging, I found out that I had the budget version. I found a motherboard K2FWW, and I could see in the picture that it had the GPU, and the full 1gb ram (some have only 512k). So, I bought it, and it fit right in and fired right up. Problem is, I bought the MID level version, as it only has the Radeon 4650 with 1gb ram. A HUGE improvement, I have to say, but I want the best version of this laptop, as the motherboards run about $125-$150 regardless of the onboard video. There is a K2FWW board with only 512k ram on it too. To my knowledge, there are two more versions of this laptop motherboard. One has the 5650 radeon, the other has the 550v radeon. I found two other motherboard versions- One has a quite obviously different gpu (silicon chip on the gpu is slightly bigger than mine, and rotated 45 degrees) and has 1gb ram (assumed by the 4 ram chips surround the gpu area on both sides of the board). The model of this board is 52F31. The other board I have found for sale has only 512k ram, same gpu size difference and rotation as the 52F31, and the number of this board is VX53T. I have seen a lot of useful info on this site, and the member Tsunade_Hime seems to know a lot about this laptop. I wanted to message him, but I don't have AIM, and I can't find an option to message through the site. So, to him, or to anyone else who knows anything- Please give me some info. I have looked at all the specs I could dig through, all the used and refurbished sales online, etc. And I can't find any specific info. The sellers of the boards I'm looking at don't even know, lol. I am very resourceful, but I'm at a loss. Also, I'm looking for the TDP info of my laptop, as I want to upgrade my processor. I think it is 45. I would like to upgrade to an i7-940xm, but I don't know if I can run it even with custom cooling, as it is 55 TDP. I think that with some arctic silver, some fan tweaking, and maybe some additions to the copper tubing on the heat sink, I should be able to run the 940xm. I used to repair RROD Xbox 360s, and know a little about GPU cooling, lol. And reflowing. Based on the info I have found about my board- HM57 chipset, rPGA988a socket (G1, 988, etc), I think I can run the i7-840qm or the i7-940xm. I know I have seen my laptop on ebay with the i7-720qm, which has the same chipset and socket support as what I have and what I want to upgrade to. I have found a couple motherboards that I believe have the GPU I want, but have a red tint. According to my research, this is usually caused by a faulty backlight. My backlight works fine, so maybe it will just fire up? Lmao, maybe. Or maybe the GPU needs to be reflowed. Or maybe it's a dirty connection. Or maybe it's just trash. I'm willing to take the risk for $60, why not? So, I would greatly appreciate any input on the motherboard specs, processor upgrade, and cooling of the 940xm (internally, mind you. I don't use cooling pads. I just modify my internal cooling setup to suit my needs). And also input on the repair of the motherboard with the red tint. Sorry for such a long post, being my first and all. Thanks in advance!

 

5650/550V is an entirely different motherboard, obviously. The motherboards can be 1/3 of the cost of the laptop (N5010 start as low as 450) so honestly it's not worth it and after all those upgrades a 5650/550V is still only a mid range card.

I don't really recommend the Clarksfield quad core processors, the N5010 already has a poor cooling system unless you want to mod the cooling system.

 

Thank you for your quick reply! I agree, the 5650 is only a mid range card, but the best card I had before was a geforce go 8400, so this is a huge jump for me. Pricewise, it's not so bad- By the time I get the 740qm processor I'll be in the laptop about $550-$650 (Laptop, upgrade to a 5660 ati radeon, 8gb g-skill memory, 500gb 7200rpm drive. Not bad). I can get close to that when I sell it in a month, since I see the i5 version of this without the ati sell for $500. I'm not really doing this to get myself a nice machine, I'm just enjoying squeezing every little bit out of it. Lol, I enjoy the work and accomplishment. I'll be posting this on ebay within a few weeks, then I think I want to play with an asus g73. In all actuality, I have more fun messing with my machines than I do gaming. Coming from gaming on a 360, I gotta say, I really enjoy the superior graphics and gameplay I'm seeing with my laptop, and I can't wait to get something geared a little more to my taste. I went ahead and ordered the motherboard with the red tint, it was only $60. Hopefully I will fix it or at least learn something from it. Any thoughts on a fix for red tint besides the backlight, lcd, or dirty connection?
Thanks again.