The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Clevo 870 GPU upgrading

    Discussion in 'Sager and Clevo' started by frozenpyro, Jul 24, 2010.

  1. frozenpyro

    frozenpyro Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I plan on buying a Sager NP8760. I like that these laptops can be upgraded instead of just trashed after three years.

    My build

    Intel® Core™ i7-840QM, 1.86-3.2GHz, (45nm, 8MB L3 cache)
    IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
    ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5870 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
    8,192MB DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS)
    80GB Intel X25-M Solid State Drive (SSD2 Serial-ATA II)
    500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache)
    4X Blue-Ray Read/8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive
    Intel® Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

    Question 1
    Should I consider buying the 280M over the 5870 even though it does not support dx11 but it can be upgraded easier due to it being MXM

    Question 2
    I live in the US and I am considering buying it from either xoticpc or avadirect. Any preference, xotic seems to be cheaper and has great reviews
     
  2. JohnnyFlash

    JohnnyFlash Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    372
    Messages:
    2,489
    Likes Received:
    11
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Both the 280M and 5870 are MXM 3.0B, that's the slot the motherboard uses. I would get the 5870.
     
  3. frozenpyro

    frozenpyro Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Thankyou for answering so fast and thats good to hear I would rather get the 5870. Just at $2500 I didn't want to make the wrong decision.
     
  4. LaptopNut

    LaptopNut Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,610
    Messages:
    3,745
    Likes Received:
    92
    Trophy Points:
    116
    Currently there are no upgrade options for the GPU other than the 5870 and the GTX 285 / GTX 280M. Nvidia may release a more direct competitor to the 5870 but that wouldn't really be worth it if you already have the 5870. So just be aware that you are buying a laptop where the GPU upgrade options are pretty much already at the end of the line.
     
  5. dviper84

    dviper84 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    22
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Go with Ava much better selection and customer support. U won't regret it
     
  6. Shane@DARK.

    Shane@DARK. Company Representative

    Reputations:
    768
    Messages:
    710
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    The 5870 is the best bang for the buck in my opinion.
     
  7. dodgehemi0

    dodgehemi0 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    34
    Messages:
    622
    Likes Received:
    80
    Trophy Points:
    41
    will we not be able to put the 480x in these laptops? You would just need to get the 880clevos cooling system right??
     
  8. JohnnyFlash

    JohnnyFlash Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    372
    Messages:
    2,489
    Likes Received:
    11
    Trophy Points:
    56
    No. You would need BIOS support and the w870cu can't handle the power requirement, bigger brick or not.

    Maybe the GF104 chips will be less than 100w, and we will get support for them. Same goes for ATi's Blackcomb. I don't know why nVidia didn't use GF104 for the 480m in the first place...