MSI GX660R - Upgrades

Hello all first time poster, be nice! I'm still using my trusty GX660R and it's still doing me proud. I want to give it some cheap upgrades to keep (hopefully) another years life out of it before the urge for a new toy overcomes me.

What would people reccomend? Immediate thoughts are;

RAM - I've got the i5 version so can only get upto 8GB max supported. The current RAM is 6gb (1x4gb 1x2gb @ 1066mhz), does it support 1333 or even 1600? This can be sought very cheap, but not entirely sure the system will support beyond 1066mhz.
CPU - I can upgrade to an i7 720QM for around £35-40 delivered, would people say it's worth it over the i5-460M?
HDD - I installed an SSD very shortly after purchasing and am happy with it, so no problem here.
GPU - Possible? If so, where to source a gfx card from?

Any opinions appreciated! Tom

 

Recommended in order of importance:

O/S: Win7x64 or Win8x64 PRO.

RAM: 8GB or 16GB RAM of the highest 'quality' and 'speed' rating possible (for example: 2x 4GB (or 8GB) DDR3-PC12800 or higher) - at least try the 2x 8GB SoDIMM's in your system - it can't hurt and it will give a very noticeable change to the responsiveness to the system (even with an SSD installed).

As to the 'does it support it' question:

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...m-full-speed-help-screenshots-appreciate.html


As for the CPU/GPU upgrades - I am not the one to ask (I would suggest to not do it...) - but here are the 'up to' improvements with the cpu you're suggesting (and if it can work, for that price - and - you're confident you won't brick the system - I would say it is worth it for that price - but it not only needs to be physically possible - it needs to be also design-wise possible (for example: the cooling system needs to be up to the task):

See PM 'score' 2415 for your current cpu:
PassMark - Intel Core i5 M 460 @ 2.53GHz - Price performance comparison


See PM 'score' 3073 for your possible upgraded cpu:
PassMark - Intel Core i7 Q 720 @ 1.60GHz - Price performance comparison




So up to a ~27% increase in performance for £35 - sounds tempting but as I stated already how much of a 'deal' this is depends on how confident you are to switch the cpu's and have a working system afterwards (not even taking into account if this upgrade is possible with regards to cooling system effectiveness and/or BIOS or other M/B issues and hoops to jump through).

Good luck.

 

Thank you kindly for the reply, I'll continue to do some research on the website you've linked. The thread link you've provided is in reference to the 2nd gen of the i7 chip, would this change between gens?

I was goign to purchase 2x4gb 1600 DDR3, any particular reccomendations?

As for a possible GPU upgrade, do you know a reliable, and preferably cheap retailer to grab the board from?

 

You can go up to 8GB on that model and no more even if you upgrade the CPU, I would go for 8GB 1333 as it will work
The upgrade from the i5-460M to the i7-720GM is worth it! I did it to my 2010 HP DV6 and noticed a massive performance boost
What GPU does it have now? The upgradeablilty depends on the current GPU

 

Thanks for your repily mr t! I'll look into those 2 upgrades then.

Currently a 1GB 5870M! Would look to upgrade to a 6XXXM as, if I've understood it right won't force me into upgradign the stock AC adapter.

 

I have 16GB DDR3 1333 paired with 1st gen. i7 in a MSI laptop. Running flawlessly, even though 1st gen. i7 CPUs officially support only 8GB in dual channel (2x4GB).

 

I have a 675m pulled from a clevo which work in the MSI machine, if you are interested

 

the gtx 675m would likely require heatsink modification

 

I can only support this. 16 GB flawlessly at 1333 MHz with i7-740qm and next with i7-940xm with standard bios.

 

I saw also people putting a 7970m inside a gx660. Was interested in this as I owned this MSI in the past, but the I pulled the trigger and bought a new clevo system. The 7970m would give you a extreme graphical boost, but it wouldnt be cheap, not to mention that you would need a i7-940, so the Gpu wouldnt be bottlenecked. That was just to say that you have options to upgrade everythning, but on the other hand not everything is wort it. For the price of this GPU+CPU you could have a new laptop that has 2 times the power you have now.
So a reasonable upgrade, what I would recoomend, is defenitelly the i7-720. or 740qm for few buck that you will notice right away, and thats it.

 

At this point if you are going to upgrade only consider the 920xm. The 940xm is barely different but usually costs a lot more so unless it costs the same the 920xm is where it is at. The QM's are trash as we enter 2015.

Overclocked properly the XM chips can achieve 60-80%+ extra performance vs even the most powerful QM 840qm.

 

OP's best bet is probably getting a new notebook.. These CPU's are just too old now...

 

Really? I don't think so.

By that logic so is a 2860qm then.... Or a 3620qm ..... Same or better performance, just a "little" more heat.

 

920xm paired with say a 680m costs FAR less than a comparable new notebook and will play any game maxed out at 1080p OCed. Both 920xm and 680m are fantastic OCers without even having to tweak the voltage

 

You sure about that? I thought you were heavily overvolting to reach those clocks and also needed cooling mods to keep the temps low? I'm not saying that the 920XM + 680M isn't enough but for the money you spend upgrading your old notebook, might as well spend 2 times over and get a new one... The CPU+GPU will cost $600 and for $1200 you can get a new Sager NP8651/Clevo P650SE with a 970M... The whole combo will run so cool and give better performance and you don't need to spend time modding etc...

 

My new XM runs 3.6ghz all cores at stock voltage and 3.73ghz on 1-2 cores no mods required.
I am about to sell the old XM for the same price so no money lost there.

Sure it is more work keeping the old system going but I am not spending more money than a new notebook would cost. Far less. Likewise 680M upgrade was done for pennies by selling the 7970M. As planned it runs much faster than the 7970M in games, cooler too.

My point is with a little care it is cheaper to maintain an older MXM based nehalem platform that in games will simply perform just as well as a haswell or ivy machine. Sure in benchmarks or video encoding the more powerful CPU shine but where it matters not so much. For a gamer anyway.

The modding has cost me money but I consider it a side hobby not a necessity. Hobbies cost money ;D