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13 Posts
1
119702
inspiron 7720 motherboard in 5720 laptop
I do computer repair as a hobby of sorts and I was recently given an inspiron 5720 to work on. After some tinkering I determined that the BIOS chip was bad as if the laptop turns off then it takes repeated attempts to get it to do anything but once the bios loads and you get into windows you are fine. Well the guy pretty much gave it to me because I do so much work for him and I really like it but I soon discovered the empty hard drive bay and how I couldn't use it and why(because the 5720 and 7720 use same chasis). Well now I want the 7720 and the nvidia graphics with the 2nd hard drive and I was wondering if I could buy a 7720 motherboard and put it in my 5720 case. Can I do it? Will it just 'slide right in' or will there be some unforseen problems? Has anyone atteppted this? Any info would be appreciated.
jarrodsdad
3 Posts
0
April 3rd, 2015 01:00
I'm glad someone finally posted this info. I am in the process of sending back my first 7720 board because it would not start in my 5720. I was hoping and pretty sure it is a bad 7720 board. Now I'm almost positive. Did you ever get the 3D board or 3D working? I'm wondering if it will fly on the 5720 screen because there is a difference. Any other advice e?? I've only got a i3 2.4 chip, but I think that should work for now. Anyway thanks for the info and any update would be great. <ADMIN NOTE: Email id removed per privacy policy>
oneeyedmax
13 Posts
1
December 21st, 2014 06:00
Nobody? Well I found a 7720 SE mobo for $150 and a heat sink for $15 so I think I'm gonna go for it. If anyone is interested to see what happens let me know, otherwise I won't bother posting anymore. :)
niki_n33
4 Posts
0
January 8th, 2015 09:00
Hello
I'm really interested if you could change the MB.I thought of the same thing after realizing that I can't change the GPU and can't change the keyboard to a back-lit one.
BTW I have the 5720 with i7....,8GB Ram and Nvidia ... 630M
I had other ideas like making a DIY back light for the keyboard or solder a port for the second HDD.
oneeyedmax
13 Posts
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January 10th, 2015 16:00
Well I'm about to find out when the mb comes in. I'll keep you posted.
niki_n33
4 Posts
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January 10th, 2015 17:00
I'm really hoping that it will work,I don't like like being in a dead end,like I bought this laptop and can't upgraded if I need to.
Anyway thanks for the info.
oneeyedmax
13 Posts
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February 17th, 2015 18:00
After a very long process of buying a motherboard from china which was defective(I even tested it out on a working laptop) and then getting the non 3d motherboard by mistake from a different company, I just installed the non 3d mb and it worked just fine. At first there were some driver problems but I worked them all out. No problems :)
niki_n33
4 Posts
0
February 18th, 2015 07:00
Ohhh really nice !
I was thinking about this and I really would like to make the upgrade/mod.What is that 3d that you are talking about ? It is something for the GPU ? By the way what GPU is on that motherboard ? I suppose there should be the Nvidia gt650M.
Another thing that is really bugging me is "Can I connect an external GPU ?",because there is an M-SATA port on the MB.
Did you ever think about connecting an external GPU ?
Where did you buy the motherboard from ? Because I saw some MB's that are from DELL,but also some Chinese ones.
oneeyedmax
13 Posts
1
April 3rd, 2015 09:00
In short, a non 3d 7720 board will just slide in and work. You just have to buy the correct heat sink and to download correct drivers. For 3d you have to buy heat sink, video cable, 3d emitter, 3d screen, 7720 3d motherboard of course, and that's all I can think of. Also only a 3d screen will work with a 3d mobo, and vice versa. I tried it just to see.
computershop198
10 Posts
0
November 13th, 2015 20:00
I realize this is an older post but wanted to thank you for posting your experience with this. I had just picked up a Dell 17R 5720 (3rd Gen i7 3612QM) off ebay but sadly with only the CPU supplied Intel 4000 graphics. I did some quick searching around on eBay for the 5720 motherboard which has the 2GB nvidia descrete GPU. I want to go ahead and take the plunge on this. I have replaced lots of laptop motherboards so I have no problem trying this. My main unknown is which motherboard to purchase.. I am not even bothering with the China sellers, I have seen some available from US sellers... So according to your journey, you purchased a non-3D n7720 motherboard and its good to go in the 5720 chassis correct? Would you happen to have the part number of that non-3D n7720 motherboard? Is there any make of these boards with 4GB video ram and do any of the boards support 16GB or 32GB RAM? Again thanks for all the information you have posted..it has been literally the only thing I could find on the Internet about doing this. thanks!
niki_n33
4 Posts
2
November 15th, 2015 05:00
Here is some information that I found online,it's not verified.
