New (Old) stock P870DM3

[Reciever]

Good Morning everyone! 

 

So I recently came across this listing here on ebay. Its a P870DM3 for 550 OBO from eluktronics

 

I was thinking of transplanting what I have in the P750FM (15.6 Frankentop) to the P870DM3, are there any huge design flaws of the DM3 I should be aware of? 

 

My current system already has a 9th gen 9700F, and I have half a dozen 6th gen 6500T chips laying about for bios-mods, RAM and SSD's so really most of the cost would be a new video card at some point as my current 1080 has an off center die (custom heatsink)

 

I figure if I sell my P157SM-A, T440p, 5820x Precision (all of which I dont use at all for varying reasons) and some spare parts I have laying around I should at the very least break even in terms of fiscal burden over time. Especially if I pitch for 450-475

 

@electrosoft @Papusan @Ashtrix @Mr. Fox @Etern4l @cylix @Meaker

 

I have been using my AM4 system to float me for a bit now but its about time for mining season again so the AM4 ITX box will go back to running 5x GPU's to heat up the house

[Etern4l]

4 minutes ago, Reciever said:

but its about time for mining season again so the AM4 ITX box will go back to running 5x GPU's to heat up the house

 

Are you talking about GPU crypto mining? Isn't that dead?

[Reciever]

43 minutes ago, Etern4l said:

 

Are you talking about GPU crypto mining? Isn't that dead?

Ethereum is dead since having switched over to Proof of Stake, there are plenty of other coins to mine. The cost/benefit isnt there for general public but my power is free 12 hours a day and it will heat my house during the winter. I already have all the infrastructure in place so no reason to not run it.

[Etern4l]

7 minutes ago, Reciever said:

Ethereum is dead since having switched over to Proof of Stake, there are plenty of other coins to mine. The cost/benefit isnt there for general public but my power is free 12 hours a day and it will heat my house during the winter. I already have all the infrastructure in place so no reason to not run it.

Sorry, no more reactions left today, but I like the free power arrangement. Are we talking solar?  Probably not, since you would need a sizeable farm to power a mining operation, and solar farms aren't normally free. 

[Mr. Fox]

1 hour ago, Reciever said:

Good Morning everyone! 

 

So I recently came across this listing here on ebay. Its a P870DM3 for 550 OBO from eluktronics

 

I was thinking of transplanting what I have in the P750FM (15.6 Frankentop) to the P870DM3, are there any huge design flaws of the DM3 I should be aware of? 

 

My current system already has a 9th gen 9700F, and I have half a dozen 6th gen 6500T chips laying about for bios-mods, RAM and SSD's so really most of the cost would be a new video card at some point as my current 1080 has an off center die (custom heatsink)

 

I figure if I sell my P157SM-A, T440p, 5820x Precision (all of which I dont use at all for varying reasons) and some spare parts I have laying around I should at the very least break even in terms of fiscal burden over time. Especially if I pitch for 450-475

 

@electrosoft @Papusan @Ashtrix @Mr. Fox @Etern4l @cylix @Meaker

 

I have been using my AM4 system to float me for a bit now but its about time for mining season again so the AM4 ITX box will go back to running 5x GPU's to heat up the house

Excellent laptop. P870DM3 is the last laptop that I owned that I actually loved before things started turning to utter crap on mobile platforms. I would never go back to laptops again, but it was the last one that was good enough to make me pause momentarily and think it was something special and desirable.

 

It had no standout flaws that I can remember other than the stock BIOS is rubbish, as the case is with all laptops. You would need to find out from @BOAT (Bob works there) what GPU heat sink(s) are included or if it is a vapor chamber to know what GPUs will match/fit the heat sink(s).  The listing shows "cooling solution" which is not very useful for planning what GPU you are going to use. It could be standard MXM or the Clevo version of MXM and one will not fit the other.

 

You may want to consider the availability of service parts. $550 OBO is not bad. If you can't, for example, buy a replacement motherboard from Clevo that would be a problem. Or, if you can and it costs $500 this might not be a good deal when you consider the big picture. Availability of other potentially proprietary model-specific parts that don't last forever, like eDP cables and fans, should also be considered. Bob might be able to answer some of those questions as well. If the answer is yes today, it might be no next week. If a part fails and you can't buy one new from a Clevo reseller, it might be a good deal that one needs to walk away from.

