Where to get a hold of Nvidia GTX260M for M860TU/M865TU in Europe?

Hi guys,

Apparently I've gotten myself into an almost impossible quest.
I'm trying to see if I can get hold of a Nvidia GTX260M 1GB card for the Clevo M860TU/M865TU, and get it shipped to Denmark, without it getting far too expensive.
So far I've only tried a few retailers in Europe, amongst those, Kobalt Computers in the UK, and today I've written directly to Clevo in Taiwan to hear if they know of any retailers that might have them in stock in Europe.

I've seen one in the US for around $410 (without shipping, toll and VAT), but if possible I would rather try to get a hold of it in Europe as it might end up costing almost double price because of shipping, toll and VAT when entering Denmark.

Any suggestions as to where I might get a breakthrough in getting a hold of this card at a reasonable price?

 

Ebay maybe?

 

good luck as they are like gold dust and very hard to get hold of. most suppliers like kobalt only have enough for their chassis.
as moral said,maybe ebay or you might be lucky if a member is upgrading and selling his 260.

you could try nbr marketplace HERE

 

Yeah I've been looking around and it seems very hard to find.
I've half way dropped getting this upgrade now as it's too big of a job to find one. I would have thought it was easier to find, but I guess not.

Topic closed...

 

This is what worries me. I was naively under the impression that as soon as the new mobile nvidia gpus or the amd 5870 are supported for the w860cu/np8690, they would easily be purchased by themselves.

 

I have seen one on Ebay for $475.00 with worldwide shipping. Just search Ebay for Mxm 2.1. There is a GTX 280M available too.

 

Part of the problem is that the M860TU/M865TU uses the MXM 2.1 format, while the newer models (W860CU/NP8690) use the MXM 3.0B format. Thus, even if someone who owns a newer model upgrades, you wouldn't be able to use their old card; the connector for their card is physically different.

 

Well I got in touch with an old friend after I posted on here, and I will be able to get the cards directly from Clevo through him.
You might be able to get it through some resellers (if they are up to ordering it home for you), but I wasn't able to in my search. The resellers are not very interested in ordering single cards home.
I found one reseller that had the GTX 260M in stock in the US, but with shipping and duties it would end up in a price tag of approx $700 USD (insane!), even though the price from them where only $475 USD with shipping.

I've got some approx prices (w/o shipping) on them for the M860TU/M865TU:

Nvidia GTS 260M -- ~$200 USD
Nvidia GTX 260M -- ~$415 USD
Nvidia GTX 280M -- ~$875 USD

So now that I know I can get it through some of my connections I might order either a GTS 260M or GTX 260M some time next month. The GTX 280M is just out of my league, price wise.

Out of the GTS 260M and GTX 260M which would go best along with the Clevo M865TU setup in my signature? and which would give the best price/performance ratio?

 

Find out whether the GTS 260M is GDDR5. If it is, that's your best price/performance purchase. If it's just GDDR3, know that the GTX 260M is nearly twice as fast, so you'll need to decide whether 2x performance is worth 2x price.

And sheesh at $875 for the 280M. In the U.S., they're $520 + shipping.

 

Ebay has a new (MXM 2.1 Type III) GTX 280M for $600.

 

I've been looking into it and it seems like the GTS 260M is GDDR5 as Nvidia decided to use a 128bit memory bus, they evened out this disadvantage by adding GDDR5 support to boost the memory speeds.
I've been looking at a top 239 list of notebook graphics cards and this is the numbers the different cards are on the list speed wise:

No 8: GTX 280M
No 19: GTX 260M
No 26: GTS 260M
No 77: 9600M GT (my current card)

Yeah I have seen that the cards can be found on the US Ebay, but unfortunately there's a high risk (90-99 %) that it will get import duties on top of the price, along with VAT and/or extra charge on top of that, so at a price of $520 USD we are maybe talking about a price of $875-920 USD.

As with the card Kevin_Jack2.0 talks about it would be the same for this. With all import duties and stuff we are getting near the $900 USD mark if I buy it from the US.

No matter what the GTX 280M is out of my league price wise.
The most I can afford to use is around $450 with shipping and that would be what I can get the GTX 260M for through the friend I know as he has a business within the EU, which means there are no import duties if I buy it from him.

 

You could always ask the ebay seller to declare a lower value so as the tax won't be as high.

 

I have never been charged import VAT when ordering from Ebay but every time I ordered from an official reseller, I was charged.

Beware that declaring a lower value has many potential problems in relation to stipulation and insurance claims.

 

Well now that I've found out I can get it through my friend with full invoice and warranty, I'm going to order from him when I get the money for it

 

Which did you go with, the GTS 260M?

 

Kevin, Well it actually all depends on if I get a job soon, so I have the money to spend. I think I might go for the GTX 260 when the time comes, but it all depends on how much I actaully have to spend at the time.Right now it's a tie between the GTS 260M and GTX 260M, but the money situation will tell which one it's actually going to be.
One thing I don't hope thoough is that I will start experiencing the crackling sound in the speakers if I make the upgrade. So far I haven't had this issue, but it seems to be common on systems with the high end graphics cards.

 

Double check the interface on that GTS 260M card... I get this nasty suspicious feeling that GTS 260M comes only in MXM 3.0B, and I think the M865TU only accepts MXM 2.1...

 

Yeah I found that out after looking at it after posting here today. So basically my choice is a GTX 260M or a GTX 260M Not much of a choice, but then at least I know what to aim for price wise

 

I think they did come out with a GTX-280M in MXM 2.1, but.... that'd be even more expensive.

 

Yeah, $875 to be exact. I have already asked for a price on that

 

What I see on nvidia site is that both GTS & GTX are MXM 3.0 Type-B.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gts_260m_us.html
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gtx_260m_us.html

Am I missing something?

 

Well Clevo apparently have at least made the GTX 260 and GTX 280 available for the M860TU. At least according to what they can sell for the retailers for the MXM 2.1 III platform.

 

An address in europe where they really understand these issues and can sell and inform you on laptop video cards is: is http://www.mxm-upgrade.com