Alienware 17 R1 GPU Upgrade

Hello, everyone i wanted to ask if alienware 17 r1 can support following GPUs without Bios Flashing etc.
1-780m
2-970m
3-980m 8gb
4-880m

 

5 - 1060
6 - 1070

BIOS flashing is a convenience but not mandatory

 

Hey is there a way to turn on alienware 17 r1 without powerbutton

 

no

 

I was changing the pin of keyboard but now it even with old pins it won't turn on the light of keyboard i checked power socket is okay

 

Could it be power port?

 

There are 3 different points of failure for the power button, reseat all three locations and of course be careful with the ribbon cables and the locks

1 goes to the motherboard, one goes to the power button and another I can't remember where it goes its been a while

 

I tried it gave me power for 5 seconds and it went away actually after replacing the wires i turned on it worked then i took out AC adapter directly without shutting down the laptop and now it doesn't work

 

Just to know if the problem was with power button i tried using '' END'' witch AC adapter it won't even go to bios Recovery or blind flash i don't know what's it called. So probably something else is wrong.

 

What do you mean by that(the bold part)?

 

Huh stupid i am i said i mean i took out ac adapter from jack directly without shutting down

 

Start from scratch and teardown the laptop

 

You mean motherboard and everything processor etc

 

The heatsink is fine right i don't need to change it? And alienware 17 r1 has '' mxm'' gpu socket?? And i can run 980m 8gb on 240w? Adapter

 

Correct, the MXM is unable to pull more than 118w anyways, EC will throttle anything past that.

 

So you are saying that '' MXM*" SOCKET GPU 980m will work fine on alienware 17 r1 at its best without upgrading anything

 

A Dell 980m shouldnt have any issues working on the 17 R1.

 

So mxm socket is compitable with alienware 17 r1 because i am buying mxm socket gpu 980m 8gb so i am worried if it iwll work

 

Yes, the GPU socket on the M17XR5/AW17R1, also called the Ranger, is called MXM3.0b. same with all 15"+ laptops from Alienware before Alienware 17 R2, which is BGA on both CPU and GPU.

You can put 980M fairly easily (I believe with slight driver modding), you can even upgrade it with up to GTX1070M (with 120Hz/3D screen), and if you are extremely dedicated you can put a CLEVO 1080M into it (following PremaMOD guide, with skillful soldering and some tricks).

To sum up with, yes, you can use 980M in AW17R1.

 

How much does the 1070 and 3d screen costs

 

In my country? The screen is around 125$ and the 1070M can be bought for about 500$. Then there is shipping. For that I cannot vouch, but in some cases (eg. USA to Europe) it can go over a couple hundred dollars.
EDIT: search eBay and your local selling/auction sites, you can sometimes finds some good stuff for cheap

EDIT 2: also you need eDP cable, which is around 30$

 

What if i go for screen 120hz and 980m

 

Should work as well. As far as I've seen on this forum, and from my own experience, everything from Kepler up, I can vouch for GTX 765M, not sure about the 600 series definitely Maxwell (eg. 980M) works fine with the 120Hz screen. I use Quadro P4000M, equivalent of something between 1060 and 1070, and the 120 is a beauty in that case you need the card (obviously), the screen and the eDP connector (the one with screws in it, if you plug the default LVDS into eDP you can damage your motherboard). You can even run your default card (765M? 860M?) With the screen.

With most newer cards you also need Win10 installed in UEFI mode. Default (Legacy) will cause eight beeps error (Video Error).

If you need guidance, feel free to ask.

 

Well that's seems complicated but what if i use 980m with default screen do i have to go through all this stuff

 

I don't believe that you do. Should be a fairly easy plug and play, although switching to UEFI might be necessary. Need some confirmation on that.

 

UEFI why is that

 

You have two booting options - Legacy and UEFI. Legacy is supported by older systems and hardware, and, due to the fact it needs to support much older hardware, is generally slower. With UEFI, you can load UEFI-only hardware, such as some newer cards, and the system boots in mere seconds, because it doesn't need to go through old protocols. That's a very general bottom line, if you need technicals just google it.

It requires your system to have GPT partition and your BIOS to be set into UEFI. There are some tools for that (most are paid) or you can simply reinstall Win10. that requires you to create a Win10 installation stick/cd, set your bios to boot from CD/USB and into UEFI, and after that it's just a normal Windows installation. Pardon me asking, how tech-savvy are you? If you need help, many of us here can provide a tutorial on how to pull this through.

 

I asked this question because for soem reason i couldn't install window last time in UEFI because i couldn't boot usb even though it was boot able so i choosed Legacy.

 

I've had the same issue when I was reinstalling a system on Lenovo Carbon X1 - try with a clean drive. As in empty. When the installer asks you to choose a partition, format everything, and then try to partition it as you want.

 

Thanks mate i will try and let you know

 

1 more question a gpu 970m pulled from msi should work fine on AW17R1 right and x bracket is necessary?

 

I should work but you may find you need to flash a different vBIOS.

 

So how do you do that

 

It may just work perfectly straight away but if you get an Error 43 then you can try a new vBIOS from TechPowerUp. You'll have to find a suitable one for your machine and put it on a bootable USB drive. Then you'll have to download NVFlash and follow the instructions. I've only ever done it once when I bought the 1070 for my M18x. I'm not much of an expert sorry but I managed to work it out and fix my card.

 

Is it risky?

 

This is the GPU

 

Everything is risky when pulling laptops apart. I would just try the card and the chances are that it will work fine with a modded driver.

 

So 980m pulled from Clevo would also need vBios flash?

 

Plug it in and try. If it works - then no. If it doesn't then maybe.

 

Would stick with Dell for better compatibility

 

Is x bracket important in gpu.

 

Extremely. I mean, if you're asking if it should be attached, then yes. Are the screws different? Or are you missing the xbracket?

 

I saw 970m without x bracket i mean on the backside so can i take it out from old gpu and put it on 970m

 

It may work. What's the old GPU?

 

R9 m290x installed in alienware

Old gpu : R9 m290x i attached the picture i guess you already know what i am talking about

 

I believe it should fit with 970M.

 

Ok mate thanks

 

I also have a 2013 Alienware 17 R1 with a gtx 765m.

If I buy a 970m, will I have to modify drivers or there are newer methods? Should the 180w psu be enough?

Thanks much.

 

The PSU should can be a bit lacking, I mean with 17R2 (or 3?) And 970M with 180W it was around P8500 in 3DMark 11 and on 240 it came closer to 9000+.

As for the drivers, I am not certain. Should work one way or another.