[Reciever]

7 minutes ago, Etern4l said:

Sorry, no more reactions left today, but I like the free power arrangement. Are we talking solar? 

Sadly no, that is an avenue I really want to pursue at some point though. 

 

Its just the plan we selected from the provider, 12 hours free usage and 12 hours at some higher rate. No one really at the house during the day so things are lean during the day and ramped up over night, I have my systems on timers/schedules so that they are all off an on when appropriate. 

 

For the purposes of the winter though, My GPU mining setup heats the house pretty well when I distribute it in key areas and still costs less than half as much as it does to cool the place with 0 mining during the summer.

 

I realize that my scenario is probably not standard. If seeking immediate profits there are basically no great options at the moment, sadly, this predicament isnt exclusive to mining as stocks and currency have been much more volatile as well.

 

2 minutes ago, Mr. Fox said:

Excellent laptop. P870DM3 is the last laptop that I owned that I actually loved before things started turning to utter crap on mobile platforms. I would never go back to laptops again, but it was the last one that was good enough to make me pause momentarily and think it was something special and desirable.

 

It had no standout flaws that I can remember other than the stock BIOS is rubbish, as the case is with all laptops. You would need to find out from @BOAT (Bob works there) what GPU heat sink(s) are included or if it is a vapor chamber to know what GPUs will match/fit the heat sink(s). 

 

You may want to consider the availability of service parts. $550 OBO is not bad. If you can't, for example, buy a replacement motherboard from Clevo. Or, you can and it costs $500 this might not be a good deal when you consider the big picture. Availability of other potentially proprietary model-specific parts that don't last forever, like eDP cables and fans, should also be considered. Bob might be able to answer some of those questions as well. If a part fails and you can't buy one new from a Clevo reseller, it might be a good deal one needs to walk away from.

 

Thanks for sharing, I hadnt considered the service-ability standpoint with sourcing parts.

 

I do have a collection of modded BIOSes, I tend to collect them as I see them for such scenarios but most of it comes from Dsanke (as I understand it) for pretty much all of the DTR Clevo laptops. Without the modded sBIOS I probably wouldnt even entertain picking one up.

 

Its a bummer B0B never made an account here, hopefully at some point that can change :) If I were to pick this up I would definitely look for spare parts in advance as this would be the prime time to start looking into that to prevent from future potential down time. An issue that I have recently learned from fixing my car, some parts for the RSX were surprisingly difficult to find particularly through COVID since everyone was fixing their buckets instead of buying new.

[Tenoroon]

2 hours ago, Reciever said:

Good Morning everyone! 

 

So I recently came across this listing here on ebay. Its a P870DM3 for 550 OBO from eluktronics

 

I was thinking of transplanting what I have in the P750FM (15.6 Frankentop) to the P870DM3, are there any huge design flaws of the DM3 I should be aware of? 

 

My current system already has a 9th gen 9700F, and I have half a dozen 6th gen 6500T chips laying about for bios-mods, RAM and SSD's so really most of the cost would be a new video card at some point as my current 1080 has an off center die (custom heatsink)

 

I figure if I sell my P157SM-A, T440p, 5820x Precision (all of which I dont use at all for varying reasons) and some spare parts I have laying around I should at the very least break even in terms of fiscal burden over time. Especially if I pitch for 450-475

 

@electrosoft @Papusan @Ashtrix @Mr. Fox @Etern4l @cylix @Meaker

 

I have been using my AM4 system to float me for a bit now but its about time for mining season again so the AM4 ITX box will go back to running 5x GPU's to heat up the house

I've been eyeballing this listing too as I'd love to transplant my P775TM into one of these for better cooling on the 1080. However, they are too expensive in my opinion, and an ageing laptop that is completely barebones and supports very specific GPUs isn't worth 550 IMO.

The listing comes with the dual Vapor Chamber heatsink and 2 330w power supplies, you could probably ask to take the vapor chamber and one PSU out to maybe cut down some of the costs.

I saw on Taobao a heatsink for the P870DM2/3 that works for your exact MSI 1080 that you have. It was intended for the MSI Quadro P5200 that used the same PCB as your 1080 (I can't remember which one is type 1 and type 2, but I know yours is the smaller one with the 150w stock TDP with the offset die.) I can maybe find the link and send it to you when I get home.

