Should i upgrade to a 920xm/940xm?

I was looking at ebay and i see 920xms going for 300 bucks...is that legit? If so should I upgrade my G51j with the new chip?

 

This depends on a number of factors. Referring to your G51j, I assume that it is equipped with a i7-720QM.

The i7-720QM is rated with a TDP of 45W, wheras the i7-920xm is rated at 55W. One must first address whether the G51j is designed to handle both the power supply and cooling.

Second, upgrading could void any warranty.

Third, there is no guarantee that the i7-920qm would run in the G51j. Check with previous owners who have attempted.

If all the above are non-issues, i7-920xm for 300USD sounds like a good deal, but bear in mind that the i7-3610QM which is around the same price is hand-wavingly 50% faster in benchmarks according to notebookcheck. Personally, I would buy a new notebook with a 3rd gen i7.

 

It does look pretty good for that price. However, that's the first generation Intel i7 processor series. It's two generations old and going with the 3rd generation is going to be good (just more expensive unfortunately). What you could do is, wait a little bit and buy a 2nd generation Intel i7 series processor when used prices start to drop. (I DON'T KNOW IF 2nd and 3rd GENERATION IS EVEN COMPATIBLE, sorry, but just some ideas.

 

It depends if your are CPU bottlenecked. Most of the time, upgrading from a quad core i7 to a higher one won't yield any performance gains, and you have to think about the heat. I don't think the wattage makes a difference, big gaming laptops like the ASUS G series usually have extra headroom with the 120-150 watt AC adapters.

And no, Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge are NOT backwards compatible with gen 1 Core processors.

 

My 120W AC adapter is questionable right now with overclocks...i have heatsinks on it to help it. Also my G51j cooling system sucks but I have modded it to hell so it runs great. Also I know its 3 generations old but i want to make this last until i build a haswell or broadwell desktop. It erks me that 300 is good but not good lol. Also i would overclock it as much as possible so it would run a lot better.

Also warranty was up like 6 months ago.

EDIT: do you think I could also cell the 720qm to off set the costs or is there no market for it?


EDIT: what about engineering samples...are those good or stay away...its $222

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-...364?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ab359f28c

http://www.ebay.com/itm/INTEL-i7-92...key-/130682045632?pt=CPUs&hash=item1e6d41c4c0 $288 made an offer for 200 so i am hopping he comes in like 240-250

 

You should probably be able to get ~$100 or so for the 720qm. Despite being 2 generations old, the 920xm is still a relevant chip and, with overclock, I'd expect you to be able to get several more years of usable performance out your laptop.

I briefly considered going to a 920xm, but I ended up buying a new laptop instead because I wanted the smaller form factor and increased battery life afforded by a second-gen i7 and switchable graphics. If you're at all interested, I would jump on this right now, as you're not going to find another 920 for $221 anytime soon.

 

That depends, do you think 3 extra fps in gaming is worth 300?

 

just put that in my edit lol...its an engineering sample is that good or bad or doesn't matter?

 

A lot of games I play are older and are single threaded and run like crap on my 720QM. Also I do lots of folding so it wont go to waste.

EDIT: right now 720qm is going for 80 on newegg as minimum so i would make after shipping maybe 60-70 after ebay/paypal cut

EDIT: Well he rejected my 200 and 240 offer...I offered 250 and retracted it. If the buyer excepts an offer does that mean you have to buy it on ebay?

 

In terms of reliability and performance, my perception is that

OEM ~ Quality Sample (QS) > Engineering Sample (ES)

I would stay far away from ES regardless of price (unless low enough to afford chucking in for testing). I would not mind QS though.

 

why? What is the difference exactly?

Also lets say i get the 920xm for 222 and i sell my 720qm for 80 bucks and pocket 60 total...i get the 920xm for 160 bucks....that is a worthy upgrade right?

Also there is no reason the 920xm wont work right? I can run it cool enough I have a PM55 board which is supposed to be right...only issue i know is i might need a better PSU