Info 3D modelling on a 2011 laptop: A chronicle of various upgrades to my Asus K73

[bridgeridoo]

Over the years I've completely overhauled this old Asus K73 from 2011, beyond the specs originally available, and feel like I should share what I've learned. Some of these upgrades (CPU and RAM) were a gamble, after being unable to find any evidence of others' success.

• Motherboard/GPU: A few years ago, I upgraded the K73E mobo to a K73SM mobo ($60 used on ebay) which has an integrated GPU (GT 630M). And if I recall correctly, this new mobo required a different heatsink assembly (with an additional pipe for the GPU), purchased separately.
• CPU: Shortly after the mobo swap, I upgraded the i5-2410M to an i7-2760QM ($40 used on ebay), which was the best CPU I could find for that socket. Not officially supported for the K73 series, and not to be confused with the 2670QM, which was available on some K73 models.
  • Highest speed I've seen is 3464mhz (single core I assume). This is at Windows 10's max performance setting -- the "better performance" setting results in slightly lower speeds.
  • Temps: I think typical usage peaks at 70-75. Just did a 15-minute stress test w/ realbench, and got a max temp of 97 C -- apparently with some thermal throttling (according to HWinfo). I haven't cleaned out the insides in at least a year, and it's been used on a construction site, so maybe it could run a few degrees cooler.
• RAM: Just today, I upgraded 4GB (1333mhz DDR3) to 16GB (1600mhz DDR3L) (gskill). Even though the docs say that 8GB is max supported RAM, I decided to risk an amazon return, and the 16 GB seems to be working so far. Shows 16GB in taskmanager, and it passed a realbench stress test with 16gb selected. The officially supported spec for the K73SM is DDR3L @ 1333 mhz. Lesser CPUs might limit ram to 1333 -- just a theory.
• Storage: 2.5" SATA SSD. Previously had installed a 2nd drive, worked fine, required caddy I think? No m2 port on this board. Removed optical drive to save weight -- curious about other uses for that port. It's not standard SATA pins.
• Battery: Been using a $30 CWK replacement battery for the last 13 months -- holds a charge for maybe 2 hours?

Considering its age, the machine still does remarkably well at meeting my needs, the most demanding of which is 3D modelling with SketchUp. It would probably struggle with advanced video editing or any modern game. Compared to my beastly desktop, SketchUp on the laptop isn't as smooth, but is definitely smooth enough for my residential architectural work. Instead of 16X antialiasing, I use 2X. Panning with shadows on a complex model is pretty choppy, but again, usable.

Windows 10 works fine except one thing: The Fn keys for brightness don't work. The screen is fine. Wish the keyboard was backlit. Oh and I dropped it from the bed onto concrete and now the sound isn't working -- hopefully I can fix that without a total motherboard replacement.

I've been kind of tempted to buy a new laptop, but I don't think I would notice a drastic difference with a mid-range modern laptop, unless I wanted to do some gaming or maybe video-editing.

 

[Lutfij]

The only thing I can add to your discovery is that you'r only trying to kill the laptop. If I were you, I'd stick to just the 8GB of ram, and not stress the integrated memory controller on the platform(also reduce heat dump), then drop the processor to a non QM suffix to tame the heat in that laptop, then make sure that the heatsink for the platform is conforming to the discrete GT630M that's soldered to the motherboard. The other bit of trouble you're walking into is trying to force install a latter OS onto a very old laptop.

Windows 10 is indeed a new OS but as updates come rolling out, the OS isn't as "light" as it once was during release.

 

[bridgeridoo]

Thanks for the thoughts. I'd be a little more cautious if the laptop were newer & more precious to me. All of these changes except the RAM increase have been working for a few years now. Windows 10 runs well except for the brightness issue (worth it). A few years ago, parts for this machine were pretty easy to find and they were very cheap, so there wasn't much risk. Now those parts are getting more scarce (9 year old machine). If I run the laptop into the ground by pulling too much voltage or whatever, so be it.