Where can I buy a laptop video card upgrade?

[Jaxidian]

I recently got in on the $550 Acer Aspire 5601 (5600 is closest I can find on Acer's site - looks like my laptop to me) deal (dual-core, 15.4" screen, etc.) but the laptop is missing one crucial thing - a video card to game on! It has the Intel 950 something or other video card which is only good enough for most Vista things but crap for actual gaming.

Soooo, I'm trying to figure out where I can:
#1. Find out what video cards are compatible with my laptop
#2. Find somewhere that I can buy such a video card

The ONLY place that I've been able to find laptop video cards for sale is eBay, so help would be appreciated here if anybody had any ideas!

Thanks in advance!

-Jax

 

[ajikan]

You can try notebookforums.com..
it's going to be pretty hard to find >__<

 

[Jaxidian]

I'll give that a try - thanks!

 

[fbrdphreak]

Welcome to the world of notebooks: 99% of the time you can't upgrade the graphics. If you only have integrated graphics, you cannot upgrade to discrete. Only if you have discrete graphics do you have a shot at being able to upgrade, and even then most of the time you can't.

 

[Hikari]

You can't upgrade your video...

 

[Frode222]

Yeah, I would have to say that you can't upgrade your video card... I always thought it would be cool if they made an external video card for laptops, using the PCI-E x16 PCMIA slot thingy I have... only problem would be looping it back into the display... using a different display would be cool though

 

[Jaxidian]

My understanding was that if you could find a compatible card for the PCI-E slot in a laptop, the mobo is already designed to loop that device's outputs to the built-in LCD and VGA port on the laptop. I know if you go to order most other laptops that have the 945 chipset, you have the option to use the built-in video OR to upgrade to another video card. Go look at Dell, HP, and those sorts of companies. I'm sure they don't have to go and re-solder things on the motherboard if they are upgrading the video - they probably just plug the new video card in and maybe install some software/drivers. Other supporting things that I've seen is that even Intel's 945 drivers say to not install them if you have a third-party video card installed. So there must be some way to upgrade it still. Otherwise that slot wouldn't be there (mobo manufacturers don't just put slots on their mobo's for the fun of it - it costs them lots of money to do these sorts of things).

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: Jaxidian
My understanding was that if you could find a compatible card for the PCI-E slot in a laptop, the mobo is already designed to loop that device's outputs to the built-in LCD and VGA port on the laptop. I know if you go to order most other laptops that have the 945 chipset, you have the option to use the built-in video OR to upgrade to another video card. Go look at Dell, HP, and those sorts of companies. I'm sure they don't have to go and re-solder things on the motherboard if they are upgrading the video - they probably just plug the new video card in and maybe install some software/drivers. Other supporting things that I've seen is that even Intel's 945 drivers say to not install them if you have a third-party video card installed. So there must be some way to upgrade it still. Otherwise that slot wouldn't be there (mobo manufacturers don't just put slots on their mobo's for the fun of it - it costs them lots of money to do these sorts of things).

If you have an intergrated graphics chipset, i.e. 945GM, you do not have an external graphics card slot. In addition, most companies use either a proprietary graphics slot or just straight solder it to the board. Some use a standard slot like MXM, but those are mainly on high end DTR's. Have you even ever looked at a laptop motherboard?

 

[Raduque]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak

Originally posted by: Jaxidian
My understanding was that if you could find a compatible card for the PCI-E slot in a laptop, the mobo is already designed to loop that device's outputs to the built-in LCD and VGA port on the laptop. I know if you go to order most other laptops that have the 945 chipset, you have the option to use the built-in video OR to upgrade to another video card. Go look at Dell, HP, and those sorts of companies. I'm sure they don't have to go and re-solder things on the motherboard if they are upgrading the video - they probably just plug the new video card in and maybe install some software/drivers. Other supporting things that I've seen is that even Intel's 945 drivers say to not install them if you have a third-party video card installed. So there must be some way to upgrade it still. Otherwise that slot wouldn't be there (mobo manufacturers don't just put slots on their mobo's for the fun of it - it costs them lots of money to do these sorts of things).

