Anyone upgrade a new model GPU yet?

Just wanted to start off by saying thanks to all the contributors on this forum. It helped me back in July when I was deciding on purchasing one of the new Alienware 17's!

Since I had to foot the bill myself, and because we all know that Dell did not let us add the 780M to the base model 17, I had to settle for the 765M at launch and at least updated the screen to FHD. I had plans to upgrade the GPU to the 780M later when budgeting was no longer an issue, which will be coming up shortly. It seems like I will need a new PS (120w shipped with the 765M's), which shouldn't be very hard at all to obtain, a new heatsink (2 pipe shipped with 765M's), and the GPU itself.

Has anyone upgraded their GPU's on these new models yet? If so, how did the experience go?
Where can I obtain a 3 pipe heatsink for these new models? And where is a good reputable place to find a 780M (I live in the States, Chicago area)?

Since the new boards were available with a 780M option on the higher models, would the swap be as simple as a plug and play without needing any modded BIOS? And finally.. If I'm looking at around a Jan-Feb time frame, what's your opinion on holding out for say an 880M?

I know that's a lot of questions for a new poster, so I appreciate anyone that's taken the time to even read the post. And again, thanks to all the posters in the past that have unknowingly helped me already just by being active in this community.

 

First off welcome to NBR!!! As to your upgrade, you could try calling dell, but I bet they will be charging an arm and a leg for the 780m after-market. I'm also not sure if the sager models are plug in play in alienware machines.

 

Talked with a Dell parts upgrade rep.. They told me the "recommended upgraded video card for my service tag was the 770m" and did not list the 780m at all and was adamant about it not being on the compatible list for my service tag... besides which, the 770m wasn't in stock..

if we all remember back to the time of preorder release, they did not allow you to select a 780m option for the graphics card on the base model 17, and you had to select a higher tier for it to be an option. so I'm not sure because of this if based off of my service tag, it would only show the rep up to the 770m for graphics upgrade, or if they somehow hardware locked the base models to blacklist other cards in bios. anyone happen to have insight on that?

also, they didn't have either the 75w or 100w thermal module in stock, so looks like I still have to look elsewhere for these parts anyway.

 

Your laptop would not have it blacklisted, big Alienware laptops utilize MXM 3.0b standard cards, the 780M should just be a drop in upgrade (unless you don't buy the heatsinks from Alienware). I'd also recommend upgrading the AC adapter, 120W is nowhere near enough for a 780M and whatever else your Alienware 17 has.

 

Yeah, I still have the GC dell gave out for the 5% back that expires today which I was gonna use on the 240W adapter so I'll at least have that. They didn't have any heat sinks in stock for me to purchase though.. do you happen to know where I can get the 3 pipe gpu heat sink for these new chassis?

 

It will not be blocked, should be simply plug and play. Sorry about the misunderstanding on the phone.I would recommend you to look online for the 780m and triple pipe heatsink. But as you said, it could be worth to wait for the next gen. However we can't say if it will be compatible with the current machine or not

 

cool.. thanks for confirming for me, porras! would it make a difference if the card was branded for clevo or msi though? i've been able to find some spots online to get the card, but having a hard time finding the triple pipe heatsink anywhere..

 

Clevo or MSI versions may need a vBIOS flash to function properly. A DELL branded one would be better.

 

just a fun update to my attempt to procure a gpu and heat sink from dell parts sales..

just today i had spoke with a dell rep via chat session to follow up on a request to see if they could find the heat sink part for me in the warehouse. i was told that the 100w heat sink (part YP26V) was not in stock and they cannot tell me when or if it will be available in the future. just out of curiosity i asked if they could check for the Nvidia GTX 780m (part 2K0KW) to which the rep replied it too was out of stock. as a further attempt to try and find an alternative part, to which there really is none, the rep asked for my dell service tag. i didn't have it at the time so they ended up looking up my information via name, address and phone. once they found my service tag things started to get really interesting..

