Samsung R780 upgrade options

[snorequake]

Hello everyone,

I have a question about upgrading a Samsung R780. (NP-R780-J!01US to be exact)

My R780 has the HM55 Chipset which can support processor such as the i5-580M, i7-640M and i7-920(and 940)XM. The laptop currently has the i5-430M processor.

Has anyone every upgraded a R780 with any of these faster processor? (note: I don't care if it's old tech by todays standards and not worth the cost... I am just trying to find out if it's even possible.)

I have the machine and about $300.00 buck to play with. (Oh... I'm trying to get ready for Alien Isolation and this laptop is my only option... with any upgrades if they are possible.)

I am going to upgrade from 4GB to 8GB of memory... which is recommended for the game.

As for the GT 330M graphics card... I think I'm stuck with it unless someone knows if upgrading the video on the R780 is even possible.

Any help is appreciated.
John

[zombie cat]

Mose things on laptops are soldered to the motherboard, so you should check 100% if you can even upgrade your laptop, if not then its probably not worth it as you can get a new one, with say a 840m which performs a fair bit faster than your 330m for around 500-750$

I was also very seriously toying with the idea of getting a new processor for my old laptop but decided to just get a new one, but its honestly not worth it as its very expensive and you don't know if the fan can even deal with the heat output of the new processor or any of the other components are even compatible.

I had an old core 2 duo @ 2.4ghz and was thinking of getting a new procesor at the time for 300$ or so, but would still be stuck with the terrible low end gpu and just decided to ditch the laptop.

[snorequake]

Actually... I just did some comparisons of my R780 against my other laptop - a modified Asus G60VX. (originally just assumed the R780 was better). But... do my Asus G60VX specs seem better than my current R780 specs.

R780: (this system might take memory and/or cpu upgrades)
Intel Core i5, 2.27Ghz (i5-430M)
4GB PC3-8500E
Nvidia GT 330M

G60VX: (I think this system is maxed out)
Intel Core-2 Extreme, 3.06Ghz (X9100)
4GB PC2-6400
Nvidia GTX 260M

Zombie Cat... I think my R780 motherboard has the G1 socket and I hear what you are saying about temps. Thank you for your comments. I saw some forum posts that say the GTX 260M is a better GPU then the GT 330M. Has anyone else heard this?

[rotNdude]

There are a couple of things you need to make sure of. First thing is the actual CPU you have. The i5-430M is made for a BGA or PGA socket.

http://ark.intel.com/products/43537/Intel-Core-i5-430M-Processor-3M-Cache-2_26-GHz

If it's BGA, forget about upgrading it. If the CPU is in a PGA socket, then you need to make sure the motherboard BIOS supports a newer CPU.

The video card can't be replaced in that laptop. This is a decent site to compare mobile video chips.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

[snorequake]

Thanks rotNdude. The links were helpful in determining that the GTX 260M does out-perform the GT 330M - both cards are so old they are on the "archived" list and I had to go digging for them.

Also, I am stumped by the lack of useful information regarding the specs and upgradability of the R780 using Google search. It's like nobody has ever tried upgrading this unit and then shared their experience. All the pictures of the R780 motherboards appear to have the G1 socket so I believe the processor can be swapped out. But, again, I can't find any helpful info online about upgrading this laptop. As for the CPU's supported by the BIOS on the R780... I can't find a list on that either. The chipset specs will support the CPU's I listed above. Thus... why I put this question out to the forums.

[SheChief]

Intel core i5_620M is as good as it gets. According to Samsung themselves. The limitation would be the extra crappy BIOS. Basically they can use the very first i3, i5, and i7 chips, and that's it.

Since, as others stated, the socket rPGA 989 and HM55 chipset would max out on the core i7_940XM. But Samsung put zero effort into their BIOS upgrades, so i7_620M is our high end upgrade. That and can double the memory to all of 8 GB of 1333 mHz DDR3 RAM.

