AW17 can use the 180-200W MXM cards

http://alienware-forum.de/index.php/Thread/8042-AW17-R1-3D-120Hz-GTX-980-N16E-GXX/

apparently, they will electrically work, in the AW17. just need the power and some extra heating and a modified driver.

Anyone want to try this ?

I can get you the cards relatively less expensive if your willing to use your laptop as a test model, and make a video.


If a 980DT fits, then a 1070 would too, which would be like the AW17 having the same power as a 980M SLI or even better.

 

I could try the same procedure in the M18x.... can you get me dimensions on the card? Need to check space clearance first

 

CUrious about how this will turn out. If it does work I might buy a AW17 for cheap in some Japanese outlet shops.

 

Especially check M18xR1 please

EDIT::
Ah didn't saw that it's 980 not 1070. Don't check it in M18xR1 as it won't work anyway

 

Holy crap he got the 980 180W model to work, awesome.

 

I am always watching what this guy does ... He is very creative

 

It was a risk, and he took it. I was literally told the newer cards, Pascal, would not work and the reasons were much the same as what was said for the 980DT back in the day. So wouldn't be surprised.

 

Amazing stuff. What an impressive feat.

 

i hate to thank someone everytime a mxm cards works on his place. (with or without workarounds)
This is untolerable. Soldered cpu/gpu are horrible, but any kind incompatibility it s just the same.

if you buy a notebook with mxm slot and XXX max TDP you have the right to use all the future cards. dot.

 

I wholeheartedly agree. The thing is that MXM by standard allowed some freedom with vBIOS (onboard or in the sBIOS) and 5 OEM pins (pretty much whatever one wants)... and that's by standard. Then comes the actual implementation/realization, hence - this works, that doesn't, the other one blew a couple of blocks. It's gone now, so nothing to worry Yeah, kidding, nothing to be happy about

KUDOS to that guy! Very impressed by the cooling! Any info on the temps? I found some, but couldn't find what he was using for stressing the components, so nothing meaningful, just random numbers. As for the extra power connector, it's 2xPowerSource (i.e. 19.5V) and 2xGND. He just have to wire/solder/connect (good luck finding a proper connector) with proper wires and all would be good.

 

Indeed !!
Those guys at that German forum even managed to get a 5Pipe CPU HS mod too., check em out

And so many people here with MXM machines are giving a new life to their old machines, While we see the new BGA standard gulp down everything and give back a Kool-Aid crap to all the Dumbsumers sheeple dominating and damning every better thing to exist, Fate is almost sealed anyways with this New Pascal restrictions of EC hw mod/vBIOS/ eDP / ? & Brace yourselves for the WinX KabyLake / 3.5mm jack / DX12 / GFE Drivers / Multi GPU gimp / PC gaming gimp shizstorm..

 

that arrogance is disgusting of you.

 

Sadly, what you say seems right on the money. You've summed things up pretty well. The situation is beyond pathetic.

 

1600+ usd buying that 980 mxm

This is one case where buying new would make much more sense compared to buying such an expensive upgrade... even if that new machine is bga :|

 

I don't get why people always emphasize on the "UPGRADE" part only always, The socketed hw has much benefits than that single agenda, Have a look at the M17x and M18x M15x subforums, People are still sporting those old machines with new GPUs (Not the new Pascal cards, A gen or two older or heck even the same card) to them, Even the Precision machines are also having the same capabilities. Some people just don't want to be first adopter or some have restrictions on cash or whatever reason, It's a true Premium feature for the nature of the MXM slot itself. But Alas ! Things have begun to change now..

Yeah the pricing is super insane, But I'd take that later time when things get settled If my machine / or any machine supports it, plus that MXM is expensive because it's non standard size also translating to lesser % of machines capable / shipped with that class of hardware, give an mxm of 3.0b size and I can bet how will it surpass the older predecessor GPUs pricing...

 

How hard is it to understand that some carry their laptop daily and need to be made with those ergonomics in mind?

The biggest reason why people still use those older machines is because the chip architecture form Intel has been stale for years now. If they made a light laptop with upgrade-able components then god bless them but there is always a compromise somewhere now.

