Note (24 january 2008) : We are currently not selling compatible cards. We hope to have a supply of DX10 cards and there's a chance they might work. If you want to give them a try, let us know.
Note (january 4th 2009): We currently have a number of Type II cards that may very well be compatible. If you are interested, contact us!
MXM Card Upgrade Documentation for MEDION 95257 (ARIMA W810-DCX)
By John C, member of hardware.fr forum
This is an upgrade guide, but no responsability for damage of any kind is taken in anyway by anyone!
As I’m fond of video games, I was looking for a way to upgrade my 6600Go and I have found this unique site of MXM Upgrade.
With the kind and useful advice of Mr Verbeeck, I have ordered a 6800 Go “ARIMA special” for my MEDION 95257, a 17 inches screen, centrino notebook which is actually an ARIMA W810-DCX.
This notebook was originally fitted with a SAMSUNG 5400T 80 GB HDD, a Pentium M 740 (1,73 GHz), 512 MB of DDR2 PC 4200 memory and a MXM type II card ; the Geforce 6600 Go with 128 Mo GDDR ( Core : 375MHz / Memory : 600MHz ).
I have already improved this model with :
-
a 7200t HITACHI HDD
-
a pentium M 725 overclocked at 2,13 GHz (FSB 533 MHz)
-
2 GB of DDR2 PC 4200 memory
Here are the results of the upgrade with the 6800 Go :
( benchmarks done with laptopvideo2go forceware 92.91 driver )
|
6600 Go |
6800 Go |
Improvement |
3DMark 2001 |
15128 |
20014 |
+ 32% |
3Dmark 2003 |
6175 |
9605 |
+ 55% |
3Dmark 2005 |
2420 |
4136 |
+ 70% |
Quite a successful upgrade, isn’t it ?
Now, let’s have a look on how to proceed to upgrade the medion.All you need is a screwdriver, to be careful and to keep in mind that you’ll be voiding your guarantee.Notice that I have used red or blue circles in the photos to show where are the screw to be removed.
Here are the steps to follow :
- 1 : Remove the battery
- 2 : Remove the 2 screw located on the back of the notebook :
- 3 : Now, put the medion right side up and tilt the screen on the horizontal. You will have to remove the plastic part above the keyboard with the help of a screwdriver.
- 4 : Be careful when removing the plastic part as you have to unplug softly the connector shown on the photo.
You can now remove the 4 screws tying up the keyboard.
- 5 : Unplug the keyboard connector located near the touchpad.
- 6 : It’s time to remove the metallic panel covering the motherboard and the cooling system. There are 3 screws to remove. Be aware that they don’t have the same length ! You’ll have to detach the scotch tape wich ties on the panel to the notebook too.
- 7 : Now we can start to remove the heatsink assembly. Keep in mind that an ESD can destroy your motherboard : make sure not to touch parts of it and discharge yourself frequently on a well grounded item. Remove first the 4 screw located on top the left part of the heatsink covering the CPU. Remove then the 2 screw tying up the right part which is covering the MXM card.
- 8 : Before removing the heatsink, do not forget to disconnect the fan plug and the connector located in front of the MXM card (right side).
- 9 : After having removed the heatsink, you have to remove now the 2 screws that keeps the MXM card on the motherboard.
- 10 : You can clik in the 6800 Go and replace the 2 screws. But do not overtight them or you’ll unstick the bolts behind the card ( As I did ! But Superglue can do magic...). Before replacing the heatsink, don’t forget to use thermal paste on the GPU core.
As you can see on the picture, the modified type III card fits perfectly well. (As you would expect from an “ARIMA special” card into an ARIMA notebook !)
I think however that there is no room enough to install a standard type III card in this notebook.
I would like to add that because of the generated heat of the card, temperature has increased. Idle temp is 53°C, and you can reach 78°C after 1 hour of gaming. But the 6800 Go runs perfectly well while playing.