HP EliteBook 8770W mods/customizations

I got an 8770W because my old 8540W crapped out finally.

Here it is. List of mods and upgrades:

8GB > 16GB RAM (have 32GB coming)

i5 3230M >i7 3630QM (3940XM can't be OCd and provides no meaningful benefit)

FirePro M4000 > Quadro M3000M (I use Blender, sue me.) I have a P4000 coming soon.

120GB Crucial BX300

2TB Seagate FireCuda

Carbon fiber vinly wrap

Modded LED keyboard (Red)

Single heatpipe to dual heatpipe GPU sink/fin assembly

I paid $530US total.

I also put some MSI badging on it cause why not, the red looks good and people aren't gonna believe that I'm playing Skyrim at 1440p (upscaled) on a 7 year old notebook.

 

P4000 won't work on your system unless you have a DreamColor panel.
Pascal GPUs work only on eDP signal, yours is the old LVDS.
GTX 980M/M5000M is your best option.

 

Pretty sure the Quadros can do both. If not I'll grab a DC screen. Just means I can sell the laptop for more.

The P4000 specifically supports analogue DVI output.

 

Reading your signature, I'm assuming you took the Blu-Ray drive out? You've got 4 drives in there and the laptop only has 3 slots by default, 2x 2.5 SATA and 1x MSATA.

Personally the MSATA drives aren't worth their price unless you can easily secure a good deal, one reason I just went with small SSD for boot and SSHD for storage. I do 3D modeling so the raw I/O isn't needed as much as someone who does data sorting or video editing.

I will say that I've modded my M3000M. If you look at the GPU-Z window you can see that the clocks are higher as well as the voltage. My M3000M actually outperforms a reference desktop GTX 960.

Can you test Mobile Pascal TDP Tweaker and the latest modded version of NVFLASH? If I can't modify the BIOS of the P4000 without an SPI there's no real point in getting it.

 

Don't hope to get P4000 working on LVDS screen. In thus case it is not about Quadro or not, it is about GPU technology and Pascal is known to working only with eDP signal based LCD. As far as I know Mobile Pascal TDP Tweaker works only with SPI programmer.
Nice OC for M3000M
When I had M5000M (prior my GTX 1070) I got it working at 1400 core/ 1350 mem with Prema vbios, reaching 15500K graphic pts in 3DM11...but the die quality was insane - 77,3%.
I have 2TB on the place of the BR. And another 2TB in the docking station. 7.5TB overall.
Just keep in mind once you upgrade to DC screen and a Pascal GPU, you won’t be able to use Win 7 anymore as DC and Pascal need pure UEFI based OS.

 

Why do you need 7.5TB? Just get MSATA and two 2.5-inch ST4000LM024. Keep blu ray

Output through LVDS or eDP is dependent on BIOS. P4000 specifically have support for analogue output. Notice how other cards specify DVI type like dual link.

 

Yes, I know this.
You will have DP output to every external display connected, just the internal won’t work at all.

(I have 2TB music, 2TB pictures and videos and the 2TB in the docking station is my full pc backup, programs etc)

 

The P4000 card has an analogue RDAC.

 

Then give it a try, I will be interested to see if it works

 

put an LED strip under the lid after cutting it with a Dremel, soldered to one of the USB ports internally.

Needs to be cleaned up a bit with a better diffusion method.