M860ETU QX9300 + GTX280m

Alright, thanks for the advice

And you believe that's safe?

Also, hows that Q9200/GTX260 combo gonna work on the battery for word processing tasks you reckon?

As for missing gaming, I haven't gamed for years, and I miss it. badly. its time to come back.

 

Safe? Yes, of course. The mobile quads are rated to 100°C, and with an undervolt you'll stay under 80°C.

 

ok, thankyou

What's the current benchmark record for a 15.4"?

(beating it, or even comparing it, doesn't really interest me for the record... I'm just curious!)

 

Hmmm, I'm pretty sure H-E hit over 15k with the QX9300 + 280M combo.

 

Ok I received my Q9200 this morning, shutting down the PC to change CPU right now!

 

Eagerly waiting!

 

Alright the Q9200 is not any better than the QX9300, it's actually worst, it never wants to stay undervolted at 2.40GHz and it has IDA as well. I think I'm done with Quad-Cores in this machine honestly...

I'm therefore selling it on eBay for the price I bought it, $300.

 

What are the max load temps, when it's not undervolted?

Oh, and are you using RMClock or CPU Genie?

 

RMClock doesn't work properly with the quad-cores, the minimum voltage it detects is the stock voltage. I use CPUGenie but I can't run it undervolted at 2.40GHz. It's already up for sale on eBay, I'm going back to the good old T9900. I'm fed up with wasting money on different CPUs.

 

EDIT: Nevermind I'm an idiot.

 

Try flipping the HDD over, it should align properly.

 

Well, I got it all installed. It's charging right now, and both LEDs are glowing correctly. The problem is, when I power it on, the lights come on for a few seconds, then it goes blank. The screen never lights up, and the fan doesn't spin.

Any ideas before I take it apart again? Would the CPU not being connected cause this?

Btw, sorry for hijacking, but you're a guy I trust with knowledge of this notebook.

 

it might not be passing the bios test

 

Yeah I think my CPU isn't fastened securely. I'll get it sorted. For some reason, the lock wasn't holding it steady, so I'll have to try again.

 

if i was you i would be freaking out right now

 

Good luck solving that issue, man.

 

Alright man can you summarize exactly what is the problem? Did you just build that laptop? Did you upgrade your laptop, if yes what component etc? Give me as much info as you can regarding the problem you are experiencing.

 

quick curiosity

If i can order a 280m with a 260m gtx heatsink for an np8662, what's the increase in heat / watts / volts that ensues as a result due to the higher clocks and more shaders?

 

Yeah I just got the barebone M860ETU in from R&J Tech. I installed my T9800 QS, a Seagate Momentus 250GB 7200.4, and 4GB of RAM. I'd been in and out of my original M860TU enough times to be beyond comfortable with the process. So I flipped it over and hit the power. The power button and the LEDs light up for a couple seconds, then they turn off. The fan and the LCD never attempt to start up, but the disc drive reads for long enough to get it opened. When it's off and plugged in, the LEDs register properly.

I went back in and made sure the CPU was fastened, and it was secured properly.

I'm hoping to find a solution which doesn't involve spending $40 to ship it back to RJ.

 

is the BIOS fully up-to-date?

try another CPU and RAM.

and remove all non-essential components:
- the battery (just run it on AC)
- wifi card
- bluetooth
- turbo memory
- optical drive
- hard drive

 

I really don't know man, did you take the battery out before actually swapping component? When there is a battery inserted, there is a always a chance that power runs through the board and if you swap something like a CPU, it can ruin some boards. I would make sure that no pins are bent on your CPU, that it's actually seated in the right direction and also make sure that the fan is plugged in properly, otherwise the laptop won't start.

Also I guess, make sure that nothing is shorting out components on the motherboard, also, if you used conductive electricity conductive thermal paste, make sure that especially on the video card, it doesn't make contact with resistors around the die.

 

The problem may lie with the GPU as well.

 

I went through the process of removing each part, starting with the RAM, then the CPU, finally the HDD.

It booted without issue when only the HDD was removed, so that was the issue. It appears that the connector wasn't fully attached. Stupid me.

A genuine thank you goes to all of you who gave advice and well wishes. I don't know how much you all care about rep points, but they're all I can give to show my appreciation.

 

Hey, sorry to be a pain, but does the Q9200 install straight into the ETU, or do you need to modify the processor first?

Thankyou

 

It's a straight install. No mods needed.

 

and do I need to use thermal pads on anything else but the video ram?

Does the heatsink come with a pad for the cpu?

 

Nah, just some thermal paste will do. My heatsink came with a pad on it, but it came off with the tape when I peeled it off.

 

I'm afraid not to crack the cpu die... should I keep that pad just in case?

 

You can I guess, but I have no idea how effective it is compared to MX-2 etc.

 

Is there any kind of safety so you can't overtighten?

 

In the desktop world, we call them bolts. The screws are spring loaded so that they lock at their tightest point, which is what we want. Tighten each screw a few turns at a time before proceeding to the next screw. Also, tighten the screws in the order, or reverse order, they are numbered. This will prevent damage to the CPU die and evenly spread the thermal paste across the surface so that it doesn't all squeeze out of one side.

 

Spring loaded that's what I wanted to hear!
I was getting ready to search rubber gommets like old cpus(befor the metal plate era) had. But this should be safe enough.

Is it the same for the video card? pads for the memory only or is the mem at the same level with the GPU?

