Dead 980m and either cpu/mobo ideas? Precision M6700

you should definitively not buy a M6700 for gaming unless it's priced under 250 with QM/XM cpu, 16GB of ram, SSD and K4000M/K5000M

 

You can't find that model for that price with all that, even new egg is selling refurb versions for around 650$- non-xm versions. I paid 412 including tx and free shipping for an 3940xm, k4000m, 32gb ram, 500gb hdd, 3d vision setup in mint condition. Should get here tomorrow. I'm not 100% sure but I think the 3dvision screens are 120hz too. So I could swap out the lvds regular 1080p screen I still have and sell the 120hz 3d screen etc.

Other than the gpu it's a beast and it's certainly worth more than what I paid for it. Almost exactly the same as my previous m6700. The value is that I still have a lot of stuff from my old one like 16gb ram, so the 32gb will go up for sale and get me a chunk back. Burnt out 980m that's maybe repairable by someone too. I have an extra 1080p screen to sell, extra charger, already sold the old 3940xm for 165 total back. Soldered stuff is just less options like that.

I OC'd my last k4000m up to 870m level so I'll make do with that for a while. When I get all that extra stuff sold I'll go looking for another 980m or m4/5000m and it should all be even. The k4000m is worth about 65-70 total back, did that with my last one once I found a 980m for a good price.

From walmart I'm testing out a pavilion with i5-9300h, 8gb ram, gtx 1650, 256gb nvme for 589, 649 with tax new. It's been fine for 1080p gaming. RDR2 around 60fps at the performance preset still looks pretty good. I prefer 17" for gaming though. I have til jan 8 to take it back so we'll see about the m6700 may resell it.

Yeah I consider 1650/1060/980m about the same give or take a few percent. Next step up is 1660ti/1070/2060. I've seen 2060 laptops go for around 800-850 on ebay used and some open box and new. I think for just 1080p medium settings the first group is fine, for high/ultra the next set. I prefer 17" for gaming though and those are harder to find. Newer for the same price is better obviously. I'm going to wait for now unless something like the Omen I had comes up.

Well those are both at least 800$ +tx though. For 800+ I'd get a 1660ti or a 2060 and I've seen both on ebay for that price or less. Lowest I've seen new on ebay for a 2060 laptop is 837$+tx/sh. Just not what I'm comfortable spending for the time being or I would have done it. I also prefer 17". Another Omen 17 in good condition used would be something. Alienware, etc but not MSI from what your experience has been.

This 1650 is fine, for well optimized games it does over 60fps, HZD is not that though lol but I'm pretty much done with that game, not nearly as good as people said it was tbh. RDR2 gets 60fps in a lot of cases and dips to 45 where there is a lot of action/people. Good enough. WRC9 vsync locked at 60 but it gets about 75fps non-vsync. theHunter COW is a really well optimized game, I can run it at acceptable levels on my old firepro m4000 so even a k4000m OC would work even better. Cyberpunk I'd just play through on the 1650 next month. Not much other huge heavy games on the horizon.

 

Yea 17 inch laptops are harder to find these days.

Most likely you'll find something better if you can wait for the Ampere Nvidia GPUs next year and when they're released expect all current Turing laptops prices to drop like crazy.

 

idk from what I see people paying for 1060/1070 laptops on eb they hold up pretty good but I get your point. I think I've read the 3xxx laptops will release in april or so and it def should put some price pressure down if you can get one quickly like buy it now from someone who is upgrading and just wants it gone.

I just think that if you have a powerful card it just makes sense to have larger screen and also for other purposes if you don't plan on having an external screen plugged in most of the time. The biggest pain is the chargers on those things, they're like books lol

 

On a laptop with a 1080p screen with 120hz or less I can't see anything over a 2060 being necessary tbh. With 3xxx series gaming laptops they're going to have to bring 1440p or even 4k into the mainstream for their screens. Those are still on the rare side in laptops. Even high hz won't be that important to single players only like me, I'm not getting into that sinkhole of online killathons with morons so don't need lightning refresh rates. Vsynced 60 is totally smooth enough, even with adaptive vsync less than 60 is fine by me. I should get my m6700 today or sometime, the post office here is atrocious. They've had the item for over 7 days and it's only going 400 miles, really incompetent money burners over at the usps, like all government leeches.

