Corry Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 I've managed to answer most of my questions. Short story is I just found rj's barebones machines. Given how my almost 5 years old hm seems to be playing the weakest link game, and I was considering spending a lot on a "newer" video card, the barebones seems to make more sense. Biggest question on my mind currently is my optical drive. I had thought it was in a caddy of some sort, but it's not. I assume since it was upgradable it's still somewhat modular so would my blu-ray burner from my hm transplant to either the 150 and/or the 157sm? I can pull the service manuals in a few days which may help, but my power brick roasted nearly taking the machine with it. Hadn't even gotten around to flashing prema's ic bios since I wanted the new brick before modifying the tdp numbers! Other than that, looks like the new 330w brick will still work, as will my recently replaced battery. Ram I knew would be fine (16 gb 1600mhz ddr3), and the Samsung 850 pro ssd will be much happier in an sm. The barebones comes with a 965m which although bottom of the line, is waaaay ahead of my 485m that's trying to die that inspired all this research! So if I'm reading it all right, the barebones 150 with a 4910 sans optical drive, and powering options is around $1300. The 157 is $100 more, but most seem to like the thermal design of the 157 better, and the 150sm looks almost like a twin of my 150hm. I was looking at $700 or so for a used 680m, or a massive fight/headache and $900 for a grx980m...and maybe failure. Add the $420 I paid for the 2960xm and subtract a bit for selling at a loss to sell quickly, and it comes close to balancing. Might even be able to sell the 150hm mb/proc (think its s 2700qm series) and make up some of the difference. Seems wiser than a "new" video card. Granted rj has some $450 options, maybe even $400, but I can't see paying half for a new old architecture card. So any way I look at it, with my maxing out the cpu and replacing the gpu I'm out $800ish. Just a small amount more and I have a much faster machine. Seems like the smart choice to me....someone want to talk me out of it? Is the optical drive going to be the thing that blows my cost up? Anyone want a 4.5ghz capable without voltage adjustments or tdp adjustments 2960xm processor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dothan Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 965 isn't bottom of the line, unless you mean bottom of the 900 series, and even then it has 20-30% gains over the 960 (really an 860) so I wouldn't worry. BTW I picked up the 157sm-a for 800 or so in the states from EUROCOM recently, not to bang heads again RJTECH they are great too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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