M17X R4 Upgrades and Compatablility

I have a stock M17X R4. I have added a 256GB SSD and upgraded the RAM to 16GB 1600Mhz Kingston HyperX. It has the stock 660M GPU and I recently purchased the 680M. My major questions are, will I be able to get the full potential of the 680M with 1600Mhz RAM, will the stock 660M heat sink work with the new 680M GPU and most importanlty will it be an easy install. Meaning plug it in, download the new drivers for the 680M and be ready to play? Is there some other configuring I would have to do in order to make a new 680M compatabile with a 660M configured machine? Thanks

 

GPU doesn't care about the system RAM.
GTX-660m looks very different from GTX-680m as far as I know. I recommend getting the dedicated heatsink, but you can check the card shape and see if it fits. Maybe you can make do with some extra thermal pads if it won't crush IC's.
A dell card with a dell vbios should be plug n play, yes.

 

I did not buy the Dell card as it was something like $1200. I purchased this card http://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/e1105...em=130844103674&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:CA:1123

Is there going to be any machine configuration issues with a non Dell card?

Sorry for the double post

 

All the graphics heatsinks look similar I believe, just make sure you arrange the pads or get more as you need to contact each of the little black chips at the top of the card and the large square inductors.

I believe people have run them ok, but you may loose 3d display output support.

 

I do not have a 3D display, so i am totally okay with losing that. I'm just trying to prepare myself for one it arives. Making sure that it will be a pretty straightforward install and download drivers. I was told the kit I bought comes with already precut thermal pads, thermal paste, x bracket and the card.

As far as I have read or seen (not in the same set up as me) I haven't found anything to outstanding that will make it hard. I'm trying to get some clarification if anyone has done this already to validate that it is as simple as I'm reading it to be.

Thanks for the replies thus far.

 

How was it 1200 dollars? On their website they offer the upgrade for 300 bucks. Though when I called I got the upgrade for free along with other things.

 

If you buy the part out right not when building a machine I'm sure it's going to be much more than $300.00.

 

Yes, buying it after I have already received my machine cost way more than the standard upgrade when you configure your rig before shipping.

 

Dell basically you once machine has shipped, for example a data imposer for hdd/sad costs $45 plus shipping in Australia, I got same from eBay for $3.99 with free shipping. I tried buying larger ac charger for m15x and it was $180 plus shipping but dell rep tried to sell me the power cord for $35 alone. Again eBay cost me $80 including shipping to get the same.

Only and only when one cannot source parts from outside, should even consider buying parts from dell.

 

Which is the route I took by purchasing from a third party. But still trying to get some more info on if it will be as easy as it seems with upgrading from a 660m to a 680m in my already configured machine.

 

I'm wondering how easy of an install this will be. I'll be watching this thread, so good luck to you.

 

I am just as curious. That is why I have been asking around. As far as I have been reading it will be pretty straightforward. Uninstall old drivers, remove old card, clean up the paste on the heat sink, apply new thermal pads on new GPU, apply a dab of thermal paste, install new drivers.

It just seems too easy. I do always expect the worst to happen though, so maybe that's just me thinking it should be harder than that? Who knows.

 

Just a couple of things:
Check if there is tape on the heatsink around the GPU core area. If there is the 680m core might be a little larger so you need to remove the tape - and make sure you use the new x-bracket.

Since you are going from NV to NV you probably don't even need to remove the drivers any more - I'm seeing the 'upgrade' option in the driver package working perfectly these days - always used to have to select clean install to avoid issues

 

You might lose optimus, but not 100% sure. Check which vbios your card comes with as well.

 

I think it may be fine in the R4 since the card is approved but a non-dell one will have a different ID so there's just as much chance your right. R3 users have to disable the on-board completely.

 

That's great new! The new GPU is in route. I will be sure to post an update as to how it went.

What is the best solution to use to remove all the old thermal paste from the heat sink?

 

.

It is recommended to use a high % IPA (Alcohol), but the easiest option is to get some skin swabs from the chemist used for injections. Leave no trace and clean in one operation

 

That is what I thought, just making sure I have all loose ends tied before i start digging in.

