What's in it for you?
Untill the arrival of MXM-Upgrade: not much. Some laptops could be fitted with a GPU of your choice, but that was about it. If you check out this video from NVIDIA, you are led to believe you can upgrade your laptop graphics card as easily as you would swap a PCMCIA or PCI Express card. Nothing could be further from the truth. First off all, the actual mechanical and thermal interfaces are more complicated compared to NVIDIA's vision, but that's not even the tough part.
The tough part was that you can't really buy these modules.
Why? Because if you are not happy with the graphic performance of your laptop, you have to buy a new one. If you would be able to buy an MXM card off Newegg or your local computer shop instead, that would be a transaction where the laptop manufacturers have nothing to gain, while they have lost the sale of a new laptop in the process.
And so they shield the market as much as they can. Very few manufactures even mention MXM. They carefully use the word 'module', or they mention nothing at all. And yet, more and more laptops are powered by MXM!
That is why we continue to work hard to change this. By relentlessly crawling the net for information, testing all MXM gear we can lay our hands on and last but not least: offer MXM cards for sale for the lowest price we can afford. For more details, check the store page.
Our mission:
We aim at being your first and only stop for all the information regarding this exiting standard.
We will provide you with a database with all the laptops that have been confirmed to be MXM powered. We will feature tutorials on how to determine the exact MXM type . We will provide tutorials on how to upgrade your laptop yourself!
And finally, we will be your one and only source of MXM modules on the web, finally fulfilling the full potential of this powerful concept.
News from the MXM front!
Alienware m9700 upgrades, m9750 replacements
March 16th 2009
We picked up a batch of Arima nVidia 7950's, native to the Alienware 97xx series. They are refurbished but in excellent shape and, well, cheap. Sold separately or in pairs, these are great to fit and upgrade your pricey ET..
March 16th 2009
Not sure if this is 'news', but it certainly is 'nice'. We are now offering the x1800 for 125 euro, all in. Pretty much the best offer ever on a price/performance level. Pretty obvious we want to clear out x1800 stock like this, so get yours while you can!Warranty also drops, from 1 year to 30 days DOA, but we still think this is pretty much a killer deal!
Acer 7920G upgraded to HD3650!
January 21st 2009
We're always happy to hear an upgrade was successful but in this case we were particularly happy because we got a nice review out of it. Unfortunately, we are promised a lot of guides in exchange for a full money back warranty in case it goes wrong but a lot of people fail to live up to their promise. Not so with Dirk. He upgraded his notebook and I don't think a pro could have done it any better. He wrote a review that can stand up to the best any hardware site has to offer.
Get your dose here!
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January 14th 2009
I planned to prepare to bulky article on my endeavors when trying to get my HTC Touch Cruise repaired but in the end, I won’t. The PDA has been in a repair center for months while I was send back and forth between repair centers, support centers, complaint centers, website forms and lord knows what else for a screen that failed on me well inside the warranty period. From the very beginning I was presented a hefty bill of 150 euro for the repair of the device. Warranty claims were rejected citing (depending whom you would speak to) “mechanical damage”, “water damage” or just plain “abuse”. The fact that I had a protective belt-pouch and a HTC cradle for my car didn’t make a difference. I can’t remember a single occurrence where I “abused” the device or subjected it to abnormal amounts of stress.
Which brings me to the bottom line: if a device breaks down while being used in a regular way there are two possibilities. Either the manufacturer and the costumer had a patch of bad luck and the device gets replaced under warranty or the device was badly designed and is not up to regular use. In this case one would expect sincere apologies to accompany the replacement kit. HTC seems to have found another way to respond to either bad luck or bad design: blame the costumer.
Let’s hope other companies don’t follow their example. The suspension of your car breaks? Well, you shouldn’t have gotten it wet. Toxic instant soup? Well, Sir, did you put it in the microwave? With water? Because we only accept responsibility in the powder form. Disintegrating jeans? Did the fabric make contact with your skin ma’am? You will find in a clause on our warranty policy this is not covered.
Anyway, seriously. Don’t buy a HTC PDA. How’s that for a powerful conclusion?
January 4th 2009
We recently spend some quality time with a Liantec mini-ITX 6965 motherboard plus it's TiniBus MXM module. More on that here.
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We are currently not stocking these boards but if there's enough interest we'd be happy to check it out. So, if you would consider buying one please contact us!
December 14th 2008
After having some problems with these cards, we can now announce they should work fine over a wide range of notebooks!
