What's a good upgrade cpu for the P-6860FX?

I'm considering getting a more powerful CPU to replace the T5550. Any opinions on which would probably yield the best return for the cost?

 

I am working on buying an upgrade for my 6831. I think the best information I have seen has been in the thread titled Benchmark Scores for FX laptops located at http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=233005. Specifically, post #15 by Tr4Q3r seemed to show the best information:

It looks like the T7500 has a good Hz/$ ratio for those of us who simply want to add a little bit more performance without overclocking to an already great performing machine.

Watching newegg I see new:
T7500 for $244
T7700 for $319
T8300 for $250
T9300 for $319

Watching E-Bay I have been seeing (and been outbid by a few dollars each time):
T7500 for an average price of $151
T7700 for an average price of $212
no T8300 or T9300 (that outdo newegg deal-wise)

I know I don't feel like dropping $300+ for a processor that seems to only offer minimal improvement over one I can get for half the price. I am not in a hurry for this upgrade, so I will keep watching the average price and bidding my running average as max. I feel my patience will get me a good deal.

 

I agree on the T7500. It is a nice little processor that does a great job, and as mentioned, can be had on ebay for a good price. A T9300 would be ideal, but unless you get really lucky, or have alot of $, pass on it.

I got my T7500 on ebay for $150 shipped, and i could not be happier.

 

Isn't the T7500 almost the same as T8300? But 8300 is Penryn, so why not get that? It's almost the same price anyways if you get it off newegg.

 

I had considered the 8300, but i have not found the deals for it on ebay that I am seeing for the 7500s (many of which are new or like new).

I am not sure on the OP's prefrence, but I don't mind taking the risk associated with ebaying. The $100 savings for me would probably go into a 7200RPM hdd upgrade for the 6831 (still only using the stock 250g 5400rpm).

 

hmm, would there be much of any meaningful temp. reduction by going with the 45nm penryn? It's a pretty hot climate where I'll be using this, and I'm not sure if the AC will work

 

For me, more cache is much more important. Now, either CPU is an upgrade, but for me, the T7500 was better. To each his own though.

 

T8300 or T9300, which ever one fits your budget better

 

The only upgrades I would consider:
T8300 (better than a T7500 - cooler, SSE4)
T9300
X7900 $400 shipped on eBay --- 3.0 Ghz in the 6831
X9000 $600 shipped on eBay --- 3.0 GHz, cooler, SSE4

Anything less is a waste of money IMO. You will see very little improvement. Sorry if that offends anyone - but understand I am extremely frugal. There is a threshold where it just isn't worth spending the money.

A T8300 + 2nd 250 GB HDD (for RAID 0) for about $350 seems like an especially good way to speed the notebook up.

 

Hello all. First post here, so please be gentle.

I got the 6831FX two months ago but have only had time to really get down to fully playing with it recently.

I recently bumped the RAM up to 2x2gb DDR2 800. I also bought a 2nd WD 250gb HD (same as the stock HD).

With ~$200-$250 left in upgade money tops, I am wondering what I should do (also being quite frugal like lewdvig but wanting good performance and no hassles with having to upgrade anything down the road).

I figure these are my options, from cheapest/least improvement to most expensive/biggest performance boost:

1. Do nothing and keep everything "as is" with separate C: & D: drives (no RAID). I've already done a clean Vista install, of course.

2. Set up a RAID 0 install with my two matched 5400rpm HDs (leaning towards this right now, since I've already got the two HDs)

3. Buy a 200gb 7200rpm HD as my main drive and keep the original 5400rpm in the 2nd bay (and sell or put my other 5400rpm drive in an external enclosure).

4. Upgrade the CPU. If so, to what?

5. Upgrade the CPU and go with a RAID 0 config


Upgrading the CPU & going with a 7200rpm HD is a bit out of the budget right now, especially considering this is not my primary PC.

Thanks for the advice!!

 

I made a best offer last week for a T7500 (2.2ghz) processor for $150. It was just what my system needed. The install took me about 2 minutes. Remove the cover, remove the heat sink, remove old processor (way too much paste on it), install new one, and close it all up. There are specific instructions posted in this section of the forums.

