Upgrading a GX720

OK, I have been watching eBay, and there is quite a variety of CPUs available. Also quite a variety of vendors. Are there any you folks can recommend? Or any that I should maybe avoid? May I presume any vendor with over 99.5% approval rating is fairly good? How good is Ebay's Buyer Protection Plan? Sorry for all the questions, but I am still fairly new at looking at all this technology that is only a few years old. I was more used to working with Trash-80's with 32K to 64K RAM. Ahhh, the old days when programmers still used Basic and Xedit.... I noticed my icon now says "Notebook Guru". I don't think so! It should still say "Notebook Rookie" or something equivalent.

Anyway, I see there is an entire thread about using ThrottleStop, cool, I look forward to checking it out. And I have the PDF file on disassembly of my GX720. Is there a thread to go with the PDF file? Things to be careful of, etc... I have seen bits and pieces in the main thread for the GX720, but at over 180 pages it is tough to find specific data. I noticed the PDF file includes torque specs on all the screws. How critical is this? Because if it is critical then I will need to find an adjustable torque-screwdriver. Any recommendations? I have torque-wrenches but the smallest is 3/8" drive. A little overkill on this, I think. Or is a similar force used to remove the screws sufficient to put them back in? Does anyone use Loctite on their screws, to prevent loosening? I have seen in other threads where AC5 Thermal Paste has a curing time. How long? What other pastes are there? Their advantages or disadvantages? Is there a thread for Pastes where I can look this up? Or is there an "Idiot's Guide to Notebook Upgrading" that I can get?

 

gx720 is fairly easy to open up. on the bottom there should be five screws. phillips that you unscrew/lose up pull the tab and youll see the gpu and cpu. (remember to not have battery plugged in) (i always discharge my computer b4 doing any of this by pressing the power button without battery 5 times and on the 5th time hold for 10secs) you unplug the fan and unscrew the fan theres three screws unscrew the cpu and nb screws. this would be alot better if i had pictures i no longer have it. Ebay buyer protection is awesome there is so much protection with it literally if something goes wrong hit the person up and theyll usually tell you to send it back and replace/refund.(check the pages usually says 7-30days on the listing for money back stuff) for pastes i choose arctic cooling mx2 i heard mx4 is nice it cools alittle better than ac5 imo and the cure time is alot less than ac5.

 

Ahh, the old 80s When my country was in computer industry ... I like those times. If some of you also like them, here is a link of something that I bet most of you have never seen. Pravetz - Bulgarian power.
Vendors? - you mean sellers? Because the vendor, compatible to your laptop is only one - Intel I would recommend to you Extremeprocessor (check what variety of CPUs he has now). He always sells only OEM or Quality Samples CPUs. Otherwise, yeah, all the sellers with good rating >99%, will do the job. But of course watch the description, because you can't blame the seller if he wrote that the CPU is early ES.
There is no thread for the PDF Disassembly Guide. I think it's quite simple. Also mentioned torque for the screws I think is mentioned only if you use automated screwdriver.
For the Loctite - it depends how good you're with your hands But some caution is always preferred. You can use magnetic screwdriver also.
I don't know for a thread for thermal pastes, but here is a link, where everything you need is mentioned, even much more
And don't be so scared with upgrading process, just act fearless.

 

OK, I ordered the P9600 on Ebay. Got a G.Skill 2x4GB PC2-6400 memory set from Newegg. Thanks Genna and Espada for the info. That link for the thermal pastes is awesome Genna. They even have a newer 80-way test review. I checked Extremeprocessor and he is only showing 5 items for sale right now. All of them are i7s! Oh, does removal of the old CPU require any special tool? Or does it lift out fairly easy? The PDF Guide looks very straight-forward. So it shouldn't be a problem. I'll only be scared if I see smoke rising from one of the boards!

 

Also, will I need to update my BIOS? I have V1.0S that came with the machine.

 

Genna - I was just browsing the thread on the three Mini-PCI slots and I was wondering if you ever got the Mini PCI-e SSD on that 3rd slot to working? Sounds like an interesting idea to make use of the slot.

 

Yeah, it is a good idea, but unfortunately it can't boot up from it, so I left that idea I need it just for the OS, but ...

I think that P9600 is going to work with your current BIOS version, but it's always better to stay up to date BIOS here.

 

Thanks Genna! I bookmarked that link. You have been most helpful in keeping me focused in the right direction. +1 Rep!

 

OK, no boot-up, but would a Mini PCI-e SSD work in this slot as a seperate drive to run a heavy program from? Such as World of Warcraft? The entire program file set on my HD is 25GB. I am thinking maybe it would run faster and smoother from a dedicated SSD than off the regular HD. Possibilities?

 

heres a youtube video of the tab im talking about
YouTube - msi gx720 rozbor
not in english but you can see the idea. the tab has 5 screws.
http://forum-en.msi.com/moderator/assembly-guides/MS-1722Disassemble SOP.pdf
another guide to dissemble which has pics and its circled which screws to take out very simple.
i wouldn't think a mini pci-e ssd would be readable in the laptop (not 100% sure you have to do some research) but the gains from it would just be opening the program up faster/ faster load speeds. No frames per second advantage.

edit: removal of the old cpu requires a flat headscrew driver that opens the cpu slot in the guide shows you. and you just pop it out and pop in the new one and make sure when putting the new one you put it the right way as it will fit perfectly in and lock it in. remove the old paste on the heatsink before applying new one.

 

mini-PCIe SSD will not work in GX720.

 

OK, no prob. It was just an idea. Thanks, Espada, for the links. Video is always helpful! +1 Rep for you also!

 

Thanks for the rep and write back when your have the CPU

 

Got the CPU in two days, and the memory in three. Put them in the other day and all is good! Now anyway! Had a small problem when I first closed everything back up. It started getting hot and I couldn't hear any fan noise. Then the screen went black. Turned it off, took it apart again and apparently I hadn't pushed the fan connector hard enough. Took it off, and put it back on, then turned on the computer while I could still see the fan and it worked fine. Its been working just fine ever since. Thanks again for all your help. I may be coming back for more if I decide to go with a 4850 GPU. But it will probably be a while. This upgrade has already improved my performance very noticeably. And maybe a 4850 512MB will be more available, and reasonable, by then. :laugh: