@Corru I know it's a pretty delayed reply, but I didn't think to check this link again until now. Do you have an alternate email I could speak to you through? I'd love to make this happen.
It's interesting to see that the kit includes IC Diamond thermal compound. The diamond content actually makes this like a fine abrasive. Some people are hesitant to use it for direct die applications. I can confirm that it is slowly polishing away the markings on the IHS of my i7-2600k.
then stop reapplying it? Usually a thermal paste application lasts for around 2 years, and by then that gpu is due for replacement. even if you replace it after two years, that gpu is now 4 years old. horribly outdated by that point, and the whole laptop will probably be replaced.
TWO YEARS? I've never had to reapply thermal compound after only two years. What compound goes to pot after two years? I'd like to know so I can avoid it.
Its not that the paste itself is going bad, but the rapid heating of the chip, combined with high temperatures (mobile gpus easily get into the 80c range), and the fact that the laptop is being moved around, set on tables, taken in cars, ece. and the paste can dry out and become flaky, rather than goopy. something like arctic silver 5 or IC diamond are more resistant to this, but cheaper pastes can dry out quickly. (IE what OEMs use in the factory). best practice is to repaste once you get it, and you'll be good.
I've heard this from quite a few people when it comes to laptops. Other than replacing the stock paste once I've never had an issue with paste ageing. Assuming you install it right, without bubbles caused by removing the heatsink or using too much or too little paste. But, that said I have been using IC Diamond paste recently and that stuff is so thick I don't think it's going anywhere.
yay, a canadian company! I didn't even know about their existence until now - but holy those GPU's are expensive.
Anandtech should do a review of their laptops - 15.6", a i7-4K processor with BIOS OC, with a GTX980M (SLI capable in their bigger laptops) and 2133GHz CL10 RAM - wow, you don't see those specs on a laptop very often. Obviously, when tricked out it's not cheap, but I think that's the first consumer overclockable laptop i've ever seen.
I'm actually working on a Eurocom (Clevo P750ZM) review right now. As for pricing on the GPU upgrades... I think most people would be better off selling the original notebook and buying a new one rather than spending $1000 on a GTX 980M. Then again, I'm not sure what the used market is like for high-end gaming notebooks; I'd be wary of buying something like this used (especially online), simply because you don't know what its been through prior to your purchase.
True that. I'd buy it used if it was cheap and then spend the $1000 to upgrade the GPU haha (probably not, I mean, that's a GTX980 for a desktop). But in all honesty, I could see a use case for those who have a 3K series CPU and a 600 series GPU. Not much to gain when upgrading from Ivy to Haswell, but the GPU upgrade would give substantial improvements.
Having a socketed laptop is huge tho, big props to them - having a complete user upgradable laptop may just be worth the price premium. Looking forward to that review! Keep up the good work!
Used mobile GPUs have high resale value on ebay. For example a clevo 7970m card goes for ~$400. 680m is similar, with 780m and 880 cards going for over $500.
Also Eurocom charges a lot. rj-tech has the 970m for $450 and 980m for $720, but they are US only.
So net cost of upgrading a 7970m or 680m from a P150EM to a 50% faster 970m is ~$100 considering shipping and ebay fees, and around $350 for an 80% faster 980m. Considering that an ivy bridge is a superior CPU to haswell for gaming laptops, upgrading is a very practical option. All you really get for say a P750ZM is the superior chassis.
On a side note, I am very concerned with temps on the P750ZM. It has an IHS, which on haswell is known for die contact issues, and at least on pre-production models the GPU and CPU heatsinks were connected, which could make getting even die contact very difficult.
Funny you should mention RJ. I emailed them earlier asking about a 980M for my Sager (P370EM). Their reply stated that my model doesn't support the 980M although its clearly on Eurocoms list.
Support is sketchy. You need to run a 347 series driver or else you will suffer a major performance hit. This is problematic because nvidia disabled overclocking on the 980m starting with the 347 drivers. No matter what driver you use, you will have problems with standby and maybe hibernate.
The bottom line though is the 980m will play games at high fps with the right driver, so it does work, it just has some quirks.
Just say you have an SM series and buy from them anyway. Cheapest option by far.
It depends... I mean, if I can sell my 680M for like $500 or so, then it's only $500 ... and I already have a pretty high end laptop (Sure, it's IVB, but it's a 3920XM and has 32GB of ram and a lot of storage, much of it solid-state)
The fact that you can upgrade your laptop with (relative) ease is cool, I guess, but unless you're gaming that has little relevance. The thing that most people upgrade for these days are things like screen resolution(going from 1080p to 1800p or 4K etc) or from a very slow CPU to a fast CPU, from low RAM to higher RAM as well as size/weight. Usually you do it all at once.