Thx

 

Rubber grommets will not yield the precise level of pressure that the springs already provide. The heatsink will also potentially be off-center with the die if you use rubber grommets.

The memory on the GPU is recessed lower than the core, so the thermal pads are required. It would be very costly for manufacturers to produce a one piece heatsink that would lay perfectly flat over all of the memory chips and the core to make full contact. So to make up for quality control, manufacturers use thermal pads over the memory chips as a solution. Imperfect heatsinks would mean that the heatsink may not be making contact at certain points on the memory chips or the die. Thus, one piece heatsinks are made to always make full contact with the GPU die first, then have the thermal pads compressed inbetween the heatsink and the memory chips to make up for that gap.

 

Thankyou very much

 

Reviving old thread, new tweaks to try, back with the QX9300, stay tuned everyone! I'll update the original thread.

 

I have also just installed the QX9300 into my NP8662 and the performance increase, particularly in GTA IV is astounding. I am currently running the CPUGenie undervolt wizard for 11 hours to see what sort of results I can get.

The temps so far are fine though and I have no regrets. I used AS5 but have a tube of MX2 on the way. This is the first CPU I have ever installed and I did quite a bit of reading up on thermal grease, cleaning and Dos and Dont's before I did it.

I don't have the nerve to do that install alongside a GTX280M though

EDIT: QX9300 undervolted (from 1.162V) to 1.05v stable.

 

Man I still need to buy that Q9200.

I can't remember if the QAJF has temp sensors though.

 

I don't recommend Engineering Samples Q9200, they behave weirdly. If you can get your hands on a QX9300, it's best.

I know the QX9300 can be undervolted to 1.05v, that's what I did back then when I had a QX9300 in my laptop. But leaving it a stock voltage will leave enough headroom to reach 3.2GHz stable. The problem comes to memory stability.

 

QAVR/S has, QAJF no.

I don't think @default Vcore 100% CPU load stable.......The Core temp is really a problem.

 

From people who've done it, it's stable, I shall test myself with IntelBurn Test. If it's not stable, I'll use software to lock the multiplier down, I'll still be running at 3GHz or so. Stability is specific to the chip itself, some chips take more or less voltage to run stable. I'm not concerned about heat because whenever I'll be gaming I'll use the laptop on a notebook cooler and for the stability testing part, I'll remove the bottom plate. But a 3.2GHz QX9300 > i7 920XM, so it definitely makes the laptop future proof for another year at least. Now if we could only get the GT300m in this laptop or any good DirectX11 graphic card for Battlefield Bad Company 2 !!

 

Oh? In what way? Even the QAVR?


As far as the QX9300 goes, I would, but it's double the price of the Q92 right now.

 

I have only bad memories of the Q9200, I had QAVK stepping, I don't remember if I had temp sensors working, but I know that I lost money on trying out quad-cores for this laptop and the Q9200 was the worst of all. It's the only QC CPU that never reached final production, it never got out of Engineering stage so it was never optimized and fine tuned. For me, it was impossible to undervolt it, the CPU frequency would always jump around, worst than with the QX9300 and IDA. Stay on the lookout for OEM QX9300 on eBay, you can get them for around $500 sometimes. Also, if you are in the market for a Quad-Core, I suggest that you buy the Q9100 over the QX9200 if you can't afford a QX9300. That's just my 2 cents but you probably won't be satisfied with your QX9200 and you'll lose money trying to resell it, considering even the guys over at Taiwan or China on eBay sell them for so low already.

 

Currently I have a Q9200 QAVR and I am loving it. No issues and runs great at 2.93 Ghz.

For those that don't know this. In fact the Q9200 is the same as the Qx9300. The main differences between them is that Intel, decided that it would be better the up the Q9200 to 2.53 Ghz from 2.4 and call is the Q9300. But as cores they are identical. If you get a QAVR, the CPU should work great. Stay away from other versions of the Q9200, they are not very good.

 

is there any software that allows you to overvolt the cpu a little? My laptop doesn't have any voltage options in the bios.

 

Ok well you heard the man I guess, QAVR is good. Go for it!

I'm currently in the middle of soldering everything, it's complicated and you get only one chance at this. I have a quick question though, once you do the hardware OC, when the laptop POSTs (boots) and displays the CPU, does it display the default clock or does it actually reflect the overclock? I'd like to know this because I'm still waiting on my MX3 so I can't boot my laptop to Windows to check CPU-z, however booting the laptop real quick just to see the POST is fine.

 

It just shows "Intel Extreme Processor Q9300 @2.53GHz". It does not reflect the overclock.

 

Ok thanks a lot, my intuition would have told me otherwise and I would have worried about having messed up the solder! I'll have to wait for the thermal paste for the final verdict!

 

After many hours of attempts, I finally got the H/W mod done, the solders seem solid and properly done, I've isolated surrounding components with electric tape and covered unshielded wires with some as well to prevent metal oxidation. Since I'm receiving my Arctic Cooling MX-3 on Monday, I only booted to Windows for a minute or so with the heatsink without thermal paste to check if the mod was succesful, IT IS: QX9300 running at 3.15GHz or so. Starting Monday, I'll be able to run benchmarks and assist users with memory instability. This is a GREAT day, my M860ETU probably beats the W860CU that I was tempted to buy not too long ago. I'll be posting pictures of the mod in a few days.

 

I thought the Q9200 has 2 [email protected] and QX9300 has 2 [email protected]?

 

All the same cores differnt multis