M17x R3 GPU upgrade/replacement - 6990M > 7970M?

[Flakey]

Hi,

Recently bought a M17x R3 off a friend, after a few weeks the 6990M gpu seems to have died (Vertical blue striped screen, followed by windows no longer booting and the card being detected as a ATI Radeon gfx in the Bios etc etc).

Anyway, as I got it at a reasonable price and as much fun the HD3000 chip is for overclocking it doesn't play anything that's required of it, I thought I'd just replace the GPU.

Therefore after doing quite a bit of googling (and finding here), I've come to the conclusion a 7970M would be best for my given situation and budget (circa £300).

I have a few questions if no one would mind answering them:

1. Do I need a new heatsink for the 7970M (considering i've just come from a 6990M)?

2. Does anyone know where I can buy a 7970M from a trusted seller people can vouch for? (Preferably in the UK, don't want to get stung by UK import VAT of 20% or so).

3. Do I need new thermal pads? Or can I recycle the old bits? (If so where can I get some from).

The only place I've found so far seems to be: Alienware AMD HD DELL 7970M 2GB GDDR5 -for M15x, M17x , M18x ,upgrade monkey | eBay

But from the brief bit I've read about the above seller they don't seem very reliable, plus im not sure they're actually allowed to charge a restocking fee.

I look forward to everyones responses!

Many Thanks,

Flakey

[ManOfKnight]

I asked a guy selling my 8970m on ebay (so take that for what it's worth)...he said the same hsf can be used but new pads will be needed.

[Flakey]

Thanks for your reply,

It's Good to know the HSF should probably work...

Still no closer to finding me a reasonable supplier for a new card though, even tried contacting dell.. they sent me towards a useless approved partner. :/

Anyone know if the upgrademonkey people are reasonable? Since im not really left with any other options.

[Khenglish]

If you're getting a 7970m and you overclock, get the clevo version of the card. It has extra capacitors which allow it to clock substantially higher than the dell version.

Although I do not know if people have gotten the clevo version to run in the R3, but I know it's been done for the even older R2, so I think you'll be OK.

[Flakey]

UPDATE: For anyone concerned.

I managed to get in contact with dell and get a quote/out of replacement order for a 7970m off them. There was a little resistance, they didn't seem to want to sell one to me, but I managed to convince the guy eventually. (I think he was just more worried that it might not be compatible - this was coming from a 6970m).

Anyway, for anyone in the UK not wanting to take a chance with ebay or international sellers, you can get a brand new 7970m with a 90 day warranty from Dell for circa £340 (including heatsink pads etc).

Card won't be here for another 10 days or so since the holidays make shipping slightly slow, however I might report back and let you know how it overclocks etc after. (At this point though I'm just after a working card).

TLDR, for UK people looking for no hassle go to Dell and convince them to sell you one (contact Alienware tech support - they will persist for your service tag/make you jump through a few hoops though).

Hope this will prove helpful to someone.

Regards,

Flakey