Plus their laptops are fugly and clumsy as well. Anything over 1.3 kilos is too heavy and ideally it should be below 1. The Asus T300 Chi is an ideal example to follow for the future of laptops. Slim, sleek, high-DPI display etc. But for the niche market of those who want a gaming laptop, yeah, I see the appeal. But their workstations/ultrabooks? lol
I still think there is a relevant market for what they're doing here and I appreciate anandtech shedding light on these niche companies pushing the status quo (it's funny actually, I find anandtech has had a larger influence on my consumer habits as the years have past). One significant use case I can see is prosumers who don't have corporate purchase programs for workstations,
My friend is looking for a workstation with a Quadro, who doesn't have a corporate purchase agreement. I'd definitely recommend their laptops here as she could upgrade a quadrophonic for $2000-4000 instead of buying a newer laptop just for a newer version of the same Quadro "class; CPU being sufficient.
The 980M and 970M have been particularly compatible so no vbios flash is needed and all P150 and P170 systems share the same heatsink (EM, SM and SM-A) so these "kits" are all the same stuff between those generation of systems, the same goes for the P3xx system generations.
As such you can buy cheaper kits for less from the likes of RJtech and powernotebooks.
Alienwares have a strange bug where the 970m and 980m only work in PEG (direct dGPU display output with iGPU disabled) with UEFI boot selected. UEFI boot is not available on the m18x R1, which means that you cannot do PEG, so you cannot do SLI. One card will work in optimus mode though.
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36 Comments
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extide - Tuesday, February 10, 2015 - link
Sweet, now I can upgrade my P150EM to a GTX980. Anyone wanna buy my GTX680 ? Heh.sarm1084 - Sunday, November 1, 2015 - link
Extide, are you still trying to sell your old 680? Please let me know. Thanks.kkzhe - Sunday, November 15, 2015 - link
@sarm1084 I'm willing to sell my GTX 680M. I'm planning to upgrade to a GTX 980M, so let me know if you're still interested.Corru - Thursday, November 19, 2015 - link
Hey there, I wanna buy GTX 680M. If u r still selling it then reply here.kkzhe - Monday, January 11, 2016 - link
@Corru Hey, I'm actually gonna buy a 980m so I'd gladly sell you my 680m.kkzhe - Monday, January 11, 2016 - link
@Corru I know it's a pretty delayed reply, but I didn't think to check this link again until now. Do you have an alternate email I could speak to you through? I'd love to make this happen.willber - Tuesday, January 12, 2016 - link
I will buy it, what is your best price?kkzhe - Tuesday, January 12, 2016 - link
I don't really have a set price right now. Honestly just looking for the best offer. It's the 4GB version of the GTX 680MLoqqaL - Wednesday, April 6, 2016 - link
Hi i am selling gtx760m anyone interesting with this card? I will upgrade to gtx980m.egiraldo1 - Monday, April 11, 2016 - link
if you are willing to sell for 100 ill buy itfade2blac - Tuesday, February 10, 2015 - link
It's interesting to see that the kit includes IC Diamond thermal compound. The diamond content actually makes this like a fine abrasive. Some people are hesitant to use it for direct die applications. I can confirm that it is slowly polishing away the markings on the IHS of my i7-2600k.TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, February 10, 2015 - link
then stop reapplying it? Usually a thermal paste application lasts for around 2 years, and by then that gpu is due for replacement. even if you replace it after two years, that gpu is now 4 years old. horribly outdated by that point, and the whole laptop will probably be replaced.Alexvrb - Tuesday, February 10, 2015 - link
TWO YEARS? I've never had to reapply thermal compound after only two years. What compound goes to pot after two years? I'd like to know so I can avoid it.TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, February 10, 2015 - link
Its not that the paste itself is going bad, but the rapid heating of the chip, combined with high temperatures (mobile gpus easily get into the 80c range), and the fact that the laptop is being moved around, set on tables, taken in cars, ece. and the paste can dry out and become flaky, rather than goopy. something like arctic silver 5 or IC diamond are more resistant to this, but cheaper pastes can dry out quickly. (IE what OEMs use in the factory). best practice is to repaste once you get it, and you'll be good.Murloc - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
I've never replaced the thermal paste on my gpu, temps are still about the same as 6 years ago.nathanddrews - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
Yeah, that's BS. I've never had thermal paste issues, even a decade later.Set it and forget it.
http://youtu.be/tLq27iOW0R0?t=26s
superflex - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
My overclocked Opteron 170 and X800GTO^2 flash modded to a X850 PE back in 2004 are still using the same paste.Quit spreading FUD
Flunk - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
I've heard this from quite a few people when it comes to laptops. Other than replacing the stock paste once I've never had an issue with paste ageing. Assuming you install it right, without bubbles caused by removing the heatsink or using too much or too little paste. But, that said I have been using IC Diamond paste recently and that stuff is so thick I don't think it's going anywhere.Sushisamurai - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
the only thermal paste issue I've ever had was my xbox360 LE drying up, but that was 10 years of moderate-heavy use.Sushisamurai - Tuesday, February 10, 2015 - link
yay, a canadian company! I didn't even know about their existence until now - but holy those GPU's are expensive.Anandtech should do a review of their laptops - 15.6", a i7-4K processor with BIOS OC, with a GTX980M (SLI capable in their bigger laptops) and 2133GHz CL10 RAM - wow, you don't see those specs on a laptop very often. Obviously, when tricked out it's not cheap, but I think that's the first consumer overclockable laptop i've ever seen.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, February 10, 2015 - link
I'm actually working on a Eurocom (Clevo P750ZM) review right now. As for pricing on the GPU upgrades... I think most people would be better off selling the original notebook and buying a new one rather than spending $1000 on a GTX 980M. Then again, I'm not sure what the used market is like for high-end gaming notebooks; I'd be wary of buying something like this used (especially online), simply because you don't know what its been through prior to your purchase.Sushisamurai - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
True that. I'd buy it used if it was cheap and then spend the $1000 to upgrade the GPU haha (probably not, I mean, that's a GTX980 for a desktop). But in all honesty, I could see a use case for those who have a 3K series CPU and a 600 series GPU. Not much to gain when upgrading from Ivy to Haswell, but the GPU upgrade would give substantial improvements.Having a socketed laptop is huge tho, big props to them - having a complete user upgradable laptop may just be worth the price premium. Looking forward to that review! Keep up the good work!
