Studio 15 - Changing The Processor + Graphics Card

Hiya,

I'm currently wondering how easy (or even if its possible) changing the processor in a studio 15 would be.
Secondly i'm curious as to expensive a new processor would cost, 2.5GHz preferably as my current processor is 2.0GHz.

My second question is: Can the graphics card be changed without soldering in the studio 15. I'm unsure whether the graphics card is integrated or not.
My current graphics card is: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 (256mb)
I was wondering how much a new card would cost and the difficulty to replace.

Thanks.
-Tom.

 

1) CPU : You can but it takes time/effort/a lot of work and WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY

2) GPU: Not happening

 

To elaborate on X2P's second answer, 99% of laptop do not have upgradeable GPUs because they are soldered to the motherboard. There is a small fraction of laptops that use MXM cards, but they are rare (and the cards for them are fewer still). In short, it's impossible.

 

As far as I can rem. from my searching on the S15 (getting one today) the top end card for this model isn't soldered on, but the two lower ones are (like yours).

 

How bout a new hard-drive? Like an SSD (when they become a bit cheaper)

 

Yep, no problems with RAM, CPU and HDD upgrading. Only worry about the GPU, that's bordering on impossible.

 

I thought the older Inspirons like the 1720s have a removable GPU that can be upgraded?

 

For the 1720s, yes, it is removable but its a proprietary GPU slot from Dell. You cannot fit a standard MXM (Insert version here) GPU into the 1720. GPU upgrades from 8400M GS to 8600M GT can be done in the 1720.

And I think the Original Poster is talking about the Studio 15's GPU upgradability in this thread and not the 1720. And yes, upgrading the CPU manually will void warranty.

 

The 256mb ATI Radeon Mobility HD 3450 is as good as it gets on the Studio 15.

Although a CPU upgrade is possible, the safest, easiest and (very likely) least expensive alternative is to sell your current Studio 15 (on Ebay, Craigslist, etc) and buy a new one configured with the CPU you want!

 

you can EASILY upgrade THE CPU in your Studio 15. Both CPU and GPU are NOT soldered to the board. It takes 5 to 10 minutes to do. Penryn/Meron socket P CPU's are never soldered.

I originally had a Studio 17 with a T5750 CPU and ATI 3650HD.
I upgraded to a T9300. Took me 10 minutes to do.
The laptop now runs cooler and much faster.

You also could (potentially) upgrade your 3450HD GPU - It is Epoxied to the MB, but still can be removed. possibly to a 3650HD or 3850HD. I haven't heard of anyone doing this yet
... so I'm not sure if a BIOS hack would be needed.

 

Steb, they are "discrete" soldered onto the motherboard in the studio laptops.

 

mine isn't soldered - it's epoxied and still removable.

 

If it wasn't soldered then you got a dud, It should have been soldered.

 

...perhaps... someone got lazy on your Dell setb... for the better?

 

hardly a "dud". the seating is fine - the Chip was epoxied to the base. I tested the contacts on the GPU at the same time when I upgraded my CPU.

Are you SURE yours is in fact soldered? Have you actually looked?

 

Unless you some how got a studio 17 (one off) with mxm, ie attached picture, Your gpu should have been soldered to the motherboard.

No studio 17 supports mxm. So if your gpu is not attached properly then somebody who was involved in the manufacturing seriously messed up.

Anyway, what unsoldered gpu chip do you propose to upgrade to? You can't buy graphics cards just as a chip alone (like a cpu) so even if you can remove yours, there is nothing that you can replace it with.

 

Why? Many OEM's now epoxy their discrete GPU's to the seat. I know that IBM does it, and it looks like Dell does it too (at least on the Studio line).

Again I ask, have you actually looked at your GPU's seating?

Your logic is faulty. It IS attached properly. For some reason you seem to think that things need to be soldered to other things for them to work.

Do you understand that chips can work fine without being soldered to their boards? as long as their seating is designed for it, you can often secure them with a clamp, or some epoxy.

I'm not actually thinking of upgrading my Studio 1735's GPU. I never said I was.
I did say that I had replaced the T5750 CPU in my Studio 17 with a T9300 purchased from newegg.

I simply stated that it is possible to replace the discrete GPU in the Studio laptops. I'm guessing that the Studio laptops should be able to handle any of the ATI mobility HD3xxx line. Certainly a Studio 15 equipped with a 3450HD could upgrade to a 3650HD as they both have 128bit buses and same socket. If dell hasn't hobbled the northbridge to 128bit then a 3850HD with it's 256bit bus could also work.
And if Dell hasn't hacked the BIOS to do do any video card voodoo.

Who says? OEM's often sell individual chips for repair purposes, 3rd party suppliers will also sell them, and you'll also find them on ebay.
Again, these are individual GPU chips I'm talking about - not the whole mxm gpu card.