If you have an intergrated graphics chipset, i.e. 945GM, you do not have an external graphics card slot. In addition, most companies use either a proprietary graphics slot or just straight solder it to the board. Some use a standard slot like MXM, but those are mainly on high end DTR's. Have you even ever looked at a laptop motherboard?

I know for a fact that Dell uses different motherboards depending on integrated or discreet graphics.... the integrated mobos simply don't have the PCIE slot, they instead have the chip soldered directly on.

 

[Jaxidian]

From my understanding, this laptop has an MXM slot. I dunno if it's MXM I, II, or III.

Yes, I have looked at a laptop motherboard. I was a laptop repair tech for 4 years and I'm sure I've seen plenty more motherboards than you have. Older laptops I agree 100% with you. But laptops are now coming out with standard upgrade slots for video cards and this one has one (I've opened it up and saw it - kinda looks like a memory slot but with a different pin structure and different clips to hold the card in).

I'll take a pic of it and post it if it will get ppl to stop telling me it's not there.

-Jax

 

[MercenaryForHire]

I found some foreign language sites claiming that the 5601AWLMI (your model) has an MXM-III slot, and some models come equipped with a 7600Go.

Depending on how much of asses Acer decided to be, you may have to pick just that card, as you could be BIOS-locked to it.

- M4H

 

[Jaxidian]

http://www.tradeplanet.ru/cat/p1103

Without knowing what the page says, that page might indicate that an ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 can be placed in it.

 

[davidjaii]

i would like to know also, cause i ordered the same acer from that compusa deal. I just upgraded the an extra 1gig ram.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Before you do anything crack the damn thing open and look to see if there is a slot. Then take a picture to prove it

 

[amritsingh87]

if you can then please mention a laptop with core 2 duo processor in which i can install/upgrade the graphics later . (the cheapest laptops please)

 

[fbrdphreak]

Cheap laptop + upgradeable graphics just doesn't exist man. Upgradeable graphics are few and far between as it is.

Best bet you have is like a 17" Dell, but I can't vouch that the new ones are easily swappable. The older Inspiron 9300's were easily swapped, can't speak for the E1705.

 

[Sosey]

I took the back cover off and took a few pics. It does not look like an MXM slot.

Here is a close up of the connector:
Internal Slot

Here is the whole back cover off:
Wide view

 

[Raduque]

Are you sure that's where the vidcard goes? It looks more like a mini-PCI slot (where a wireless or bluetooth card would go). I think your GPU is over under the heatpipe to the far left.

NM, I see your wireless card/mini-PCI up near the top of the pic.

 

[Ichigo]

Your $550 laptop can't game?! Blasphemous.

 

[Sosey]

I still have hope. Found this on the tigerdirect description for the 5601.

TigerDirect

It clearly states:

"Upgradeability
Expand your view across two monitors for more workspace. Option requires Advanced Digital Display 2 (ADD) card for additional display connectors. PCI Express* x16 port available¹ to upgrade to higher performance graphics card if required for extreme gaming."

 

[MXM]

Hey guys,

I run a site about MXM. I just wanted to pop in and affirm that Acer has not used MXM up to date to the best of my knowledge. Your pictures confirm this. Actually, I would like to ask permission to use one of those pictures on my site.

Furthermore, you can find a table with all known MXM notebooks out there on the site which may give you a guideline in finding a (relatively) cheap MXM notebook.

MXM

 

[Sosey]

MXM: feel free to use the pics. Have you seen any laptops that use a PCI x16 slot to upgrade the graphics?

 

[MXM]

Thanks

A "PCI x16" slot means nothing. It's like saying 'it's 12V'. It says something, but you can connect 12V in 50 000 ways. It's not conclusive. There are literally dozens of socket types that all result in a 'PCI x16' slot. MXM is one of those slots.

Acer apparenty uses it's own proprietary design, and I haven't heard of a single Acer being upgraded, contrary to Dells, Clevos, Fujitsus,...

 

[Cromey]

Is there an upgrade card for a mobile Radeon x600? I'm looking at buying an HP nx9600 with this video card in it. I'd assume it's a discreet card, but I'm not sure.

 

[imported_kenyee]

Are there any 14" notebooks w/ an MXM slot? From the compatibility list on the MXM site, it looks like the smallest is a 15" BenQ...