Dell Vostro 1500 8600M GT Replacements -- How has it been?

I apologize in advance if there is already a thread dedicated to this issue as I made sure to search around to see whether someone had already started one on this issue.


My question goes out to other Dell 1500 Vostro owners who ended up with a defective card and underwent the painstaking process of replacing their 8600M GT cards:


Have the replacement cards been defective as the stock ones? Are the replacement 8600M GT cards better built to withstand heating? Has Nvidia fixed the silicone issues?

The reason I ask is I've found sellers online who're selling the card for roughly $150. I'm willing to foot the cost as my Vostro is out of warranty and i would like to keep the notebook as a moderate gaming machine for at least 2 more years. I've decided to use an Arctic cooling solution in tandem with the 8600M card replacement to lower the chances of further silicone degrading as was seen in the last 2 years with Nvidia's 8400M and 8600M cards.


Please don't flame me for beating the dead horse. My issue concerns the replacement cards as Dell refuses to cover the damage out of warranty.

 

Ive been trying to figure out how to get to teh bloody card in the first place since its so deep inside the shell.I want to get a 8600 but dont feel like taking apart everything,ebay has that card for lower prices though.Iff yiu buy another 8600 then youll be buying the same one you have now again.

 

First off, thanks for responding.


And yes...there's a manual on how to take out/replace the card.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vos1500/en/sm/graphics.htm

It's a very laborious process, one that I'll prepare for.

And yes, I'm well aware that I'm going for replacing my current defective 8600M for a new 8600M card. My Vostro 1500 contains Dell's proprietary MXM slot which allows my notebook to slot in only an 8400M GS or 8600M GT. I have no choice in the matter, otherwise I would be looking into an after-market 8800M GT upgrade that doesn't have this problem.


I am aware that I will be taking a huge risk in the event I do opt for my own upgrade. That is why I am researching (or more like trying to gain confirmation from other Vostro owners that Nvidia has mopped up its act on production of 8600M's at least with after-market cards). As dumb as this sounds, even though I've never tried it before, I'm planning to install the card myself.

I'm a bit wary of going on eBay just to get the card for under $150 as I've had negative experiences that involved shady sellers selling me their used computer parts as new. Once or even twice was enough. Not the third time.


On the other hand, if I find out that the card hasn't been fixed, I'll still replace the card but only after I finalize my decision to go to Korea. I'll be spending six months working there and I plan to spend a few weekends on and off grinding away while my friends and coworkers go drinking. Yeah, call me a pansy. I don't drink often.


I don't plan on buying a new high performance notebook anytime soon. For the value, I'm better off spending $200-$300 upgrading the OS ($50 for Win7), swapping in a new graphics card that should last me at least 1 more year ($150), buying a new cooling pad ($50), and possibly a bigger notebook hard drive ($50 or less). I don't care if the card craps out again after 1 year. To be honest, I'm surprised it lasted slightly over a year before crapping out. Even if it does or lasts even longer, it'll have served its purpose.


Times are tough. Instead of spending $1500 on a gaming notebook that I may end up mothballing later on, I've decided to spend $200-$300 on cheap upgrades. Even though my notebook's over a year and a half old, the CPU still benchmarks better than many CPUs located inside the notebooks sold at Bestbuy. IMO Penryn at the lower-end is overrated.


This 8600M card on the other hand isn't not so bad as it was for Macbook Pro owners. Those guys got the shortest end of the stick IMO with their poor cooling designs amidst their supposedly prettier exterior. I'm able to watch 1080p movies easily with no heating issues, surf the web, and play a couple of hours of L4D and Guild Wars with no problems. It's just that after 2-3 hours of intense gameplay, my graphics starts lagging and/or things get pixellated and thus I'm forced to exit the game and let my computer cool.


On a final note, I'm planning to conduct my own "experiment." I've learned through brief readings of blogs and news articles that the 8600M card suffers from a weak silicone-based casing that surrounds the GPU's die. This design defect has caused the silicone casing to have an extremely low tolerance for temperatures that are typically sustained by other high-performance gaming cards, resulting in card's casing melting in the rarer cases. What I plan to do to at least retard the degrading of the card is apply some Arctic Silver solution and see whether this cools the card and allows my laptop to last for a few more hours of gameplay.

Yes, I'm an extreme game-player when I'm in the mood or bored as hell, but if I can achieve about 4 consecutive hours of game-play with no graphics skipping or pixellating issues, I'll have considered this experiment a success.