HP Elitebook 8740W - End of Life rescue (Technical advice needed please)

Hi - seeing that this is my first post (up until now I have just been an information leech): greetings to a very knowledgeable community.
Background:
I have an HP 8740W (WD941EA)
i7 720QM
32GB RAM
QUADRO FX 2800M
Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid.
I am in South Africa. The HP parts for this device are quite expensive.
I have read the excellent threads on upgrading or modding this particular HP but I have a few unique questions to which I'd appreciate some answers.
Firstly:
This machine was originally needed for iterative numerical processing (graphics were not a consideration). It is now being replaced by a more up-to-date machine with a high end processor.
I would like to now convert this machine into a home / gaming notebook.

To this end, would it be possible to replace the Quadro GPU with a GeForce card? I realise this is a broad question, but I have no idea of what the technical architecture of my 8740 looks like. Is the GPU a permanent component on the board? Is it a plug in unit similar to the way desktop GPU's plug into the PCI-E slot on the mobo? Supposing that it's a slot, will the geforce physically fit into the chasis of the 8740? Will the thermal system fit? What else am I missing?

Would I be able to replace the i7 720 QM with the i7 3720QM ? (Is the 3720QM backwards compatible with the socket the 720QM uses?) This is not a critical item for me, the 720QM is a great (except for some thermal issues) processor.

Thanks

 

I would suggest the notebook is worth more as-is than it will be if you sink a few hundred dollars into it to 'modernize' it.

Definitely cannot replace the i7 720QM with an i7 3720QM without also changing the M/B too - and for a notebook, that is usually not an option (all notebooks are 'custom' designs).

To see the best the notebook is capable of without spending too much money:

Clean out chassis thoroughly - including re-applying quality TIM on the CPU and GPU heatsinks.

Do a clean install of Win8x64 PRO - if you want to see it really fly: do this clean install on an SSD leaving ~30% unallocated capacity.

That's it.

Anything else is a gamble in my opinion and not worth spending time/money on such an old setup.

If the above lets you enjoy it as a gaming machine - great! Enjoy!

If not - make sure you haven't 'activated' Win8x64 PRO on the old setup and either use it on a new(er) system if needed (along with the SSD, of course) and enjoy what a platform upgrade vs. component sidegrades will make to your new intended use at this time.


Good luck.

 

HP EliteBook 8740w Mobile Workstation -  HP EliteBook 8740w Mobile Workstation - Overview - c02057761 - HP Business Support Center
you can upgrade your cpu to an unlocked one,920xm, and can upgrade to 32gb of ram lol... there is a video of a guy with a 460m in one, so you should be able to put just about any gpu into it, assuming drivers work and heatsink fits

 

you can also get a 1200p screen and I saw a thread where someone tried a quadro k5000m in one aswell.

 

Yes, you can change the video card to a Geforce. Should work Ok.

 

Ok, so I finally got around to working on my 8740W.
I followed @tilleroftheearth's recommendations almost entirely, except I did a fresh install of Windows 7x64 on a brand new Seagate Momentus 500GB hybrid SSD / HDD.
Here is a summary (with pictures) of what I did, in case anyone is interested:

Open up the machine to get to the CPU & GPU.

Remove CPU / GPU Heat sinks. Interesting note: One of the anchor screws on the GPU was completely loose. Thw only modifications to this laptop have been additional RAM modules. The GPU has never been touched. I presume it must have come from the factory like this. I wonder what affect this has been having on thermal performance?

Clean up:
Get rid of dust and remove old thermal material.
Cleaned CPU:

Disassemble and clean fan + GPU heat sink (came apart very easily):

Prepare CPU with new thermal material and re-install heat sink.
Clean GPU (Nvidia Quadro FX 2800 M)

Re-install and prepare GPU with new TIM

Re-install GPU heat sink.
Re - assemble laptop.

Tools used: Torx screwdriver, cross screwdriver, compressed air blower (dust).

I used benzine and kitchen towel to remove the old thermal material.

I used thermal take thermal paste TIM.

There was a considerable amount of dust on the GPU fan and radiators. I cleaned it out with the dust blower and a long bristled paint brush (synthetic bristle, brand new). Booting up for the first time - I'm blown away (pardon the pun) at how quiet the fan is now.

The entire technical process took 2 hours.

Re installing windows + drivers was 45 minutes.

After installing windows, drivers and essential programs, boot up time is: 44 seconds from power button to log in screen. 10 seconds from log in to stable operation. (I'm quite happy with that).

I will post an update on thermal performance after I've broken it in for a bit.

Thanks again to everyone for the advice.

 

very nice work.

 

Thanks. Nice specs on your 8740w. I'm going to try find a second hand m7820 + thermal system for mine. I'm snooping around for notebook scrapyards.

 

I will have to update my sig sometime, my 8740W got turned into a hackintosh recently to act as a Mac Pro .. and I have bumped to a loaded 8770W with k5000 and a Precision m6700 loaded up for my heavy lifting. but they are still VERY respectable units.

the 7820 is not an easy find but occasionally I see one on ebay, or you may get a deal from HP direct.

 

And providing it meets power requirements and heat requirements from HP

 

Will this card work in the 8740W: Nvidia GeForce GTX 675MX
new Nvidia GeForce CLEVO GTX 675MX 4GB GDDR5 for Clevo ,MSI,Alienware upgrade | eBay

 

If your MXM slot is 3.0b (and I from what I could find online of your laptop seems to support that statement), then the 675MX should work just fine.