inspiron 9300 video card/cooling upgrades

anyone ever notice that the cooling system on the XPS Gen 2 is copper based? well i did, and i have an i9300, and i want that cooling system! so i called dell spare parts and accessories (1-800-357-3355, option 2 for home users) to see if i could purchase the upgraded cooling system.

Turns out the processor cooling system is exactly the same on both the i9300 and the XPS Gen 2! the main (and extreme) difference is the copper fins that are easily noticable on the XPS Gen 2 are from the video card, that is both backside vents are used to cool the video card, as well as the processor on the CD drive side.

After about 10 minutes on hold with spare parts, the guy says to me the only way to obtain the XPS gen 2 cooling system is to buy the whole video card package, the 6800 Ultra, which comes with the double heatpiped copper-finned cooling system! i then asked the price on that, expecting a huge amount from his end, but was surprised at $390!

now, 390 bucks seems like a hefty ransom for a video card right now, but do think about who you are buying from, and what you are getting... a proprietary laptop graphics card with the cooling system direct from dell spare parts. not a bad deal i thought to myself, but i wonder if that will even work in the i9300!!? i also inquired about the fans, since i would assume they would be different, and they in fact are, but only like ~$25 for the both of them...

i am fairly sure the card will fit in the laptop, coolingwise, since the XPS Gen 2 is essentially the same physical platform with some major enhancements to the components. so without further adieu:

Does anyone know if the 6800 ultra will work in the i9300?

And while we are at the upgrade part of things, does anyone know if the pentium M 770 (2.13GHz) will work in the i9300?

 

the 6800 might fit the 9300, but even if it does, BIOS won't support it. Dell has it set where you can only upgrade to specific cards that are available for your laptop, so with the 9300 we are stuck with the ATI 64, 128 & nvidia 6800. If they would start offering the 6800 ultra with the 9300, then you would be able to upgrade it.

As for the Pentium M, I suspect sometime next year. I'm not sure how often they upgrade or expand their choices of processors.

 

I fail to understand why you see a need to replace your cooling system? It is virtually identical to the xps2 with the exception as noted of the copper fins on the ultra card. Four hundred dollars for a bit of copper? Are our temps really that bad in the 9300??

If you want to tweak your cooling, try replacing those thermal pads with some better thermal compound like arctic silver 5 or arctic silver ceramique.

My 9300 runs quite cool, certainly cooler than the xps2, making this whole thread a moot point in my opinion, save your money lad.

 

He may have wanted those copper fins in order to further push an overclock on the 6800....
....but then found that he could get the faster 6800Ultra (possibly, if it fits)

 

precisely... and on the ultra there is 2 heatpipes coming off the main heatsink, look at the CD drive side rear vent and you'll notice a lot of space in between the processor heatsink and the plastic case. this is where the 2nd heatpipe goes to...

so not only would the copper cooling fins add to the overall cooling capacity, but 2 heatpipes instead of one...? thats quite a lot more heat exchange than one heatpipe with aluminum fins