 

It would be a mistake to view computers (and many other products) as an investment, but there is certainly something to be said for the intelligence of buying something of better quality that is capable of being repaired and/or upgraded over a 3 to 5 year period of time at a fraction of the cost that it takes to buy a disposable product every year or two. When that was status quo buying a 5 year warranty from Dell/Alienware also made good sense. You had a product and a warranty that could go the distance and save you money in the long run.

The more common disposable BGA filth becomes, especially if it costs less to buy new, makes it harder to sell the superior products. More consumers ascribe to the mentality that disposable design is OK, especially if it costs them less to buy it up front. Cheap stuff will always have a place. Superior products also have a place, but it's not common to find them being offered any more.

Here's a good example using something other than computers. I hate spending money on expensive shoes. I would prefer to spend $25 every three months on a crappy pair of shoes that fall apart after 90 days than $100+ on an expensive pair of shoes that last me a whole year. Let's call the crappy shoes option A and the good shoes option B. At the end of a year the expensive shoes look worse for wear and you can tell they had a hard life. If you feel so inclined, you can live with the ratty looking shoes and have new soles put on them and go another six months if you want to. They still look old, but from a durability perspective they're good to go for a long time. Even though I prefer to have a new pair of cheap shoes every 90 days, I find pleasure and comfort in knowing that, at any point in time, I can change my mind and choose between the expensive shoes that do not last very long and the expensive shoes that last four times longer and can have the soles replaced if I choose to do that. Or, I can even own both if I want to.

What we are seeing in computers today is we are moving toward the place that the only thing left is option A. If Clevo ever stops selling potent machines with sockets and slots, there will be no option B left. If you don't like option A, well tough titty said the kitty... have nothing. That's a very bad place. It's really unfortunate so many short-sighted people that feel that because their personal preferences and needs are being met with BGA junk that everything is just peachy.

 

Still willing to the test/document the 180W GTX 980 Mobile in the M18x R2 if you'll provide the test card. There is just enouogh clearance to make it work with minor modification to the palmrest.

 

I would want to test it out myself too.

 

Would be nice if it works. It would take some heat sink modding, too. Have you identified a place to tap into for the supplemental power supply.

 

same way the Alienware 17 guy did it...splice into a fan connector, or I'm looking at a more elegant solution possibly through the DMC slot

 

Yeah, DMC slot is a great idea. Good thinking.

 

That or...depending how it is binned, undervolt and bypass the power connector altogether. Would love a schematic of the M18x board though

 

Not worth imo, the 980 is already outdated


Only choice is to buy new

 

Well, it would be worth it if the price were not ludicrous. Paying $1200 for a current generation laptop GPU is nuts, but paying that much for an obsolete GPU is truly insane.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alienware-1...434407?hash=item1eb71214e7:g:VxMAAOSw9NdXwK8u

If it were priced the same as a 980M it would be better than buying a whole new laptop, assuming it actually functions correctly and runs cool enough to be usable. I have my doubts that an M18x/Alienware 18 100W GPU heat sink will be able to keep it cool enough even after it is modded for proper fit. The TDP is 80W (stock) more than the heat sinks were designed to handle and overclocking will easily produce more than double what they are designed for.

 

Imo the 980DT is already outdated when it released

Minimum is a 980Ti right now I think



At this point it'll be better to buy new, even if that new unit is bga.

Single 1080 is almost as fast as a 980DT SLi and without the quirks of a multi gpu system

 

ha, totally forgot about this thread... I subscribe to too many things to follow in a day...

anyways 980DT is again a small graphics card for a laptop. Back in the day, laptops coudln't even game in 3D... now they can match a desktop. Considering this card slightly modernises a very old laptop from 3-4 years ago, thats a pretty good.

Course if you like I can help you with a new laptop instead.. but otherwise, if your looking for the 980DT . . . .

