Overview and introduction
Note: all pictures are scaled for your viewing pleasure, but they are still available in full ress
under http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/3438_High_Res/
The 3438 is a 17" desktop replacement notebook from the pre-multicore era.
CPU: Pentium M 1,73GHz
RAM: 512MB DDR2-400 (Infinion)
HD: 60GB SATA 5400rpm/8MB SATA I(Samsung)
GPU: Geforce 6800Go 256MB MXM Type III
Screen: 17" 1440 x 900
OS: Win XP Home (SP2)
Battery: 8 cell 4400 mAh
Weight: 4.1kg
Dimensions: 408mm x 289mm x 38,1mm
Wireless: 802.11 b/g Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200BG
Ports:1x IEEE1394, 4x USB 2.0 ports, 1x S-Video, 1x DVI-I, 1x modem, 1x LAN, 1x
WLAN, 4 in 1 card reader SD/MS/MMC/MSPRO, 1x ExpressCard slot (36/54mm),
1x line in, 1x headphone out combined with1x SPDIF, 1 x microphone in, 1 x CIR
120W AC Adapter
Reasons for buying
Early 2006 I started MXM-Upgrade, a site dedicated to make MXM information and cards
available to the wide public. A few months later, MXM-Upgrade.com is up and running, page
views are steadily rising and MXM cards are available through our shop. Cards are being
sold, cards are being send out for evaluation but... one thing was missing. I still didn't have a
notebook myself! Not a MXM notebook and not another. So, it was about time I made the big
step.
Obviously, I was looking for a notebook with a MXM slot. To be able to test the entire range
of cards, I needed a MXM Type III slot. What I did not need was the latest, fastest and
sleekest notebook. So I really didn't mind my notebook to be a part of the previous 'wave'. No
Core Duo for me, no x1xx or Go7xxx. I pretty much bought the cheapest MXM Type III
notebook I could find. Before anyone starts to look down on this notebook: it is basically a
Uniwill P71EN0. And that is just a different name for the Alienware m5700
Where and how purchased
I bought it in Carrefour, a large hypermarket chain with branches all over Europe. It carried a
1000€ price tag. I picked up the box, payed and walked away with it. It has a 2 year
guarantee, but it's hard to tell just what that means in a store that's more about selling six-
packs and chips than providing service for their electronics.
The unit comes with manuals, a DVI-VGA adapter piece and restore CD's. The remote
control is stored in the Expresscard slot.
Does it look kinda cheap? Is it so light you fear the wind might take it? Sure, but it looks
about infinitely more expensive than nothing at all!
There's also a bag in there. I wanted to pick one up when I bought the notebook and now I'm
glad they had only 15,4" bags. Again, this is obviously not a luxury carry bag, it isn't padded
all that much, but it's functional, as seems to be the major focus point of this notebook. A
pleasant side effect is that the bag really isn't much thicker than the notebook itself.
Last but not least is the power adapter. Bulky, clumsy and heavy, it packs a massive 120W,
enough for current use and upgrade projects.
Build and design.
When looking at this notebook, there's one word that comes to mind: functional. Designed to
do the job, period. The silver plastic looks a bit cheapish, but does the trick. It isn't small, it
isn't light but I guess there's little point in expecting this from a 17" notebook and it actually
still manages to have an elegant feel to it.Even though it may sound superficial: I like blue
LEDs, and I like how they look on my notebook. They are small and glow discrete in the
background and lack the in-you-face search light attitude found on some other notebooks. I'm
sure there are screens out there that are sturdier or bend less, but the design once again seems
to scream 'functional' in your ear because regardless the small bends, the picture remains
perfect and unchanged. The hinges aren't exactly made of reinforced steel but they seem
heavy enough to keep the screen in check.
What was somewhat of a surprise was that this notebook isn't as thick as I expected for a 17".
I suppose I expected it to be brick sized after I heard an Asus representative complain about
height challenges due to MXM cards.