MXM 3.0 is out
November 19th 2008
And no, we don't mean Type
III, we mean version three. To date, we've seen 1.0, 1.3, 2.0 and 2.1
cards in the field. It didn't seem to make too much difference. Some
software changes, support for the display port format, an additional
mechanical format... We've never been able to pin incompatibility
issues to MXM revisions even though there are probably some cases
buried in the mountain of 'no go' upgrade attempts.
MXM 3.0 is different. There will be no back or forward compatibility.
The reason lies in the redefined connector, which is completely
incompatible on both the electric and mechanical front. So, don't even
think about 'hacking' a 3.0 module to fit in an older MXM
notebook. Simply will never work. Some more info...
Features:
- Only two mechanical formats
-> Type 'A' 82x70mm, 35W TDP
-> Type 'B' 82x105mm, 75W TDP
- Up to 4 dual mode Display Ports
- 16 lanes PCIe Generation 2
- Legacy VGA support
There is actually no pressing reason in this feature set to move to 3.0
It's obviously better 'future proof' so for new designs it will most
likely be the choice of preference but perhaps evolutions of existing
designs will stick to 2.x for some time..
Compatibility
As said: forget about backward compatibility. Type A will fit in both
Type A and Type B notebooks, which seems logical. Type B modules will
be restricted to Type B notebooks, again as expected. The good thing is
that they clearly took a lesson from previous experiences, which means
height restrictions on the card have been clearly defined, a 'generic'
thermal interface was made, a generic bracket was defined,... Odd thing
is that manufacturers are explicitly allowed to stray from the board
outline as long as the notebook will
accept 'generic' cards! While this makes sense from an OEM point
of view, it is unfortunate for end users. If vendor A makes a 3.0 card
and adds some height and board area there is a very decent chance it
will not fit in vendor B's notebook. This is actually very reminiscent
to what we've seen with Arima cards for the board size and a horde of
height restriction differences.
On the electrical side, things are comparable. While most signals are
very well defined, there are a few OEM reserved pins that can be used
at the OEM's discretion. They can add additional power rails, features,
or a control mechanism to prevent the insertion of non-native cards.
There is no guarantee that such a OEM module will operate in another
3.0 notebook. Or blow up, for all we know. It is clearly stated that
'generic' 3.0 modules will not use these pins but even then it remains
to be seen if OEM's will make these pins mandatory for correct
operation or not. If they want to be MXM 3.0 compliant, a generic
module must operate without the additional pins.
On the software side, things are once again the comparable. A normal
graphics card would always 'carry' it's own vBios onboard in a small
EEPROM. In this case, the spec mentions explicitly the option to
integrate it in the system bios. To be MXM 3.0 compliant, the system
should be able to accept 'generic' modules with an onboard vBios.
Besides that, a MXM 3.0 software spec was defined. This software
structure will tell the card what display interfaces the system
requires and will tell a bit about thermal limitations of the
system etc. Comparable efforts where done in the past but we suspect
that non-implementation, free interpretation or just bug infested
implementations have been at the base of some upgrade failures in the
past. We seem to see a strong push to have a uniform implementation
this time.
All in all, generic modules
should always work in MXM v3.0 compliant platforms but manufacturers
are at liberty to add some off their own flavor to their own cards,
even if they make the system v3.0 compliant. So the big question is
whether the 'MXM v3.0 compliant' sticker is a big enough carrot to lure
OEM's to make life easier for end users (or service centers, system
integrators, boutique stores,...). The second big issue is that all
graphic card manufacturers that produced 'generic' MXM cards
without a specific target have stopped doing so. All the cards we
ever sold were designed for a specific notebook. So even if all
future notebooks are 'MXM v3.0 compliant' that may remain nothing
but a nice catchphrase if no MXM v3.0 compliant cards are offered
on the open market...
To be continued for sure!
Uniwill
259 upgrade
november 18th 2008
We had a tutorial on the Uniwill 259 series before but we had one
problem.. the card used in the tutorial hasn't been available for quite
some time. Thanks to our reader Jacek, we can now once again offer a
replacement or upgrade card to Uniwill 259 series owners. Never heard
of that? Well maybe you've heard of the ABS G4 Mayhem, Ahtec 259M,
Addict Hyperaddict, Alienware m5500 (Pentium M version), Cebop Hel750,
Jewel Diamond 2600, Rock Pegassus 650, Vigor Ares and probably a ton of
others.
