Hello,

I am not sure if this is the correct place to post this, but I tried the normal Sager discussion section and got invalid forum msg..

So here it goes!

I have a Sager 9860 which is 2 years old, and despite motherboard issues I had twice which cost me a king's treasure to fix, I am happy with my machine. I am enjoying its performance in most games but in Oblivion I am not happy.

I have the Pentium 4 3.0, 2 gig ram, nvidia 6800 pci express 256 meg.

Now when I bought this laptop, during my research I found that it would be possible to upgrade it one day when I wanted. And that time is now.

I would like to ask the experts here what my upgrade possibilities are on this machine. Can I get a 64bit CPU on this? Can I upgrade my video card to something more powerful? Do not worry about where I can get the items, I have my personal merchant contacts and experience with laptop to install them my own..

Please advise me on what would be best to upgrade to get better performance on a game like oblivion. My cpu? my gfx card? both? what card/cpu do you recommend? i would be grateful if you could give 1-2 options with price differences.

Thank you in advance,
Sertac

I'd agree about the graphics card altho I don't think it's possible on that laptop w/o a mobo replacement by Sager which in essence would make it a 9890 as the newer GPU's require more power than your mobo/power brick is supplying (same problem with my 9880...) Even tho supposedly it's upgradeable, I guess Nvidia made voltage changes making upgrades not possible. MAYBE, you could upgrade it to the one that my 9880 has, which is the geforce go 6800 ultra... A call/email to Sager is your best bet on that.
I believe that's what I recall reading here months ago about trying to upgrade the graphics on pre 9890 machines.

thank you for the response. it is dissapointing that we dont have much upgrade options.. what about the cpu? is it possible to buy and install a dual core 2 cpu on these for example? how good would that do?

The GPU GFX upgrade would garter you the best results in improvement within the Oblivion game.

In order for you to upgrade the CPU on the notebook it will require the same socket type as the existing processor and your BIOS will have to support it as well.

As for the GFX module it will also require the same interface type and should have the same or similar voltage and thermal specifications in addition to dimensions that allow it to fit. Long story short probably not possible or if it is there will not be many options.

Good Luck!

Officially supported GPU upgrades along with required mobo revisions and prices based on Sager model number are stickied in these forums somewhere.

No you can't upgrade the CPU to C2D because the chipset of the laptop will not support it (which effectively makes the 98xx series obsolete even though they still sell them apparently...).

again thanks for your patient answers and help I am convinced that at this point upgrading the CPU wont do any good, but I cannot seem to accept the fact that this machine cannot be upgraded with anything beyond a NVIDIA 6800 go..

Since our PCI express slot can also accept ATI products, do we have any options from ATI range? or did they also change the voltage and other stuff in their new products?

And are you certain there is no way I can upgrade to a, say 7900?
I look at this benchmark list and regret my decision to buy this laptop if my only upgrade option is the 6800 ulrtra =[

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-...ist.844.0.html


If you are certain.. Do you think it is wise to upgrade to a 6800 Ultra? Do they have 512 meg versions, and do you think the performance difference will be worth the price I have to pay?

thank you.

At this point I think the best thing for 9860 owners to do is wait for nVidia to release their Go8000 series GPU's and then buy a new laptop that takes advantage of Vista's features. In 5 months or so you should be able to buy a brand new machine that performs identically to the 9860 for little more than it would cost you to upgrade to a Go7900.

An upgrade path for 9860 and 9880 owners is available to the 9890motherboard - the 7950 GTX GPU - and a new AC adapter for $1100 + freight from Sager.