Graphics Cards or Cpu upgrades for M17x R1

Hey forum,
I'm thinking of upgrading some componentries inside my laptop, but I don't know what to look for in terms of compatability..
What do I need to look for to replace GPUs?
What do I need to look for to replace CPU's?

Cheers!

 

CPU - QX9300
GPU - GTX 285m SLI

 

what in particular about those enable me to swap them out?

 

really? There's a thread with the exact same question with the exact same answer 1 thread down on the same page on the top of the forum ... I'm all for helping people... but honesty.

*only if you mod the SLi connector.

yup.
/end thread.

lots of stuff, pin count, socket platform, lack of an Integrated MCH, NB, Bios support for the GPUs.

 

QX9300 (2.5ghz) can be OC'ed to beyond 3.3ghz stable.
you will definitely feel the 1.3ghz x 4 cores difference

285M is close to MR5870 in gaming performance, so it will be very significant upgrade as well.

 

Didn't know that... is the mod difficult? I was certain those cards were physically the same with a little factory OC'.

 

the ones you have to get are from Clevos, so it's a *very* slight mod and razor knife surgery on the SLI connector on the boards is involved. then the orginal modder said it sort doesn't fit in there very firmly (although tape works...) probally a 5/10, only because it's a very slight cut on a small area and too much will make it too loose a fit. Specifically, the Female connector clips that hold the ribbon are a different shape than the ribbon's male connector, so they don't 'fit' unless you cut the one on the board a bit. The boards are 100% compatible though.

 

Can't you just order the proper SLI cable (the one that comes with X8100)?

 

no, it's not nearly long enough, the M17x has the GPU's on opposite ends of the laptop, the X8100 has the GPU's side by side on one half side of the laptop. Besides not being premolded the correct way to fit in that trench so the keyboard doesn't crush it.

 

Then I'd still get that cable and replace the connectors on the AW SLI cable with those from X8100. It would still be a mod though...

 

It's also a lot harder since the connectors on the M17X are soldered and stamped to the ribbon cable. It's not nice and individually wired like the CF cable is. It's made of that flexible PCB plastic-type material.

 

So where are the GTX 285m's available, might decide to sell my GTX 280's and 4870's if that might be close in value.

 

you have to look for them, ebay is where the orginal moder got his I believe.

 

Thanks, will check it out and what my 280's and 4870's will fetch as well.

 

So is the best upgrades for the aging M17 R1 still stand at

CPU- QX9300

GPU- Sli GTX 285M

and?
Wireless- Intel Ultimate-N 6300

 

Officially for the GPUs it is GTX 280m (which can be clocked to perform IDENTICAL to GTX 285m) and 4870s

I have a spare set of GTX 280m's with heatsinks and SLI cable if you are interested. They have been verified working by me and will be a drop in replacement for you (even the same driver)

If interested I can even set the vbios of the GTX 280m's to GTX 285m speeds for you so it would be permanent

 

Yes they still apply and Dell didn't offer support for anything newer.
Just a heads up if you already have the SLi GTX 280m cards you can flash them with the GTX 285m BIOSes.
As for the Intel 6300 it's a 3x3 card and the m17x R1 has only 2 antennas but you can still fit the card in and use it with the 2 antennas you already have inside, or you can install a 3rd one but that implies dissmanteling the LCD assembly,anyway there are a few routers only that support 3x3.
Cheers

 

So are the 280 amd 285's the same card physically ?

 

Yes,besides a small difference in the SLi connector,architecture wise they are the same! But i don't see the point in selling SLi GTX 280m and buying a SLi GTX 285m,advantages: don't even have to dissmantle the laptop or cripple the SLi connector.

 

Yes (at least they SHOULD be....) if not physically then logically yes they are identical

they have the EXACT same GPU and memory and most likely power designs

 

well I may try flashing the 285 BIOS then on mine

 

HERE you have both cards bioses.
M1 is the first card as per GPU-Z and guess what M2 is? you're right the second one
Good luck

 

Have you successfully flashed GTX 280m's to GTX 285m's using that vios Katalin? I am tempted so that I can sell the set I have lol

 

I wanted to offer you a trade for those against the CF 4870 in the R2 i'm waiting.

 

But I already have 4870s

lol

If you have a set of 5870s.....I am always up for some experimenting!

 

sorry scook anyway this is what i'll do with them,need CUDA.
Glad there are guys like you who won't let go of their R1s

 

scook9 can you pm me with more info about your 280m cards + sli?

 

Sure can!

ygpm

edit: cant you need more posts first. If you put up your email address I can send you an email

 

edit: to hide email

 

email sent

 

lol. nice to see you still in the game

 

You got a Dinc now? How you like it? Loving mine. Should probably respond in pm haha

 

i'm flashing a rom right now. in a few, i will text you.

 

Hmm i have dual GTX280's and wouldn't mind flashing them as well, but in all my years messing with PC's etc, i;ve never flashed a vbios
Anyone got instructions....and are there ways of backtracking in case it goes wrong? Like backing up the current vbios?

Which of the two listed is advised? M1 or M2?