first, she asked if i needed a heatsink for this computer, going back to the original reason i started the session. i explained yes, but not the part it came with because i needed the bigger heatsink for an upgraded gpu. the she asked what the part number for that was, which i reiterated was "2K0KW which is the Nvidia GTX 780m." the rep told me at this point that the part 2K0KW was the 770m. i responded by telling her that i have the parts list for my machine that was provided by a dell representative (which can be found in the "Official Alienware 17 owner's" thread) and then listed the part number and description verbatim. she again insisted that it was the 770m. so i asked her what part 1RMFM (shows 770m from the owners thread post) was then. she said it was for the 770m and that both 1RMFM and 2K0KW. i proceeded to ask her how they can offer a m17xr5 with the 780m through their sales department and then turn around and tell me it isn't offered for my laptop. she told me that my model is an "Alienware 17 Base" and not an m17xr5. at this point i was a little more agitated but i kept my composure.. i insisted that the motherboard parts are the same so there should be no reason i am not able to upgrade to the laptop because i didn't pay $500 more up front to the next tier. again she replied that each computer has its own compatible part numbers, so i asked again if the mother boards are the same then all of the part numbers are still compatible. she repeated that my order that was placed says it's an "Alienware 17 Base". i asked her to confirm the mother board part number, which she gave me 5RW0M. i then asked her to confirm the mother board part number for the m17xr5.. at that point i received "Session Ended".. i could not believe it!!

needless to say, i'm going to be reporting this back to the complaint department and taking further action from there. i don't understand how they can market their products as the ultimate gaming machines and boast how their users can upgrade them to their liking, and then cut off their options to do so. how can they be out of 780m gpus and the heatsinks? if that were the case, how can they continue to fill orders? how can they handle any warranties?

 

I do not even know why did you waste your time so long with her. You should have cancelled the session before you started and looked for another rep. who knows what he / she's doing. Some of them know nothing and not to make foul out of themselves, they try to prove to you that you are stupid... Take it easy and try it again, though I guess if they are out of 780M's you could try in few weeks also... Bottom line, believe me, complaining about what happened will not change anything, your GPU is still out of stock! Just ignore it...

 

by that time it was probably the 4th rep i had talked to on different days with some time in between. i try to at least give them the chance to talk it out as it seems each conversation i get a little more info than before. since a lot of these things, especially part shortages, are far out of the control of the sales reps, i don't take it out on them or use profanity or belittle them. i'm less upset by them not having the card in stock, and more so with the fact that it seems the rep abruptly ended my session on me.

i can wait for parts to become available if there truly is a shortage on them, but for them to always want to look up my service tag and tell me the parts are not compatible makes me wonder if they would EVER sell me the card or heatsink even if they were in stock. the cards seem to keep popping up on eBay, but i would like to see what the Dell OEM price would cost me just as a comparison of shopping anyway. its really the heatsink that has been the most difficult for me to locate.

i'm just trying to collect the parts i need over time when i can to finally upgrade in the future. so far i only have the 240w ps checked off my list which isn't going to do me much good right now, but it's my small start..

 

I think the reason for all the trouble may be simple. Your machine was sold with the 130W PSU. This is not enough for the 780m, so when your tag is entered the system will only allow them to select approved upgrades? Of course both parts purchased would meet the spec, but it gets messy with the warranty and relies on a salesperson that has some idea of how a PC works.

I know that R3 owners have a hell of a job purchasing a 680m heatsink from dell because the parts do not come up when they enter an R3. Guess it's the same now between the stock variants.

Good luck with your search

 

This! The real problem if we can call it a problem is a lot of the people your going to talk to really don't know what the difference between the parts is, or have the slightest idea how to fix problems when they arise. As Micky pointed out they are probably going off what you have for an adapter already so when they punch in the 780 the system goes hey ...woah...no...that won't work, which they are partly correct about, it won't work with that adapter but they are not taking into account your going to be changing that. It could also be seeing the wrong heatsink and telling them there is an incompatibility there as well.

When I called in about my replacement and they offered me the 770m instead of the 780m and I was trying to explain the performance differences to the rep on the phone he just kept telling me that he googled it and found that they were the same....

