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    Soldered components.

    Discussion in 'Sager and Clevo' started by Macleod of the Clan, Dec 1, 2008.

  1. Macleod of the Clan

    Macleod of the Clan Notebook Geek

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    I was thinking about my choice of laptop... it looks like I'm still chewing it over...

    The M570TU I had purchased will never have raid-0
    It can also never run sli.

    This is distressing me since I consider future-proofing the most important part of a good purchase.

    But, arguably, these above are non-issue because:

    1) There is only so much bandwidth that current generation s-ata buses can handle, and ssds are near to saturating those. So at the end of the day I can just pick up a single drive that is as fast as any two drives could ever be.

    And (2), in regards to SLI, it has never showed as much an improvement over a single card as raid has over a single drive and you can pretty much be guaranteed that the best card from the next series of GPUs will beat any current sli combination.

    So I could upgrade my graphics card.

    Yet, what if the GPU is soldered on?

    If its the case that I can still upgrade this soldered component then I am gladdened with my choice of a single GPU slot. But then, I'd wonder, if I couldn't also upgrade my S-ATA Controller to one with a higher maximum throughput (by replacing the motherboard)? Which may then provide incentive to add a second drive - see as there's enough bandwidth on the bus left to make use of an actual raid-0 configuration!?

    Well, on the one hand I'd be glad if soldering was an easily overcome obstacle - for my graphics card's sake...
    and at the same time I'd rue its ease and my choice of just a single-HD-bay.

    here are the questions:

    Is my GPU soldered on to the mobo and can it still be upgraded?
    Is the S-ATA controller also upgradeable? What is the process here, and how easy (inexpensive) is it to do this?
     
    Macleod of the Clan, Dec 1, 2008
    #1
  2. Loggie

    Loggie Notebook Evangelist

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    To your first question-if a GPU chip is soldered onto the board it is not field upgradeable, however unless you have a MB with integrated graphics only, the GPU is on a graphics card that is easily field replaceable.
     
    Loggie, Dec 1, 2008
    #2
  3. Macleod of the Clan

    Macleod of the Clan Notebook Geek

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    Can we buy separate gpus or would we really be looking at replacing the entire card?
     
    Macleod of the Clan, Dec 1, 2008
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  4. Gophn

    Gophn NBR Resident Assistant

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    you can upgrade the videocard.

    you can purchase the module from a Clevo vendor

    For example (the main 3 Clevo importers in North America):
    - Sager
    - Eurocom
    - Pro-Sar
    ..... and their respectable resellers.

    Clevo has designed their current gaming notebook line with the MXM Type IV slot.

    So far the MXM-IV for Clevo notebooks have seen:
    - 7950GTX
    - 7950GTX SLI (with Clevo D901C)
    - 8700M GT
    - 8700M GT SLI (with Clevo D901C)
    - 8800M GTX
    - 8800M GTX SLI (with Clevo D901C)
    - 9800M GTS
    - 9800M GTS SLI (with Clevo D901C)... not confirmed yet
    - 9800M GT
    - 9800M GT SLI (with Clevo D901C)
    - 9800M GTX*
    - 9800M GTX SLI (with Clevo D901C)
    - Quadro 1600M
    - Quadro 2500M
    - Quadro 2700M
    - Quadro 3700M*

    * not recommended in the M860TU.

    Thats a lot of videocards for one MXM Type IV slot... :)
     
    Gophn, Dec 2, 2008
    #4
  5. Macleod of the Clan

    Macleod of the Clan Notebook Geek

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    and there will be more in years to come.
    How excellent. :)

    Then what about the Sata controller on laptops. I have mixed feelings about the current limit of 300MB/s on throughput that these buses impose but am not sure that I'd want to see them 'field-replaceable'.
    If its a case of removing the entire mobo, well, then how practical would that be? I just don't know.
     
    Macleod of the Clan, Dec 2, 2008
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  6. Gophn

    Gophn NBR Resident Assistant

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    does not matter.

    notebook HDDs comes nowhere close to even utilizing the previous generation SATA-I (150MB/s) standard... let alone the current SATA-II (300MB/s).

    Only desktop HDD's that have 10k+ rpm and high-end SSD's can come close to even utilizing that much of the data transfer limit.

    never simple in a notebook environment... will usually require you to disassemble most of the notebook.

    As for upgrading motherboards, not going to really happen since most notebook motherboards are proprietary to a particular system/chassis.
     
    Gophn, Dec 2, 2008
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  7. Macleod of the Clan

    Macleod of the Clan Notebook Geek

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    Brilliant!

    Although, if anything, I would upgrade to an SSD. We can imagine affordable 300MB/s read speeds on laptops in 3 years, right?
     
    Macleod of the Clan, Dec 2, 2008
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  8. wobble

    wobble Notebook Evangelist

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    You should reconsider this assumption!
     
    wobble, Dec 2, 2008
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  9. Doodles

    Doodles Starving Student

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    yea, wobbles rite... Usually the single cards don't beat out SLI of the previous generation. Although, I will have to admit the jump to the GT200 series of cards for laptops will be a HUGE step. ANd since it will probably be quite a while before we see them in laptops, I do expect this card to be the closest a single card to get close to its predecessor in SLI, in terms of power, than any other previous upgrades. We'll have to wait and see. i cant wait for i7 core/GT200 laptops.... :D
     
    Doodles, Dec 2, 2008
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  10. Macleod of the Clan

    Macleod of the Clan Notebook Geek

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    If the i7 cores are Nehalem > which will not feature the FSB architecture, then must I exclude the possibility of an upgrade to an i7 quad on my Socket P PM45 fsb?
     
    Macleod of the Clan, Dec 3, 2008
    #10
  11. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Yup.
    ......​
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 8, 2015
    Shyster1, Dec 3, 2008
    #11
  12. Macleod of the Clan

    Macleod of the Clan Notebook Geek

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    Should have waited!
     
    Macleod of the Clan, Dec 3, 2008
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  13. The Commodore

    The Commodore Notebook Consultant

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    For the next notebook to get out dated.

    Sooner or later your always going to think that "I should have waited".
     
    The Commodore, Dec 3, 2008
    #13
  14. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Why? Anything you buy today is always going to end up being outdated, usually sooner rather than later. Furthermore, the first commercially available i7 systems are going to be more like a ship's initial shake-down cruise, and will quickly become outdated themselves as Intel and the ODMs make rapid improvements in the implementation of the i7 architecture - would you really rather have waited just to be a glorified guinea-pig?
     
    Shyster1, Dec 3, 2008
    #14