[MSI GT683/MS-16F2] Any GFX upgrade ?

I'm looking to challenge one person only.... that is Clevo.

Sorry if it came off differently, it only seems like there has been a lack of consideration for MSI laptops in the past and over consideration for the upgradeability of Clevos.

I need to start a thread in the Clevo forum. I think its very sad that because of the history of Clevos, many people are expecting to upgrade to AMD 7000 or Nvidia 600 later on and it wont be quite so easy if possible at all. While these MSIs are really built to run with ANY card.

I have done quite a few tests of the same cards on my Clevo and MSI. There has been nothing that doesn't work on the MSI and countless that don't work on the Clevo. Obviously there is nothing really bad about it yet for Clevo users since the next gen graphics cards aren't out yet.
Its not just some superstition, thats for sure.

Anyway just trying to spread the word about this wherever there may be misconceptions or old conventions. Everyone thinks that Clevo is the top for some reason, now even their cooling is not any better.

 

I certainly hope for the 7000 upgrade but i wont hold my breath .

Hopefully though.

 

Hi Guys, my first post.

I'm sorry for replying to an old thread but I though it was the best place.

Anyway I bought myself an MSI GT683 and while searching around I found this thread and upon reading the first post I went ahead and bought myself an i7 2820QM from eBay. I probably shouldn't have just jumped right in at the deep end, but it was going for such a good price I couldn't resist.

Anyway it's been sitting there for about 2 days now because I am scared about voiding my warranty without having plenty of information first. Like I said, I jumped straight into the deep end.

This is my GT 683 is an i5-2430M with GTX 560M.

Am I going to have any trouble swapping the 2 chips? Is there any guides so that I can do it as quickly and efficiently as possible? I am capable with computers I have built and customized plenty of desktops but never a laptop so any help is appreciated. Also be nice if there was a way to get that warranty sticker off and keep it good.

Thanks for any help. I've been stalling on eBay feedback as of course I need to test the thing before I go leaving great feedback lol.

Alan

EDIT: Sorry, little more information. Some dumps from CPU-Z 1.60

CPU-Z HTML Dump | CPU-Z TXT Dump




Thanks guys!

 

The CPU swap should be easy for you to do. You can use this video for an idea of what it will take, 1:30-2:18 in the video.
MSI Notebook GT680 --- Disassembling - YouTube

One of the advantages of owning an MSI, end users should be able to access just about everything to service or replace.

 

Ah thanks man, that's awesome! I knew MSI's were upgradable, but I didn't know just how easily or highly customizable they were!!

That video also answered what would have been another question, where the second HDD lives as mine didn't come with RAID and the single 7200RPM drive is a massive bottleneck on such a powerful machine.

After swapping out the chip would I need a new BIOS or anything or would it all just work as is? While I'm here what kind of GFX upgrades can be as simple as swapping them out? This GTX 560M is nice but who knows what the future holds.

Thanks so much for your help.

BTW is there any way to get that warranty sticker off intact? The laptop is like a week old and voiding it's warranty and stripping out it's guts scares me.

Thanks again, you've been a massive help!

 

You shouldn't have to perform a BIOS flash for the upgraded CPU to my knowledge. It should work as is just fine as is.

You could upgrade your GPU on your own as well, but you will need to get the heatsink to go with it and you may need to get a larger AC adapter if you don't already have a 180W unit.
Those laptops with similar chassis (16F2) were/are available with the GTX 570M and the GTX 580M, just make sure you get the correct card with that form factor.
The video shows what needs to be done to remove your old card as well.

Concerning removing the warranty sticker, I don't think I can tell you anything about that.
If you purchased it through a reseller, your laptop wouldn't have that decal on it as resellers are authorized to perform the upgrades.

Please be aware though that your upgrades will void the warranty, it may be better to leave it alone until your warranty is up.

 

Any GFX upgrade would be well down the road anyway so that doesn't bother me right now.

I bought my laptop from a website - overclockers.co.uk.

View attached image. There is a screw under that sticker.

Completely agree with you about the warranty, problem is though I bought the CPU off eBay and still need to leave feedback so it of course has to be tested etc.

Like I said I just jumped straight in. I saw it for a fraction of the cost of a load of other listings and a few major online retailers (I paid £165 for it, other listings have it listed between £280 - £400, and a major retailer has it listed as £432).

Did i get a good deal? lol

Anyway thanks again for all your help. I LOVE this forum. Already found out I can overclock my laptop with Intel Extreme Tuning Utility! Although it doesn't let me change Memory settings or multipliers or anything like that, just the base MHz. Point is this site is full of information!

Cheers!

Alan

EDIT: BTW forgot to ask, how do I know what wattage my power unit is? All it says on it is:

Input: 100-240V ~ 2.25A -- 50-60Hz
Output: 19V --- 9.5A

EDIT2: Haha, edited again to add it's model number. Anyway it's

Model ADP-180HB B

Does the 180 signify 180w?