There is a 17R 7720SE (special edition) version,the motherboard from that is compatible and it has Nvidia GTX 650M,if I'm not mistaking.Search for that on google.
I didn't find any motherboard with better GPU,like 840M or 960M.(You can try E-GPUs)
The 5720,7720 and 7720SE motherboards oficially don't support more than 8GB of ram,but in practice you can put 16GB.
Oh yeah,I found out that the HDD ports are SATA 3 and the MSATA port is SATA 2,can somebody verify that ? It's recomanded to put the SSD in the second space/caddy/slot. ATTENTION! On the 5720 motherboard there isn't a second conector,the space is there.
It's funny that this is the only place where you can find information about this.
P.S. n7720 and 17R 7720 motherboards are different,I'm not sure what is the difference...
oneeyedmax
13 Posts
0
November 15th, 2015 09:00
I don't have the part number handy or on record since it was sent to me as a 3d mb. I used a msata ssd to free up the 2nd hdd slot, so now I have 3 hard drives. I installed the OS on the 220gb msata and installed 16gb ram and everything works well and quick, even with windows 10. Hope this helps.
computershop198
10 Posts
0
November 15th, 2015 16:00
More good info thanks... Good to hear you are running 16GB and 3 hard drives with no issue. awesome. and just to confirm you started out with a regular 17R 5720 version laptop or which one did you start with? thanks
computershop198
10 Posts
0
November 15th, 2015 16:00
Thanks for all the good info. After looking at lots of pictures of the various motherboards, i can see the differences with the non-dedicated and dedicated motherboards.. Some like mine, have no nvidia GPU chip (economy board I guess), then some have the nvidia GPU chip with 2 additional chips near it, and others have the nvidia GPU chip and 4 additional chips around the GPU. My theory is: The ones that have the nvidia GPU chip with 2 additional chips near it maybe are the non-3d and the ones with all 4 chips and GPU are the 3d version.. Anyway i will focus on the 7720SE version and go from there. thanks
jarrodsdad
3 Posts
0
December 30th, 2015 13:00
All good info. THANKS...I wonder why Dell hides these answers so strongly??? Anyway, bottom line one can make a screaming laptop if they know what they are doing here. Thanks for sharing, its all good. Tested it out. The 7720 comes with 2 different screen setups (maybe more) one of which makes for 3d. So with that in mind, those trying to repair or upgrade a 5720 need to check their part numbers very closely and get the right video...NOT 3d., but they can really setup some serious speed functions with the extra HDD capacity. And yes, the 7720 boards will run 16GB memory. Anyway, keep posting, its great to have info somewhere since the companies don't share.
computershop198
10 Posts
0
October 9th, 2017 16:00
I have done it successfully 5 times and sold them as gaming machines (I bought all of my parts from the leading auction site..). Also, this is not necessary but you can also take the 1600x900 screen out and install the full HD 1080p (1920x1080) - both LCDs use the same cable.. Also, don't forget to install the lighted keyboard which plugs right into the 7720 board. ...and yes all this will work in your 5720 case. Don't forget to get the beefed up power supply as well (Its much bigger than the one that came with the 5720 and generates many more watts. You can install 16GB of 1866MHz RAM. Regarding Hard drives on the 7720, I suggest a 120GB or 250GB SSD in your primary drive bay and a 2TB in your secondary drive bay. You can also buy a hard drive caddy and add another 2TB drive. The board also supports an mSATA however I would stay away from it as it is only SATAII and is tricky to get the OS on it (Basically, you must have a drive in your primary bay if you plan to install the OS on the mSATA). The board was built to use the mSATA in a hybrid configuration (you can't just stick an mSATA in the board and load the OS on it with no other drives), Just another quick note, you can buy a Bluray drive and easily swap the bezels if you want. NOTE: Regarding the 3D boards and screens, I have no experience with those other than things I have read like it uses a different cable, IR sensor, etc...