Amilo M 3438 notebook MXM options

This notebook has two variants: 3438 and 4438. Both notebooks share the same chasis but teh 4438 has a WUXGA screen. The platform has a Type III MXM slot and can be easily serviced. It was ODM'd by Uniwill and also saw service as Alienware m5700 and has seen a number of other clones as well.

Unfortunately, the 6800 that was equiped has shown to be a vulnerable card over the years and many people are looking for a replacement card. In the past, we sold 7900GS cards for this notebook but saw horrible return rates for it. To date, it is not clear why. In some cases, ill informed thermal interface material choice could have been to blame, in others perhaps bad installation and maybe some notebooks were damaged in another way and caused the card to fail in the end but all in all we could not pinpoint why these cards went to solicon heaven so fast. We also sold 7600 cards for them and they were a moderate succes, mainly due to the ease of install. Unfortuantely it is no longer possible to source these cards.

We currently offer x1800 and x1900 cards for this platform. The installation procedure is exaclty the same.

Tools required:

A Dremmel with a cutting wheel and a screwdriver

You just have to remove a single backpanel. Before you do that, remove the battery as a precaution. After that, you can lift the panel with your nail. Notice that there's one screw that is longer. Make absolutely sure you place it back in the correct hole, labeled K/B, when closing your notebook again. Failing to do so will destroy your brand new card

When the panel is removed, you'll have to remove all screws indicated with the yellow circles. Make sure not too touch parts of the motherboard, as ESD cán kill your notebook. Make sure to discharge yourself every now and then on a well grounded item (water pipes,...)This will allow you to carefully remove the heatsink assembly. Make sure to disconnect the fan plug first. Once again, your nail is the primary tool for this job. I took the time and opportunity to apply AS5 on the CPU, but that is obviously optional. AS5 can also be ordered from MXM Upgrade.

After having removed the heatsink, two more screws keep the MXM on the motherboard. Remove them and then take out the 6800. When you place the x1800 against the heatsink, you will notice that one of the coils (square blocks) on the MXM card interferes with the heatsink.

Enter the Drmmel.

No skills are required (as evidenced by the picture of the heatsink) but some courage is not optional before you put the cutting blade in a part of your beloved notebook. It takes about 15 minutes. Make sure to remove the heatpads from the heatsink before starting to cut into the metal as the small metal parts get stuck to the heatpads and can form a kind of conductive metal film on it with a high potential for disaster. Do the dremeling as far as you can from your exposed notebook for pretty much the same reason. Make sure the heatsink is whiped clean and while you have easy acces to the heatsink: blow out the fan and radiator so no dust is left behind. In the future, you will have to do this on a regular basis. They sell cans off compressed air for this, I highly recommend having one at hand.

You can reuse the heatpads on the memory, but MXM Upgrade will supply you with 2 heatpads for the GPU die. At this time, apply the yellow one and mount heatsink and new card. Remove the heatsink again and inspect the heatpad. If you did a good job on the heatsink then the GPU die will leave a rectangular print on the heatpad. If this is not the case you will have to check your work again. Once you are satisfied with the heatsink, apply the high performance grey heatpad. Please note that it will most likely not survive more than one application so make sure you get it right the first time!

Once installed, you can close up your notebook again and boot her up. You will notice the fan will not react to the MXM card. It will still run if the CPU requires it, but the GPU temperature remains unchecked. This is acceptable for desktop/webbrowsing/wordprocessing but obviously not for gaming.

Firstly, install new ATI drivers for your card. You can find them here.

Once this is done, you need to install Notebook Hardware Control, which you can find here. Install it and then download the ACPI files for your notebook here. Extract the files in the ACPI folder of NHC, which ussualy can be found under Program Files. Start NHC again and head for the ACPI tab. You should now be able to toggle "enable ACPI". From the few options below, we highly recommend to have the fan run slowly at all time during "normal" operation but it is mandatory to have it run full speed while gaming.

Make sure you keep your radiator clean, lift the back of the notebook a bit (I use two CD cases for this, only game on even surfaces, make sure nothing blocks the fan in- or outlet. Actually, in general: take good care of your notebook and enjoy your new card!

x1800 cards are currently for sale for 200 €, which includes shipping, taxes and heatpads. Prices are the same for the EU and US. The x1900 ships for 350 € for the EU (again including taxes, shipping and heatpads), the US can get them for 330 €. Artic Silver 5 tubes can be ordered for an additional 8 euro

We never offer a "buy it now" or comparable button. The reason is simple: we want to review all purchases with our costumers first so that they make tehir purchased well informed and understand what they are doing. So, if you are ready to pull the trigger, send us a mail and tell us what you want, where you live and what notebook you have. We will review the request, comment if needed and forward you payment details (which can be Paypal or a banktransfer.

Amilo M 1437/9 notebook MXM options

As this is basically the same notebook as the 3438, the same story applies. However, as far as we know, the heatsink is a bit smaller and therefore the notebook may (or rather will) run a bit hotter. We are at this point not even 100% sure if it will work with just the ACPI script. If it does not, we will off course support you to find another solution (reducing clocks or a hardware solution).

Furthermore, this notebook comes with a 90W power supply which is barely enough to support this configuration. We are not sure if the power supply will hold in the long run, we are sure that the brick will be hot as hell.

Amilo Xi series notebook MXM options

This notebook shares much of it's design with the m 3438 series. Disassembly is identical, everything looks identical but this notebook supports Core Duos and mini PCI epxress instead of mini PCI. It was also used by Alienware for it's Area-51m57xx series. The notebook has seen versions with x1400, 7600, x1800 and x1900 MXM cards. This also means boths series of cards are natively supported, no hanky panky required with fan modifications and such.

The Xi series notebooks with integrated graphics are not MXM upgradable.

Amilo Pi series notebook MXM options

This notebook shares much of it's design with the m 3438 series. Disassembly is identical, everything looks identical but this notebook supports Core Duos and mini PCI epxress instead of mini PCI. It was also used by Alienware for it's Area-51m5550 series. The notebook has seen versions with x1400 and, 7600 MXM cards. As the motherboard is identical to the Xi series, this means that 1800 and x1900 cards are natively supported, no hanky panky required with fan modifications and such.

As the heatsink is tad different , we are not sure if a x1800 and x1900 will fit without heatsink modifications. The heatsink is also a bit smaller which means the notebook runs a bit hotter. Furthermore, this notebook comes with a 90W power supply which is barely enough to support this configuration. We are not sure if the power supply will hold in the long run, we are sure that the brick will be hot as hell.

The Pi series notebooks with integrated graphics are not MXM upgradable.

Alienware Area-51 m5500

This notebook does not have the same topology as the 3438 and all it's derivates, it is a Uniwill 259 clone and does not accept Type III cards. Furthermore, the heatsink mounting is a bit funky. In the past we upgraded a few 259's with a 7600 but they are not longer available.

If you have a broken card, we can set you up with a x700. Not much of an upgrade but worth it to fix an otherwise lost notebook.

Amilo Pa,Xa, 1667/9 and other FSC notebooks MXM options

The usage of x1800 and x1900 MXM cards has not been verified yet. Chances are it will work, while some of the remarks above will probably also apply here.

Want to give it a go? Let us know!

MXM-Upgrade

FSC Notebooks

NVIDIA's MXM site