Screen
This notebook is available in a WXGA+ and WUGA version, 3438 and 4838 respectively. I
opted for the WXGA+ version. I have always been to exclude my screens from my normal
'more is always better' credo. I can read my screen perfectly and I have never seen the point in
a WUXGA 17" screen. I figure I'd end up decreasing resolution after all because I wouldn't be
able to read miniature sized letters. This is actually the first glossy screen I've ever owned and
it will probably take me a few more months or years to get used to it. Then again, I'm typing
this on a very sunny day outside in the shade and the screen is just perfect. The viewing angle
is perfect from all sides and there's no hint of color inversion even though the colors change a
bit under angle, as they do with most TFT's these days. Haven't spotted a single dead, stuck or
otherwise handicapped pixel.
What I díd spot was the horrible light distribution. When the screen is black, it is really
obvious the screen has an edgelit backlight at the bottom. This was a minor disappointment. It
really doesn't show in everyday use, but I hate it regardless.
Not a good picture by any means, it still shows the unholy glow near the bottom of the screen.
Please note that the white line is a byproduct of MS paint, nothing else.
Speakers
There are two built in speakers and a 'subwoofer'. Subwoofer? Seriously, this is a marketing
term. Sure, it adds some depth and the sound isn't as bad as one without the 'subwoofer'. This
may be meaningful for avid gamers, but it is still pointless for any audiophile. Don't be lured
into thinking a 'subwoofer' turns your machine into a high fidelity audio enjoyment center, it
doesn't.
Processor and performance
Well, I'm sure the Pentium M doesn't require an introduction anymore. It's more than fast
enough for my needs. I plan to do some light gaming in the future, but right now I'm just
benchmarking. As I'll be comparing GPU's against each other, the absolute performance of
the CPU is not relevant. The fact that it has only 512MB DDR isn't relevant either as all
GPU's in this notebook will be equally handicapped. I'll probably upgrade it in the future, but
I'm fine for now.
Benchmarks
SuperPi
1m52s
PCMark05
2925
3DMark05
3666 with standard driver (78.10)
note: By installing better drivers from lv2go, up to 200 3DMarks can be gained, but the site
was down during my benchmarking.
3DMark06
2127
Heat and Noise
The 3438 has one single fan for both the CPU and GPU. The fan sucks it's air from the bottom
and blows it over a copper radiator in the back. The CPU and GPU are coupled to the radiator
through heatpipes. The CPU features a full copper block and the heatsink of the GPU is made
off aluminium except the part where the GPU core goes.
When in battery optimized mode, the fan hardly ever turns on as the CPU temperature never
rises above 50°C. When performing CPU intensive tasks, the fan kicks in. At this point, you
can hardly hear it. Per 10°C temperature increase, the fan speeds up a bit. When the
temperature hits 70°C,it becomes quite audiable but it only reached that temperature during a
hot summer day running benchmarks.
When the notebook is plugged in and in full performance mode, temperature orbits 50°C,
meaning the fan revs up every now and then, but again: you will hardly notice it. Please note
that I've called this machine a 'notebook' and not a laptop. As it takes it's air from the bottom,
placing it on your lap will cause it to overheat pretty fast.
The palmrest of your right hand is right above the MXM GPU card and can become quite hot
when running GPU intensive tasks. Not uncomfortably warm, but still a bit warmer than a
decent design should allow. When opening her up, I noticed both the bottom of the card as the
top of the PCB below the MXM are covered in a foil. Perhaps I'll remove it one day to see the
difference.
One important thing to notice though: if you would place the screen horizontally and the base
vertically, you can see the temperature rise like the temperature in Chernobyl's reactor. This is
a common feature of heatpipes: they don't enjoy a downhill battle. Heat wants to go up, and
so does the boiling fluid in the heatpipes. It can handle horizontal heattransfer, but it will have
about a 0% efficiency when transporting heat down.
