Update 11 december 2007: This page is outdated and misses some recent information. An update is planned. The laptop table is more up to date.

Clevo?

Clevo makes some of the most powerful notebooks available. Their D900x and M570x chassis can be found as Sagers, Alienwares and countless other Boutique brand notebooks. And what's more, they feature modular graphic cards and some boutiques even offer upgrades for some models, albeit at a hefty price.

Even though early sources claimed Clevo notebooks to be MXM, this has not been the case untill the D900C and M570ru has been introduced. To clear all confusion: you can find a comparison between a MXM card and Clevo's early modular cards below. The left card is a regular 6800. We stock these cards and they should be suitable for all Clevo's based on this format. Not a exaclty a beast but if you're just after getting your gear back opperational this might be what you're looking for..

The introduction of the D900C and M570ru saw Clevo's first steps on the MXM path. But still Clevo didn't exactly chose the road most travelled upon. Their first card was a 7950GTX which was on the little known Type IV card (pretty much a larger Type HE). Clevo is still using MXM but to date their cards have not been used on other platforms or the other way around as far as we know.

A bit of a strange case is their all-in-one PC offerings. They are also employing MXM cards there. These machines are identical between integrated graphics and dedicated GPU versions except for the card and as such are an exception to the rule that you can not upgrade integrated graphics. We actually have original Clevo cards for these machines in stock!

We would like to thank Alex Kan for his efforts and support.

Zepto?

We have very little information, but it looks like they use the MXM connector at least. The heatsink attachment doesn't look right and the format seems off as well. The notebook is supposedly ODMd by Inventec. It would look like they joint the 'kinda MXM' ranks. We can only hope that the show compatibility with regular MXM cards.

If anyone has further information, we'd love to hear it...

Toshiba?

This is a bit of a strange case, and it is not yet closed. At first, we were left to believe that at least the Tecra S3 was MXM. A lot of other notebooks also seemed to fit the profile (modular PCI-Express card, several models for the same chassis. MXM Upgrade went to Cebit in Hannover and several representatives of Toshiba denied that Toshiba had any MXM models at all. All this resulted in a lot confusion, until we got a manual for the S3 from a reader , Mattman. That manual contained this picture...

The insert at the top looks a lot like MXM, the orange triangles, representing the 'main' mounting screws look fine too, but the purple triangles, that represent the heatsink mounting screws are just plain wrong. As can be seen on the 'real' MXM picture above, the mounting holes are arranged in a square. And as we all know: you can't fit a triangle in a square.

That said, we have not given up on Toshiba just yet. We assume there's a decent chance Toshiba used the same electrical interface and just tweaked the mechanics a bit to prevent end users to tinker with their notebooks. In the future, we hope to prove this and provide mechanical adaptation plates to help Toshiba owners out.

At one point, we also labelled the P100 as 'possibly MXM'. Well, guess not (see below)...

Some more? One of our readers has a A100-158 and he was kind (and interested) enough to pop the hood and take some pictures...

The slot iteself looks an awfull lot like a MXM connector and the card itselflooks 'kinda' like MXM but the formfactor is obviously off. The heatsink mounting holes might match, but the board attachement holes are on a slab of PCB where there should be... well, air. The again, Arima also has different physical dimensions but features perfect MXM compatibility!

Acer?

Acer is one of those manufacturers that missed the boat a bit with the introduction of MXM but caught up later. That switch came with the introduction of the 5920 series of notebooks and it would seem most of their lineup is now MXM. Some of these notebooks have seen succesfull upgrades, others failures. In the end it's a bit of a mixed bag but we are ready to provide cards to those willing to give it a shot!

Asus?

Yet another strange story... The Z81, based on a A4 chassis is most certainly MXM. This has been verified through an upgrade from a 6800 to a x1800.We spoke to Asus representatives on Cebit and they told us that Asus will no longer pursue MXM. Through the nice folks at Z71 Forums we took a peak inside this notebook and so we got another prime example of 'kinda MXM but not quite'.

