Dell Vostro 1500 GPU upgrade

Any one know if this has been attempted.

Before all the know it all's advise this is a built in card, i suggest they clarify their information. I have seen the 8400 and 8600 being sold on ebay and i have also confirmed with dell they are a daughter board style card. Just curiouse if the higher end cards can be purchased in the same format.

I mean if you wanted you could upgrade the 8400 to an 8600, so in the same turn could you upgrade the 8600 to an 8800

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dell-1520-Vos...3010715QQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

 

Not really. If the 8800 uses the same bus to connect to the motherboard and you were good with metal fabrication (for the heat sync / pipe assembly), you might be able to do it.

And you can go from the intel to the nvidia ... it just requires a new motherboard, video card and new heat sync haha ... and it voided my warranty.

Do you have any pictures of the 8800 card?

 

no that is my question. i have found both the 8400 and the 8600 they look identical, was wondering if the 880 was available in the same daughte rboard style. I am presuming the heat sink would be bigger, but with a bit of TLC i recon i could adjust it to fit

 

Sorry.

The 8600M GT is (and/or has) a MXM Type II specifications... under 25w TDP.

There is no confirmation that the Vostro 1500 is even using a removable videocard module... let alone being of an MXM format.

The high-end cards will require 35w+ modules... at least MXM Type III, but many high-end notebooks at the moment have MXM Type IV slot to support the latest and fastest 9800M GT/GTX cards.

 

I am not sure if Dell uses mxm or proprietary....but this vid shows the 8800M GTX SLI upgrade in a M1730, and maybe thats the only type of 8800Ms you can use for a Dell, unless your laptop has an MXM-socket....
Even if it does, you cannot upgrade the 8600M (MXM-II) to the 8800M (MXM-III) due to the difference in memory bus width and the difference in the mxm sockets..!!

 

That makes sense, shame if i must say, but quite clever of Dell really.

Do you know if the new 9 series cards would be able to fit, say a 9600 to replace my 8600

Cheers Gintor

 

Unfortunately, nope, they are not compatible either....

 

As everyone else has said, best card available for the Vostro 1500 is the DDR2 8600m GT. Any card better than that simply won't fit or work in any shape or form.

 

another thing you new folks must realize about MXM is....

even though the connections might be the same... the manufacturer (or ODM) has a tendency to use proprietary VBIOS.
.. so getting another card that would fit does NOT mean it will work.

In any case, if its a MXM-II.... then you are stuck to getting cards with a TDP of 25w or below... which are all mid-range cards at best... no high-ends.

 

I think the VBIOS can be flashed....don't know how (I'll have to ask the guy)
One guy in the Acer forum upgraded his 7720G's 8400M GS to the 8600M GT buying it from ASUS ('cause they were selling it cheap)
he mentioned something about flashing the bios..!!

 

I did a very simalar thing way back when i had a radeon 9600 pro

By flashing it i was able to open other pipes in turn i turned it into th ehigher end version