upgrading the video card in my Toshiba Satellite A500-17X

[meowchops]

Hi all,

I'm new to all of this so I was wondering if I could throw this little project of mine past you all?

Currently I have as follows:

http/www.toshiba.co.uk/discontinued-products/satellite-a500-17x/


Toshiba motherboard: KSKAA PSAR3 00N005EN
CPU: Intel mobile Core 2 Duo P7450 @2.13Gz 25w
4GB DDR3 RAM
500GB HDD
Dedicated graphics adaptor - NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 230M
Windows 10 installed
2 × memory slots
1 × ExpressCard slot (PCI-e)

Old I know!

Since I cant upgrade the mother board (I wouldn't even know where to start looking), I'm going to upgrade my HDD to a Kingston 240gb SSD and convert the HDD into an external hard drive. I'm also upgrading the RAM to 8gb.

After much research, I know that the CPU can be upgraded as it's socketed,but obviously I'm limited to the P socket. So I have purchased an Intel Core 2 Duo P880 @ 2.66Gz 25w, to make some slight improvement. (NB: Last BIOS update was in 2012 and Toshiba haven't released any further updates).

The graphics adaptor/ video card has a GPU combined, also manufactured by Toshiba, and is a Nvidia Geforce GT230M that the laptop runs off instead of the integrated GPU in the motherboard (I think?).

I'm also looking to upgrade the video card but I'm stumped as I don't really know what to look for. I know from CPUZ that its connected to the PCIe slot. In an ideal world I need the equivalent of a Geforce 460 in mobile version, If I want to upgrade the video card what should I be looking for?

ebay is a little bit limited and I know that the Toshiba motherboard is A)old and B) fussy in what I can out in it,

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

 

[hang-the-9]

It's not in a PCIe slot, what you are seeing is that it's using the PCIe bus. It's either on the motherboard soldered or in an MXM type slot. If it's in an MXM slot it may be replaceable with another card although I could not say for sure exactly which one.

 

[meowchops]

Thanks for your response! I shall keep looking up MXM boards.

I have noticed there is talk about external graphics cards but I don't know if this is a viable option or if its possible- probably not very cost effective!

 

[meowchops]

I did manage to find out that it has indeed got an MXM card!

I managed to find this site that was incredibly helpful too if anyone reads this thread:

http/www.mxm-upgrade.com/types.html

I'm going to have a peak at the weekend and maybe take some photos of what I find. Wish me luck!