Keyboard and touchpad
I won't be breaking speed records on any keyboard, but I did enjoy typing on this one. Still
big enough to type on, I found the step from a desktop keyboard to this one quite manageable.
The right hand side of the keyboard tends to be a bit noisy but that doesn't get in the way of
typing accuracy.
The keypad is accurate and sensitive and does exactly what it should. To the right there's a
scrollpad and that worked better than I imagined. It makes scrolling up and down quite
intuitive. Right above the keypad, there's an on/off button for the keypad. I can see why, as
from time to time when I travel too much to the left side of the keyboard with my right hand I
tend to falsely trigger the keypad, which is sometimes funny and sometimes not. I looked
around for a sensitivity setting but couldn't find one. Quite possible I didn't look far enough,
but even then I would imagine that such an important setting would be easier to find and
access.
Input/Output ports
On the left side, there's the power connector, the DL DVD writer tray, one USB 2.0 port and
audio control and IO. The headphone jack doubles as a 7.1 SPDIF connection.
The right side features another 3 USB connectors, the Exprescard slot, Firewire, Ethernet and
a universal card reader slot.
The back has a DVI-I exit and a S-Video connector. This notebook basically has everything
one might expect from a contemporary notebook.
Also note the radiator exhaust. Better keep it dust free!
Wireless
A part I definitely liked! I have my home PC linked to the wireless network through a USB
dongle but it has trouble finding the network or maintaining a stable connection. Even when it
does, the speed is down to a single digit number.
The 3438 connected without a problem when sitting next to my PC and maintained a good
connection throughout. When comparing to my dad's PCMCIA enabled notebook, there was
no competition. The Amilo scored a lot better, getting better throughput and range. Definitely
a pleasant surprise.
I suppose you could see the lack of Bluetooth as a downside, but as I have no devices to
connect I'm sure I'll survive.
Battery
I've never heard of an 8 cell before, but it would seem I have one. At 14.4V and 4400mAh it
weighs in at 63Wh. It probably comes as no surprise that a 17" screen coupled to a high end
GPU doesn't exactly own the autonomy tables. I can get anywhere between 2 and 3 hours on a
normal battery doing normal things. I haven't tried it while gaming. Scared, I guess...
Operating System and Software
Windows XP Home came pre-installed on this machine. I was provided with the Recovery
CD's, Driver & Utilities CD, Microsoft Works and Nero Express. It also has Cyberlink
PowerDVD and the Odyssey wireless configurator. While not exactly a treasury chest, it is
what can be expected. More importantly, I wouldn't consider any of the installed programs
bloatware and I enjoy my clean notebooks.
I'm perfectly capable of installing junk myself.
Tech support
I wouldn't know. My notebooks works perfectly and I really hope I'll never encounter
anything I can't fix myself.
The Upgrade
A little while ago, Harakiri (what's in a name) from the German Amilo forums
(http://www.amilo-forum.de) destroyed his 6800 card. He arrived at the only place MXM
cards are sold, my store. He asked me what his options were. I told him I could set him up
with a replacement 6800 or a x1800.
At this point, I had never bothered to take stock of the x1800 as it is just way to expensive for
425€. However, from Harakiri's perspective, it was just 125€ because he had to shell the other
300€ anyway. I'm not sure if I would have done the same in his shoes, but he ordered the card.
As all this coincided with the purchase of this notebook (the same as his), we decided I would
keep the card for a while, verify everything and send it to him after the evaluation. That
evaluation is concluded,benchmarks have run and an upgrade kit is on it's way to him.
Tools required:
A Dremmel, a screwdriver, a soldering iron and a twincer.
You just have to remove a single backpanel. Before you do that, remove the battery as a
precaution. A simple, small Philips does the trick. After that, you can lift the panel with your
nail. Notice that there's one screw that is longer. Make absolutely sure you place it back in the
correct hole when closing your notebook again. It's the hole labeled K/B. Failure to do so will
yield the same result as Mr. Harakiri got.