I have a Samsung R580, the 15.6" screen, and had a core i3_370M with only the intel GMA 4500 MHD from the i3 itself for graphics. Its motherboard crapped the bed, so I replaced it with a R780 board and added a core i5_430M oh, and the board had the ATI HD 5470 mobile w/ 1 GB DDR3 memory to push pictures around. Plus that max 8 GB 1333 mHz DDR3 too. And thinking of grabbing that crappy i5_620M... Then save up for a 1 TB SSHD later, just for fun.

EDIT: apparently they had a R580 that could use the i7_720QM, plus on both R580/R780 the i5_520M was usable. If you did not have a "discreet" GPU then you'd be limited to the i5_620M and i5_640M. Since none of the 1st gen i7 quad core chips had onboard graphics.

... Just fyi, the R580 and R780 basically used the exact same mainboard/motherboards. Only real usability change was placement of keyboard connector and the two touch-pad buttons. Two spots for each, right next to each other. And yes I'm using the R780 board in my R580 at this exact moment. Very minor work to get it to function.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Laptops with GPU older than GTX-860M, seriously its not worth puting money into, period.

[SheChief]

I know, who cares if you could upgrade from an i3 to an i7 for $20. Not like you could ever buy a modern laptop without an on-board "discreet" GPU nowadays. Except you totally can still get brand new laptops with only Intel CPU graphics to make the pretty pictures. And for one tenth the cost of a crappy laptop of today you can get a gaming laptop of yesterday that'll play thousands of the older games on Steam perfectly fine.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Bad-Motha:

Laptops with GPU older than GTX-860M, seriously its not worth puting money into, period.

[SheChief]

I forgot how utterly crap Samsung's Tech Support can be; not really their fault, seems they are sales not IT... Welcome to the modern world.

If the only graphics you had was what came on the Intel CPU, then you would be limited to the i5 core chips. None of the 1st generation core i7 chips have on-chip graphics.

Being that you have discreet graphics in the form of the Nvidia GT 330M (I have the ATI HD 5470), you can in fact jump up to at least the i7_740QM. Best bet is to ensure you have the most recent BIOS firmware Samsung offers. Because that's what I've just put into my R780 board, which is what's running in my R580. I didn't go higher because the i7_740QM was only $30 delivered while the 4 better socket G1 offers were much higher cost (in the range these things are, not compared to new CPUs).

[[☥] - CJ -]

Putting a better CPU into it would probably bottleneck it with how sucky the GPU is.

[Faisal McMissile]

For more information, please refer to the following link regarding the upgrade project for Intel® HM55 Express Chipset.
http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Intel_(chipsets)/HM55_Express.html

I have an ASUS A52JK which also comes with Intel i5 430M CPU, which is shown in the link below:
https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/A52JK/

The same laptop also comes with other types of processor, which are:
1) Intel i5 430M/450M/460M/520M/540M CPU
2) Intel i3 330M/350M/370M CPU
3) Intel Pentium® Dual-Core P6000 CPU

I am thinking of upgrading the CPU of my laptop to Intel i7 940XM or i7 640M. I have checked the TDP and CPU ID for Intel i5 430M, 640M and Intel i7 940XM. The TDP for i7 940XM are higher, which is 55W while the TDP for Intel i5 430M and 640M is 35W. The CPU ID for Intel i5 430M is 20652, the CPU ID for Intel i7 540M is 20655 and the CPU ID for Intel i7 940XM is 106F1.

After reading the successful stories from the first link that I give above (and ignoring the unsuccessful stories :p ), I feel like I want to go for i7-940XM. If i7-940XM doesn't work, then I will try i7-640M (or lower). If the i7-940XM, works but have overheating problem, then I will try the i7-840QM (or lower).

[shady019]

Hello, I'm trying to upgrade my Samsung R780 from Windows 7 to Windows 10, however it crashed and seems to be the BIOS needed updating. does anyone knows whether there is any way can I update the BIOS (03KP Version) to be compatible with Windows 10?