Sager NP5797 Upggrade Capability Questions

I'm considering getting a NP5797 with a gtx 280m and core 2 duo, the following questions i have

1. What Quad processor models can the NP5797 be upgraded to?(qx9300, q9100, q9000) am i missing any models?

2. What interface is the gtx 280m MXM 3.0b?

3. What can the video card be upgraded to, i take it 460m/470m/480m/485m are out of the question and even if it was possible heat would be a massive issue.

4. How is this laptop overclocking wise, does it heat up alot, are there any known issues, is the motherboard prone to be unreliable and can possibly die easily from small variation adjustments(would like to know a serious indepth about this one since i plan to overclock, would like to know what type of quality working with)

5. How many hard drive bays are there and are they all 9.5mm?

6. Can ram be upgraded over 4gb

7. I know there's a 1920x1200 screen upgrade available, what other upgrades that are noticeable available for this model.

8. What else significant should be known about this before i buy it.

Appreciate you taking the time to read the post, look forward to the responses.

 

1. If you are sure that it is a 5797 and not a 5796 (both identical outside) then any of those mentioned or a q9200ES (from ebay)

2. MXM 2.1

3. GTX280M is the tops for you

4. With an unlocked processor, these overclock well, they have good cooling to dissipate the heat. The only issue I know of is with the audio jacks failing.

5. 1 bay, 9.5mm - you can swap out the optical drive for a 2nd HDD if you want.

6. Ram can be upped to 8GB

7. not much.

8. It's a great machine.

 

have mxm 2.1 in any way been subpar to say mxm 3.0b or other standards? i'm guessing the performance might be 5% difference due to the interface

 

would you happen to know of a dock that can fit inside of the optical drive? link would be great. also is it hard to remove the optical drive? desoldering involved?

 

Removing the ODD is simple as removing one screw (service manual is in my sig if you want to look), any sata odd hard drive bay (12.7mm bay, 9.5mm HDD) will work.
http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_47&products_id=338

MXM 2.1 and 3.0B have no real performance differences, they just support different cards.

 

$44 bucks err.... nothing cheaper?

edit:

http://compare.ebay.com/like/250683...f08a328&itemid=250683429409&ff4=263602_304692

would this do 12 bucks, it says lenovo but from the looks of it, it appears all the same, would that work? dont feel like shelling 44 bucks for something i can practically buy a drive for.

 

That one is IDE/PATA, you need a SATA one. You can usually find them cheaper on ebay, I was just showing you what you need. It must be a 12.7mm drive bay adapter for 9.5mm hard drive, and it must be SATA-SATA (both sides).

I think this one is compatible but i'd check with the seller that it is the standard interface first. I believe that the difference between all that sellers adapters is simply the faceplate (apart from the 9.5mm bay ones and the SATA-PATA and the specialist dell hotswap ones)

edit: this one is definitely compatible

 

i have one more question if i'm going to be removing the optical drive, i'd like to use a 12.5mm drive as opposed to 9.5mm, they do have docks like those right, quick link would be informative.

 

so overclocking wise, gpu is still done via e.g. rivatuner, are the gtx 280m prone to die easily? and your saying the motherboard on this laptop is also capable of doing overclocks with out dying for no reason? I'm mostly a desktop person so these laptop "gaming" machines i can only wonder there OC capabilities, spec wise there gaming machines OC wise is a whole different ballgame, what are the danger voltages on this board for the cpu.

edit: how do you reset cmos via laptop? dual bios? without unscrewing the laptop and pulling the battery obviously.

 

optical drives are generally 12.7mm so most of the caddys will support 12.5mm hard drives.

overclocking does not necessarily badly impact a cards health. the 200 series does not have the defective solder that the 9000 and 8000 did.
You should know the safe temps, this is what will have a serious impact.

It may the motherboard but it could also be the power supply. in general with some of these laptops and overclocks, they will just shut off completely if you run furmark and superpi at the same time, but it wont happen while gaming and its definitely not dangerous.

 

Anyways i'm going to buy it of my buddy this monday. It's silver encased model, i have a question though when i went to sagers site they didn't have any drivers for that particular model, and gtx 280m wasn't even listed in there specs.

I take it the gtx 280m is a custom addition, from what i read clevo makes these and sager and other company's rebadge it, so what i'm wondering is what model is this exactly based of the clevo official line up, so i can just download it from there, M570TU or M570ETU?

I'll be getting rid of my g71gx-rx05, going from 260m to a 280m, also i would like to add, i'm reading from other sources that the mxm 2.0 variants have lower clocks then the mxm 3.0b variants of the gtx 280, so it was right to presume the mxm3.0b sustains higher performance capability, or is that just the way the manufacture made the card and if so whats the difference between gtx 280m 2.0 vs 3.0b, if there's no difference it would be reasonable to obtain same clocks via overclocking, but it sounds like there's a difference in deed.