Just as the benchmark thread indicated, I went from a ~6800 3dmark06 score to an ~8300.

My next upgrade is going to simply be a 120-160gb 7200rpm drive.

 

t9300 is probably the most future proof choice, but I am waiting until the mobile quads come out because then the Mobile Core 2 Duo's prices will plummet

 

mobile quads probably wont fit in our laptops and will be built on a different platform...one capable of running on 800mhz ram and probably a 1066 fsb.... (speculation of course)

 

Dell and Alienware and some other higher end companies will probably incorporate those processors into their laptops around summertime or early fall if all goes well. (speculation of course)

 

Any rumors of price reduction for the T8300,T9300 CPUs in the next month or so?

 

Once Montevina comes out, the T8300/T9300 prices should drop.

 

I just got the P-6860FX, and I am thinking about upgrading the CPU to the T9300, but I have a couple of questions.

A. Does anyone have a guide for upgrading the CPU on this or a similar Laptop? (I have done desktops, but have not messed with laptops much except for memory upgrades).

B. If I get the T9300
do I need to order a heat sink as well?

Thanks for any assistance.

 

A. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=216065

B. No Just buy some Arctic Silver 5

 

Hi all,
Thanks for all the help over the years, been reading this site for quite a while, but never registered.

After debating between a sager and the p 6860fx, I caved last weekend when the Gateway went on sale at Best Buy. Bought one for my little bro too. Because of your hard work, I knew immediately what needed to be done to this fine piece of equipment. I ordered a t9300, stripped my bros hd (installed a 7200 rpm for him) and setup raid 0.

Today the t9300 arrived, being very careful, installation took me a grand total of 5 mins. Seriously. Awesome laptop for $1600. Crazy cheap!

On to topic, get the 9300 and order another WD Scorpio 320, and these laptops go from quick to crazy fast. Cheers, TC

 

Thank you, looks like I will be getting a new CPU shortly

 

Just my 2cents, I upgraded to a T7800 (2.6 ghz) and this laptop is plenty fast for me. No problems at all and I dont notice it running any hotter at all. Got it on ebay for $150.00

 

That's a really good price for the T7800. Used?

 

Instead of Arctic Silver 5, I used Arctic Ceramique, is AS 5 Better?
Also, I couldn't get the thin layer as shown in the Video on this site, it was very sticky and hard to work with
Actually, it was quite messy, is AS5 easier to work with?

 

AS5 is easy to work with.

 

If you know anybody that works at Intel, you can ask them to get you a t9300 with their employee discount for $150. I believe the discount cuts all cpus in half. So those extreme processors can be had for only 500!

 

dtwn83, Sorry to take so long to answer but I work ALOT. Anyway it was supposed to be a removal from a new laptop. Works and looks excellent so I can't doubt it.

 

No worries. Thanks for the reply. Sounds like you had an excellent deal.

 

Instead of making a new thread I thought I'd post here since my question is similar to the OP. First of all I'm thinking about buying the P-6860FX but I'm won't be able to buy a new processor probably for a year or so. So I'm wondering if it will still be possible a year or more from now to buy a CPU that will fit this laptop/motherboard. Thanks.

 

yes.......

 

Of course. In fact, it would probably be even cheaper for you to do so.

 

Thanks, I'm sorry, that was obviously a dumb question. But I don't know how long companies make processors etc. They seem to upgrade them really fast so I thought they might stop making the old ones within a year (and I thought the new ones might not work with the computer). But anyways I'm not a total moron or anything I just didn't know how this sort of thing worked - thanks.

 

Penryn is still pretty new so they should be around for quite sometime heck you can still find all the speed processors from the last gen line of Core2duo mobiles pretty easy and they have been out for quite sometime now.

im debating on what im going to put into my new 6860 my brother bought my 6831 from me a couple weeks back and i bought the 6860 today .

 

Odered A T9300 for my 6860FX.

