Good Nvidia card for E1705?

ajack · 10-25-2010, 12:29 AM

Hello,

I have a Dell Inspiron E1705 purchased in April 2006

After finding a how-to guide on the web, I was all set to buy an NVidia card to upgrade my X1400, but I found on this forum many threads about a heat issue.

What I was not able to figure out is if the problem is with the E1705 motherboard (and thus all Nvidia cards will have the problem) or if the problem was with one or more compatible NVidia cards.

Does anyone know? If the fault is on NVidia side, what are the models that have less of an issue or maybe no issue at all?

Thanks

Ajack

Commander Wolf · 10-25-2010, 04:31 AM

I don't think there are any "good" Nvidia cards for the E1705. It's either like a 7800, 7900, or 7950, all of which are fairly prone to premature failures, etc. Plus these cards are extremely expensive for what you get; I don't think any of them are anywhere near a good investment. Save up towards a new laptop.

ajack · 10-25-2010, 03:30 PM

So you don't think the risk of overheating can be significantly reduced with the latest A10 Bios upgrade and the I8kFANGUI utility to increase the fans?

Commander Wolf · 10-25-2010, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajack

So you don't think the risk of overheating can be significantly reduced with the latest A10 Bios upgrade and the I8kFANGUI utility to increase the fans?

It will probably be reduced. But it might not be reduced significantly. You might also get a used card that was already near the end of it's lifespan, etc. It's ultimately all very hand-wavy, but I just don't think it's worth the risk when these cards cost often several hundreds of dollars.

ajack · 10-25-2010, 08:24 PM

I just don't understand how these cards can still fetch $200+ on eBay if it's a known fact that they are faulty....

...but I see your point. I guess I will focus on a CPU upgrade first, and maybe upgrade the video card only when/if these things go below $100

Thanks for the advice, though!

Apollo13 · 10-27-2010, 02:57 PM

CommanderWolf is right. "Hand-wavy" is a good way to describe the situation. You might get lucky and have no problems, or you might buy a card that fails after a month (or less). And while the seller may know that the card was near end-of-life, they might legitimately not know isn't near EOL, either.

The failure rate is probably part of the reason why the cards are so expensive - there's a demand for them because there's a lot of them failing, needing people in need of a replacement (and it is still cheaper than a whole new laptop). Most likely, a lot of the people buying them don't know they are prone to failure. And even if they know, just because they are prone to failure doesn't mean they will fail.