HP Elitebook 8570W - is it still good ? Hardware modifications

[GuitarG]

On 7/2/2025 at 8:04 PM, SuperMG3 said:

Hello. Did you test if RTX 3000 from HP works too? If it works, it means all RTX 3000/4000/5000 work at the end. I can get the cards work on the first slot of my laptop and have better driver supports for RTX 7000 GPUs on the second slot on 3rd gen hahaha

Quadro T1000/T2000 or any RTX 3000-5000 will work. Tried few vBIOS on mine, all worked with differences being what ports it outputs, for ex. some vBIOS didn't worked with my Displayport. They also different with TDP, Mhz min and max parameters.

I would love to borrow Ampere gen card and check if it would work.

[Daedalus]

Great to see such amazing work done on the trusty 8570w. Recently got a i7 unit and maxxed the ram upto 32gb @1600mhz ( i have seen 1866 DDR3L HyperX is possible). i7-3940XM is awaiting install once i pick it up.

I see alot of MXM cards are possible on the chat (965M/970/980 and the Quadro cards)  Which is a sensible upgrade for longevity as i see some cards shorten the life of the machine.  I see there is the NVflash and found a custom driver for the 965 on another site. and then there is the question of what bios etc works with what.

Happy to get all heatsink separate parts. Is there a list of which to get? e.g 8770W fan shroud etc? i see you had a laaaarge pile of sinks, pipes and bits to get to the utopia you have now.

Apologies for all the questions, your input Much appreciated, keep up the awesome work. 

[GuitarG]

17 hours ago, Daedalus said:

  Which is a sensible upgrade for longevity as i see some cards shorten the life of the machine.  I see there is the NVflash and found a custom driver for the 965 on another site. and then there is the question of what bios etc works with what.

Happy to get all heatsink separate parts. Is there a list of which to get? e.g 8770W fan shroud etc? i see you had a laaaarge pile of sinks, pipes and bits to get to the utopia you have now.

Apologies for all the questions, your input Much appreciated, keep up the awesome work. 

CPU is Achilles' heel in this laptop, 3940 will give you nice performance. It is most efficient 3rd gen mobile CPU. Remember to use PTM7950.

The newer GPU you use, the better it will work. 965 may cost more than something better and modern. 
Remember what panel you use, though. 980 and 965 are last ones working with "normal" LCD, newer ones need modified LCD cable and eDP panel or Dreamcolor assembly. I recommend first option more, cheaper and better.
I bought few months ago P5000 for like 100$.

EDIT: About vbios, it is lottery. With Turing gen, every Vbios worked for me. With Pascal (Quadro P5200) only few of them allowed me to boot. On Maxwell (GTX980) MSI vbios worked correctly, others didn't. Seems like modern GPUs are more compatible.
And try to use NVclean, download newest driver for your gpu from nvidia site and load it with nvclean. On linux you don't have to mod drivers anymore btw.

That large pile of heatsink are just leftover from my work and project. I repair a lot of damaged notebooks and sell them. And sometimes I bought a lot of heatsinks for 5$ each. That pile is about 3 years of auctions 😃

Anyway, I found another 8570w auction, wish me luck so I grab it cheapest I can! = ] my modded cable awaits its glory!

And remember when I had Clevo ? Now I'm trying to grab damaged Alienware M17x R4 and try it out.

[triturbo]

1 hour ago, GuitarG said:

965 are last ones working with "normal" LCD

Has it been confirmed? I can’t find any info about it. I’ve seen 980s work with LVDS screens, but nothing about 965. And I mean straight GPU -> screen, no Optimus or something. 

[GuitarG]

24 minutes ago, triturbo said:

Has it been confirmed? I can’t find any info about it. I’ve seen 980s work with LVDS screens, but nothing about 965. And I mean straight GPU -> screen, no Optimus or something. 

It is same die as 980, Maxwell gen. So it should work with LVDS display. 
With Maxwell I had no problem with LVDS screen. I used 980 and checked M3000M. I had a lot problem to make them work with Dreamcolor, though. I used specific driver version, which still supported 10 bit output.