 

But, is optimus really necessary? Correct me if I'm wrong, people have been disabling their optimus.

 

One more loose end to check out then . When you install the driver the machine ID/card ID may not be there so it will error with 'hardware not detected'. The inf file needed to get it to install can be found here LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers - some light reading for you

Oh yeah, win 8 is win 7 as well on that page.

 

Great link, thank you. is that driver download anything like this:

Obtain the modified VGA driver for your system. The driver can be found here:

http://downloads.eurocom.com/support/drivers/zip/Alienware/

 

Yes that will be a modded one for their cards but I don't see the 680m, it will probably not be the latest version anyway when you will need to get a different one. Start with theirs if that is where you got the card

 

You would find it under: 6xxm / M17R4 / M17R4 680m.zip

I appreciate all the information thus far.

 

People do disable optimus, but it usually requires a unlocked BIOS to turn if off completely. It works fine for me, and the balance of battery life and pure performance is nice. If your computer just sits at the desk with the power connected there is no need, but I leave it on since it just works for me and I travel a bit with the laptop and had no major issues with it.

I think you probably could get it working as long as the correct vBIOS is on the card.

 

You're welcome

Go for those first, if there are any probs then you can follow up with them - as well as here . Get yourself some base numbers before looking to update them.

 

Don't forget you loose your treehugger pin and if you have a Prius it might get repossesed lol...

 

This.

lol

 

Okay, so I went to that link you provided (LaptopVideo2Go) to check it out and get prepared for my incoming GPU. I downloaded the driver and the driver is the exact same as what I have installed. I'm assuming that is what it is suppose to be, just that, the driver. I then proceeded to download the inf file. All that was brought up after clicking "download inf file" was a huge wall of text. (As someone who has never messed with modified drivers before, that's how I see it)

If my link I was provided from the GPU company doesn't work right and I have to resort to this inf file. Excuse my noobness, What on earth do I do with it?

 

NP it confuses most people. All you need is the inf that matches the driver version, the drivers themselves are bog standard (if their disclaimers are correct).

What you do is when you get to the wall of text page, use your browser's 'save as' feature and save it as the name of the page. Make sure type is not txt but 'any' or windows will append a hidden .txt to the file and it won't work.

You then have to find the original inf file under c:\nvidia and replace it with the new one. If you get stuck looking for it I'll spend a little time giving you the full path but basically it will be in a folder titled display.driver (not displaydriver!)

All the best

 

I'm completely following what your laying down here. However, my save as is only letting me save it as a txt file

"Right click, save as, name nvwin.inf and my save as type I only have txt file. Is there a special trick that I'm totally missing here?

I had noticed the inf that is in the driver folder already when read, opens as a txt file. Not sure if that matters.

EDIT: Disregard, I just made a copy of the inf and then, "save as" replaced the copy. It made the file into a system information file instead of the regular txt file
Although it doesn't look the same as the other inf file when opened. A normal file opened is very legible and neat. Mine saved all crammed together. Is that going to make a difference once I actually replace the file?

 

Open device manager, ids (blue) match then you shouldn't need a modded .inf. Download from nvidia and install driver NVIDIA DRIVERS 314.22WHQL

Nvidia inspector check Dell id = 1028 NVIDIA Inspector Download version 1.9.6.9

Mine is a clevo (vbios) card and checks as a dell one 1028, still needs a modded .inf M17XR3 id not listed.10DE&DEV = Nvidia, 11A0 = GTX 680M, 0551 = M17XR4, 1028 = Dell (PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11A0&SUBSYS_05511028).

 

Doesn't sound right. It should be a formatted text file you just don't let windows add the hidden .txt (this will associate it with notepad). In the 'save as' box you should be able to select 'any' rather then text but another option is to just save it somewhere as txt and then use windows explorer to rename the file. You would then see the .txt at the end and remove it. Windows will warn you about changing a file type, accept and your done.