I bought a NVidia Quadro 140 from eBay to upgrade my old Thinkpad T61. I simply removed the old chip (and guess what, it was held in place with epoxy) with a thin scalpel.
This would of course have voided my warranty - but that had already expired.

 

now steb has made me wonder if i would want to try the 3450 replacement since the card is soo disappointing.

 

Replace it with what? It's not changeable.

 

You can continue debating this matter of soldered vs. epoxy all you like, but what really matters is whether the GPU is upgradeable; if it isn't MXM, then it is not upgradeable. Even if you can remove a GPU secured with epoxy as opposed to solder, it would be almost impossible to acquire the upgrade chip.

 

Steb is correct on all counts here...
He has confirmed the option to replace the CPU based on Real Life experience - not theory.

Has anyone successfully replaced the GPU with an upgrade ATI chip ... 3650HD, etc... Thanks

 

I don't think that someone upgraded the hd3650 or hd3450 to something better.
If the gpu it's sloderd(as the majority sais)you cant upgrade it,but if it's not sloderd(as only the user ''steb''said that)is a chance.
PS:until someone does not come with some pictures of the studio 17 or 15 spread out showing us that the gpu it's not sloderd i don't belive it.

 

Not sure about the Studio 15, but the studio 17 seems like it's NOT soldered. Note the 2 screws securing the GPU next to the fan. If it's soldered, screws shouldn't be needed as seen in the chipset (above the ram)

 

Thanks for the reply David.
It's verry intereseting,eventually may be a chance.
ill wait to see what other users have to say about this.

 

David thank you really.
Now i Know I can put another HDD in my notebook!

 

You mean in your 1535 as per sig? Nope. Dual HDDs only still applies to the Studio 17 series. That image David put is the image of the Studio 17. The Studio 15 series have only one HDD slot.

 

Please remain ontopic on this thread.
So what do you think is the gpu sloderd on studio17???

 

Here's a pic of the Studio 15. Again, it has 2 screw securing the GPU heatsink. The studio 15 in this picture is equipped with the ATI 3450 GPU. I still don't think the GPU is soldered, but again, I may be wrong since I've never played around with any studio laptops before. I'm only speaking from experience

 

Can confirm that the ATI GPU installed in my Studio 1735 is glued down at all four corners to the system board...

Don't see anyone removing it unless they have proper tools/chemicals in order to get it off w/o destroying it...

 

It seems it's not sloderd on the MOBO but with what gpu you could upgrade?

 

just registered because I've been following this topic.
got a 1735 but kinda disappointed with not having mxm, when I've got 1920x1200 wuxga. come on, Dell....
I ripped open my laptop out of curiosity (used to do warranty work for dell, I'm certified
Indeed the GPU is held to the system board with epoxy.
I'll post a picture of the system board as it's all ripped apart later today hopefully.
I don't have my card reader with me , gotta wait till my sister wakes up, hehe

 

I agree it sucks that they have gone backwards in this regard. I remember my Inspiron 5160 from four years ago having a changeable GPU. It wasn't a huge upgrade, but at least it was possible. I guess now with notebooks being cheaper the manufacturers figure they can get away with non-upgradeable parts since you can almost afford to upgrade every twenty-four months.

 

This means it's not sloderd?

 

OK these should be good enough to give you an idea.
The LCD plugs in under the top bezel above the keyboard.
The GPU is on the bottom of the laptop, with everything else, next to the processor.
I've got the T9300 Penryn 2.5ghz , with the ATI 3650 GPU sitting next to it, epoxy on all 4 corners. I did NOT try to remove the GPU when I had this apart, but I think with the right tools/chemicals, you could harmlessly remove it...
Sorry the topic started on a Studio 15, I've got a Studio 1735 so thats what these pics are. The mobo is an Intel PM965 (Dell part number 0H275K)
I think it's kind of odd, that if you buy a 1735 new from Dell, they only give the option of the Intel integrated graphics, but I got mine refurbished from their outlet store, and got the option of having the upgraded ATI 3650 GPU. Something seems fishy here.

 

Well...it seems it's upgradable but what gpu could you fit in(hd 3850)?

 

so, technically, those with the on-board intel chip could upgrade to the ATI if the epoxy was removed? or am I misunderstanding?