I'll put a quad core chip in it as well as the optical dock modification, all in all not bad yea, except for only having 1 hdd slot and cant add sli.

 

The main difference between 2.1 and 3.0 is that 3.0 supports higher memory frequencies (bigger memory bandwidth) and can provide the card with more power. Overall, the performance of a 285M 3.0 can be achieved by overclocking a 280M 2.1, however there is a small chance that it might not be fully stable at those clocks so you might have to settle for slightly lower clocks. But as I said, this would be rather and exception than a rule.

 

what about the watt output? mxm 2.0 is limited to certain cards with a particular tdp while mxm 3.0 can go higher and say support 5870, thats why this laptop wouldn't be able to handle a 5870 due to mxm 2.0 having a low tdp limit correct?

Also what are the clocks between a gtx 280m 2.0 and a gtx 280 3.0b, does the m570tu/etu have 2.0 or 2.1?

Now that i think about it wouldn't a gtx 260 3.0b which my g71gx has score equivalent to a gtx 280 2.0? i understand the difference is 10-15% to begin with but nevertheless would it still be there?

So your saying the only difference between mxm 2.0 and 3.0b is the 3.0 has higher tdp for newer cards to run and the 2 gtx 280m's 2.0 and 3.0 only have the memory being clocked higher. a gtx 280m would still maintain the performance due to more shader processors... i guess if somebody can provide info on gtx 260m 2.0 and 3.0 clocks as well a gtx 280m 2.0 and 3.0 clocks i might get a better estimate, but technical wise there is no addition to any of the series correct, just the clocks have been changed, nothing is cut?


EDIT: i'm reading more up on the video cards and it seems everything is the same except memory clocks due to the mxm interface slot which i'm trying to find a detailed description on MXM interface and differnt variant as well, i also read that clevo makes there own customized mxm video cards. What i'm wondering though is there some kind of issue trying to go over 800mhz on the memory, is this a barrier that's not possible to be achieved?

 

You will get a 2.1 MXM slot. The main reason why you can't put a different card is because the MXM 3.0 and MXM 2.1 are physically different. Otherwise, the M570TU should take a card like the 5870 for instance.

In regard to the memory frequencies, I've already answered that in my previous post.

 

you've stated that the memory clocks are different, but i was talking about what exactly is the limit of the mxm 2.1 and also i was referring to the slots total wattage capacity as opposed to the mxm 3.0b, if the only thing was the physical dimension you could rip open the laptop and still get it to run(provided bios supported) but i'm presuming that is not the issue and looking up more into it the mxm slots have distinct characteristics and limitations besides "SIZE" other wise there wouldn't be different memory clocks.

anybody happen to know what each slots wattage threshold is and also specification wise for comparison.

 

None of it is limited, it is only specified.

The memory clocks for example - that is not limited at all and it is not a hardware limitation. The manufacturers at one point realized the bandwidth MAY not be sufficient for above 800mhz on some cards, but a lot of MXM 2.1 cards actually have VRAM chips that are rated for 900mhz and above. This is controlled by the VBIOS, so I've made a permanent change to some of these cards and run them at full capacity with 900mhz vram.

It has nothing to do with MXM 3.0 and 2.1 at all frankly except for the fact that someone made a decision at some point to downclock all the chips when they released VBIOS.

There are really very few limitations to MXM 2.1. If your notebook cannot supply sufficient power then it is the notebook that is doing that and by no means the MXM 2.1 slot or specification.

Of course I'm sure the various connectors made by tyco and other connector brands are rated at above 200w or so. But if you get that much power going through your voltage IC - well, let me know

 

deletedelete

 

Besides the mechanical (key dent placement, etc) and electrical differences, the MXM connectors are bandwidth rated differently,
e.g. 2.5 Gbps for MXM 2.1 (PCIe v1.1) and 5.0 Gbps for MXM 3.0b (PCIe v2.0), but I have not heard of any saturation w.r.t. bandwidth in the MXM 2.1 / PCIe v1.1 case.

 

hello.

i have one of these (5797).. is it possible to fit any of the new i-series (i3, i5, i7) processors on this machine?

i mean, what is its 'form factor?' which is the fastest processor i can fit?

thx

 

No 10 char. Best CPU you can put in is the QX9300, which is still a very capable CPU.

 

'best' meaning 'chosen' by intel and most expensive, a qavr or qavs q9200 would do as well also at half the price.
...as long as its the 5797 not 5796 which doesn't support quads.

 

The Q9200 runs hotter and is somewhat unstable. Unless you are on a budget, don't buy it.