M17XR3 GPU upgrade question

When i was ordering the laptop i noticed they had an option for two nvidia 460m in SLI, but through all the times i have taken the laptop apart I have not seen a slot to place a second card. Is it possible to buy a second 460m and install it into a M17xR3 that was originally purchased without it?



Also a second issue is, my dog knocked the laptop off the table and it crushed the glass in front of the webcam. All it messed up was the glass covering the LCD screen. I checked the parts number list and cannot find just the cover. Also i cannot find it on ebay. Anyone know of anyway to find this part?

 

No, you can not have 2 GPU's in an R3 or R4. You can with an R2, bit dual cards is not possible in an R3 or R4.

It's also not possible you saw that option when you ordered it ^^
Maybe you bought it just at the R2-R3 switch, or you are mistaken it for an m18x where this is possible.

 

How certain are you that you are not confusing the m18x with the m17x?

 

Pretty certain. The actual ship date was 3/12/2011 which was right at the R2/R3 switch. I do know within a couple of months, alot of the options i had for my laptop build were not available anymore. Granted, I have been mistaken many times in my life and 2 years is a long time to recall what you saw on a webpage.

 

Well then likely you might have been surfing the site when the R2 was selling out just before the R3 got released, and then when you ordered the R2 was gone and the R3 was order-able.
It's 100% not possible to put 2 GPU's in the R3 or R4. It's actually the reason why some of us stick with the R2 and upgrade it, as it's the last 17" Alienware which had the 2nd MXM slot (for a 2nd GPU).

 

Yeah... found my old invoices... the first laptop i ordered was a R2 same configuration as this one, but something screwy happened with the order and they ask me to re place the order. Never noticed the first one i ordered was not the R3. That just leaves wondering about the glass covering the LCD.


BTW.... yall guys are like psychic.... how the hell did yall figure that out from a question that now doesn't make any sense

 

We just know man ^^

I would like to note though, that you do have wicked options upgrading your current GPU to something alot faster, which outperforms (actually, destroys) a 460m SLI setup by far.
Which would have also been my advice even if you would have been able to add a 2nd 460m in SLI.

I unfortunately can't help you with the part number for the glass cover, but I'm sure someone else will jump who is a walking partnumber-encyclopedia, in who can

 

I don't think it's possible to get only the glass cover through Dell, I just tried a gazillion ways to get down to the root parts but I didn't found one for that.

What I can get is the part numbers for the LCD assembly combos, but of course they are a lot more expensive than just the glass.

 

Well first off... I would like the LCD assembly combo part number, and second what cards would you recommend. Right nor im obviously sitting with the 460M and the I7-2630QM, also in yalls experience. Is it worth it to pay to upgrade a 2yr old laptop. not sure how long these alienware MB's can last, but i can guess its not a 5-7 year life expectancy you get from a desktop MB.

 

sorry for the late response .... power supply went out for this ... had to wait for my new one to overnight.

 

Actually it's getting close to 4-5.
Just upgraded my M17x-R2, and I expect at least 2 more years of gaming on it on max settings, and maybe the last part of that 2nd year at 1 under max settings.

That would make it 5 years in total. I wouldn't see why the R3 does not have that lifespan.

Only advice I can give you, if you want to upgrade, do it decently and don't go for some half fast cheap card. Take the top you can get at this moment (7970m or GTX 680m) and you will enjoy it a lot.
Budget wise, don't upgrade if the reason for this is you think it's cheaper. It's not, mostly you are cheaper just selling a system and buying a newer faster one.

Some of us just get satisfaction out of the fact you have stuff in your notebook that was never intended to be in it, try stuff out, and works great, and performs practically as well as brand new model Alienwares.
If you don't like that kind of stuff, i'd consider a new one instead of upgrading.

 

yeah thats what i figured... I think i may be better off building a gaming desktop and just using this for some mobile gaming. grabbing a 680m off ebay will cost just as much as a MSI lightning radeon 7970... if im going to spend that kind of cash i should probably drop it into something i can upgrade well past a couple years from now.... NTM to get a real performance increase im looking at needed to swap out the processor to one that can push 1866mhz ram and well as drop in some ssd's... still the concept sounds rather sexy having a laptop that can push that kind of power.

 

Ever seen an m18x irl? ^^