New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

GeForce 7800GTX for 7700

post #1 of 20
11/29/05 at 10:50pm
Thread Starter 
Hi,

Does anyone know when Alienware or any other company may be selling the 7800GTX as an individual card upgrade for the 7700?

thks
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 20
11/30/05 at 12:44am
I was told that they will in a couple months. They are exclusively for new systems right now. The rep I talked with also told me to wait until at least Feb. to buy the upgrade.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 20
11/30/05 at 5:36am
If you nhave an older 7700 (ie non Ultra) the cost of the 'upgrade' will be around 60% of the cost of your original system - be warned

This is because of mobo swapout etc

Shame really - one of the reasons I bought this laptop was because it was strongly marketed as upgradeable. It seems the only practically 'upgradeable' thing about it is the RAM/HDD.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 20
11/30/05 at 6:22am
check it, you can upgrade if you go through Sager:

http://www.notebookforums.com/showth...39#post1285639
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 20
11/30/05 at 8:12am
I do believe if you do that thru Sager, it will void your AW warranty...I would call AW to be sure before doing this if you cannot wait for AW to offer the same option
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 20
12/1/05 at 3:14am
My Mobo is 5.3, and I have the 6800Go (no ultra) but my AW came with a 220w power supply.

I wonder if AW's upgrade is going to be like the Sager one-mobo,3d card, and P/S and if the P/S can be skipped if I already have one.

Anyone know if the 6.x Mobo is mandatory and if so, why?
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 20
12/1/05 at 4:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Olli
If you nhave an older 7700 (ie non Ultra) the cost of the 'upgrade' will be around 60% of the cost of your original system - be warned

This is because of mobo swapout etc

Shame really - one of the reasons I bought this laptop was because it was strongly marketed as upgradeable. It seems the only practically 'upgradeable' thing about it is the RAM/HDD.
The 7700 was never marketed as upgradeable...
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 20
12/2/05 at 1:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by shadedred
The 7700 was never marketed as upgradeable...
Yeah, it definitely was. Don't know what they said or didn't say on their website, but all the customer sales people were hyping it like it was the next best thing since sliced bread.

I don't know the technical reason why the 6.x mobo is necessary, but a 5.x mobo causes severe artifacting and general video problems with the 7700 GTX.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 20
12/2/05 at 3:59pm
I know I bought my 7700 under the impression that I would be able to upgrade it in the future.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 20
12/2/05 at 9:59pm
Thread Starter 
thanks everyone for your response, from my understanding the 5.x motherboards do not supply enough power to the adapter. The motherboards were modified to supply this correct power hence 6.x series motherboards. That is my general understanding. Thanks again for all your thoughts and help.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 20
12/3/05 at 8:06am
This may not be true.

I'd heard that 5.3 and up on the mobo rev. will handle the 6800 ultra and 7800 line as long as you've got the 220W pwer brick.

I don't know for sure though, thus the may.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 20
12/3/05 at 8:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blowfish64
Yeah, it definitely was. Don't know what they said or didn't say on their website, but all the customer sales people were hyping it like it was the next best thing since sliced bread.

I don't know the technical reason why the 6.x mobo is necessary, but a 5.x mobo causes severe artifacting and general video problems with the 7700 GTX.
From what I was told, Alienware never advertised the 7700 as having upgradable GPU's. They may have said it was upgradable for proc., memory, or drives, but they were careful after the AGP to PCIe situation with the 5500 not to advertise the 7700 as GPU upgradeable.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 20
12/3/05 at 8:30am
Yeah I agree with Hammer, after their marketing disaster with the 5500, I highly doubt it was marketed as that... but having experienced AW sales/customer support/tech first hand as well, It wouldn't surprise me that you guys were led to believe otherwise.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 20
12/3/05 at 1:23pm
The Area 51m 7700 as well as other systems in their class have upgradeable GPU's. However, I have come to question that upgradeability:

The problem with the NV 7800go and 6800go Ultra is that they require more power than the standard 6800go and need the 5.3 mobo to supply more power to the card.

Older mobos can't provide enough power to those cards so if you want to upgrade to these cards you have no other choice to switching to a 5.3 mobo and 220w AC adapter.

I thought they (*cough*NVIDIA*cough*) where supposed to make these cards work for these systems without the need to having to upgrade the mobo or the AC adapter.

Yet again, it may not be NVIDIA's fault as they were constantly pressured into releasing the NV6800go Ultra and NV 7800go as soon as possible therefore not having much time to work on them to make them better or less power hungry.
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 20
12/4/05 at 2:42am
how can i find out what kind of mobo i have via 5.3 or 6
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 20
12/4/05 at 4:31am
The revision of the mobo is in the ram area. Just unscrew that enclosure and look at the sticker. I'm not sure if it's the same on the later mobo's though.
LL
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 20
12/4/05 at 3:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hammerhead
From what I was told, Alienware never advertised the 7700 as having upgradable GPU's. They may have said it was upgradable for proc., memory, or drives, but they were careful after the AGP to PCIe situation with the 5500 not to advertise the 7700 as GPU upgradeable.
Perhaps they never put it in writing, I don't know. But speaking to no less than four customer service reps, they all touted how the graphics card was upgradeable. I suppose one could argue it wasn't the official company line, but when what are supposed to be the spokesmen of the company don't know what they're supposed to say, that's a problem in my book. As for the motherboard, I'd say Nvidia has it's share of the blame for this, but then again, the Dell XPS doesn't require a new mobo to go from the 6800 Ultra to the 7800 GTX the way the Clevo D900T does, so it may be a case of Clevo not anticipating future progress adequately.
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 20
12/4/05 at 6:02pm
the 7700 was advertised as upgradeable for about 1 week in december, only when they were taking preorders on it.... but after that it never was advertised at all. probably because of the 5500....
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 20
12/4/05 at 6:59pm
i preordered mine while it said graphics were upgradable
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 20
12/5/05 at 1:28am
When I bought my 7700 in April the Alienware website was promoting it as being upgradeable and futureproof. I don’t remember if they were specifically saying the GPU was upgradeable but they were promoting the GPU as user replaceable. Combine that with the machine being futureproof and to me that means upgradeable.
But don’t get me wrong, this machine is everything I expected and I believe it will serve me well for the next couple of years. Then I will see what my upgrade options are or whether it will be better to replace it.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home