Considering M17x R2 CPU upgrade.

In the process of looking around now. I think I'll go with either Corsair or Patriot. Either way it's going to be around a $200 upgrade after shipping and everything.

Yeah, you're on the right track with the RAM. Something like this should be what you're looking for, and it is pretty cheap!

Crucial 8GB kit

EDIT: Actually, disregard that link. HWiNFO tells me you should be looking for this type of RAM: PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM SO-DIMM

 

Lol I ordered that exact bit of hardware today from Amazon UK along with some MX-4 thermal paste, and the 920XM QS from eBay Should have it all in a day or two - thanks to everyone for all the help, I'll let you know how it goes

 

Sweet man, I hope the upgrade goes smoothly! If you have any questions about replacing the CPU, I'll be more than happy to help as I did exactly the same upgrade not very long ago. I used MX-4 as well and it is working great!

I'm sure you'll be loving yourself sick with your decked out Alien.

 

Just saw this on a tech site... hope that means shirley and laptopmonkey's supplies haven't been stopped...

Engineers arrested for selling Intel test CPUs on eBay

 

Both shirley and laptopmonkey's products are still available on the net so no, i don't think are them

 

I had a confirmation email saying my chip was dispatched yesterday - was hoping it would arrive today but no joy The email didnt arrive until half 10 last night though so hopefully tomorrow.

82,500/178 is about $463 a chip so I assume that the one's being sold aren't 920XMs or 940XMs. It also said they're being sold before commercial releases and both the 920XM and 940XM have already been launched. LaptopMonkey are based in the U.K not Taiwan, so I guess the ones' being sold are ES and QS versions of upcoming chips, maybe intel's newest integrated graphics XM chips.

I lol'd at overclockers being called "tinkerers". Thanks for the concern though!

 

Hi All-
I've posted a few times in here but I mostly try and read and follow what you guys/gals are doing.
I have an R2 with a q720(1.6ghz) and crossfire 4870's. I already had it apart once to clean off the GPU heat sinks about a year ago. I get the sense that I am getting closer to a time when I will have to do this again. I thought maybe when I am in there this time I would upgrade the CPU from the q720 to the 920xm. Seems the prices are pretty reasonable from laptop monkey @ around $300 on Ebay.
My question is can anyone recommend a good guide for this upgrade from start to finish including repasting and any adjustments that need to be done in the BIOS.
When I took the laptop apart the first time I used a YouTube video that was really good. But it was specific to cleaning the desired part.
I found a video out there that shows an upgrade from an i5 to i7 but not sure if the application would be the same or not.
A search renders me lots of results but looking for something specific and in depth to the R2.
If I can tackle this little project I will probably want to upgrade the crossfire's next but that seems a little more advanced and another thread. The CPU upgrade seems to be a good next level project.
Thanks in advance for any direction provided.

 

Here is a video for a CPU replacement. He's putting in a Q720M (ES) I believe, but the process remains the exact same for CPU replacement. He had fan issues because he had a very early sample that had no fan control that was recognized. Just don't use a razor blade on the CPU. You don't want to scratch it. You also don't need to put thermal grease on the CPU and heatsink. Just on the CPU is fine.

<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3_RPd18WEcw?version=3&feature=player_detailpage"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3_RPd18WEcw?version=3&feature=player_detailpage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width='640' height="360"></object>


Here is a video guide for GPU upgrading when you get to it.

<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VSVb_JlVHC8?version=3&feature=player_embedded"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VSVb_JlVHC8?version=3&feature=player_embedded" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width='640' height="360"></object>

 

I thought I would go with this for the new CPU in my R2.
INTEL i7 920XM 3.2GHz quad QS mobile CPU processor for 55 chipset laptop monkey | eBay
Socket 989 is the same as Socket 1, no?

In addition I thought I would add 8GB of RAM while I was in there. I've got 6 now so it's not much of an increase but it seems cheap enough.

I'll order some MX4 thermopaste from Amazon while I'm getting the RAM.

 

That will fit perfectly, many of us bought that CPU model.

 

You'll need 2x4GB sticks for 8GB, I sprung for 16GB

That CPU will work out well for you as well.

 

^^ Not really, you can buy a single 8Gb stick for 8Gb memory too.
This way you'll have an empty slot to add another stick later on if you need.

