Looking to upgrade my M17x r3

Hello everyone, I currently have an M17x r3 with a GeForce GTX 460m, i7-2630QM processor, 8GB Ram, the stock 300GB hard drive, and a 500GB WD hard drive.

I'm looking to upgrade my laptop as much as I can, with the help of other members here. What model video card, preferably Nvidia, can my laptop support up to? What tweaks will I have to make for that support? Is there anything else I can do to up performance?

 

Best bang for buck: ATI HD 7970m.
Best card: GTX 680m (slightly faster then the 7970m in most benches, but i'm talking minimalistic and it differs per game. Clear winner when OC comes into play).

You could go for a faster processor, but nothing will beat a GPU upgrade when it comes to gaming performance.
I'd also consider an SSD (to replace your 300Gb drive). Will not give you an inch extra performance in games, but makes your system fly.

 

Would it be possible to go with a 660m? Browsing eBay (the only site I've found listings for these cards at, any other suggestions?) the 660m is a lot closer to my ideal price range. When upgrading to any of these, I'm sure it's not as simple as opening it up, taking the old one out, and putting the new one back in, and booting right up. Is there a guide/set of steps to follow? Any software or bios changes needing to be made?

As for the processor, what would you recommend?

 

Hi there.

Assuming you want it as a gaming machine, the best bang for buck will be the video card AND an SSD. You can go for a 680m (see http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/672230-m17x-r3-680m-compatability.html) but you might be better looking to see if the 580m (same as 675m) is available as it should be considerably cheaper than a 680! You will probably need a modded driver for the 680 in that model but third-party video card suppliers seem to supply the driver as well (and you can get them from here: LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers)

Your memory is ample for gaming and a CPU upgrade will probably not show too much outside of benchmarking (unless you go for an AMD where the physics is off-loaded to the CPU)

HTH

 

If I go for the 580m, is there any need of a modded driver, or just swap out and go...?

 

Should be a straight swap as it is on the 'approved' list for the R3

Edit: If you find a 580 dell will sell you a new heatsink complete with pads and paste so no messing around with making a slightly different one fit! The heatsink is around £25.00/$25.00USD. All you need to make sure of is that you get the X-bracket with the new card as this is specific to the card (not sure if this is included with the heatsink from dell)

 

A GTX 680m or HD 7970m are both top of the line cards available for mobiles at this instant.
If you upgrade to one of both, it means you won't have to do anything GPU wise the next 2 years.

Assuming you don't want to upgrade each 6 to 12 months, i'd really advise to go with one of the 2 mentioned. The rest are all nice GPU's but already start to slightly show some age.
I'd rather wait an extra month or 2 and upgrade to the top of the line cards, then to take something a bit cheaper which you will regret in the long run.

A 660m on ebay will cost you around 300$. There's oftenly HD 7970m cards here on the forum for 350-400$. It's not a very big difference.

 

jiggymf is right, however according to DELL the best one officially supported is the 580m. 6990m is also pretty good. I would suggest just upgrading that, everything else seems pretty good still.