You'll want the dsanke BIOS, my P870DMs stock BIOS was god awful. The dsanke BIOS will solve a lot of problems, but it can be a bit janky at times. Prema is unmatched 😉

CPU cooling is also a bit weak on the P870s. The P870TM mostly fixed this problem with an updated heatsink and X bracket, but you wouldn't be able to stick the TM CPU heatsink in a DM or KM as the mounting is slightly different. I think there may have been a modded CPU heatsink on Taobao too, I'll check when I get home.

[Reciever]

3 minutes ago, Tenoroon said:

I've been eyeballing this listing too as I'd love to transplant my P775TM into one of these for better cooling on the 1080. However, they are too expensive in my opinion, and an ageing laptop that is completely barebones and supports very specific GPUs isn't worth 550 IMO.

The listing comes with the dual Vapor Chamber heatsink and 2 330w power supplies, you could probably ask to take the vapor chamber and one PSU out to maybe cut down some of the costs.

I saw on Taobao a heatsink for the P870DM2/3 that works for your exact MSI 1080 that you have. It was intended for the MSI Quadro P5200 that used the same PCB as your 1080 (I can't remember which one is type 1 and type 2, but I know yours is the smaller one with the 150w stock TDP with the offset die.) I can maybe find the link and send it to you when I get home.

You'll want the dsanke BIOS, by P870DMs stock BIOS was god awful. The dsanke BIOS will solve a lot of problems, but it can be a bit janky at times. Prema is unmatched 😉

CPU cooling is also a bit weak on the P870s. The P870TM mostly fixed this problem with an updated heatsink and X bracket, but you wouldn't be able to stick the TM CPU heatsink in a DM or KM as the mounting is slightly different. I think there may have been a modded CPU heatsink on Taobao too, I'll check when I get home.

Any reason this system cant use rtx?

[Tenoroon]

Just now, Reciever said:

Any reason this system cant use rtx?

It can use RTX cards with the dsanke BIOS, but it might not be the most worth. A heavily OC'd 1080 can keep up with a 2080, only problem is that 1080 will use like 50% more power than a 2080.

For RTX, you would need a P870TM GPU heatsink, or one of the many modded ones you can find on Aliexpress or Taobao. Only problem with those is that they can be quite expensive. 

You could also fabricate your own, but I would only do that with the T-shaped heatsink as you will quickly get into hot water when cutting a vapor chamber.

[Reciever]

28 minutes ago, Tenoroon said:

It can use RTX cards with the dsanke BIOS, but it might not be the most worth. A heavily OC'd 1080 can keep up with a 2080, only problem is that 1080 will use like 50% more power than a 2080.

For RTX, you would need a P870TM GPU heatsink, or one of the many modded ones you can find on Aliexpress or Taobao. Only problem with those is that they can be quite expensive. 

You could also fabricate your own, but I would only do that with the T-shaped heatsink as you will quickly get into hot water when cutting a vapor chamber.

I'd probably just get one of those hybrid air/water coolers at that point.

 

Not interested in 20xx in the slightest, not worth the effort unless its dirt cheap but as a result isnt a variable to plan against. Im also interested in seeing if I can run AMD + Nvidia at the same time from a curiosity standpoint.

 

The P870 can handle up to 10th Gen ES (mobile BGA to LGA wafer) and if it can handle 30xx then it has plenty of life. Only reason I am not using my FM at the moment is due to the 1080 hard locking the system. Dont know if its the 1080 or the motherboard perse though.

[ViktorV]

7 hours ago, Reciever said:

The P870 can handle up to 10th Gen ES (mobile BGA to LGA wafer) and if it can handle 30xx then it has plenty of life.

p870dm2/3 will work fine with QTJ1(10980hk ES) with Dsanke's p870dm2 ME Disabled bios, but there will be a problem with the rtx30 card since Dsanke did not support rtx cards in this BIOS, and he did not upload a ported version from z370 for p870dm2/3. But you can take the May bios from Dsanke with rtx support and use the Coffee Mod program to add the necessary processor microcode, patch BGA1440 support and disable the ME region. Therefore, if you are afraid of this kind of complexity, then it is better to opt for the p870kmg or p870tmg models, they have ready-made bios Dsanke (9900ks 128g.)