 

If I am going from 6gb ram to 8, how are my current ram chips configured? is it 2x3 or 2 and 4? Just curious, I am an uber-noob.

 

The M17x and M17x R2 have two RAM slots so if you currently have 6Gb, then you have 2Gb + 4Gb sticks.

 

Very true. I forgot about that.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, with laptopmonkey for that CPU, Be sure to use the Make Offer button. Offer less than what is asked. Maybe $275 or $270 and he will probably take the offer. I did it. He works with you so you can most likely get the CPU for less than what it is listed. Just offer what you want to pay and if he accepts, pay up and enjoy.

 

Hmmm, it's relatively inexpensive to do this so maybe this would be more worthwhile. Do you have a link for a good source of the appropriate 2x8 RAM? Thanks.

 

Here is a link to 2x8GB kits.

I picked up the Corsair Value Select because it had a $25 off promo code for a few days. Got it for $150, but the price dropped $5 after they removed the code. So I still got it cheaper, just would have been nice to get it for $145 I'd probably stay away from the GeIL RAM as they seem to be an small brand I've never heard and have no reviews.

 

I'm wondering if I am missing something. It seems like trying to find a single stick of 8GB RAM to leave a slot open for the future is nearly the same price as just going the 2x8GB for 16 route. Is that right?

 

Not sure what your looking at, but here is a listing of single 8GB sticks.

Single 8GB Sticks

And if your going to put in an 8GB stick, you may as well put in a 4GB stick that you currenty have for a total of 12GB.

 

Thank you for anticipating my next question.

I went with the Corsair 8Gb single stick of RAM and I'll add my existing 4Gb stick for a total of 12Gb. I ordered some MX4 for my CPU upgrade project that will follow fairly soon. Thanks again.

 

I was going to say that I wouldn't bother spending the money on an 8GB RAM stick, I operated fine with 4GB (2x2GB) for ages and only just upgraded to 8GB (2x4GB), for the hell of it more than anything else, and it hasn't made much difference. Returns on RAM upgrades are minimal IMO.

By the way I received and installed my 920XM today its working a treat, just ironing out a couple of issues (laptop isn't restarting properly for some reason). I'm currently installing the iCEnhancer mod for GTAIV, then I'm going to look at overclocking this bad boy. Thanks for you guys' help with the upgrade project

@F1fanatic my CPU from laptopmonkey came with some thermal gel (and a calculator for some reason) but I didn't use it because I'd already got some MX-4, just a heads up if you haven't paid for some yet. Also be careful when you're unscrewing the heatsink from your CPU, I nearly rounded out a bolt on mine when it was being stubborn.

 

Glad it all worked out OWSucks. Enjoy your new beast!

 

Look into throttlestop. Best program ever for xm cpu overclocking

 

I upgraded Ram because I wanted to see if my Windows Experience score would come up from 5.9. All my scores were in the 7's but my disk transfer rate was a 5.9 and it says it was because I only had 4GB of RAM. We'll see. All this stuff is experimental for me.

Keep me posted on your reboot issues. Could this be something to do with thermal compound?

 

Disk transfer rate will always be 5.9, unless you are running an SSD drive

 

Intersting. From the little I have read the SSD's do not perform like they should for some reason in the R2. Is this still the case?

Alienware M17x - R2 Killing the SSD performance - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

I realize this is an older link.

 

Yes it is still the case but they still outperform magnetic HDDs by a large margin.

 

Ram won't increase the WEI disk score at all, and to increase the memory score you must have faster ram and faster cpu (the controller is on die).

Better spend your money on an SSD. I don't care about it, but since you are concerned, my wei Disk score upon fresh windows installation is 7.8, after all the updates and so on it goes to 7.6 and thanks to the SSD (mine is not even one of the fastest SATAII available on the market). I recomend the upgrade

 

@Rypac well it hasn't exactly worked out just yet :/ when I put in the 920XM my machine re-installed the fantastically stable ATi video drivers and I got a few of the old display problems back, such as the screen refusing to turn on after the lid was shut, even when restarted, necessitating a power drain. So I decided to follow a guide on this forum about flashing new VBIOS (which I'm not sure worked) then totally uninstalling all ATi/AMD stuff, including running Ccleaner and Driver Sweeper in safe mode, then installing Catalyst 11.12 from AMD. Long story short it didn't work (didn't install drivers, said there was an error but wouldn't open log), so I uninstalled/ccleaner'd/driver sweeper'd again and tried with catalyst 11.10 and had the same problem.

