Thanks guys! Upgraded FX 7811 completed!

[jonatbaylor]

Thanks so much to everyone who has helped figure out how to upgrade and repair these Gateway laptops as well as their sister systems and sharing that information on this website. I'm loving the performance of this machine and while the GPU is showing its age, I can run just about any program like a champ.

From researching posts on here and on other sites, I have now upgraded and or replaced components:

E0 Step Xtreme 9100 3.06 CPU - Getting 3.6ghz no crashes, very stable 24/7.
BluRay DVD Player
8GB Ram
New Keyboard
2 320gb 720rpm HD's

Future:
Possible GPU (external) upgrade
Possible SSD upgrade
**update.** Have been able to run stable the last 29 hours with 14.5 muliplier, giving me 3.857ghz. Non gaming use, no OC'ing on ram, mobo or gpu.

[TreeTops Ranch]

Well congratulations on the upgrade. I sure wish I had your talent.

[jonatbaylor]

Well congratulations on the upgrade. I sure wish I had your talent.

It didn't take much talent. Just patience. Actually, all of these upgrades were quite easy.

The hardest thing I ever did was completely break down (I mean completely) the machine to clean it. That took several hours. Bagged all of the screws, grouped and labeled and took pictures so I wouldn't get stuck.

Everything else was super easy, just plug in play, basically. Even the keyboard isn't that hard.

[ZubZub]

Congratulations!

Maybe you could post a 3Dmark06 benchmark screenshot?

I'd love to compare my score (10,427) to yours.

[jonatbaylor]

Your score is well ahead of mine. I just ran it and scored a 10113 using a 14x multiplier @3.72ghz

I'll give it another whirl later. Maybe I'll crank it up to 3.8-4.ghz and see what I get. I don't imagine much change though. Probably will go down the hotter it gets.

[ZubZub]

My clock settings were 700/900/1700, which are not stable while gaming.

I am planning on finding more stable clocks that will allow for a boost in performance without locking my laptop.

[jonatbaylor]

Not that the WEI is much, but if nothing else its a quick way to see a comparison

[jonatbaylor]

My clock settings were 700/900/1700, which are not stable while gaming.

I am planning on finding more stable clocks that will allow for a boost in performance without locking my laptop.

Right on, well if you do find that perfect medium let me know. I haven't done much with OCing yet. I can get stable at a 14.5 multiplier which gives me a 3.85ghz; so far doesn't seem to matter what I set the VID too. Ive tried a variety of settings there.

I'm assuming 700/900/1700 would be OC's for bus and gpu and something else? I suppose I'll need to poke around these forums to fig. out how to OC the bus and gpu.

with only 512mb of GPU ram, I don't even bother playing new games on it. Just older stuff (2006-2010). I will probably do an external gpu upgrade though if I can find something that won't have a bunch of unorganized wires and such. Basically, you take a desktop GPU/power supply and you plug it into the laptop via some form or another. Obviously, the main limitation would be the bus on the mobo, but I'm curious what a setup would produce.

[fittyyen]

How much did it cost you to upgrade? I still have my stock 7811. I have that old problem where itll freeze up during video game play and Im thinking I should invest some money into upgrading its hardware.

[jonatbaylor]

How much did it cost you to upgrade? I still have my stock 7811. I have that old problem where itll freeze up during video game play and Im thinking I should invest some money into upgrading its hardware.

Lg 8x BluRay 107.44
Crucial 8GB PC3-8500 DDR3 37.37
IC Diamond 7 Carat Thermal Paste 7.99
Belkin Anti Static Wristband 5.95
Intel X9100 E0 Step 3.06ghz OC Chip 180.31
Gateway OEM keyboard 36

Total: 375.1, with 287 of that coming from the CPU and the BluRay.

For me its worth it, because there is no reason why I won't be able to keep this laptop another 3 years; especially if I decide to hook up an external vid card.

The most notable change was going up to 8GB of ram. The CPU, being such a large increase from the stock P8400 (2.26ghz?) to my OC of 3.6-3.8 was a big difference too.

I should mention though, that if you go with a non OC chip up to something like the 2.8ghz or whatever, you won't hardly tell the difference in performance and I would say its probably not worth it. Mind as well go all the way up to the X9100 if you are going to spend the money. I imagine some would argue against that logic, but hey, we can't all agree on everything.

I am not sure any of these upgrades are going to relieve the issue you are facing, either. Your problems probably stem from the GPU being over taxed. But that's just a guess as I don't know what you are playing game wise.

Again, the WEI isn't all that great for benchmarking, and I don't have much desire to test my P8400 chip in things like 3dMark06 to compare to my X9100 as that would require me to tear it out and what not but I would venture to guess your game improvement would be marginal.

I've got a huge improvement in everything you'd expect from 2x as much RAM and 1.5more ghz...burning CD's, dvd's, reading huge files, numbers stuff..