Upgrading an M860TU to an M860ETU. GTX 260M or 280M?

I've decided to ship my laptop back to Eurocom so they can swap the old M860TU motherboard for the M860ETU one that supports quad-cores. I will eventually put either a Q9100 or a Q9200 in it.

I would like to get the my 9800M GTS swapped for a 260M, however I was told by Eurocom, that the 260M would cost me $1180 (CAD) .

Assuming this is not a mistake, and they really are charging such an absurd price for the 260M. I'd rather purchase the 280M from for $490, and sell my 9800M GTS.


So I have three questions:

Does anyone know where I could purchase a 260M? (This would be the ideal solution)

Would my 9800M GTS's heatsink fit the 280M?

And would there be any problems (eg: power, heat) with having a Q9100 and a 280M in the M860ETU?

 

you can order the GTX 260M or GTX 280M from other vendors for under $500... just need to contact them.

as for getting the 280M, if you are up to tweaking the system (like undervolting) to keep the temps cool, then go for it.

But I think the 260M is just fine since its only ~5-10% slower than the 280M... and has no temp issues in a 15.4" system.

 

I forgot about ordering one from another OEM or a reseller.

I'll try Sager and XoticPC. Still, if the price for the 260M is anywhere near $490, I'll likely opt for the 280M.

Thanks for the help.

 

Surprisingly, the GTX 260M is only $10 less than the GTX 280M.

 

It's starting to look like I'll go the 280M route, since the price is so close. Even if I undervolt it, it should have no trouble outperforming the 260M.

 

You don't have to. Even after overclocking it, it runs not too hot, played some games with it and the maximum temp I got was 83. Check out the GTX 280m benchmark thread and you'll see that it actually doesn't run too hot... as long as you seat the heatsink on it correctly.

 

So it runs cooler compared to the 9800m GTS?

 

The 9800M GTS and GTX 280M have almost identical clock speeds. At stock clocks, the GTX 280M is still a 75W TDP card, thus it will run hotter than the 9800M GTS.

 

Sager and XoticPC, don't seem as though they'll be able to sell me the 260M. So I'm going with the 280M, all I need is the heatsink.

Anyone know of any OEMs or resellers I could get a M860ETU 260M heatsink from?

For now, I'll try Eurocom.

 

Hmm, I though 260,280 supported only by M860ETU and they will not work on M860TU. So you actually need to change the motherboard. That's why they charge for the upgrade such big amount of money.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I had the motherboard swap and the 260M upgrade pirced seperately. I was told the motherboard swap would be $100 plus shipping. While I was told the 260M upgrade would cost over $1100.

In the end, I told them them that I solely wanted to motherboard swap; and the price was confirmed to be $100 plus the shipping costs.

They may have thought I wanted to purchase a 260M, instead of swapping my 9800M GTS out for one, I call them later today to verify that this was not the case.

I believe the M860TU supports the 260M, assuming the BIOS is updated.

 

I have a NP8660. I've swapped out my 9800m GTS with a GTX 280m. There's no need for a new heatsink or a new mobo or whatever,just the latest BIOS revision will do. Temps are fine even after overclocking the card, around 83c after 80 runs of crysis warhead benchmark, 82c after 30 minutes of Furmark and it's the heatcage used by the 9800m GTS. All I did was replace the thermal pads and thermal paste.

However, to ensure that the GTX 280m would fit perfectly into the heatcage, you'd have to pry the backplate of the 9800m GTS out and fit it to the back of the GTX 280m. It's a very risky process which may very well damage your 9800m GTS as the backplate is practically glued tight to its back. H-emmanuel opened a thread about this in the aftermarket hardware component section of the forum.

If you can't stand doing it, I think you're better off with having the GTX 260m installed.

 

Wow, that's all? I'll definitely go with the 280M now.

This answers the last of my questions.

Thanks for the help.

 

That's what I'm tdebating to myself now. Seems like yo get more value getting 280m provided it costs like $20-50 more tham 260M. Only a small challenge to remove and reapply that backplate. But seems doable.

Btw, do check out that H_Emmanuel thread mentioned above here somewhere:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=382349