I'm using firefox and it saves it correctly by default. IE does not

Good luck

 

Thanks for that. I'll be sure to check it out when it arrives.

 

I'm using Google Chrome, I'll keep messing with it tonight. See if I can't get it to download properly.

 

Got the inf file saved properly, thanks again for a little guidance. On to the next small hurdle in the road to swapping GPU's.

Is my stock PSU going to be okay with this 680m upgrade? I was under the impression that the 660m is something like 45 watt, while the 680m is 100 watt.

 

You should be fine. AFAIK they are all supplied with a 240W PSU.

 

Not all of them The Dell Online Store: Build Your System (Print Summary option), check PSU wattage.

 

Wow, never seen that before 180w??? . It even says in the build 'additional 240w power supply' if you want one.

For the questioner, just look at the label and multiply the output volts by amps to check the wattage.

 

I haven't been home to check my PSU yet, but will I have to upgrade my PSU if is only the 180w?

 

Possibly, my 675 came with a 240W. I think the symptom would be (if it's not enough) that the video card would continuously go into the power throttle where the voltage and clock drop. This is known as 'P1' and I see it when OC'ing. Without mods (which I have done) the base 620mhz clock drops to 415mhz. If it happens you'll see a game start to drag.

I do know ways to monitor this so when the time comes...

Edit: maybe one of the Dell reps here can check out the circumstances that you might get a 108W power brick and let us know, could be a typo, not unknown on the builder site.

 

It's no typo, R4 start price $1499 gtx 660m + Core™ i7-3630QM 1600 x 900 60Hz WLED.
Enter the service tag here http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/Product/alienware-m17x-r4 for order details.

 

Which is the exact setup I purchased, coming from others knowledge I have learned that upgrading your PC is cheaper doing it yourself rather then making the adjustments during configuring. I was a little wrong in some aspects of doing it with this laptop. I should have spent the little extra cash on the GPU while configuring, as it is much more expensive now to upgrade it. I also purchased the 1920x1080 screen to upgrade my washed out screen of the 1600x900. The screen is also in route to me now.

The screen is going to be easy, already added a SSD and upgraded RAM. I think this third party non-Dell card upgrade is going to be my biggest hurdle.

I appreciate all the information so far. This really is a great forum for help, excellent community. I'm currently deployed to Afghanistan right now so the shipment of all my upgrades take a little longer to get to me.

 

With the service tag you can check order details (previous post).

 

Non of the upgrades were purchased via Dell. They were all third party and I have tracking numbers. Hard to get any other information on where my hardware is when it is in the air flying to a different country

 

For the PSU, not upgrades. Original dell hardware configuration.

 

Ah, okay gotcha now. Yeah, I'm still at the office, I will check what PSU I have once I get back.

Much appreciated.

 

My 680m came in the mail today

Wish me luck!

 

:thumbsup: I do!! Give us a full rundown on how it goes... :thumbsup:

 

Sooooooo, That was possibly the easiest upgrade I have ever done. I didn't have to uninstall any old drivers, I didn't have to use and modified drivers or a modified inf file. It really was as simple as I have read everywhere else.

1) took out old GPU.

2) Cleaned off old thermal paste on original heat sink.

3) Applied some new thermal pads ( Not all needed to be replaced because Alienware didn't skimp out and use just 2 large thermal pads)

4) inserted new 680m GPU

5) applied new thermal paste

6) Applied original heat sink and screwed down.

7) Boot up PC auto recognized, auto downloaded 680m driver, auto updated my Nvidia experience.

I'm still not running full potential due to the 180w PSU. It auto configured the GPU to run on the old supply so I don't have any respectable 3DMark states. But, the new PSU is already on it's way.

One down side is the computer says my PSU isn't compatible for this card so it wont charge it until my upgraded PSU arrives

Other than that, very easy and very satisfied with this upgrade and how it went. GPU holds at a solid 34C while not being used and only hit 52C with 1 run at 3DMark 11.

 

That's good news, I was hoping it would be that simple .

Which card supplier did you go for?