 

I really don't know what you could upgrade it to, or if that's even possible in this case. I just wanted to see for curiosity's sake if it was actually stuck on there without being soldered.
I wonder if in the refurbishing process, they removed the Intel GPU and stuck the ATI on there to jack the price up a hair?
I would like to see a picture of the on board Intel chip, maybe that is epoxied on there as well? I think if it looks the same, there may be a chance of upgrading in a non conventional way.
I think the only way we'll find out is if someone else with a studio 1735 and the Intel GPU took theirs apart and posted some pics somewhere.
fyi, it was a pain to get to the GPU. I had to completely remove the system board since there are all kinds of plastic/metal parts that are in the way from the casing. It was holding the heat sink down over the GPU. Only after completely removing the system board could I get that dang heat sink off.
SO could I buy a HD 3850 MXM card, remove the GPU , and stick on this mobo? First off, I don't have the money to try that, and I kinda doubt it would work. I think you'd need to match the memory bus width, power consumption, etc. to even have a chance. But if anyone can argue that, please do.

 

Dell dont use mxm they use the ''Dell Proprietary PCIe Slot'',if you want to upgrade you must use one of their own video cards...i wonder if the ati hd3870 from the aw m17 could fit in to this laptop(i guess dell and alienware use the same proprietary slot)?

 

AFAIK, complete disassembly is the only way to thoroughly clean out the system fan and heatsink as well. I have had my Studio less than 6 months and was very surprised by the amount of garbage stuck in the fan already. This will seriously affect the temperature your notebook normally operates at. Don't think compress/canned air would get all the dust balls out of the fan either...needs to be disassembled IMHO...

Recommend pulling your notebook apart to clean at least once a year to get all this accumulated stuff out of your fan especially if you keep your notebook turned on quite abit...

 

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...chassisid=8526&nf=~3~694&sort=-price&~ck=anav

Someone would have to get ahold of a Studio 1735 system board and make the attempt at removing the ATI GPU in order to attempt installing into the 1535/37. Believe the Studio system board containing the ATI would be the PWA,PLN,OEM,NBK,DISCRT,1735 Dell Part# : NU493 and this part avail from Dell at above link ain't cheap either...

This would be a major undertaking and you would possibly destroy the system board attempting to remove the GPU...

 

With the studio you can not upgrade the video. The Dedicated cards that use the mxm format or dells own format have the ram and bios for the gpu on that card with the actual gpu chip.. You can not just pull off the gpu and insert a different one and expect it to work.

 

How do you know that?
Why not jus pull out the gpu afterall it has been proven that it's not sloderd.

 

I know this because I am I Computer tech of 8 years and worked on thousands of computers. I do Apple, Sony and Toshiba warranty service and Certified Data service. The bios for the gpu that is on the main motherboard, will be for the 3450. That is what tells the memory and gpu what MHz to run at. The ram that is on board for the 3450 would not be able to handle that speeds that the 3650 use. I am sorry to say that is is just common sense. You can try, but it will be a very expensive mistake

 

brian, you should know better than to use logic. Since it isn't soldered it must be upgradeable.

 

one could flash the bios on the video board to tell it to run at a faster clock speed for the new chip / flash it with the bios extracted from the donor video boards bios. Of course one would have to set the memory speed to the recipient machines graphics board clock otherwise the ram may artifact (due to being overclocked).

Overclockers have been doing this for year (however not physically changing chips). Some chips (nvidia especially) have just had a few pipelines disabled etc etc, and the OC's try to enable them. If successful they flash different bios to the card, or a modified original bios to the card, with the pipelines enabled. Same with core and memory speeds. They overlock the gpu core / memory, and test the new speeds on their games, and when happy, modify the bios to the clock speed they want, that doesnt produce problems, and they end up with a faster card at boot rather than having to use software every boot to overclock their card.

Of course they know full well that they are blowing their warranty away!

Anything is possible.

 

That's great, maybe they can add a few circuits to their mobo in the process.

 

I'm with atbnet. It is a waist of time to think that this can be done.

 

Without someone telling him he'll continue to make that mistake thinking that he could add another HDD in his Studio 15.

I'd prefer through BIOS overclocking too. (Extracting them via NiBitor). Other than changing the speeds, one will have more options of changing the voltage and byte values as well.

Did it with my 8600M GT.

Sometimes flashing a different BIOS onto a different chip will "kill" the card with immediate effect.

However I'm not certain if you can really mod/unlock the pipelines of a mobile GPU.

In regards to this thread, I'd like to see how Dell does to the GPU on the Studio series. Long ago The E7105s can be easily modded with a 7950GTX probably the fact that the M1710s uses the same chip design set. Since then they started changing, and the 1720s GPU became proprietary from then on.

I think the Studio series follow suit. It's not like a desktop we can change it as and when we want to. But without trying, then you'll never know. You may fit it in, but a good modder should be well be prepared for failures and will always have a backup plan if something goes wrong - and a price to pay for like brainca2 said.

Seems like upgrading is easier said, then done.

 

Let's hope that someone with too much money will do that for us .

Merry Christmas.

 

Does anyone know where I can purchase a new CPU for my Studio 15? I should of went for a better CPU but I went for the low end Core Duo 1.86GHz