Where to buy Upgrade Vid Cards?

I was forced to get my 9300 with the X300 Vid Card and I was just wondering where you can get any upgraded Vid Cards (6800 Ultra, 7800 GTX). You can't shop through Dell's website? Normally I check newegg, but can't find the Go cards.

Thanks for the help!

Jrunk

 

That's because laptop cards aren't upgradable

Luckily, the 9300 can be upgraded to the 6800 (not the ultra or 7800GTX, unless you do a few mods). The best place to buy it would be on ebay, although you can contact Dell's spare parts. I'll warn you now though, they are gonna be pretty expensive. Again, laptops GPUs aren't meant to be upgraded, so you will pay for the fact that retailers don't sell them.

Hope that helps

 

Like what kind of mod's are we talkin about to get an Ultra or GTX 7800 Card (is the regular 7800 possible as well ?)

Thanks for the info

Jrunk

 

i think you have to get a hacked version of the XPS M170 bios, so it will register the 7800 GTX. you also have to do a little bodie work i think to fit the extra heat pipe. the regular 7800 might be even harder to get and i dont think there is a hacked bios capable to run it.

 

Call Dell's Parts department for the 6800. It's possible to upgrade your card without voiding warranty.

 

Laptop cards are INDEED upgradable. You can buy the part here for retail price, although there are different avenues you can take to get it for much less:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...randid=56&first=true&page=productlisting.aspx

See here to get the card for less:

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=120789

For the i9300, there is some work that needs to be done, but it is possible to do the upgrade:

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=113866

 

If you do upgrade to the 7800, your warranty will be voided. Its not like you'll be able to hide the fact that you added a non-supported card to the 9300.

Like ccbr01 said, if you upgrade to the 6800, your warranty won't be voided. The card won't be covered under the warranty, so you'll be responsible for any damages that might occur because of the card.

 

In order to upgrade you will need a new northbridge, a 9-cell battery, new heat pipe for card (some come with) and you will need to upgrade to the XPS Gen 2 BIOS. Again...this will VOID your warranty.

 

You'll need all of what USAF said if you are upgrading to the 7800.

the 6800-- all you need to do is remove the old card and replace it with the new one. I think they recommend having a 9 cell battery with it also, but not 100% sure.

 

You don't need the 9-cell for the 6800. I have the 6-cell, but it is recommended for battery life.

 

Howdogg: sure, vid cards are "upgradable," at least in some cases. For the most part though, they are not made with the intention of upgrades. You can not purchase them through retailers, going into Dells spare parts is not the same as going on newegg and buying from a computer store.

Other than that, looks like you should get the idea by now Jrunkin. I hope things work out for you!!

 

You won't need the northbridge heatsink or the copper heat pipes for the 7800GTX mod. The card comes with the two heat pipes. In most 9300's the northbridge heatsink is the same one used in the XPS M170, so you won't need to buy that either. You will need the 9-cell battery and a 130W power supply. You will also need to hack the bios to the M170 bios plus install video drivers.

 

Your logic is all well and good, but the original question was where to buy a video card for an upgrade and you stated that video cards were not upgradable. In this case they are, and are being sold as easily as any online store, as indicated in my first link. Sure it's a crazy price, but it is there.

 

Ok I have the 9-cell but what do you mean 130 W PSU is that standard in the notebook or am I wrong? Secondly Hacking the bios does that mean just flashing my MOBO with M170 Mobo specs? I am sorry I am just really new to Notebooks as this 9300 will be my first Notebook I am actually paying for myself (My current Lappy is a D600 that was given to me by a frustrated buisnessman in an Airport (No joke He got up Said "F-Word" and walked by and through me this laptop and said "Want a Laptop" and walked off, waited around for an hour for him to come back and then had to get on my plane so I went through security to make sure it wasn't a bomb! and now I am here ) so anyways I am just trying to make this laptop last because 1600 bucks (after 650 off coupon) is alot of money for a college student!

Thanks again

 

Howdogg: Yeah, I see where the confusion is. I only said that because he said he couldn't find them on Newegg. I was just trying to point out why. My bad!!

Jrunkin: I don't know much about the specs of the 9300, but I do know the XPS comes with a bigger power brick, and you have to have that if you want it to run properly. Also, I think there was a special hacked BIOS that you have to download. It shoud be in that link on the first page. After that, you should be set. It's fairly easy to swap the GPUs in the XPS/9300, so you shouldn't have any problems, as long as you don't mind that voided warranty!!

 

You know...I had posted the link with all the information you need. Please take the time to read this again:

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=113866

 

There wasn't anything difficult about adding in the 7800 GTX to my 9300. I ordered my 9300 for that purpose exactly. The 9 Cell battery I already had, the Power Supply I purchased off of Ebay for 50 bucks or so. The hardest part actually was reflashing the BIOS since I didn't have a spare blank CDR (doh).

Luckily the flash method worked fine and was quite simple. installing the card itself was easy the system base must be identical to the XPS M170 since its already slotted for the additional heatsink. (just two pieces of foam to remove).

As far as warrenty goes.. I only have one year anyway. I kept the X300 video card in case something does go wrong. Otherwise I'm confident in my own ability to diagnose and buy the parts needed. At any rate there is info to contradict the fact that changing video cards will void your warrenty. Either way I'm not worried.

 

I mean that changing the card to the 7800 will void your warranty because its not a modification that is supported by Dell. You can upgrade to the cards that are offered specifically for your system without voiding your warranty. Changing to the 6800 won't void the warranty, but the new card won't be covered where as the rest of the laptop will be still covered.

SG

 

I believe you, however if something were to go wrong with say the motherboard I could always reseat the X300 before sending it in. I'm resigned to being SOL if anything happened to the 7800.

Of course on a side note when I called dell spare parts I gave them my ID off of my 9300 when requesting the 7800 GTX part and when asked why I wanted it I told them I was upgrading my 9300 ... nobody mentioned any reason why I couldn't or a warning about my warrenty so who knows. In my experience Dell is pretty casual about changes, of course this is experience from Desktop and not laptop PCs.