Alienware m17x r4 looking Alien upgrade options and tutorials

Hello all! I'm new to the forum and am currently looking at ways I can improve my rig. I recently updated my bios and windows 10, got all hardware running smoothly. I wanted to pick the brains of those who seem to have a handle on this and am greatful to have stumbled into here.

A few questions.

What are the current upgrade options available and not only is it worth it, but what additional functionality would it bring.
What is the best possible maximum upgrades as in cpu, gpu, ssd, memory in terms of performance and ease of modification, dont care about price at this point yet really, also are there tutorials?

I'm a very hands on guy, electrician and metal worker by trade with some IT experience so modifying the chasis wouldnt be an issue so long as I know the hardware is compatible with each other and has tried and tested firmware and bios solutions.

I am all for alternative OS options other then windows 10 provided there is a benifit as well.
I use all operating systems across different platform and admittedly prefer linux for a number of things.

This is mostly ment to be a project, but also an alternative to starting from scratch with a custom pc.

A few features I'd like to have and am not sure upgrading would provide. One is wake on lan and a true hdmi input or ability to use an external desktop video card. I noticed there is no express card on this laptop and no thunderbolt connection like with the newer versions.

I'm new so I apologize if my post is in the wrong place. Thank you in advance for any input and or guidance!

 

Best upgrade for the M17X R4 is a 3940xm/3920xm, 32GB of DDR3 2133, 3 8TB SSDs, one 2TB MSATA SSD, and this is where things differ. If you have the stock 60hz screen, best you can do is a 980M, which is right behind a 1060 MQ. With the unlocked bios, or the 120HZ screen (preferred, but no Intel HD 4000) you can run a GTX 1070, all though work is going into running a GTX 1080, but it's not looking too good.
Ofc you can run Linux, but the highest end AMD card that works in this so far is the WX7100 (underclocked RX 480)

 

Thank you for your quick reply! I have seen a handful of posts about this topic, but is there any visual or step by step guide?

I'm not 100%, but I think I have the stock 60hz screen, which I would probably replace if there's a significant difference in performance or if it has any relevance to the progress put into the GTX 1080.
Is there any reference to the 3 8tb-SSDs/ 2tb-MSATA set up?
Also for the 3940xm/3920xm do either have wake on lan capabilities?
Sorry for all the questions, just trying to be as thorough as possible so I dont mess this up. Thanks again!

 

Here are a couple of posts you might find useful. Luck!
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...uccessful-upgrade.825475/page-3#post-10814017

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...other-socket-victory-against-bga-crap.803637/