Insprion 1720/1520 Vid Cards

Are they the same? Appear to be the same on ebay?

 

I do believe that they are.

What are you planning? =P

 

Dell's website has the 8600M GT for the 1720 cheaper than for the Inspiron 1520.

I'm going for broke on the laptop! Literally

 

So it will definitely work?

anyone else?

I really want to do this ASAP

 

The Dell part numbers are different if that makes any difference. It's only $2 more for the 1520 8600M GT. Do you really want to take a chance that they're identical?

Refurbished: 256 MB nVidia G84 Graphics Card
Inspiron 1520 - Dell Part# UW390
Inspiron 1720 - Dell Part# DY445

 

Have you found the answer if UW390 and DY445 are compatible? I was looking to buy UW390 but it is not available since about 4 weeks. Thanks!

 

Well after making this thread I found out that I actually had the 8600m GT instead of the 8400m GS. So I dont know

 

Thanks anyway. Is there anyone else who would know if UW390 and DY445 are compatible?

 

I would think that the form of the 1720 vid card is different then the form of the 1520 considering one is a17inch and one is a 15 inch.

 

Your best bet is to either look around for 1720 and 1520 disassembly pictures and compare or take the gamble and find our yourself...

It all depends on your skill level and risk adversion...

Safe bet... Buy the one that for sure works with the 1520

 

1520 video card

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=17505&stc=1&d=1207876281

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=17506&stc=1&d=1207876281



1720 video card

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=17507&stc=1&d=1207876281

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=17508&stc=1&d=1207876281



It looks to me like the copper pipe for the 1720 is a little straighter.

 

Actually, I just checked the service manuals of both laptops. The pictures are the same for both. Then, I tried to order DY445 but it went out of stock as well I will be waiting.

Thank you all for helping

 

Thank you for the pictures, I checked the service manuals and the pictures here as well, they look compatible to me. What do you think? The card can be detached from the pipe, i believe.

 

Check the shape of the copper pipe again.
To me the pipe on the 1520's card looks like it has more bends in it.
I can't tell the length from the pictures either.
That could also be a factor.

 

I will be back and the truth shall be upon us soon

 

You have the 1720 card for your 1520?

 

Not yet, it is in the mail.

 

I have the final answer now.

I received DY445 today. The heatsink and pipe were not compatible with Vostro 1500. I have removed my 8400M-GS and separated both cards from the heatsinks and swapped the heatsinks. Then, installed the 8600M-GT with the compatible heatsink and it worked!

I attached two pictures here. In the first picture, both cards with the heatsinks separated are shown. In the second picture, only the 8400M-GS and 8600m-GT are shown. In the first picture again, the longer heatsink belongs to DY445, the shorter heatsink came out of Vostro 1500 with 8400M-GS. In the second picture the card with the slightly larger die is 8600M-GT.

The default clocks of 8600M-GT were 475/400 and I was able to overclock to 650/500. Finally, my 3DMark06 (1280x1024) score went from 1800 (8400M@660/560) to 4050 (8600M@650/500). During ATItool 3D test, GPU temperature goes upto 70C with the overclocked 8600M-GT (reading with GPU-Z).

Just a quick summary, hope it helps others

 

Nice ... I never would have thought about separating the heat sync and card. I'm going to try to pick up an 8600 out of a 1700/1720 just so I can have fun with mine and not worry about blowing it up.


I'm guessing the little black chips around are the memory. Would it be possible to solder in some memory chips from a GDDR3 8600 and go from there?

UGH! My plans outweigh my income!

Also ... is it hard to get the sync and card apart? I have 22g of Arctic Silver coming my way and I'm thinking about reapplying some to the card on the core seeing if I can get better heat transfer and lower temps. During an intensive rainbow six session I got the GPU up to 70C

Do you think it would be safe to take the little heat transfer pads off of the heat sync and apply arctic silver to them? I'm willing to bet I'd get better performance without an overclock if I could get better cooling out of it.

 

I wouldn't have either. I didn't know you could swap the heat sinks that way.

 

Yes the black chips around the GPU are memory, 8400M-GS has 2 chips (128MB, 64bit), 8600M-GT has 4 chips (256MB, 128bit). But it is not possible to increase the memory by soldering new chips, at least in my ability.

Separating the heatsink from the card is only a matter of unscrewing four screws with a Torx driver. It is not difficult at all. After removing the heatsinks, I cleaned the thermal material with alcohol and reapplied thermal paste on the GPU die. And finally, reattached the swapped heatsinks.

The blue pads in the picture are for memory chips and those can not be replaced with thermal paste since they need to have a certain thickness.

For you graphics card, I do not recommend applying Arctic Silver. I had to remove my heatsinks since I had to swap the cards but the original thermal interface I have seen in both cards were excellent quality. The original thermal material was also good quality, not those sticky gum type. I think, the limiting factor for cooling is the heatsink and fan at the other end of the heat pipe. They are simply too small to provide better cooling. Still, 70C is not bad at all as long as there are no crashes or freezes.

I will try to post more pictures as you asked, probably tomorrow.

 

Yeah, me neither

 

Thanks for the pictures. I plan on having my laptop apart next week sometime (hopefully) and I'd like to try some things with the graphics card.

70C is a safe temperature for the card though?

 

nice pal... i wanna upgrade my crappy 8400 too pls give me the website, i cant find it in ebay and i cant buy it from dell.com either cus i'm from canada *sobs*

 

The website I purchased the DY445 is the following.
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&mfgpid=190454&chassisid=8453
I saw that they are on sale (10% discount) today, but I am not sure how long this sale will last. If you can not order from US and Canada site does not have these available online, I would give them a call.

Your laptop is not specified but out of those 8600M-GT cards, DY445 (in the link) is for Vostro-1700/Inspiron-1720 and UW390 (which was not available today) is for Vostro-1500/Inspiron-1520. These are compatible if you swap the heatsinks as I had posted earlier. If you can wait for a couple weeks, you might be able to find UW390, if that is what you need. I ordered DY445 after waiting 4 weeks for UW390, then it showed up next week Anyway, my Vostro 1500 is fine with DY445 (after heatsink swap).

 

Hi,
Actually Dell has a very nice service manual with precise directions and illustrations.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1520/en/sm/index.htm
You can choose the link "Graphics Card Assembly" and follow the directions.
You can also let me know if you have any specific questions during the procedure.
Good luck!