w701ds Tinkering/Upgrades?

So, I am trying to max out my Win7Pro64/Photoshop w701ds, and would appreciate thoughts on the below:


1. CPU - Current i7-820QM

A. The i7-920XM was an original option, so I imagine I can upgrade to that with little or no difficulty or compatibility issues?

B. There is also the i7-940XM - I presume this was released after my model, so was not listed as an option - but will this work fine - has anybody actually installed this in their machine?

C. I presume the CPU cannot be upgraded any further on this machine, it's limited to this chip family?


2. GPU - Current FX2800M

A. The FX3800M was an original option, and appears from W701 MXM? Nope to be the ONLY upgrade option?

B. Is this updgrade worthwhile, has anyone performed this replacement on this machine?


3. RAM - Current 32GB, per W701ds 32GB of RAM | Flickr

A. He intimates that Corsair RAM I have can cause timing compatibility problems; I don't really understand what that means, anyone have further thoughts or reccs on that? Is there a way to test this?

B. Is the 32GB a real limit, or will I be able to continue upgrading the RAM each time a new stick size is available (ie can I do 64GB of RAM when the 16GB sticks are made, or is 32GB a real limit in the architecture of the machine?)


4. HDDs - Current: 512GB Data HDD, 64GB System SSD, 256GB Scratch & Paging SSD

A. I only have one spinning drive in the machine, for my data files. I'd like of course to get this heat and noise out of the machine, but really need 750GB-1TB size. There is a 1TB SSD out now from OCZ, but the price remains prohibitive. The Seagate Hybrid 750GB drive looks good, but can anyone comment on its heat/noise production? The fact that it's hybrid really only improves its speed, or does it lessen its heat production as well? Seagate Momentus XT 750GB Hybrid Drive

B. There is no way for the w701ds to take advantage of SATA III speeds in any case, correct?

C. For a Photoshop Scratch disk, would there be any advantage whatever to RAIDing two SSDs together?

D. Other than the two HDD slots and the Ultrabay, there seem to be three other methods of adding internal drive space:

• 1. mSATA Drive such as Crucial m4 256GB mSATA SSD I think from my reading that there's no way to use this on the w701ds, is that accurate? Or if I'm mistaken, has anyone tried?
• 2. ExpressCard/34 Drive such as Wintec FileMate 128GB ExpressCard 34 SSD - Would this be fast enough to move my Virtual Memory Paging file to, I guess not?
• 3. CompactFlash Drive such as Lexar 128GB 400x UDMA7 CompactFlash Card seems better - Has anyone used this as a HDD? Apparently a 256GB version was announced, but I can't find it anywhere...

5. Additional Cooling

All the standard outside cooling solutions such as Cooler Master NotePalW2 seem to be incompatible with the MiniDock, as it covers the bottom of the machine already - any suggestions? Has anyone found a clean solution for both cooling and docking their machine?


Thanks! -Mark

 

1) 920XM works, official option. Not sure about 940XM but it is a poor price/performance ratio compared to 920XM.
2) Careful with Lenovo MXM card, alot of people will sell like Clevo cards in the place of a "Lenovo" card.
3) Yes 32 GB RAM works, doubt 16 GB sticks are coming as DDR4 RAM is coming.
4) I've owned 3 x 500 GB MomentusXT, I would say if you want SSD performance, stick with a real SSD.
5) Most aftermarket coolers don't do anything..