Upgrading my M860TU (Sager 8660)

Hello all. Hope that I'm posting this in the right place and it is not too repetitive. I'm looking to add a bit of a performance boost for some casual gaming (WoW, Diablo, Starcraft - maybe Elder Scrolls Online) to my M860TU add a reasonable price. I haven't actually played any games in a while, but I remember starting to get some framerate issues in WoW in the newer content with graphics set to about medium.

I'm pretty much a complete noob at PC building/upgrading. Here are my system specs.

Sager 8660
Sager 8660 Ultimate Custom Gaming Notebook Computer (Built on the Clevo M860TU) Qty: 1
15.4" WSXGA+ Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy LCD with Wide Viewing Angle (1680x1050) Qty: 1
30 Day No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee! (Others only give you 15 days) Qty: 1
nVidia 9800M GTS with 512MB DDR3 Video Memory DX10 (PCI-Express) (User Upgradeable!) Qty: 1
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz "Montevina" w/ 6MB L2 On-Die Cache (P9600) - 1066MHz FSB 25 Watt Qty: 1
Arctic Silver 5 High Performance Thermal Compound Qty: 1
4096MB (4GB) DDR3 1066MHz (2 SODIMMs) (2048MB x 2048MB) Qty: 1
[No Intel Turbo Memory] Qty: 1
320GB l 7200RPM I SATA II (16MB Cache Buffer) Qty: 1 [Sager replaced this with a 500GB model when I sent it in, honestly not sure if it is 7200 or 5400 RPM - have a suspicion it is 5400]

I've poked around a little bit, and it seems the consensus best GPU upgrade would be a GTX 260m, bang for buck wise. Is that true? There are a few on ebay under $100. I'm not sure which specific model I'd need though. If anyone with any experience upgrading this exact machine could chime in that would be great.

I haven't looked at RAM, but I'm assuming I can upgrade to 8gb for not too much. Would it be worth it to invest in a SSD as well?

So basically - would any of these upgrades make much of a difference / be worth the cost?

Thank you!

 

I have Sager NP8662 or M860etu. I thought my model could have 280M with a Core 2 Quad CPU, not sure about 860tu. I have GTX 260M, could look up specs for you. I think we are limited to 4GB RAM though, but doublecheck on that. SSD would certainly be worth it.

Video Chipset Codename: G92-890
Video BIOS Version: 62.92.78.00.08
Video Chipset Revision: A2
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0618&SUBSYS_08601558&REV_A2

 

hi
is your 9800gts still working, if so WOW! congratulations.
my 9800GT died in 2010 and luckily i was still covered by extended warranty so got a 260GTX upgrade the same day.
average 3dmark06 scores were 9,000 for 9800gt and 10,200 for 260gtx so im guessing your rough benchmarks were between
7,000-8,000 so a 260gtx will be quite a jump for you and defo noticeable in game.

only warning is: make sure it is not a dell 260gtx as they DO NOT WORK in clevo's.

there was also a couple of people that got a 280gtx to work but that was a lot of bios tinkering and much higher temperatures so as a beginner i would defo stick with a 260.

ram is very cheap now so i would go for 6 or 8gb but i will check the user manual tonight as not sure if there was a limit.
also if you go for the ram upgrade i would also upgrade to 64bit operating system if you havnt already done so.
ive still got 32bit in my m860tu.

sure was the best laptop i ever bought as its still going strong 7 years later.
it takes second place now though to my new P150EM beast.

good luck with the upgrade.

 

I'm using 6GB of RAM right now. 4gb is not the limit for sure.

 

I thought it was 4GB because that's what Crucial Memory Scanner test told me. I have 64 bit Windows 7, so not sure why it tells me that. Damn you Crucial!

 

user manual say 4gb but it also says xp and vista and also 9800mgs and the good old 8800m gtx for max spec.

what it says you can have and what has actually been tried and tested by members on here are two different things.

 

ODM advertised restrictions are really "more like guidelines." irates of the Caribbean:

Quite a few people get away with installing more than the reported limit, and not only on Clevos.

 

In that case could a fellow NBR pirate with M860etu link a compatible 4GB stick please or 8GB combo?

 

Thank you for the quick replies!

Yes my 9800GTS is still working, going strong since January '09. Didn't realize it was such a lemon until I started researching an upgrade, guess I'm lucky for once. Well maybe not lucky (had a nightmare of a time trying to get Sager or PCTorque to replace my HD / uphold their warranties. PCTorque wouldn't answer or return my calls nor emails so I had to swallow the repair bill. Was finally able to at least get Sager to cover the parts cost. Please don't do business with PCTorque).

I'm running Windows 7 64 bit.

Ok, so no Dell GTX 260 - anything else I should know?

Any suggestions on compatible RAM for this machine? And am I to assume the machine support 8GB of RAM, or should I just try 6GB?

Oh and I checked, the HD is 7200 RPM - so I might hold off on SSD until I see what the new GPU does for performance.

Thanks again guys.

 

Would an ASUS card work? Asus G51VX G60VX Video VGA Card 1GB GTX260M 60 NV3VG1000 D01 Tested Working | eBay

 

No, asus cards will never work with other brands.

 

So could someone please check with HWInfo a compatible 4GB RAM stick? Hopefully someone with over 4GB of RAM

 

Good to know. What about this one? What should I be looking for? NVIDIA GeForce GTX260M GTX 260M G92 760 B1 1GB DDR3 MXM VGA Module | eBay

 

i will check tonight but ive only got 4gb in mine.

that 260 sounds way too cheap.

 

Well both me and MrDJ have the codename for our GTX 260M card G92-890-A2, I'm not sure if it has to match 100%.

 

video card 260gtx G92-890

ram 2048 MB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM Micron Tech 16JSF25664HY-1G1D1

 

Thank you. Can only find G92-751 unfortunately.

 

i guess the last 3 numbers are the make like clevo or dell.

also keep an eye on the nbr marketplace where sometimes people break up their lappys to sell as parts NBR Marketplace

 

here you go: Kingston 9905428-051.A00LF

I think any low density stick will fit. (8 memory chips on each side)

I'd like also to ask, is it possible that we also get a prema bios?
I found a modded one in bios-mod.com but it is unstable.
I'm thinking of reverting to the stock one (and lose VT-x + speedstep )

 

I am able to install 8gb of Ram in my sager np8662 but mine is revision v.03 I read somewhere that it can run up to 16gb. I'm running vista 32 bit i recently learned about Patch PAE which eliminates the 4gb limit in 32 bit systems . I was able to purchase a quad core qx9300 at aliexpress for a little over 200usd. I also have the gtx 260m but i haven't really used it for gaming because i use my laptop for architectural modeling. I think adding an SSD would make the most significant improvement but the sager np8662 (clevo m860tu) uses only sata 2.

 

There was one who was able to run a gtx280m but there were heat issues, i think he also used a 160w powerbrick instead of the 120w included with the laptop.

 

if you wanna install an SSD but you're worried that the space might not be enough, just get a 2nd HDD caddy and swap your cdrom with it. that way you can have the best of both speed and capacity

 

the memory i installed are 2 pieces of 4gb g.skill ddr3 1333 cl9-9-9-24

check out this link for the 16gb capability of the 860tu, it's the only one i found though, but for me 8gb is more than enough considering the volume of the files i'm working on. See the 5th post.


http://forum.notebookreview.com/what-notebook-should-i-buy/353565-whats-difference-between-8660-5793-a.html