Unabridged story here. Thanks
Jacek!
Tchibo All-in-one-PC upgraded to 8600GT
november 7th 2008
Easy-peasy upgrade of a system I didn't even know it had a MXM slot! An
upgrade from a 7400 to a 8600GT may very well be something you want to
break out your screwdriver for!
2 oktober 2008
Normally, upgrading integrated graphics or upgrading a Clevo are two unlikely things. But not this time! We offer a complete upgrade kit for Clevo LV220C and LV190 LCD PCs! They are known as Eurocom LV220 and LV220, Pioneer Computers DreamVision LV190, Rock Meivo,...
Adding DDR3 to the mix with our ATI HD3650 256MB GDDR3 card!
2 oktober 2008
Need more power? Then maybe the HD3650 is something for you! This is currently simply the best card we have on offer!
Updated article on Uniwill notebooks
11 september 2008
We revamped the article on Fujitsu/Alienware/Uniwill notebooks a bit. Even if you read the original article before, you may appreciate the new one. It's still a bit rough along the edges, expect that to improve soon enough..
26 june 2008
There we go: DX10 is in the house. We will be starting to sell Type I 8400 cards and Type II 8600 cards today.
The 8400 will be our lowest cost, lowest effort card and at the same time our only Type I card. It does not require any modification on heatsinks on all Amilo MXM notebooks (identical to Alienware m5500, m5700, m5550 and m5750). It all boils down to 10 minuts quality time with your screwdriver and a new driver. These cards should also be compatible with some Amilo Pro Type I only notebooks out there.
The 8600 (512MB DDR2) is basically the same story but the added performance comes at the cost of a heatsink job to accomodate a large coil on the card. Being Type II, the card will not fit a Type I only notebook.
As both cards lack the threaded spacers of "standard" cards, we will provide a set of bolts and nuts for mounting during a transition period. We are currently sourcing the actual spacers. Once they are in, they will replace the bolts and nuts. We assume both cards to be suited for a wide range of brands (MSI, Asus Z81,Z84, Acer and Aopen are likely candidates) and we also look forward to tackle some of the "problem" brands again (Arima, Gateway,..). We have good hopes these cards will behave nicely there as well.
The x1800 cards remain in our inventory as the best price/performance option we have.
28 february 2008
Here's an opportunity to help us out. We have been looking for Everest and Rivatuner reports from any and all MXM platforms out there. Equally important: ATI or nVidia vBios. So, if you can spare 5 minutes please send them in!. Chances are we won't reply to the mail but know that by helping us you are increasing the chance an update will be available to you when the time comes!
28 february 2008
We offer 8800GTX cards now. They are suited for all Clevo m570ru notebooks but some limitations regarding sleep state etc. apply.
We do not offer them for any other platform!
22 february 2008
I just had lunch: shorts with french fries and a pinch of salt.
Seriously though, I never thought I'd live to see the day when Dell actually uses MXM modules but here it is:
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22 february 2008
Sometimes, just sometimes an upgrade can be easy, painless and cheap. Tom was the lucky geezer that was able to simply swap a Gateway 7600 for a 7800. Required tools: screwdriver.
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We actually have had a small batch of 7800 cards around for some time but they refused to boot in any platform... except the one they were designe for obviously. One can be yours for 200 euro or 200 dollars depending on location but keep in mind the supply is limited! Please note this will only work on this specific Gateway notebook!
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14 february 2008
Alienware must truly love MXM, and who can blame them? It perfectly matches the flexibility they offer in their system configuration. So, no surprises when Gophn pointed me to this picture:
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The HE connector accepts all possible MXM cards and the 8800GTX that it can be equiped with is probably on a Type IV. Wil it be possible to upgrade in the future? I seem to have misplaced my christal ball, but as soon as I find it I'll let you know!
New x1900 procedure for Amilo 3438 notebooks
23 januar 2008
With the introduction of new heatpads, the 3438 notebook is now able to handle the x1900 GPU with only the NHC software hack. Soldering is no longer required. As before, the heatsink must still be modified.
23 januar 2008
In our continious search for ways to serve our costumers we recently purchased new thermal pad material. While the "old" pads have 6W/mK (which is already respectable) we can now offer 17W/mK pads. About as expensive as sheet gold, it is now standard included with x1900 deliveries.
We will also be happy to sell these pads to people who might need them but are not in the market for a new MXM card.
Where did that story go?
Check the archives for old stories.