Cheers

+1 rep

 

19 x 9.5 = ......
V x I = P

 

Ahahah, thanks. I never knew that. "V x I = P" =



+1 rep

EDIT: aww I have 0 rep left. So that's how it works Glad I at least had enough for Heihachi_1337

 

It should be a 180W AC adapter according to the model number.

I am aware of the decal, I really just don't think I can advise you as to how to remove it and be able to re-apply it. That would probably be best left to another forum poster.

Concerning the price, given what you have I would say you got a pretty nice deal on that CPU.

 

Thanks for all your help. Not sure wether it means anything but you definitely got my last + rep.

Hey man that's so funny. You own Power Notebooks?

 

Nope, I don't own PNB. Just working for them.

 

Ahh OK. I just found it funny as a few day after I bought my laptop, I was disapointed that I couldn't customize it (no i7, no RAID-0 etc) and came across PNB. Was gonna send mine back and purchase from PNB.

When I RAID-0 this I assume I will have to change the bios? I belive there was anorher bios for GT683 with RAID last time I looked at MSI site.

Well thank you very much for all your help

 

You may have to flash your BIOS for RAID, but I would recommend checking it first to see if it already has the option.
Just hit your Delete key to get into the BIOS and check under the Advanced options for SATA Mode Selection to see if RAID is listed. If it is, no need to flash your BIOS.

You're welcome for the help, that is what this community is for is to help others out.

 

OK I will definitely check it first before doing any BIOS updating.

If I RAID-0 do the drives both have to be the same size? For example I have a 750GB 7200RPM in this right now, and a 160GB 7200RPM drive in my other laptop that this replaced. What would happen if I tried to RAID-0 these 2 drives? I am so fed up of the HDD bottleneck. It's making such a powerful system feel so slow now and then! The 160GB would just be temporary btw as I will eventually get another 750GB 7200RM baby for the RAID-0.

 

Essentially, if I remember correctly, it will only match your 750GB HDD to the size of the smaller 160GB HDD. That is IF it even works at all. So with RAID 0, you would only have 320GB of HDD space give or take a bit for the bit count and all of that.

Frankly, I really don't think you will see anything of a significant performance gain with RAID 0 though unless you are doing some sort of crazy floating point calculations.
You would actually gain more performance converting to an SSD.

 

Are you sure about that? You clearly know more than me about it all but that just doesn't seem right. I thought the point of the RAID-0 array was speed.. basically double the performance of the HDD system.

As for SSD's, definitly would love one but just far too damn expensive. No way will I be buying an SSD at todays prices... Maybe in a few years.

Either way I need to do something.. the HDD is definitly a bottleneck on the system.

Attached are my stock Windows Experience Index scores. See what I'm talking about. BTW this is my i5 of course, not my i7. Still scared to void the werrany. I have taken off a couple Xbox 360 warrany stickers intact before (stupid bloody RRoD error, thank god for the RROD repair kits) using a hair dryer and a sharp knife... maybe I will give that a try sometime later.

 

Even if you were to configure your HDD in RAID 0, that 5.9 on your WEI is not going to change.
If you go to an SSD, you will definitely see an increase in your drive score.

Also, if your laptop is working fine and booting up decently, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

WEI is something of a testosterone trap of sorts, your score will be based on the "weakest link" of your system.

Honestly, if your other scores are over the 7.0 mark, I wouldn't worry an awful lot about it.

 

It improves straight line speed, but unless you are very careful on which drives you pick it can hurt 4k speeds.

 

I don't care at all what my WEI scores are really, but they do give a decent quick representation of the systems power, or at least they appear to. And even if having RAID-0 didn't change my 5.9 HDD score, I'm pretty certain the system would perform better.

I bow to the knowledge of you guys here and definitely take your word for it, but I thought that the point of RAID-0 was to double performance (at the very least boost it). Even if not DOUBLE, I'd assume at least something close to.

I just feel it's a waste having such a powerful machine (even more so with the i7) with a single 7200RPM SATA/300 drive. Yes I know SSD is the best choice, but SSD is just too expensive per GB.

Sorry can you elaborate a little on that? I don't know really what that means.

The drive that came in the laptop is a " WDC WD7500BPKT-22PK4T0" I opened the laptop up as much as I could without removing the skrew under the warranty sticker a few days ago and looked at the drive, but I just can't remember what it said on it. Google tells me that it's a WD Scorpio.

Thanks guys, you rock.

 

I have a 560M in my GT683 right now, assuming I could find one would a 570M a. Be much of an improvement? b. Be a simple swap out and would the current heatsink work etc.

Cheers

 

You will need to buy the right heatsink for either the 570/580M or 6970/6990M (that could be another GPU option for you)

Do you have a 180w adapter ? If no, you should plan to get one.

This a quite a simple swap as long as you have the right parts, just get some nice thermal paste (ICD24 or AS5) and thermal pads (0.5mm for GTX570m/580m, 1mm for 6970m/6990m, higher thermal conductivity is better) and that's about it

 

The 150w actually works fine for me.