Toshiba Qosmio questions here:

Alrighty folks, curious about what CPUs the Qosmio lines will support. Now I know I've seen those crazy Ebay offerings in the past, couple years ago, with those machines and the extreme CPUs...so if THOSE can be used, then my worries are fairly nil by this point.

Although, "What CPUs are worth upgrading to?" would have to be my next question.


The machine I just bought on the cheap is the X775-Q7270. i5, 560M, 6GB RAM, 120GB SSD w/ OS installed - $548 shipped.

The machine I sold my friend is the X505-Q892. i5-460M, GTX 460M, 6GB RAM, etc...


What's the best CPU that would be considered an upgrade for these machines?


P.S. I've seen what a GOOD i7 can make up for. Currently using the HD3000 on this Alienware POS I have. A powerful processor makes all the difference with weaker GPUs.

 

The X775 up to i7-2960XM.

The X505 up to i7-940XM.

 

Thank you sir.

Now, what CPU is considered the MOST noticeable coming from the i5-460M and i5-2410M respectively, at the lowest price? o3o

 

That's a loaded question.

 

That's a simplistic, yet unhelpful, answer. :|

Just trying to get a bit of feedback here...

 

Can't say anything without knowing your needs and budget. You're not giving me anything to work with, hence the simplistic reply.

 

You can get 840QM for pretty cheap these days, if you want to go extreme just go with the 920XM for the X505.

The X775 there are a whole range of CPUs you can upgrade to, 2670QM, 2720QM, 2820QM, 2920XM are all relatively affordable quad cores. I would say the X775's GPU is a bit weak, AFAIK Toshiba didn't use standard MXM cards during that time period, alot of them used funky shaped MXM cards and I don't know if it can accept standard MXM cards.

 

No point getting an XM chip since neither laptop supports overclocking due to mobo chipset and BIOS restrictions and single-fan cooling. Fastest sensible CPU for the X775 is the i7-2860QM and for the X505 is the i5-580M. That's right, don't go for a first-gen i7 in the X505, you'd be trading way too much clock speed and single-threaded performance for the extra cores. Most of the time the higher-clocked i5 will actually be faster than the lower-clocked i7, especially in games. Fortunately Sandy Bridge and later don't suffer from the same compromise of cores vs. MHz.

I've seen your stuff on OCN and you seem like a pretty knowledgeable chap so I'm sure you can figure out this stuff on your own pretty easily. You already have past experience with all these CPU's and overclocking them so you should have a pretty good idea of what they're capable of.

 

Yeah an XM CPU is kinda pointless if you don't plan on overclocking it.

 

I wouldn't say that. My R2 came with a stock 920XM, never needed to overclock it with 5870M Crossfire. And it's noticeably faster than non extreme quad core i7's. The value is poor compared to like a 840QM or 820QM, but not 100% pointless.

 

But OP is upgrading after the fact, so the XM premium isn't worth it unless OP plans on doing something with it.

And actually the bigger issue is that the Qosmio's singe fan cooling solution isn't at all adequate for an XM CPU.

 

Well you said it yourself. The XM is just a huge waste of money over the next QM down if you're never gonna overclock it 'cause you're paying almost 100% more for a measly 100 Mhz. Anyway, what I really don't get is why Intel shafts notebook users like this. The i7-4770K is only $10 more than the 4770, but the 4940MX is 2x the 4910MQ?!?

It's not even that. Like I said the chipset and locked-down BIOS prevent overclocking in the first place.

 

Yes I fully understand what I'm looking at and yes I do have a solid knowledge-base regarding the different CPUs out there.

The X505 has two fans actually, one for the CPU and GPU respectively. And I see your point regarding the first gen i7s... appreciate that. Also, the lack of budget info is mostly due to the Sandy and Westmere chips being so cheap nowadays. You can get the 2760QM, same chip in this R3, for $150 new. That being said, I'll probably just stick with the 2630QM and be done with it, unless the higher clocked chips out there really make that much of a difference.

The i7 is what's keeping the games' framerates so in line right now, on my machine that is. The HD3000 isn't half bad for an iGPU if you have a powerhouse of a CPU to keep the bed nice and fluffy.


So as far as PRACTICAL choices go, would the i7-2640M be a bad choice if I wanted to keep the chip at the same TDP but offer a little more power? Or should I just go for the full on quad i7 instead? The two chips are about the same price, but 10w difference in a laptop with a single cooling fan can make all the difference.

The only thing is, this machine will need to last me a while...at least the rest of this year... if not a little longer...

((My Dyslexia knows no bounds as you can see... xD))

 

If money is no object, get an i5-580M and i7-2860QM like I said before.

 

Well a market exists for top tier chips, especially when the platform is locked down, people want to buy the best even if it means they cannot unleash the full potential of the chip (bragging rights). That's why there is a huge price premium on a T9500 vs a T9300 (which is only 100 Mhz but 2.5x the price) or an X9000. I believe the 920XM has 2 more MB of cache and has higher turbo frequencies compared to like say a 720QM, but compared to a 840QM, it has no real benefits.

 

You say that like the i5-580M is expensive on Ebay... o_o there's like... 20ish offerings for less than $80

If that's the case, then DAYUM, good deal.


As for the Socket G2, I'm still kinda up in the air about all this. Might just stick with settling for another 2760QM, since it's double the price for the 2860 and for maybe another 5% improvement?

 

True 2860QM only gets you 100 MHz and 2MB more L3 cache but if you absolutely must have the fastest QM it would be the one to get.

 

I've been told that the extra cache size helps with single-threaded applications, is this true?