Upgrading to x9000 in m570ru, some questions

Hey guys -- I just sent a PM to zfactor, but thought maybe I should go wider and not pester the poor guy

I've ordered an x9000 (but need to figure out where I can get the larger heatsink and replacement plastic plate yet.)

I've got the M570RU (NP5790 from a year and a half ago).

From a thread I started a couple weeks back, people tell me I should be okay to run the x9000 in the machine as-is though it might be warm, but not hot; getting the panel and heatsink will make it run super fine.

- I've got BIOS 1.00.08 in now, am I cool? I upgraded to an 8800m GTX (as it came with the 8600), which required the new BIOS..and really don't want to have to reflash. (A reflash potentially means re-validating windows and other wasted time.)

- Setting clock speed is done in BIOS with the x9000? So as soon as I stick chip in, it should show up as 2.8 ghz, and I can bump it up to 3.2 and do heat testing?

- I'll try to order a neat heatsink and back-plastic from sager; but if I use existing old heatsink and plastic (M570RU), folks said I'd still be fine; will it run hotter than old chip (guessing yes, since it needs a new heatsink), or is it okay at 2.8? 3.2? What temps should I see on the CPU? Right now when just browsing, the t7700 sits at 50 deg celsius, which seems a pretty good temp

- I'm told arctic silver goes to powder and less conductive after a year.. I wasn't aware of this; shoudl we all be rebuttering our CPUs every year?

What temp do you run at, or get worried at?

I'm sort of figuring I'll run some heat tests on my t7700 and then swap in the new chip, and compare heat and see how it goes... hopefully not much hotter

- Should I buy a powered cooling pad to put under laptop? I use a unpowered thermeltek pad now, since of course no noise or anything and its just a nice pad.

- applying arctic silver; I'm told to get the mx-2 variant instead of AS5, and to apply to both heatsink and chip using a credit card to get it even and thin, and then sammich them together. Not too much, just a thin layer on each. Good advice?

Sounds like its an easy swap though; apply the heatsink, stick the chip in, power up and good to go since I'm on 1.00.08 BIOS?

jeff

 

yes all you really need is the .08 bios. i had the x9000 you really dont need the new heatsink. but if you want it to run as cool as possible then go for it. i used the old one. and i recc mx-2 paste myself. yes overclocking the chip is done in the bios with the extreme series chips.

 

how how do you usually run now with the old heatsink/panel when idling or gaming?

I'd like to know so that I can tell if I'm running hot or not

(When I cranked up my t7700 to 2.9, it ran, but it was _ing hot_, so I could tell it was ready to cook; but how hot is too hot?

Again, thanks to zf and theriko and everyone .. these really are some of the very best forums on the net.

jeff

 

Do you run x9000 at 3.2 all the time, or 2.8 and switch to 3.2 for some games? How much temp diff bertween 2.8 and 3.2?

jeff

 

skeezix I think one thing you need to know is that CPUs change their clocking automatically. Unless you set your power scheme on max performance, they don't stay at 3.2Ghz all the time even though you did it in the BIOS.

 

Ah good call, forgot about that; so set to 3.2 all the time and let it downlock as needed.. the real Q is when firing up Crysis or somesuch, how much heat will the combined gpu + cpu spool up. Guess I'll find out

jeff

 

mine idled around 40-44deg or so at 3.0 and the highest i saw were spike of around 85deg but they were for seconds if that. usually would run low to mid 70's under loads it was fine for me imo. the t7700 is a hot chip very hot just like the t9400. the t9400 usually idles mid 40's at STOCK SPEEDS. compare to my t9800 i have idles at 30-32

 

What does your T9800 max under load @ 2.93Ghz?