What is the best way to apply the AS5 to these?...

Last CPU I installed was an older AMF FX60 and back then the best method was a peanut sized dab in the middle...let the HSU spread it out.

Ive seem come guides that say to spread it evenly and others that say to lay it down in a strip across horizontally.

 

ive always put about the size of a grain of rice amount and used a sandwich bag with my finger inside to spread it around evenly covering the entire surface and have always had excellent results doing it that way.

 

Peanut is WAYYY too much, that's a giant glob. It'd just pour all over to the sides once you press the heatsink on. I personally use the edge of a credit card.

 

Arctic Silver's Website has great instructions.

 

There is someone here saying that he got an x9000 for cheap on ebay
I'm happy with the T9300

 

well after reading this entire thread i offically feel stupid. I honestly dont know what any of the numbers mean anymore.

I have recently purchased a p-6860fx gateway and the guy that sold it to me said about the only thing this needs is a better cpu. It comes with a Dual core 1.8 pentium... isnt that like having a 3.6 processor?

Now i have read all of this thread and i think i'm actually more lost than i was before... what are all of the T9300, and x9000, and t7500 numbers? Are they better processors, or just diffrent?

I havent messed with comupter upgrades in about a decade and i now realize how far behind the times i've become... i'm back to the "higher numbers are good" stage and dont know much more than that.

Sorry for sounding ignorant, but i guess i truely am about this.

 

well basically this laptop is a budgeter's dream come true.
you can upgrade every thing fairly easy, when you have the money or the need to enhance your computers features.

dont feel lost, just jump in and catch up on your reading...and after about a week, you be caught right back up..

 

Got home from work today to find my T9300 waiting for me

Followed the instructions on Artic Silvers web site...

About 5min later I was up and running.

Age of Conan runs great now.

Been running Orthos and Rthdrbl for about 3 hours now...highest core temp so far has been 59deg. Considering I was getting 79deg with the stock CPU i guess its good. But I really have no clue what is good or not with these CPU's.


But no lockups or BSOD or freezes with the games so far.

 

Ok i have a few questions.

How are you reading the temps of your CPU and GPU? Is it a specilized thermometer (like infrared gun) or is there a program/hardware that does this for you?

Also if i were to get the pentium x9000 cpu how to i get the most out of it. I have read people say its supposed to be a 3.4ghz processor... but it isnt listed as that (its actually quite a bit less) If its supposed to run so fast why doesnt it? Also if its not supposed to run that fast...why the heck is it so expensive?

And is artic silver 5 really as good as everyone says? A 10ish degree diffrence is a pretty big deal for just adding "paste" to a rig.

Thanks
K_M

 

(only speaking on fx) well...artic silver is fine for the fx series.(till we figure out how to over clock the cpu higher than 3.0 ghz) that would be the nit pickers. and the x series cpu is an unlocked cpu. so it can go past 3.4 under the right conditions.
sager and clevo can really get the most out of the x series chip at the moment, but we over here at p-series-r-us are working on getting the cpu up to 3.4. *LOL* just taking a bit longer than expected.

cpuid is your friend!
http://www.cpuid.com/
and so is gpuz
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1077/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.2.2.html

all great programs for monitoring your temps and a few other things as well.

 

Do you have to manually execute the programs everytime you boot up the computer? Or is there a way to set it on autorun when windows starts?

 

what program?

 

Both hwmonitor and gpuz. Though I think I prefer hwmonitor since it tracks all temps and shows the lowest and highest recorded temps too.

 

the other is to watch your gpu as it goes through the levels of clocks while your doing different task....

 

Ah I suppose that's useful, but going back to my original question, is there anyway to make it autoboot with windows? Or maybe show the temps in the tray? (or was it called the taskbar? the icons next to your clock at the bottom right) Or maybe you have a better program for this kind of job?

 

you can put hardware monitor in the start up folder.
but there are other programs that you can use as well...rivatuner and rmclock have temp monitors for the system tray

 

Just toss hwmonitor into the startup folder and viola? I'll give that a try!

 

cool, sounds good