 

Would it be at all possible to switch out the SLI gtx 260ms in an R1 for SLI gtx 460ms?

 

Physically possible but HIGHLY unlikely that it will work as the M17x R1 system bios cannot recognize the device ids for the GTX 460m's

 

So no one has gotten 5870s to work in an R1 yet? That kinda sucks, because from the looks of it, that would improve prospects of getting even a 6970M to work in a R1

 

They have gotten one working, but not crossfire. And your 6970 prospects are severely limited since the PSU is already at its limits as is

 

Crossfire wasn't working? Was it just not reading the second card or was it software/driver related?

As for the 6970, from the looks of it, it seems it does consumes more power than the 5870. But from the looks of the design of the card (has the same CF connector), it should be worth a try. I might be testing just one card when it becomes available.

 

Both cards were recognized but they could not get Crossfire enabled. Sounds like same problem I had with my 4870s when I tried to load XP. 100% sure it is a software problem (maybe system BIOS but not sure since cards are picked up)

Didn't you have a similar problem with the GTX 460m's in your R2?

 

Hmm. Sometimes if it's a Master/Slave setup, flashing the slave with a Master BIOS should allow you to run CfX with a mobility-modded driver (not WHQL mobile drivers). At least, this was my experience with the OCZ Whitebook/W840Di. I would hope someone continues to test this because the R1 is still a strong platform as far as gaming notebooks.

I couldn't test the GTX 460Ms in SLi because Dell never sent me the right cable (the SLi cable). They kept sending me desktop card SLi cables despite many requests to talk to someone more knowledgeable about Alienware notebooks.

 

Wow lol....that is a lame reason to not get to test it Sorry they are so incompetent lol

I have master/master on my 4870s and could not get CF in XP. I do not know what the setup on the 5870s was. If someone wants to send me a pair I will throw everything I have at them to try to get it to work haha

 

I could help with that if you're seriously interested; I can send you my 5870 cards, but I'll need one of your master 4870 cards while you test (so at least I can play HoN )

PM me if you're interested

 

ygpm sir

 

Ok guys, I did it, I finally flashed my GTX 280´s @ GTX 285M. The right code for NVFLASH is:

For card 0:

nvflash -4 -5 -6 -i 0 bios0.rom

for card 1:

nvflash -4 -5 -6 -i 1 bios1.rom

Where bios0.rom and bios1.rom are the bios I took from katalin_2003's thread about stock GTX 285M bios.

The flash went well, once I flashed the cards, then rebooted windows, and windows automatically installed the drivers for the "new" device. Once windows installed the drivers GPU-Z showed this:



Hybrid SLI was disabled and hence SLI was disable too. Then I went to the BIOS, and disabled the 9400M, but then after the logon the screen started to.. I don't know how to say it, the screen was full of lines.. I thought it was a drivers problem, then I downloaded the 197.xx from dell's site for R2, but the installer refused to install. So used the modded drivers from BatBoy, and the install was OK, but then again the same problem, no SLI, and isues when even trying to open GPU-Z.

So flashed back to GTX 280M bios, and windows fails twice installind the drivers when rebooting. I was scare as hell, but at the third time windows did it and everything is ok now.

I am not sure whats wrong with the BIOS, the only difference between the GTX 280M and the GTX 285M are the voltage and the clocks, the timings are exactly the same.

I think the problem was something about the display drivers, because the problem happened once I logged in to windows ie. the display drivers were loaded.

 

Nice one, Tyranus.

Quick question: were you able to run Hybrid SLi with this BIOS modification?

 

Better question....since bios support for the GTX 285m's is poor....why not just permanently overclock you GTX 280m's? That keeps your warranty happy too

 

Oh, of course. I was just curious about Hybrid SLi working with such an update.

If this is about the benefits behind a 285m update, then the entire matter becomes relatively pointless since it's a very modest overclock from that of the 280m at stock.

 

Hybrid SLI was enabled in setup BIOS, but it was disabled on windows, so I think hybrid SLI needs BIOS support to run with the GTX 285M. I wasn't able to get SLI to work neither. I not sure if the M17x R1 needs a BIOS support to get the GTX 285M to work, I am not sure, I remember someone got clevo's GTX 285M and they worked in SLI in the M17x R1, so I guess it is not BIOS related. I would like to have clevo's vbios from GTX 285M to test.

Maybe the GTX 280M and the GTX 285M are not the same? as we all thought.

What do you mean by "permanently"? flashing the video card's bios and leave the clocks @600/1500/1020? and Voltage 1.01V?

I tried once but the card get a lot hotter. I got better temperatures overclocking though Nvidia Control Panel. Maybe I will get an extra cooler and then I will flash the GTX 280M bios @ 285M clocks/voltage.

Yes, this is all about "if it works" , there is no really performance improvement in flashing the GTX 280M @ GTX 285M.. It just will be nice to upgrade our GPU's @ zero cost

 

Putting the clevo bios on the dell card will likely brick it (was the case with the 5870s)

The lack of hybrid SLI and regular SLI are almost certainly driver problems

The GTX 285m on the R2 suffer from poor driver support.