Trade opportunity has come along

[technos]

Well guys I have a nice trade opportunity from a local. He has a toshiba Qosmio Core i7 Laptop with a gts360m graphics card. He is offering to trade it for my MSI Gx720 laptop. The only reason why he is doing so is because he has a line through his screen and didn't want to wait to get it repaired by toshiba, seems he went through a lot of hassle, but he claims warranty still will cover it. Anyway, about the core i7 qosmio, I have questions:
1. Can the CPU be upgraded to a faster one?
2. Is the graphics card upgradable MXM type?
3. Should I trade?

Thanks in advance!

[betaflame]

What are the purchase dates on both of them?

Also get the serial/service tag # and perform a warranty check. Make sure he didn't void the warranty by trying to mod it or something.

How much do you trust this guy?

[Histidine]

CPU can be upgraded, but there's not much point - the faster i7 cards (820QM, 920XM) are only 10-15% and 20-25% faster, respectively, than the 720QM, but they cost much more ($500-ish for the 820QM, and the price of a new gaming laptop for the 920XM).

Toshiba does not use MXM. I had a Toshiba a while back that used a proprietary plug-in interface, but it couldn't be upgraded.

I would definitely trade, though! Its GPU is way better than yours, and its i7 CPU will kick the crap out of your GX720. Just be sure the other guy knows how much of a downgrade he's getting!

[technos]

His LCD has a line through it, but he is providing the receipt as well as the toshiba warranty box. He just got the box, but had already bought another laptop and now wants to get rid of it for $800 or trade it for my laptop. I'm double checking with this guy, but now that I think about it, the chances of upgrading a GPU is slim anyway, will the GTS360m cut butter on crysis and other games like GTAIV, or is it still weak. If he says yes, I will be going to take a look at the laptop anyway. Do the Core i7 ES cpus have unlocked multipliers or not?

I also read somewhere that the x505 does us MXM as of now, MXM 3.0B i hear. Will check other sources though.

[Histidine]

GTS360m will be just barely able to run Crysis smoothly at High settings and 1080p (which i believe the Qosmio is), though you might have to set a few settings to Medium, and you don't get to touch AA. And by the way, that's impressive for a laptop. Most other DX10 games should run at high settings, and with DX9 games the GTS360m wouldn't even break a sweat at maximum settings. It's by no means a weak card - it's definitely one of the stronger ones out there.

As for MXM, www.mxm-upgrade.com doesn't have any Toshibas listed. I haven't found anything to confirm MXM, only rumors on forums (mostly by people who don't know the difference between MXM and a proprietary modular card). Even if it supports MXM, Toshiba isn't advertising it, so they almost certainly wouldn't offer the necessary BIOS updates to support more cards than the GTS360m. So, sorry, but you'd be stuck with that card (but again, it's a pretty good one!).

[technos]

Well it has to be better than the 9600M GT :P

How about the line on the LCD? Is there a way to get rid of it? Will toshiba warranty fix it? he had an issue getting them to repair it, gave up, and bought an i7 desktop. They eventually sent the box, but he put it up for sale after that and is pretty pissed with toshiba. So, can I get rid of the horizontal line in some way, or will toshiba fix it? Its still under warranty (he bought it in january), why shouldn't they fix it? Anyway, checking it out on saturday.

[Histidine]

Seems to me they should fix it. Just to be sure, if I was you, I'd give Toshiba customer service a call (have the SN of the laptop on hand when you do!). Let them know your situation, and see if you can send it in for fixing. I can't see why they wouldn't - a horizontal line is a serious problem, and it usually means a defect from manufacturing.