 

Update finally got a refund for the omen, seller tried to challenge it I guess, ebay isn't too open about return case details. Kinda glad I did return it, with such a shady seller who knows what else was wrong with it besides the keyboard and dead battery, many missing screws but he mentioned that at least. Seller had a Utah address but the item came from Connecticut, but the return address was salt lake on the label wtf. THEN on the return shipping label he had the Connecticut address, and the person who signed for the return was NOT the name of the person who sold it to me, very shady.

My sense about the keyboard issue is that I've seen a few gaming laptops that have this issue on ebay, different brands etc I'm thinking the high heat over long periods of time just adds up and does something to the keyboard contact layer. Making the non-replaceability a real design flaw. Assuming nothing was spilled on the keyboard of course.

 

btw I could come up with 2 or 3 more of these links if I wanted. rtx 2060 $799 at walmart.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gateway-...-007-17629fb79864fc&athancid=null&athena=true

 

I realize I'm just talking to myself at this point but one last message. The so called "m6700, 3940xm, 32gb, k4000m, 3dvision" laptop arrived today. It's not even an m6700 it's an m6600 with a 2920xm, 24gb, quadro 4000m, non-3dvision. That's a huge downgrade and not even close to as described. Also it took over 2 weeks to go 400 miles by the USPS idiots. Took pics of all the discrepancies and sending it back tomorrow. I'm taking a break from trying to replace my old m6700 with another laptop for a while. It's amazing how a lot of people don't even know what they are selling on ebay or try to slip fast ones, both on the seller side and buyer side. Such an aggravating site to get things done on, especially now with all the scammers and the totally AI/google type of automated customer service. Terrible.

On a better note I did get a very cheap firepro m5100 from eb for less than 20$ it should be a great upgrade for my m4600 that will allow me to play games like RDR2 at low settings. I am able to play rdr2 with my m4000 but at ultra low settings done via xml custom editing. This should be enough for me for a few months.

 

That a very good price for a RTX 2060 laptop especially if you want to spend less than $1000 for one. The RAM and SSD are easy to upgrade but even though the I5 is kinda weak in 2020 but you still can get by as most games are GPU dependent.

That sucks man. Personally i never had any problems with sellers on ebay but you still gotta check their ratings and feedback from other people. Buying used laptops is like gambling imo.

That good news, RDR2 is a demanding game and it requires a good CPU to handle the physics that goes on in the game.

 

Yeah it kinda sucks because right now, after all the 2020 nonsense, I just can't pull the trigger on that 2060 machine it's just too much to lay out right now otherwise I'd be getting it in a second. It would do my gaming needs for at least a couple of years or more. I was fine with a 980m until it died recently, no plans to upgrade but life happens.

I only have a dual core i7-2620m with an ancient firepro m4000 and I was able to get close to 30fps when applying low spec gamers settings, see his youtube, to RDR2. It looks dreadful and I was at 480p which is not possible in the normal game setting menu. Also lod values, water reflection values and character values make it like stick cowboys but it is playable. With the M5100 w double the vram and about 25% more graphics power 720p should be possible somewhere above 30fps. Not bad for an $18 gpu lol

 

new used mobo for my dead m6700 came up for 20 free ship,which would be great if I hadn't already sold my 3940xm cpu for 160$ a month ago. A 3740qm would be about 90. THEN have to get a new gpu say 970m for 160. 270$ to get it all together. NOT_WORTH_IT. I can get a used one for around 350 with everything and still have all that extra stuff from my old m6700 to sell or swap into the new one if it's better.

 

With the holiday the usps is terrible, no useful tracking, packages missing or delayed for days or weeks. Not a surprise with the scandal with the new usps leadership earlier this year, probably deliberate so as to get more public money and also raise prices at the same time but most people are so dumb and programmed they'll believe anything fed to them on any subject. I am done looking for a gaming laptop this year, too many scams on ebay, it'd take 2+ weeks just to get here, and I've already had to return 2 of them that were not as described. Overpriced when compared to new, see the 2060 laptop link above, most are skimpy with details like what gpu it has, etc etc Either keep this 1650 hp Pavilion I got brand new at walmart or if I get through cyberpunk on it I'll just take it back before jan 8 and be done with any sort of heavy games for a while.