Khenglish - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
Used mobile GPUs have high resale value on ebay. For example a clevo 7970m card goes for ~$400. 680m is similar, with 780m and 880 cards going for over $500.Also Eurocom charges a lot. rj-tech has the 970m for $450 and 980m for $720, but they are US only.
So net cost of upgrading a 7970m or 680m from a P150EM to a 50% faster 970m is ~$100 considering shipping and ebay fees, and around $350 for an 80% faster 980m. Considering that an ivy bridge is a superior CPU to haswell for gaming laptops, upgrading is a very practical option. All you really get for say a P750ZM is the superior chassis.
On a side note, I am very concerned with temps on the P750ZM. It has an IHS, which on haswell is known for die contact issues, and at least on pre-production models the GPU and CPU heatsinks were connected, which could make getting even die contact very difficult.
SniperWulf - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
Funny you should mention RJ. I emailed them earlier asking about a 980M for my Sager (P370EM). Their reply stated that my model doesn't support the 980M although its clearly on Eurocoms list.Khenglish - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
Support is sketchy. You need to run a 347 series driver or else you will suffer a major performance hit. This is problematic because nvidia disabled overclocking on the 980m starting with the 347 drivers. No matter what driver you use, you will have problems with standby and maybe hibernate.The bottom line though is the 980m will play games at high fps with the right driver, so it does work, it just has some quirks.
Just say you have an SM series and buy from them anyway. Cheapest option by far.
extide - Thursday, February 12, 2015 - link
Sweet, looks like I should buy from them instead.extide - Thursday, February 12, 2015 - link
It depends... I mean, if I can sell my 680M for like $500 or so, then it's only $500 ... and I already have a pretty high end laptop (Sure, it's IVB, but it's a 3920XM and has 32GB of ram and a lot of storage, much of it solid-state)Flunk - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
They sell Clevo whitebooks so you can also look up Clevo or Sager (who also sell Clevos) reviews.Mondozai - Tuesday, February 10, 2015 - link
The fact that you can upgrade your laptop with (relative) ease is cool, I guess, but unless you're gaming that has little relevance. The thing that most people upgrade for these days are things like screen resolution(going from 1080p to 1800p or 4K etc) or from a very slow CPU to a fast CPU, from low RAM to higher RAM as well as size/weight. Usually you do it all at once.Plus their laptops are fugly and clumsy as well. Anything over 1.3 kilos is too heavy and ideally it should be below 1. The Asus T300 Chi is an ideal example to follow for the future of laptops. Slim, sleek, high-DPI display etc. But for the niche market of those who want a gaming laptop, yeah, I see the appeal. But their workstations/ultrabooks? lol
Sushisamurai - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
I still think there is a relevant market for what they're doing here and I appreciate anandtech shedding light on these niche companies pushing the status quo (it's funny actually, I find anandtech has had a larger influence on my consumer habits as the years have past). One significant use case I can see is prosumers who don't have corporate purchase programs for workstations,My friend is looking for a workstation with a Quadro, who doesn't have a corporate purchase agreement. I'd definitely recommend their laptops here as she could upgrade a quadrophonic for $2000-4000 instead of buying a newer laptop just for a newer version of the same Quadro "class; CPU being sufficient.
Meaker10 - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
The 980M and 970M have been particularly compatible so no vbios flash is needed and all P150 and P170 systems share the same heatsink (EM, SM and SM-A) so these "kits" are all the same stuff between those generation of systems, the same goes for the P3xx system generations.As such you can buy cheaper kits for less from the likes of RJtech and powernotebooks.
Meaker10 - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
Damn no edit button:$450 (Minus what you can get for the old card) to go from an 680M/870M to 970M is a pretty good deal and cheaper than a new machine by a long way.
Ludnorc - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
Can I upgrade my Alienware M18x R1 to a GTX980m? Anybody know?Khenglish - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
Alienwares have a strange bug where the 970m and 980m only work in PEG (direct dGPU display output with iGPU disabled) with UEFI boot selected. UEFI boot is not available on the m18x R1, which means that you cannot do PEG, so you cannot do SLI. One card will work in optimus mode though.c0V3Ro - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
How can I find if my note is MXM? Has a 730M 2GB.Meaker10 - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
It wont it it's a 730M, it's too low end, only select higher end systems use it.