Serious upgrading of a T42 with Radeon 9700/9800

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beeblebrox · #31 Post by **beeblebrox** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:39 pm

LegendaryKA8 wrote:Hey... I'm a lurker, but taking a look at what you're trying to do here...

I own a first-gen Inspiron XPS; it replaced my T40 when my GPU issue cropped up and I needed another notebook fast(don't worry, the T40's been disassembled and waiting on the re-flow treatment). This machine has the Radeon Mobility 9800 and I've been using it for a couple months. I see two major obstacles to your upgrade path:

Firstly, the Mobility 9800 in the XPS is mounted on a separate card(Dell originally planned a series of 'upgrade' video cards as time went on, but they only delivered with the 9800). If you managed to get the T42's GPU off of the mainboard without damage you might not be as fortunate getting the 9800 back on, and I'd think the success rate would be pretty low.

Also, I'm not totally sure about the GPUs in the T4x notebooks, but aren't they using shared video memory? I can't really run mine right now so I'm not 100% sure. However, the 9800 is a 256MB onboard card and I'm not sure they'd be compatible.

And... the 9800 puts out some serious heat. The card itself has a heat sink about 2/3 the size of a T4x's long fan. If you managed to get that up and running in a T42 heat issues would be your biggest enemy, to be quite honest.

Don't get me wrong. The 9800's a pretty decent card. My XPS will run pretty much anything I'd care to play and run it decently(HL2 in particular is pretty smooth with max graphics settings). However, I don't think the upgrade would be possible in a T4x.

Yes, I think your Dell is using these MXM cards, which never became a market success. You would only need the chip itself.

Yes, the 9800 is too hot (as every ATI chip is!), it will melt the T40 keyboard within minutes. Actually, the heat will be the main problem of the project.

The radeons use the Flexfit common interface and have their own memory on their top. There are cheap versions (IGP) that use shared memory but that is lame.
Actually, even with on-board memory the Radeons can use shared memory, which is I think called turbo-memory. Actually it is some kind of swapping like in old 8086 times.

beeblebrox · #32 Post by **beeblebrox** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:50 pm

For the interested geeks:

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/desktop-gra ... w-290.html

an nice introduction to the mobile Radeon 9700 and 9800

Nicola · #33 Post by **Nicola** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 12:50 pm

Between the 9600 and the 9700 which consume little? Which it produces little heat?

aaa · #34 Post by **aaa** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 7:52 am

Some info:
http://www.ati.com/products/embedded/mo ... apshot.pdf
They took it down, so use archive.org

So the 7500 is a 696 BGA. Assuming all the other "FlexFit" models use the same "socket", then they probably don't exceed 800,

Just found that the 9000 is a 650 BGA:
http://www.ati.com/products/embedded/mo ... apshot.pdf

jimmy274 · #35 Post by **jimmy274** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:34 am

aaa wrote:Some info:
http://www.ati.com/products/embedded/mo ... apshot.pdf
They took it down, so use archive.org

So the 7500 is a 696 BGA. Assuming all the other "FlexFit" models use the same "socket", then they probably don't exceed 800,

Just found that the 9000 is a 650 BGA:
http://www.ati.com/products/embedded/mo ... apshot.pdf

Interesting, none of the links you provided work... But it's great to know that "pin" number is less than 800. Thanks.

Patrik28 · #36 Post by **Patrik28** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:49 pm

jimmy274 wrote: Interesting, none of the links you provided work... But it's great to know that "pin" number is less than 800. Thanks.

He propably meant this picture: http://www.icphotos.org/photo/M9CSP64.html

The first link is trickier, I found only some boards with Ati 7500, like: http://www.getmis.com/tbimages/471.lg.jpg

Edit. For Nicola, try to find spare mainboards with this circuit (and remove it): http://www.pctuning.cz/ilustrace2/joro/mr9700_pcb2.jpg
But are you sure, that your Thinkpad can handle the heat. For example, one 9700 Mobility original cooling element: http://i11.ebayimg.com/05/i/000/d4/07/4a59_1.JPG

Nicola · #37 Post by **Nicola** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:18 pm

f I wanted to buy a Mobility 9700 where I find it?

aaa · #38 Post by **aaa** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:23 pm

Archive.org links (copy/paste them):

web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.ati.com/products/embedded/mo ... apshot.pdf

web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.ati.com/products/embedded/mo ... apshot.pdf

BTW, on the naming. M7 is the 7500, M9 is the 9000, M10 is the 9600, and M11 is the 9700. "CSP64" obviously refers to 64MB of ram, and I think the CSP refers to the package type (integrated ram chips instead of separate).

aaa · #39 Post by **aaa** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:34 pm

Nicola wrote:f I wanted to buy a Mobility 9700 where I find it?

That's a good question. Originally the idea was to take one from a dead laptop. However it seems that they are one time use, basically difficult to remove without ruining them. So we're looking for a place to find them new, and I don't think we've found one.

Nicola · #40 Post by **Nicola** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:50 pm

New cards task cannot be found.
I have read here within of persons who they have acquaintances between the technicians informed.
It must ask they. Even to the attendance than computers that come sold with this card video, and it must pay a technical laboratory for the upgrade.

aaa · #41 Post by **aaa** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 2:00 pm

Here's a laptop with the 9600/9700: the eMachines M6805/M6810.

http://web.archive.org/web/200508291527 ... com/m6805/

It looks like the ram chips are integrated (as opposed to separate like they are on the Dells). Can't tell for sure because that silver heatsink is in the way.

Nicola · #42 Post by **Nicola** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:53 am

which of these two types mount the T42?

jimmy274 · #43 Post by **jimmy274** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 12:48 pm

Well, probably the one with the on-board memory...

Serious upgrading of a T42 with Radeon 9700/9800

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