What he googled was this

Radeon HD 7970M vs GeForce GTX 770M

Nvidia GeForce GTX 770M compare AMD Radeon HD 7970M GPU

Which to anyone that really does not know any better, yes they look pretty similar, 8 /10 and 9/10 respectively on the different sites. But when you really break them downand compare raw performance, especially in the memory category , they are not even close but I couldn't explain that to him because he really didn't have a clue what I was telling him. Now don't get me wrong, I am not coming down on them, it isn't their fault. They were hired to perform a job and they get a system that is supposed to answer all the questions you may ask, they simply follow the prompts. And when you get lucky you even get people that may know just as much as you. The first tech I called into that set up my exchange knew what my concern was right away and agreed with me that I should be getting the 780m as a replacement to my 7970m as that is the closest GPU they have performance wise, not just cost wise.

It can be quite similar when you call tech support, and you can usually tell right away when you explain the problem how the rest of the call is going to go. When my adapters started failing like my first R4, I called in and after I explained all the problems with this my last computer, being that it was the same problem and then the new problems with this one, she put me on hold for probably 10 minutes came back and wanted to remote into my system and upgrade my bios...which was already fully up to date, and I told her that. As I countered what she was asking me to do , because I had already done it, she would put me on hold and disappear for 5-10 minutes while she read about possible solutions. Eventually after draining the adapter down a few times and unplugging it a bunch of times it came back, as it usually does for an unknown amount of time before it fails again ( usually the next restart ). At this point she considered the problem solved and said she would call back in 3 days to make sure it was working...I couldn't even be bothered to argue, I simply thanked her and hung up and went to my spare adapter. I called in the next day when the adapter failed again and the tech knew exactly what the problem was and offered me a new system without any trouble shooting whatsoever :thumbsup:.

I guess what I am trying to say is you have to try to cut them some slack as they may not know as much as you do , in fact most of them probably don't.

I had a guy call me from the exchange department a the other day to tell me the specs of the new machine that was ordered and it was funny to hear him list them off, you could tell he was listing off the specs right off the webpage, or a specs sheet....
"Your going to be getting a 4th generation Intel core i7 4800-mq.....pretty cool huh!" ... oh dear...yep that's cool, thanks

 

@mogrules: thanks for that .

I do know that from dell they will only (in the UK anyway) sell you the card WITH the heatsink. They also told me (and I have the email) that for a GPU I must pay for one of their engineers to fit or send it in. Probably because the machine is still in warranty? They did point out that some parts can be supplied for user installation like memory or HD's but not graphics card. More variations between regions I reckon as I have seen at least one person that just purchased the parts from Dell

 

I guess I can kind of understand why they wouldn't want the average user installing their own GPU, as there are some things that could be done wrong and would fry the card...or worse and then they have to fix it. That being said years ago when my first Inspiron 9400 died they had me rip the GPU out and re-seat it over the phone with a tech and they were just fine with that :S which I always thought was weird.

The last tech call I had aside from the machine replacement call was to replace the bezel and LCD because the tech they sent had damaged it. Being in my line of work as a server technician I simply explained to the phone rep that I was more then qualified to replace it myself and that I didn't want the tech touching my computer again and he was fine with that. I have had them on a few occasions be fine as long as I explain to them that I am probably more qualified then the guy they are sending to fix the computer.

Funny story , we had to call them last year to replace the motherboards in all of our Dell work stations at work....so I called Dell and arranged for the replacement and they agreed to ship the board and have a tech come install it even after I explained who I was and what we do...and the fact that they were shipping the MB to a large data center, but he would not budge and insisted on the tech which is a giant pain in the rear end because you can't just drive up to the door and come in, you have to be cleared by security in another city and be aloud on site and then be given access to the building and be escorted around haha. So I arrange for all the permissions and set him up a work space and he comes and replaces the board...once it was done and he left I went to hook the computer back up and I couldn't use any of the USB ports because he put the IO shield on at an angle so it was covering half the ports hah...so I still had to take it apart and fix it myself....lol