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    Anyone put the i7 840 or i7 740 in M17x yet?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by dodgehemi0, Aug 1, 2010.

  1. dodgehemi0

    dodgehemi0 Notebook Evangelist

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    I just bought a new Alienware and it has a i7 720 anyone put in the 740 or 840 yet in their system if so any problems? Also, what would be the best past to use on these systems and how do you do it??
     
  2. cleverpseudonym

    cleverpseudonym PG RATED

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    just have to make sure your running the a06 bios and you should be fine.
     
  3. dodgehemi0

    dodgehemi0 Notebook Evangelist

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    So, I would have to update the bios is that easy?
     
  4. morgonian

    morgonian Notebook Guru

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    if im right all you do is burn the bios file to a bootable cd boot from the cd which installs the bios and viola your running the new bios
     
  5. Lozz

    Lozz Top Overpriced Dell

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    the dell BIOS flasher is a windows flashing utility, no cd boot required.

    yup.. it would work without A06, just probably not at the speed it's supposed to, which would defeat the purpose anyway. Any reason specifically for wanting such a small upgrade and not say, a 920?
     
  6. dodgehemi0

    dodgehemi0 Notebook Evangelist

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    920 is to much dont want to spend that much..
     
  7. Lozz

    Lozz Top Overpriced Dell

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    It's < a $200 difference unless you're buying OEM.
     
  8. cleverpseudonym

    cleverpseudonym PG RATED

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    id have to agree with lozz, its pretty pointless to upgrade to the 740, the 920 is right @ $380ish these days, and the 740 isnt much cheaper. & the 840 is more.
     
  9. morgonian

    morgonian Notebook Guru

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    my bad its been a while since ive updated a computers bios
     
  10. dodgehemi0

    dodgehemi0 Notebook Evangelist

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    Well I will see I have not heard alot of good stuff about ES and QS processors. Yall have any experiance with them?
     
  11. Lozz

    Lozz Top Overpriced Dell

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    there are probably dozens of people that have used them without issue in the alienware M17X sub forum alone.
     
  12. dodgehemi0

    dodgehemi0 Notebook Evangelist

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    I might just keep my 720 and not get one at all I have a Clevo 870 right now with the new 840 in it might just switch them out..
     
  13. nzgeek

    nzgeek Notebook Evangelist

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    I agree that there isn't much point to upgrading from the 720QM to the 740QM. The only difference is the clock speed, which goes from 1.6/2.8GHz (normal/max turbo) to 1.73/2.93GHz. Aside from that, everything is the same.

    At standard clock speeds that's only 8% difference, and at max turbo it's only 4.6% different.

    For the 920XM, the base clock speed is 2GHz (25% difference), max turbo is 3.2GHz (14% difference), and the cache increases from 6MB to 8MB. Plus you can overclock the 920 for even bigger differences.
     
  14. Joebarchuck

    Joebarchuck Notebook Virtuoso

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    Upgrading these CPU is mainly for the people who benchmark.
     
  15. dodgehemi0

    dodgehemi0 Notebook Evangelist

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    not going to be benching marking... thanks guys..