[runix18]

2 hours ago, ViktorV said:

p870dm2/3 will work fine with QTJ1(10980hk ES) with Dsanke's p870dm2 ME Disabled bios, but there will be a problem with the rtx30 card since Dsanke did not support rtx cards in this BIOS, and he did not upload a ported version from z370 for p870dm2/3. But you can take the May bios from Dsanke with rtx support and use the Coffee Mod program to add the necessary processor microcode, patch BGA1440 support and disable the ME region. Therefore, if you are afraid of this kind of complexity, then it is better to opt for the p870kmg or p870tmg models, they have ready-made bios Dsanke (9900ks 128g.)

Every dsanke bios can be made to support mutants with coffee time 0.99 modding. And also the may dsanke bios for the p870dm2/3 (P870DMx_RTX) is TM ported CLEVO:P870TM-1.07.15

[Scruffy]

i saw this listing and was just interested in the vapor chamber in picture for my 3080  because some dude sell it at high price and if included in the 550 buck would be really a good deal, but  there are also other bid for good notebook that include even ram ssd gpu cpu  psu p775

 

i think with a dm3 u can also go to 9 gen and 3 rtx series.i remember dm3 and km-tm differ only in cpu heatsink (2 heatpipe vs 3 heatpipe) and maybe chipset z170 vs z270

[Reciever]

8 hours ago, ViktorV said:

p870dm2/3 will work fine with QTJ1(10980hk ES) with Dsanke's p870dm2 ME Disabled bios, but there will be a problem with the rtx30 card since Dsanke did not support rtx cards in this BIOS, and he did not upload a ported version from z370 for p870dm2/3. But you can take the May bios from Dsanke with rtx support and use the Coffee Mod program to add the necessary processor microcode, patch BGA1440 support and disable the ME region. Therefore, if you are afraid of this kind of complexity, then it is better to opt for the p870kmg or p870tmg models, they have ready-made bios Dsanke (9900ks 128g.)

I wouldnt say I am afraid perse, just ignorant. If there is a write up or two on the net I can read (and re-read) then I have no problem with trial and error.

 

6 hours ago, runix18 said:

Every dsanke bios can be made to support mutants with coffee time 0.99 modding. And also the may dsanke bios for the p870dm2/3 (P870DMx_RTX) is TM ported CLEVO:P870TM-1.07.15

Does this mean that the aforementioned P870DMx_RTX would enable RTX support for the DM3? 

 

2 hours ago, Scruffy said:

i saw this listing and was just interested in the vapor chamber in picture for my 3080  because some dude sell it at high price and if included in the 550 buck would be really a good deal, but  there are also other bid for good notebook that include even ram ssd gpu cpu  psu p775

 

i think with a dm3 u can also go to 9 gen and 3 rtx series.i remember dm3 and km-tm differ only in cpu heatsink (2 heatpipe vs 3 heatpipe) and maybe chipset z170 vs z270

That is also quite attractive if I were to lower the price a bit and sell the GPU after I was done with it.

 

 

Performance is obviously a key metric but I also enjoy being able to tinker with a laptop over time, the Ranger used to be that system for me until I hit a wall with it. One of the main reasons I am looking that the DM3 is because my P750FM doesnt have the aux power cable and I am unsure if that is something I can wire in myself internally.

 

Plus its one of, if not the best laptop around so there is always that angle too. 

[runix18]

7 minutes ago, Reciever said:

I wouldnt say I am afraid perse, just ignorant. If there is a write up or two on the net I can read (and re-read) then I have no problem with trial and error.

 

Does this mean that the aforementioned P870DMx_RTX would enable RTX support for the DM3? 

 

That is also quite attractive if I were to lower the price a bit and sell the GPU after I was done with it.

 

 

Performance is obviously a key metric but I also enjoy being able to tinker with a laptop over time, the Ranger used to be that system for me until I hit a wall with it. One of the main reasons I am looking that the DM3 is because my P750FM doesnt have the aux power cable and I am unsure if that is something I can wire in myself internally.

 

Plus its one of, if not the best laptop around so there is always that angle too. 

Nah, only for 2080 (gsync or not).