The two red circles represent the main 'problem areas On the left there's the SODIMM-like latches, on the right there's the additional connector on the card in particular and the L-shaped card in particular. So, modular? Yes. PCI-Express? Yes. MXM? Nope.

We assumed this was the end of the Asus story, but it was not... The A8 series of notebooks features a kind of 'flipped' MXM design..

28 Januari 2007. Asus. Everytime you think you have them figure out, they cook up something new. The Z84 seems to have MXM, Type III no less! And that after they told m they figured MXM takes up too much space. Oh well. Partial upgrade here.

The C90 is also based on the MXM formfactor but it will not accept non-Asus cards just like it's cards will not boot on other platforms. We know for a fact that there's some handshaking that checks if both the system and card is in fact MXM.

Quanta?

Not a nice story... Originaly we classified Quanta as a full blown MXM manufacturer. Then we send out some MXM cards of Quanta origin to some costumers and none of them worked. We assumed the cards were protected against use in non-Quanta notebooks so we shipped them to Quanta owner.

It didn't work.

The erratic behaviour ranges from not booting at all over booting but without an image. We assume the protection is embedded in the video and/or system bios. As such, we have not given up hope to flash the vBios one day to correct it. But untill then: steer clear of Qaunta cards and notebooks. One possible exception is a notebook model that came with the x700, 6600 and 6800. If you can pick up a 6800 that came from another notebook in the exact same series, chances are it will work.

It would also seem our 8400GS cards are ok for KN1 notebooks.

HP?

One of our readers, MGS2392, was kind enough to point us to this thread on NBR. He showed some pictures of the HP Compaq nx9420/nw9440. What he showed us...

...were these pictures. Looks, smells and measures like MXM. Since then, HP has introduced other MXM platforms and we actually checked one with all cards we could lay our hands on and none of them work. We assume these notebooks to be well protected against mix-and-match.

Apple?

Apple joins the rank of Quanta: looks great, but offers no compatibility. The 24" iMac uses a card that is based on the MXM formfactor but offers no compatibility. A reader of MXM Upgrade has tried several MXM cards in his Apple, including a reference 6200 card MXM Upgrade has send him, and none of those worked. If we are correctly informed, this comes from an incompatible vBios and this behavious was also seen in the past with incompatible AGP cards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some great potential was lost here. As Apple is using desktop GPU's, the thermal budget should be plenty to install whatever notebook card you'd want.

Maybe some smart folks will figure out a way to flash the Bios one day. MXM Upgrade will be happy to assist with such endeavours if we can.

Packard Bell?

A reader of MXM Upgrade (Thanks Clarkey!) bought a second hand MXM (?) card for his damaged Amilo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This 6600 that comes from a Packard Bell Easynote W7 is the correct formafactor but only showed a white image. We don't know whether this is caused by damage to Clarkey's notebook, the card itself or an incompatible vBios.

After that, we spend some time with a PB W7620 that is apparently made by Mitac. We tossed every card we had at it and the only one that would stick was the 8400GS. Not exactly a great upgrade but it beats using your notebook as a paper weight!

Dell?

Ok. I'll try to state this as clear as I can: Dell does NOT use MXM. They never have and probably never will. There is no way 'to make it work'. You simply can't fit a square peg in a round hole.

Compal?

We featured Compal for some time in our table, but it turned out to be a dud. The reason the hgl30 and 80 were originally filed as 'MXM' was because of the MXM references in the drivers I found at Zepto. The hel80 was soon dismissed and when Mikisee showed me these pictures of his hgl30, it was clear these are not MXM notebooks at all.

 

And when you look a bit at the drivers over at Zepto, it is very clear they came from laptopvideo2go.com. And because they load their modded infs with all the features any notebook may ever require, they included the MXM part as well.

The others?

More to be added in the future. Got some information to share? Drop us a line or sound of on the forums.