If anyone thinks themselves a mcgyver and is willing to take the risk, I can get the the card for cheap - to try it and see if it works, which I know it does, and I can of course provide some assistance, but there's a lot of fiddling around with extra wires for power and leaving the card on full power all the time. You can get an extra power cable from dell part stores, I have 1 left for the M18X-R2 and I think it's the same part for the M17X-R4, you need to cut the wires and match the voltage needed for the auxiliary input for the card. Theres color codes to know which usually mean like 3.3 or 5v or 12v etc.. and obvious being ground. Anyways - I didn't want to create a how too, because it would mean i have to support it too. However, I'm open to the idea of someone else creating a better how to and I help them do it.

now if I said I can get you the card for cheaper, I'm not saying it's going to be free, or am i going to sponsor it any way, what I'm saying is if someone wants to test this, gets it working, shows a video of it in english or does a decent how-to I will cover some of the cost, depending who it is. I personally do not have my M18X-R2 or M17X-R4 anymore. (otherwise I;d have gone and made an entire how-to for you guys)

Anyways I'm not trying to make this post a sales thread or anything, but if someone genuinely wants to try this out, and has already the cash to do it, and such... we can chat, in private and I can help you save a tiny bit, and make it fun and rewarding too in the end.

 

Nope, never BGA feces for anything marketed as "gaming" or "high performance" notebook. I personally believe in that scenario it is better to have nothing than BGA filth.

Spoiler: Excellent Purpose for BGA

Sub-$500 Dell, HP or Acer peasant turdbook with a Celeron or Atom or Core i U-series feces CPU? Sure, no problem. Makes good sense. Free pickup today at Walmart! Hurry!

$379 https://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Laptop-Core-i3-NT-15-ay039wm/51397788
$289 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer-Asp...-Processor-4GB-Memory-1TB-Hard-Drive/51708814
$235 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Dell-Computer-XDGJH-Ss-Chromebook-Cel-2.16-11-4gb-16gb-Blk/44363066

And, we are talking about notebook GPUs. So where are you going to buy an MXM 980Ti? I'd rather keep an outdated product with slot-mounted GPU than have a current BGA model. And, if using an eGPU as a crutch is fine, then might as well have a legit laptop with sockets and slots driving that eGPU instead of an emasculated piece of trash with BGA.

But, I will say that paying $1200 for a single MXM upgrade is almost as retarded as BGA... Not quite, but very close.

This kind of foolishness makes me want to become another notebook loathing troll on Overclock.net LOL.

 

for a 980Ti you're looking at a GTX1070N.

 

Oh I totally agree, I was just going to do this as a pet project to max out the M18x R2. It makes no economical sense at all. But no way in hell am I paying anywhere near 1200$ for a retired, custom card. I could pay Khenglish to make me a 980 Desktop MXM for probably way, way less than that.

 

So, I wonder if the 1060N will work in say...M17X-R4 or AW17 or maybe even a M18X-R2 / AW18.
Anyone willing to test/try ?

 

Test out for free? I have aw 18 and m18x r2

 

I never said free , but I did say test !

 

" Free " to test is what I said above.

I surely won't pay to test it.

 

I can test it in M18xR1

 

the M18X-R1 doesn;t even have UEFI so thats a no go.

how about a deposit, I send the card, from person to person and you get the deposit back when it's returned. At the end of testing it in all of our laptops, I will sell the used card anyone who wants it, here on the forum.
The point is not the sale, but i don't have every model to test it in here at my house, at the warehouse sure but they don't belong to me per se. Can't just use them, when they're used all the time to test other things.

So, would anyone be interested in that ? I just have to find a way to protect myself, not going to ship thousands of dollars worth of hardware around for free and take a chance. But a deposit can facilitate that, cover the costs and return for refund on the deposit.

All we would be out, is shipping. Lets assume we do not use overnight air lift knock on the door priority, and be smart about it.

 

I agree.

 

well... there is a FS we can talk about it in there. http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/fs-msi-1070n-n17e-a2-g2.797652/

 

Respect for you guys, really interested but in popcorn time because I'm without a fk job

 

I'd be in on that. what models do you want to test on, I pretty much have them all (17's all the way back to M17xR1 and all 18's)

 

Hey can you get me a eDP cable and the 120 screen for a AW17, need 1 for testing.

 

Got cables on the way, just ordered some from china last week.
I think I may have a AW17 screen, I'll have a look. I know I have a couple of new M17xR4 3D screens but not sure about AW17's

 

I would like to purchase a cable if you got it, or I have to find one.

Anyways - great news : AW17 works with the 1070N from MSI.

over 50% better performance then 980M even !

 

that's nothing short of amazing

 

I did but the seller cancelled the order claiming they had none is stock - 8 days after purchase.................

 

haha I know that feeling !