Not that I mind... Also: at this point you have just voided your guarantee.
When the panel is removed, you'll have to remove all screws indicated with the yellow
circles. Make sure not too touch parts of the motherboard, as ESD cán kill your notebook.
Make sure to discharge yourself every now and then on a well grounded item (water
pipes,...)This will allow you to carefully remove the heatsink assembly. Make sure to
disconnect the fan plug first. Once again, your nail is the primary tool for this job. I took the
time and opportunity to apply AS5 on the CPU, but that is obviously optional .Please notice
that some of the heatpads are not the original ones. I currently have no more replacements
available, so be careful with yours.
After having removed the heatsink, two more screws keep the MXM on the motherboard.
Remove them.
After clicking in the x1800, I noticed I couldn't screw the sink completely back. The heatsink
has a small cutout for a coil near the top of the card. As that coil has shifted a bit for the
x1800, the heatsink no longer fits. I can't show you pictures of the x1800 mounted in my
machine as it is currently speeding towards Germany to revive Mr. Harakiri's notebook, but
here's an 'archive' picture...
Enter the Dremmel.
No skills are required (as evidenced by the picture of the heatsink) but some courage is not
optional before you put the cutting blade in a part of your brand new 1000€ notebook. It takes
about 15 minutes. Make sure to remove the heatpads from the heatsink before starting to cut
into the metal as the small metal parts get stuck to the heatpads and can form a kind of
conductive metal film on it with a high potential for disaster.
After this the heatsink can be easily mounted. At this point, I closed the notebook and
commenced my benchmarks, but you will have to leave it open just a little longer.
When running my first benchmarks, I had a few thermal shutdowns while the CPU wasn't hot
at all and the fan wasn't revving up. After some investigation, I noticed that the GPU
temperature was unknown to the system. It is my assumption that the fan is controlled by
either the GPU or CPU, depending on who needs it the most. Because no GPU temp was
available, the system was happily unaware of the GPU nearing his shutdown temperature. I
tried flashing the Bios with the latest available, accidentally an Alienware Bios, but to no
avail. It only brought me a nice AW splash screen.
As I wasn't able to find a software solution to this problem, I turned my attention to a
hardware solution. As the problem was mainly that the fan wasn't running fast enough, I
designed a simple amplifier. The fans would still be off when they were off initially but it
would be possible to have them run linearly faster once they were on. Consisting of only two
resistors and a variable resistor, the circuit is easy enough and requires only some basic
soldering skills. And some balls. But if you ever enjoyed 'cutting the red wire' in a McGuyver
episode, I'm sure you'll enjoy this.
I would like to thank Mr. Harakiri for his Ms. Paint skills!
You have to cut both the red and black wire. Make sure you don't cut too close to the edge, as
you'll need some room for stripping and soldering the wire, make some bends and... make
mistakes! Leave the yellow wire as it is. Once the wire is cut, strip both edges and tin them.
Connect the part of the black wire that is connected to the connector to pin 3 of the transistor.
Connect the part of the black wire that is still connected to the fan to pin 2 of the transistor.
I will have connected pin 1 to both resistors as in series. Connect the loose end of the resistor
to the red wire of the connector. I had to solder a wire to the remaining red wire at this point,
but I will have done that for you already.
At this point, you can put the heatsink back in. I provided a piece of strong double sided tape
to secure the transistor. Make sure none of the metallic parts can touch other metal parts.
You'll note that I've taped a few components and surfaces in order to prevent the circuit from
making short circuits.
Last but not least, you'll have to connect the red wire of the fan to a 5V source. I took 5V of
the USB PCB. It requires you unscrew both speakers and the right hand connector PCB.
You will have to solder the wire to the green dot, not the red one. Make sure the wire doesn't
touch anything but the green dot pad. I made an error at some point and the notebook didn't
boot anymore. Removing the short remedied this, but I'm not taking bets whether you'll be as
lucky as I was. But I'm sure you'll do better given the high quality professional picture I've
provided (ahem...)
