2013 Alienware 17 Upgrade

Hey guys!

So I was wondering if anyone knew how far ahead I could upgrade the 2013 Alienware 17 in the areas of a CPU and a GPU? Right now I have an Intel Core i7-4700MQ CPU @ 2.40 Ghz and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M with 3GB VRAM. I've already upgraded the memory to 16 GB and have 2, 1 TB Solid State Drives in the machine. I was also wondering if I could upgrade my monitor from the 1600 x 900 res to one that is 1920 x 1080.

If anyone can tell me what CPU and GPU I could safely upgrade too I'd greatly appreciate it!

The mother board reads as an Alienware 068R5X (U3E1).

I'd like to upgrade for gaming reasons but at the same time not to the point where I'd have to worry about additional cooling than just the stock fans. At most I could replace the stock fans if need be but I'm also worried about the power pull and if I'll need to upgrade the power supply.

Any help would be great, Thanks!

 

-It's possible install a FHD/3d 120Hz display, several members have done that @thegh0sts did the upgrade I think.
-Highest you could go for the CPU is an Extreme processor 4930/ 4930MX but it needs a very good thermal paste + a modded cpu fan from the M14 R2 to OC (if you're not going to overclock then the CPU would be a waste). You could however get the 4910MQ which is the highest CPU for the R1 with no modification needed P&P.
- Maxwell GPUs (970M/980M) are the most powerful gpus you can install currently. IMHO Things would be much easier if you install a 120Hz display + 9xxM GPU which will make your computer run dedicated all the time.
- I'm not sure what heatsink the 770M has but the 980M requires a 3-pipe heatsink, whereas the 970M can use the 2-pipe version.
- A 240W PSU is required for the 980M.

 

Agree with Solo wing there; the 4930MX works wonderfully - I upgraded from the 'vanilla' 4710 and installed with Liquid Ultra thermal paste, which does require care as it could fry the CPU due to it being conductive.....

Being a bit OCD I masked off around the die to prevent any stray metal fragments and breathed a sigh of relief when it all booted up correctly!

Take a look at this thread for Dell part numbers and info on the modded fans here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/aw17-r1-ranger-fan-mod.776418/

As regards the uprated GPU's - I can only go by other threads as I have the much-maligned GTX880M but have not suffered the horrendous throttling issues that others have - possibly mine is a late example that has been 'sorted' but my experiences with the 880 have been ok. Next time I give my Ranger a de-dusting I'll have a look at the heatsink and do a pipe count......
My 17 came with the 120Hz screen and the 240w PSU, which is Dell part code FWCRC

 

I was looking into the gpu upgrade for my Alienware 17, I currently have a 860m in it and was thinking of upgrading to a 970m. Thank you for posting starting this conversation LinkinForcer.

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Call up dell fast for the 3 pipe heatsink, the part no should be YP26V It will be awesome for 970M and 980M needs it. Check the above post for the Fan mods, get the M17x R4 GPU fan too. As for the PSU if you want to get the maximum life out of the PSU with OC or with 4930MX + Maxwell you need a 330W PSU, get that one & dont get 4940MX its a mess.

The 120Hz cable is hard to get the upgrade is a bit intermediate class compared to the beginner level for the CPU and GPU upgrades, try dell first for the eDP cable else here's link from ebay but dell has it for 10$ only.

Remember Maxwell plus Alienware 2013 machines need pure UEFI (no legacy option rom in BIOS, so no win7+uefi as win7 needs that legacy option rom enabled to run uefi), need Win 8.1.1 (8 is trash) or Win 10.

 

getting the parts for the screen is tricky now but even in september 2015 it was quite difficult but doable.

980M is piss easy now the only problem is there's a lot of prep work before even doing the upgrade.

 

I managed to snag a 3 pipe heatsink and the gpu fan from the m17x r4 from Dell and, just in case, I picked up a 240w psu as well. Now just waiting for everything to come together.

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Glad it's possible to get more life out of my machine. I just wish I was more confident in doing the actual upgrades. I'll have to wait until the end of this year to make any purchases though as I'm short on money. When I get the parts I'll come back and see if I can't get some kind of guidance or tutorial on the install as of what I end up getting.

 

Here's my experience...from pg31, that should help and use that thread, much better to keep track on things