SCARY PART: I then tried to re-install the Dell-approved ancient 8.763 drivers from their support website and those won't work either! I then tried to restore the factory image on my machine but the Windows "attempt system repair" option from the boot menu doesn't work either. It's telling me to use the Win 7 disc that came with the laptop to do repairs, but that's at my parents house, so right now I have no video card drivers at all.

Sorry that was longer than I expected.

@DR650SE Cheers pal I'll look into it when I've got the ATi problem sorted.

 

@OWSucks That sounds pretty weird. So you say you use to have this problem earlier?

To make sure that you actually updated the VBIOS, run GPU-Z and see if the GPU info has been updated to represent the latest V-BIOS, like this one:

Spoiler

If it hasn't you may need to try that again. I hope you get these problems sorted out soon and can enjoy your new XM CPU. Like the DR said, ThrottleStop will be your best friend.

 

@Rypac so long story short, my laptop won't turn on at all any more.

Because I couldn't install any video drivers I decided to restore the factory image, but because the "attempt system repair" option fromthe boot menu wasn't working either, I couldn't even use Dell DataSafe to do that. Having not bothered making recovery discs I did a clean install of windows from the disc Dell gave me.

I was able to re-install the video drivers but AlienFX wasn't working properly and I couldn't get the screen resolution right. Basically I was missing all the Alienware stuff, and because my WiFi is out and the ethernet port on the machine wasn't working (add it to the list) I couldn't follow the guide on the forums to get it all back. So I decided to try and restore the factory image without Dell DataSafe (I've done it before successfully) using the imagex file from Windows Automated Installation Kit.

That. Was a mistake.

I accidentally restored windows to the recovery partition indead of the primary one, and then I did it to the secondary drive (although I was sure I entered all the command prompts correctly). I turned the machine off and when I came back to it later it wouldn't turn on at all. Zip. Nothing.

I've got to call Dell and fess up and hope I don't have to pay to get it fixed. I sounds like the motherboard is done, but I'm not really sure. I'll see what happens after my grovelling phone call to Dell.

 

Oh man, I feel your pain . All of us run the risk of something like this when we take on these DIY projects. Maybe it might not be as bad as you think(hard to imagine right now I'm sure), and you'll either get something figured out or get some traction some other way. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

Thanks for the sympathy mate. I called Dell this morning and explained what happened (although I omitted mentioning the new processor). They suggested a power drain because its their solution to everything but I told them it hadn't worked already. After trying disconnecting and reconnecting the coin cell battery to "reset the BIOS" they said that the motherboard is probably gone, and they are sending a man with a new one tomorrow.

I should probably put the original processor back in before he comes round?

 

I feel really bad for you OWSucks, I also feel your pain.

It's good at least that the tech is going to come around and take a look at it. I'm not sure what others are thinking but I reckon you should put your old CPU back in. Just to be sure that you won't get pinged for installing the new one yourself.

 

In order to avoid any problem i sugest you to put back in your cpu (even if chance are that the tech won't even notice the differences)

 

My first inclination is to agree. But maybe if you play the diplomat with the person who arrives to install the motherboard, he would install it for you discretely. He/she likely is contracted by Dell and does not work for them per say. Certainly, I would have to have a good feeling about the person before approaching them.

 

Yea, I'd put the old CPU back in before the tech comes. Don't want him thinking that the reason it's messed up is you had the system apart and messing with it.

 

The mystery continues!

The good news is that after I replaced the old CPU back into the machine, it booted up again. I was able to restore the factory image (successfully this time) using the imagex application from WAIK.

The bad news is that the monitor isn't working at all (although the webcam is :\ odd), so I have to go through the HDMI port to my TV, and the AlienFX still isn't working. The touchbar with stealth mode, media buttons and WiFi etc doesn't light up either, and neither do the lights behind the plastic on the front, although all the buttons work. Also when the machine has finished shutting down, the lights stay on and the fan keeps whirring, but if you tap the power button then it powers off instantly.

I talked to Dell and they said that they will still send a man with a new motherboard tomorrow, because the problems with AlienFX not recognising hardware and the internal monitor not working could all be motherboard failures. They said if they replace the motherboard and we still have issues then they will call in and order new parts.