[Reciever]

22 minutes ago, runix18 said:

Nah, only for 2080 (gsync or not).

Oh well, I actually have a fair bit of interest in AMD MXM as well (RX 6600 / 5700) 

 

Guess I'll need to make some listings tonight

[runix18]

4 hours ago, Reciever said:

Oh well, I actually have a fair bit of interest in AMD MXM as well (RX 6600 / 5700) 

 

Guess I'll need to make some listings tonight

There was an older tread on NBR which actually stated that P870DM, at least, could not read Amd GPU sensors resulting in a laptop EC panic.

Probably its safe to assume that all P870 series suffers from the same ”bug”, P775/751 maybe as well.

[Reciever]

29 minutes ago, runix18 said:

There was an older tread on NBR which actually stated that P870DM, at least, could not read Amd GPU sensors resulting in a laptop EC panic.

Probably its safe to assume that all P870 series suffers from the same ”bug”, P775/751 maybe as well.

Wouldnt you just need to provide that sensor? I seem to to recall something like that on LTT forums where a modder got around that on an Nvidia GPU, I'll see if I can find it, I could be recalling it incorrectly.

 

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1052684-clevo-p750zm-upgrade-gtx1060-graphics-card/

 

Also modded internal power to his card, if I could do that I would just keep the P750FM and keep modding it.

[runix18]

11 hours ago, Reciever said:

Wouldn't you just need to provide that sensor? I seem to to recall something like that on LTT forums where a modder got around that on an Nvidia GPU, I'll see if I can find it, I could be recalling it incorrectly.

 

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1052684-clevo-p750zm-upgrade-gtx1060-graphics-card/

 

Also modded internal power to his card, if I could do that I would just keep the P750FM and keep modding it.

From what I could gather from the mod the user did the following:

1. Reworked the heatsink (I think you could use a P750DM2 heatsink if you are going the Clevo Gpu route)

2. Strapped a Wire from the 3.3v slot input capacitor to the additional 3.3v (1.8v vbios generating line), to circumvent the MXM mod requirement.

3. Shifted the bios battery from a plastic casing to a long wire battery casing.

4. Routed 19v power from the MXM slot mosfets to external (I wouldn't recommend drawing too much amp from there as the fets there were not designed to push more than 190W MAX (around 10 amps in total - including mxm slot).

5. I have not been able to identify the thermal sensor mod.

[Reciever]

9 hours ago, runix18 said:

From what I could gather from the mod the user did the following:

1. Reworked the heatsink (I think you could use a P750DM2 heatsink if you are going the Clevo Gpu route)

2. Strapped a Wire from the 3.3v slot input capacitor to the additional 3.3v (1.8v vbios generating line), to circumvent the MXM mod requirement.

3. Shifted the bios battery from a plastic casing to a long wire battery casing.

4. Routed 19v power from the MXM slot mosfets to external (I wouldn't recommend drawing too much amp from there as the fets there were not designed to push more than 190W MAX (around 10 amps in total - including mxm slot).

5. I have not been able to identify the thermal sensor mod.

Then its probably safe to assume I was mistaken on that, one of the items on his list was DIY Thermal module, but the thread is a bit light on information (or at least to me). 

 

Has anyone tried the MXM to M.2 PCIE adapter in these systems? 

[runix18]

1 hour ago, Reciever said:

Then its probably safe to assume I was mistaken on that, one of the items on his list was DIY Thermal module, but the thread is a bit light on information (or at least to me). 

 

Has anyone tried the MXM to M.2 PCIE adapter in these systems? 

I wanted to try one of those Raptor adaptors but those are present only on alibaba.

[ssj92]

Has anyone tried making an offer to get it for less? I am tempted to throw an offer and see what happens. 

 

For those asking about raptor card. I have two going on sale soon here in fs section. 

 

They work in basically any Clevo that has dual mxm slots and supports NVMe. All P870DM will work with it, even P570WM will work with latest Prema mod. 

[Reciever]

They removed the listing before they had all sold, not sure if they have relisted elsewhere or not 

[Tenoroon]

32 minutes ago, Reciever said:

They removed the listing before they had all sold, not sure if they have relisted elsewhere or not 

They're still up, 4 left.

 

[Reciever]

Ah looks like it's relisted, nice