P170em Upgrading

I'm well aware that this is probably an overdone topic, but I had difficulty finding any threads that directly related to this.
My understanding of upgrades is based around if the motherboard can handle it, given that I'm using a Clevo, the only information I can get using a program like CPU-Z
is that my motherboard is a Clevo...which is unhelpful.

I purchased my laptop through Mythlogic and intend in the nearish future to contact them regarding cleaning/repasting the laptop, but while it's there I figured I'd look at what I can pay for them to upgrade.
Does anyone know how I can search for compatible parts without annoying the customer service people at Mythlogic possibly months before I even send it in...

Thank you, and sorry for the really newbie question.

 

As far as CPU's, you're free to use any of the 3xxx series (i3, i5, or i7), but the 3720QM is really the best choice unless you want to step up the XM version.

As far as GPU's, you're free to use any of the 6xx series or AMD 7970M/8970M. I'd recommend upgrading to a 675MX or 7970M if you can spare the money.

I would recommend a SSD, but you already have one

 

I'm not seeing a huge upgrade from 675m to 675mx for the $600 it looks like it's going to cost.
What about the 680m? Which looks to be about $800 still, the 680mx, I can't even find.

And my sig was a typo, I do have the Intel Core i7 3720QM

 

The 680m is the best choice at 50% faster than the 675mx.

 

You could always email Mythlogic as well and hold on to their email for future reference. I'm sure it would be no bother to them.

680M would be your best upgrade option on the GPU if they can get one or have any on hand. CPU upgrade is probably not warranted, but if you wanted to go for it, you could look at a XM CPU.

 

The real answer is: It's not really worth upgrading. Everyone here knows it too The 7970M would be a considerable upgrade if you really need the umph depending on what games you play. CPU is fine too. I'm not sure what tricks they're using nowadays to make-believe Moore's law is still patent, but you can run Win 7 nicely on a good +10 year old Pentium 4 at this point, and if you want high-end gaming even SLI solutions won't give you the smooth fps on the top games on a mobile platform.

You're welcome.

 

What are you talking about, 680m will give him between a 770m and 780m (closer to 780m) modern machine. It will be a huge boost at 1080p. A machine like mine is powerful enough to play any modern title at 100 fps (780m sli) so I am a bit confused on your statements.

 

No confusion necessary. OP has not specified what games he plays (or indeed if it's gaming he wants to do, some people like folding), so we have incomplete information and you were happy to rush and recommend buying a new product. Also, although in synthetic settings the 680M is indeed last generation's beast, in the vast majority of games the fps are almost always well above playability levels for both cards except a few titles, most of which slow down on any mobile card so you'll get 21 fps instead of 15 on the demanding games (BF4, COD, Crysis ..etc).for anywhere between 500-900 USD? Hard to justify in my opinion, specially for something of the same generation. Maybe when Mantle support comes for 7970Ms then an 7970M would be a valid choice since some of the hottest games are rumored to play at 45% better fps. Just saying there are more details here I think the buyer should be made aware of before they are urged to buy and consume.

I would also urge you to reconsider your statement that your SLI setup would run any modern title @100 fps unless you mean below ultra settings.

 

I mean at high/ultra yes.

My setup can be compared to an over clocked single titan/780ti setup or desktop gtx 770 sli setup.

Big gains can be seen in games like Crysis 3, any situation where he would currently get 40 fps he would go to 60 fps.

I gave him a rough percentage figure so he could figure out for himself if that increase would be worth it rather than applying my own bias.

 

He has a P170EM, SLI setups are not possible. Why are we even discussing them?

 

Because of the last part of your post here, I like to nip mistakes like that in the bud before incorrect general impressions are made and I spend 6 months having to correct people.

You can get desktop gtx 670 performance with tweaking on the 680m so it's going to give a good experience.

 

he can upgrade to the 780m right? I think prema made a vBIOS mod for it:
GTX780M FUNDRAISER | Prema Mod

he got it to work on EM series machines

 

First, thank you everyone for your input.

Frankly I do very little gaming at the moment on my laptop, but I purchased a Clevo laptop and from Mythlogic for a specific reason. The ability to upgrade, the ability to game, and he ability to keep it fresh new and useful for a few years. Given that now that I have decided to at least send it in for cleaning, I thought it would be as good a time as any to do any upgrades that I can. And, if I'm going to upgrade and spend a decent bunch of cash on that, I might as well go for gold, and get the best I can (or best I can realistically afford to go). Do I really need this laptop to be as powerful as possible? Absolutely not, but it's what I want to do anyway..

Heck, I'll probably update it and then just enjoy modding the crap out of Skyrim again and enjoying how fun that can be.

 

Well the 680M can be made about 30-40% faster than stock so you get quite a kick out of it and if you like your skyrim mods that will help it chew through those with the 4GB of vram to help too.

 

Ooo that's right, 4gb vram.
That does place it nicely above the 7970M, at least in that department.

 

The 680M handles skyrim with quite a few mods really well. Temps concern me though, it's reaching about 90 deg C.

 

The paste job and pads do want to be done just right

 

See now that's a general incorrect impression Meaker will not nip in the bud because it's a useful incorrect impression to have, and costs people money, namely that you'll only need 4GB VRAM if ever if you have a multi-screen situation, and never if you're playing FHD or more on one screen.

 

Skyrim with mods is a special case that often goes over 2GB of vram (ultra high res textures and the like) and so having extra vram in this case does make a difference. His reaction made it clear he understands it but sorry if you feel I did not make that clear to others.

I do make it clear when advising others that most of the time it won't have an impact for them.