Your masterpiece is finished! You can now regulate your fans speed over a fairly wide range
by adjusting the blue pot. You can try to find all the screws again, close your notebook and
enjoy a hefty performance premium. How hefty?
I guess 5161 on 3DMark05 isn't shabby ;)
Update on upgrade procedure - 22 oktober 2007
Since writing up the review and procedure mentioned above, a lot have things have changed.
My own 3438 died, the x1800 was replaced by the x1900 and the upgrade procedure has
changed and improved. Opening the notebook up and modifying the heatsink has remained
exactly the same but after this the hardware hack of the fan was improved and we added a
new "software" option. Reports on whether this is enough to "cut it" are mixed, but it is worth
a shot.
On the software front, we now have a script for NHC that "fakes" the processor temperature.
By doing so, NHC tricks the system in to thinking the CPU is very hot so it triggers the
thermal system to step it up a notch. Simply install NHC, unzip the script in the ACPI folder
of the NHC program and enable ACPI control. There are a few steps, set it to "Hardware3"
for gaming. Unfortunately, the actual effect of the script is that the system "sees" an average
CPU temperature somewhere between the actual and faked temperature. That means the fan
revs up but not necessarily enough to keep the x1900 cool. If you still suffer from thermal
shutdowns, proceed to the hardware side of things..
The fan hack was also updated. Instead of a setup where a transistor would amplify the fan
speed send by the system, we now have a setup with a relay and a thermistor. The thermistor
is placed on the GPU heatsink and will trigger at 60 degrees. Before that temperature, the fan
is driven by CPU temperature. During normal desktop tasks, office, browsing, music, movies,
this is more than enough to cool both GPU and CPU. However, with intensive gaming the
temperature will rise above 60 degrees. The relay will be triggered by the thermistor and the
fan will be forced to full speed, which is the right setting for heavy gaming. When you stop
gaming, the heatsink will cool down to 40 degrees before normal fan speed is restored. This
will allow the system to loose it's heat effectively after gaming.
The reaction of the system to the GPU temperature is shown in yellow, the pink is the
"normal" CPU temperature curve. Combining the curves is not 100% accurate but it does
show more or less how the system behaves.
The fan circuit is build like this...
Everything in dashed lines is pre-soldered for you. So, what is left is cutting the fan wires like
in this picture...
... and solder them to the relay. It is obviously imperative to make sure no exposed wire
touches any surface. It is highly encouraged to isolate all exposed wire with (electrical) tape.
For the "5V source" in the diagram, there are two options. One is to strip a USB cable and use
that, but this obviously has the disadvantage of having the USB connector on the outside and
having to find a way to get the cable connection back inside the cavity (hole in the cover). The
other solution is to attach wires to the internal USB 5V. The procedure is already described
above, but the actual wire can also be attached like this..
After this, the top of the heatsink must be modified to accomodate the thermistor. For this, the
surface should be more or less flat.
Remove the tape liner on the bottom of the thermistor and use the double sided tape to secure
the thermistor to the heatsink. Do the same to tape the relay to the motherboard. After making
sure no exposed metalic parts can create a short and no components can move around, close
the notebook, install new drivers and get your baby ready to rock!
Note: more pictures to be added.
Conclusion
This notebooks isn't going to drop any jaws in the enthusiast community, but it is very
complete for it's price. While not equipped with the latest processors or GPU's and while not
leading the pack for build quality, it does a very nice overall job. And it holds the promise of
equipping your game toy with a more powerful GPU down the line. I wouldn't recommend
that at it's current price, but it will certainly become an interesting option in the future.
Pros:
Not too thick.
MXM Type III slot.
Good screen
Complete
Decent quality
MXM Slot!
Cons:
A little keyboard rattling
Non-uniform screen backlighting
Mediocre battery life