 

Ok this is the last post by me I promise, minus any re-replies lol.

-Acer Nitro 5, i5-10300H, gtx 1650, 8gb ram, 256 gb ssd nvme, 15.6" 1080p ips. $550.
-Same laptop just with a 17.3" screen is $100 more, no thanks.
-Acer certified refurbished from acer directly on ebay. Ebay has a 15% off coupon on certified refurbished up to 100$ through 12/19. Free fedex shipping. On sale on ebay for 579$, -87$ (coupon scaled to the sale price). Free 2 year all state warranty through ebay on the screen, battery, etc. Free 90 day Acer warranty and 1 year on the battery. With 10% tax comes to a grand total of 550$ to my door. I really have not found anything that can beat that for value other than used outliers used on ebay which are a gamble with no warranty of any kind. I've already had to return two of those.
-From my testing of this pavilion i59300h from walmart the 1650 is fine for me atm, plays cyberpunk low-med 900p about 45fps, I lock it to 40fps for smoothness, average still looks great, RDR2 50+fps on the performance setting and still looks great, hzd is a struggle but with the right settings it looks fine. I'll be taking the pavilion back to walmart after xmas for a full refund with their holiday refund policy. I paid 649$ total for it, so save $100 and get a newer cpu.

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gateway-...ass-PC-HD-Webcam-Cortana-Windows-10/425492039

Way better deal IMO. The GPU is like 80% faster without DLSS, and with DLSS it's over 2x as fast.

 

Holy crap, if I had seen that I would be getting it no doubt, let me see if I can cancel my previous order.

 

Thanks for the tip @yrekabakery I hadn't checked on the prices, in my previous post of the link it was still at 799$ for that model so the $699 is just too good to pass up for an rtx 2060 model, even if it is over $200 more with taxes. I was able to contact acer and cancel the ebay order and get a refund and grabbed the 2060 link thanks.

 

That a steal there!

Even though a quad core CPU might be kinda weak in 2020 but you still cant beat that price especially with a RTX 2060.

Recommended upgrades is to buy a 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD since it has 2nd M.2 Slot and to buy another 8GB stick so you'll have 16GBs of RAM running on Dual Channel Mode.

 

Edit: If you are traveling for the holidays and try to have an order shipped to other than your billing address forget it with Walmart. I tried 2 times to order this, the second time after contacting 2 different cs reps via phone and chat, both orders were canceled immediately. The laptop is not available in store nor for pickup in store, shipped only. Acer deal is sold out now, what a headache. Going to pass on all of it now.
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Yeah that's amazing, it should be here by the 23rd so I'll be a happy camper for xmas. For sure wish it was hexacore+ but I've not come into any typical use issues with this 9300h over the last month so the 10300h that this comes with should be fine. For my gaming needs it should work for a long time. One other thing is that it has a 120hz screen which is nice, the acer didn't have that. I have a few left over 2.5 hdd's and 2.5 ssd's with games on them that I just plug in with my usb3 to sata cable and just game off that, other than CAD I don't have a lot of heavy/large programs on the C drive typically. I'll probably install my 1TB 2.5 hdd inside of it.

 

Update: looks like 3rd times a charm so far the order has not been canceled by walmart.com after contacting them 3 times. One drawback I can see is that there is no sata slot inside for adding a large size ssd/hdd, only 2 nvme slots so it's not something you're going to put a bunch of games on out of the box. But as mentioned my solution has just been installing games remotely on my 2.5" hdd/ssd's of which I have about 5, which are connected with a usb3 to msata cable. Maybe one large game like Cyberpunk on the included nvme. May put win10 ltsc on there to save storage room as well, once I see that I want to keep it.

 

how are you doing with your 1650? @hertzian56

 

I'm taking that one back after xmas, it worked fine but with the rtx 2060/i5-10300h walmart gateway laptop just $100 more at $699 I decided to pick that one up instead. The HP with the 1650 is much quieter gaming but only has a 50w 1650.

This gateway has a rtx2060 at 90w+ so it gets pretty loud but I always game with headphones anyways. I'm using it now and cyberpunk looks amazing at med-high settings on it. I have until Jan 8 to decide on the gateway rtx 2060 before having to return so we'll see. It only comes with 8gb ram and a 256gb ssd and you can't open it up really because there's a void warranty sticker over one of the screw holes.