My main worries now are that 1) something was lost when I moved to my SSD drive, although I'm sure that I moved the OEM boot, recovery and primary partitions all successfully, and 2) that when I applied the arctic silver 5 to the 920XM CPU I may have made a bad connection on the CPU itself. Its not a messy job at all but there's small amounts of thermal compound around the sids of the die, rather than just on top of it. I didn't get any on the motherboard. Maybe it's a bad CPU? And 3) I think that when I used Driver Sweeper and Ccleaner to remove all traces of AMD drivers from the machine before failing to install new ones, I may have removed some critical drivers that run the display and AlienFX.

I've got to say Dell have been great about this. That might be because they haven't been able to use me replacing the CPU as an excuse, but they told me themselves I should take the machine apaart to clean out the heatsinks every once in a while, so any bad connections or anything inside the machine that could be causing problems I can chalk up to that. I've read horros stories about them and had to get pushy with them about something before, but they've been nothing but really helpful and kind to me on this one.

 

Good to here OW, The paste on the sides of the die shouldn't be an issue at all. Maybe once you get a mobo replacement the CPU will work. If not contact the seller, and they will likely replace it. Both Shirly and Laptopmonkey are pretty good with that. As for the software issues, hopefully nothing is lost. If it boots fine to your TV you should be ok I would think.

 

Thought you'd like to know that Dell are coming to pick up my laptop to take it for repairs on Tuesday. The Dell man came and replaced the motherboard but it didn't solve the screen issue, so he called Dell to have them pick it up. I rang them today because I hadn't had a date for the pick up from them. Turns out they hadn't scheduled one so now they have.

If I get it back totally fixed, and I then put the 920XM back in and find its faulty then I'm well outside LaptopMonkey's 7-day returns window

 

Maybe you could try sending an email to LaptopMonkey and tell them what's happened to see if they can extend that return window until you have a chance to try out the 920XM again to check if it is actually faulty.

Hopefully your M17x is back up and running as soon as possible.

 

So still waiting to here back from OWsucks as to how this all turned out for him. Sure gives a guy pause who is considering the same DIY upgrade. When upgrading the processor I guess its a given that a person will have to re-install the video drivers. Are there any other driver/programming issues the layman will have to deal with? Or should this be a pretty straight forward plug and play install and OWsucks was just an unlucky gent.

 

Should be plug and play. No need to mess with video drivers. I've swapped the cpu in my R2 a million times. Maybe more

 

Hi Guys, I sold my 940XM to a M17x-R2 owner and he has never opened his machine up let alone replaced the CPU. Went through the whole thread and watched the videos (interesting using a razor blade to spread the compound around _ yikes !!).

I have worked on dv8's and HP HDX machines before and I have always left the thermal pads in place if they are still soft and pliable. Dell's manual says to replace them every time the heat sink is removed, is this necessary and if so, what thickness should they be ?

Any advise would be appreciated.

 

To what exactly thermal pads are you referring to? The ones under the system/CPU heatsink or the ones for your graphic cards?

 

I use 0.5mm on both my CPU and GPUs. That or 1mm seem to be the most desirable thickness.

 

The CPU, I may have the guy change the thermal paste for the GPU as well while he's in there, but next time I talk to him I also may tell him not to bother. I will direct him to this thread as well and let him decide what he wants to do.
But for now my question refers to the CPU thermal pads.

Thanks

 

I didn't know there were thermal pads on the CPU, I thought is was paste.

 

There are no thermal pads on the CPU, he refers to the ones for the voltage regulators, above the CPU.

 

UPDATE:

I finally got my machine back from the Dell repair warehouse place. They solved most (but not all) of the issues I was having. The screen now works and the machine is functioning well. The only problems I have now are the CPU fan, which seems to be whirring away quite a bit even on idle, the machine still won't restart automatically and the lights in the keyboard don't turn on, even though they are set to be green in AlienFX.

I pulled out the 620M and put in the 920XM - it is working perfectly.

I still have no idea why the machine had an aneurysm the first time I attempted the upgrade. I think it has to do with CrossFire being fussy, and the video cards not taking their drivers properly.

I'd go ahead and replace the CPU, as I said mine's working fine (almost) now.