Preordered NP5790 upgraded with 8800M GTX

I have one of the first batches of NP5790s. I received it on July 19, 2007, so it's over 8 months old now. I mention this because, if it is upgradeable easily to an 8800M, then any one can

I first contacted Sager to inquire whether I was eligible for the motherboard modifications such that I wouldn't have to deal with the S3 sleep/suspend mode problems after upgrades. They told me to look for my motherboard version by my memory cards. I checked:



Version 3.0A Turns out you need at least a 4.2. Oh well. As I told my wife when we had our first child a few months ago, who needs sleep mode!

So, I went ahead and ordered it. I thought I've read here that there are some shortages with 8800Ms due to demand, but I sent in the order on March 18 and received the item (via UPS ground, no less) on March 26. That's pretty quick, in my book:



So, it was time to get down and dirty. Lets take a look at the 'ol girl:



Yes, that's a zalman nc1000 in the background. I like it as much for it's incline as I do for it's cooling, which is quite nice indeed. Well, lets pop this puppy open and see what's inside.



Lots of shiny electric things! I didn't have a static wrist guard handy, but my desk has a glass top and I tried to ground myself on my lamp so *shrugs*. The orange looking thing on the upper right is my 7950 GTX. A nice card, but sadly, just not enough for me anymore. I pulled out my small phillips head screwdriver, and 4 twists later, the main heatsink is off:



3 more screws after that, and there she goes:



I know, my friend, it's cold without your jacket. Don't worry, though; we'll be warming you up soon enough.




And, we're done! Now to fire this thing up and see what happens.

...

Missing MXM structures! Well, I was half expecting this due to Skeezix's Thread ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=224814), but alas, I hadn't gotten around to upgrading my bios. No time like the present! I went to the Sager driver page for the various NP579X; though my NP5790 is in the 'archive' area and hasn't had updated drivers since Aug07, I've been getting the updated Fan firmwares from the NP5792/3 area. None of them had the updated bios, however. I ended up using the one from ( ftp://sftp.clevo.com.tw/ALLBIOS/M57xRU/57RU_108.zip) that _GZ_ posted in ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=223272&page=13) this thread. I put it on a boot cd, booted up, flashed it, and voila, I'm good to go.

I tried a few different drivers but really haven't had a good chance to find the 'best' one. I'm currently using the NGO optimized 169.25 ones for vista64 (yes, I do use vista ), and they play Bioshock pretty well on all-high settings and 1400x900 resolution. I don't have anything more demanding than that to test it on (though I'll probably pick up crysis and mass effect when it comes out now that I have this new card), but my 3Dmark06 scores are in the 8600s without anything turned off or tweaked(aero, bisoncam, etc), so I'm ok with that.

Anyway, that's my experience with this. Thanks to Justin for his writeup on how to do this ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=204160), as well as skeezix, Gophn, and lots of other people who post useful comments and experiences here.

 

you can OC your processor

 

Nice work upgrading, it seems like it has been a succes Getting a little more than me in 3DMark 06, with almost semilar specs, tho you got 4 gb ram and SP1

Congratulation on your "new" lappy Or atleast new gfx

 

I honestly don't know, I haven't tried. I normally don't OC, but if you want I can check. Can i do it through the bios or do I need some 3rd party program?

Thanks. To be honest, I've run 3dmark06 a few times with different emphasis on performance/quality/balanced through the nvidia control panal and my scores have gone from 8540 to 8619. I might try and see how high I can get it via tweaking this weekend, but to be honest, as long as games play well I'm not too worried about it

 

It`s nice to hear it works nicely
I guess I`m gonna be among the last the upgrade to the 8800M GTX...or maybe 9800M GTX, who knows

 

VISTA sucks, so many people have it.

Vista 63 LOLOLOL. it's supposto be 63 bit whhooo whhooooo hhoooo. *cough, Cough Cough*

and it's less performance than XP PRO 32 bit.

lololol

 

Congrats!!!

Nice pics

 

so im tempted ... how is the sleep issue?? any real disadvantages for you??

 

I turned it off as soon as I booted up with the card, and so I haven't had to experience the 'problem' of waking up from it.

I rarely used sleep, anyway. If I need to shut it down for a few if I'm on the move, I'll just put it in hibernate, and usually I turn it off b/w home and work anhyway so *shrugs*, not really a big deal for me.

 

so now the s3 is when you simply close the lid then?? i always leave my noteboook on and just shut the lid since this is on my desk.. not sure if id have this issue or not..

do you think it runs as well as the newer 5792/3 model with the new card??

 

ya.... sleep is overrated.

 

I've always had it set to 'do nothing' when I close the lid I have cats and a baby, and all I need is for something to spill on the lcd and/or keyboard heh.

I have no idea how it does compared to the 5792/3 models, except that the 3dmark06 score is in the ballpark of Justin's benchmark of the 92. Bioshock runs like a dream ; I might pick up crysis this week too and see how that does heh.

 

ok sweet thanks...

 

Interesting.

I was curious, so I went ahead and did a shutdown->sleep. The computer went to sleep, and when I restored it, it was fine. I did it a few more times, and even ran a 3dmark06, but everything checked out.

Maybe it's just the 4.2 and higher mobos that have a problem, I don't know, but I'm not a complaining.

Not that I use sleep much anyway, as I said, but it's always nice to know that even if it does it doesn't seem to be a problem.

 

really???? hmmmmmm i may just have to get the card itself then.... i was considering sending it in for the full upgrade but im not sure i really "need" it.. i mean ill still be missing the 2.0mp cam and the only other things that change is the heatsink and case bottom and penryn support in which case im still running my t7500 with no issues.. not sure what to do now??? difference is only 155.. so its not a huge deal but id rather not send the system out i think ??

 

Do you have any USB devices plugged in when you send the system to sleep? If so, do you have any problems with them after the system wakes from sleep?

 

wow, you open up your baby... such bravery.. every time i thought about operating my notebook, my hand was shaking~~~ due to fear of it being dead ~~ the humanityyyy

but i really want to see how does it compare to the new sager, graphic-wise of course... its like a phoenix~~~

 

id like to know as well how it does compared to the newer mobo and newer setup.. im torn between which way to go??

 

What happens when you close your lid is up to your settings...

The minute I set up my NP5790 when I got it, I disabled sleep -- so the S3 issue was 0% a problem for me.

When I close the lid, I have it set to hibernate (S4), which works fine on the 8800gtx without the mobo swap.

So 100% works for me

If you have your lid set to do nothing, or hibernate, cool; if your lid close goes to sleep, you'll notice.. but in practice, most people don't need that, but its the default so they use it anyway My wife closes her lid (non-Sager), and it goes to sleep, but shes done for the night; a few mins later it hibernates her machine. So she 'uses' sleep, but if I swirched it to hibernate, she'd never notice..

jeff