 

rtx 2060 is a beast...i think its a good idea and you should be pretty future proof for 1080p gaming

 

Those stickers are unenforceable. Highly recommend upgrading to dual channel RAM as you’re losing out on a lot of performance in single channel, especially in a game as CPU-heavy as Cyberpunk.

 

that crossed my mind also....my msi laptop has one sticker saying void if removed but it doesnt void warranty

 

Look I agree with you guys it probably won't void the warranty, BUT I'd rather avoid the hassle if I have to deal with this company that calls itself Gateway/Evoo now. The normal gateway site doesn't even load or work and the usa version goes right to the Evoo website. There's no mention of gateway branded models there. I'm not confident that there is even a warranty provider at all. That's a consideration as to keeping it.

As we all know manufacturers of all sorts of things do their best to get out of warranty work with the most trivial of reasons. So until I am past the return date jan 8 I'll not open it at all and later if I want to upgrade ram etc I I'll heat up the sticker and take it off with a razor, then store it if it's needed later. It's just very scammy to put the sticker right over one of the screw holes and probably speaks to the tongfang direct from china nature of these models, no clue about laws or fcc advisory's etc

 

Its actually illegal for companies to add warranty void stickers but most people dont know that and you wont void your warranty by damaging the sticker so dont worry about it, this includes cars, appliances, and etc.

Most people who buy gaming laptops are going to open it up eventually to make upgrades and to clean the fans and heatsinks.

 

Yes I'm aware of that but I'm a bit paranoid so I'd still carefully remove the sticker and store it in the box for later if needed. I cannot find any working gateway/acer/evoo website that even mentions this model at all so it's doubtful there's any real warranty service anyways. Alternately I can buy a 2 year warranty for it through walmart for $60 or 3 year for 90. It only covers screen cracks, drive failure, liquid damage and battery failure. As a side note as per my walmart account it says I have until Jan 24 2021 to initiate a return so I guess I'm going to be trying it out until then.

 

go for the 3 year warranty, its well worth it in the long run as laptops as you've found out rarely last very long.

also too add im using gpu power thats 8 years old and still rocks the newest games at 1080p.....the 2060 should last even longer

 

Are you talking about the 1060? I thought that was only about 3-4 years old? I remember buying my desktop 1060 in late 2017 brand new so I'm guessing it came out that year or the year before? The 980m came out in 2014 iirc.

I don't think I'd bother with a 3 year warranty but I may go for the 2 year if I'm keeping this. I did get some info from an obscure Acer pdf about warranty, has a number and a generic gateway email so I'll try to contact them to inquire and register the product.

 

i meant performance wise not the actual card the overclocked 780 matches it well close

(199) GTX 780 OC Unigine Heaven benchmark - Extreme Maxed - YouTube

I get 64fps oc with my 1060

 

Ah, ok makes you wonder about just going with an old cheap card at least afa desktop. Newer laptop gpus at least use much less watts to get the same or better results though. The 980m was 100w+ card and it's similar performance successors use less than that. The 1060 mobile, which is above the 980m, is only 80w. This rtx 2060 mobile is rated to 115w but others have said it really is around 90w. The gtx 1650 mobile is 50w and gets you about 980m performance minus like 10%.

 

Thought I'd share some info for walmart customers on my return today. I bought the pavilion gtx 1650 laptop in november when it's under the extended holiday return period. Well I took it back today for a refund, all reset and in pristine condition. This was the store I bought it from with a credit card. When they scanned it they said the serial number on the receipt didn't match the one on the box and I'm like what?!

So after about a half hour of waiting they did take it back for a full refund on my card but I was a bit worried and kept the return receipt so will be checking my credit card balance. But man if they can't get that right I'm going to avoid buying laptops at walmart stores. They gave me some explanation about how wm or hp may have switched the upc since november for the same item etc Really crazy stuff. I'm not too worried about online direct from walmart because there was no physical receipt nor is there a serial number on the box for them to screw up, and the gateway laptop is only available new through walmart online website.

Edit: oh and the 15 days normal return period seems to be bunk since when I looked at the receipt it says explicitly at the bottom that computers can be returned up to 30 days after purchase. I'm not sure if "computers" applies to laptops though, it should.