Aspire 7738g Upgrade. Some questions. Thanks.

Hi there.

I recently went took apart my 7738g to deal with the over heating, I removed the stock thermal paste, and put on some arctic stuff. Then I realized from looking on the net in relation to the heat problem that I can upgrade the laptop. Cool!

So I am thinking a T9900 as the CPU upgrade?

I was wondering if someone could recommend a gpu upgrade from the GT240m. I noticed there is a HDMI slot on this laptop also, so would I have to stick to an NVidia card to keep this operational? Around the 100 USD / 75 euro mark for a card would be great.

Looking to upgrade the ram from 4gb to 8gb also, I would need DD3-1066 SDRAM on account of the T9900 upgrade correct?


In relation to cooling then, will the stock fan on the 7738g be ok for the new CPU and GPU?

Many thanks for your help.
Mark.

 

OK, so I'm not very knowledgeable about Acers, but from what I can tell you can upgrade the 7738g to a Core 2 Quad Q9000 (which is quite a lot better than a T9900), and the video card to a Radeon HD 6770m (I THINK the card is MXM Type A and removable, but it could be soldered to the motherboard).

You'll have to wait for Acer users/fans to chime in to confirm that, though. The T9900 will work, and 8GB RAM and an overclock of the GT 240m should give you quite a nice boost in performance.

 

Up to QX9300 and HD5870 (or newer, but it hasn't been tested), Meaker's config. The former requires new heatsink, while the later - desoldering of some parts so you would make enough room, otherwise HD6770 as jotm suggested. Jump into the Acer sub-forum there are quite a handful of topics about this particular model

 

Thanks for the replies.

It seems that the PassMark cpu score for the q9000 is only 200 marks in the difference. I have heard there would be heating issues with the quads as well.

The qx9300 seems pricey in some places from ebay, ranging from 180 (From Korea) to 340 euros from the UK, some refurbished ones for 180 euros from the US. Plus the added hassle of the new heatsink.

What do you think about getting refurbished CPUs?


Your idea about getting a t9900 and the ram, and over clocking the g240m sounds like a good start all right.


Would you think getting a qx9300 cheaply though and the extra heatsink be a worth while upgrade also?

 

Refurbished?

No such thing as refurbished cpu's... they either work or they don't - if they don't; they're in the junk pile/garbage.

 

A cheap upgrade would be something like a K1000M/HD6770M(M5950) (watch that it has a bios chip), you can look out for QS q9200 (which is what I used) but the usual disclaimers about ES CPUs apply.

 

This is one case where Passmark doesn't really show real world performance. With Windows 8 (or the Scheduler updates for Windows 7), the Q9000 will be faster at high loads (newest games would certainly benefit from it more than T9900). For $75 (on eBay now) it's the best upgrade for the money - but I don't know how hot it will get, the T9900 will definitely be cooler.

If the HD 6770m fits without mods, it's also a great upgrade I'd say (almost twice as fast as the GT240, as I see) for ~$100...

 

Suppose I was to go the q9000 route, or even the faster qx9300. What would I need to do for extra cooling? Could some one point me in the right direction for that?

Am I looking at a new fan and heatsink mod/job?

Also what do you mean by 'ES' CPUs?

Sorry for the newbie questions. Many thanks for everyones help!

Mark.

 

EDIT: apparently the 7738g needs a different heatsink for quad cores. I don't know for sure, but undervolting the quad core (with Throttlestop) could make it cool enough for the dual core heatsink.

ES CPUs are processor prototypes - pretty much the same as the ones that go on sale, except they're meant only for internal testing (companies testing if the CPU would work with their motherboards, laptops, etc.).

The problem with them is that you need to get the latest (so called QS) versions, otherwise you may get one that runs hot or with some bugs. You should avoid the QAJF Q9200 (it has no temperature sensor) and the e8435 (it's pretty hot) off the top of my head.

Where will you be buying it from? On eBay, the best offer right now is the Q9000 in my opinion - with a modded BIOS you can enable dual IDA and run it at 2.26GHz, pretty much a Q9100... Then again a QX9300 would be even faster

And you'll need a 120W+ power adapter, that's a must, especially with a more powerful video card.