M17x R2, what's the highest possible gpu to upgrade?

My current one is the: CrossFire™ Dual 1GB ATI® Mobility Radeon™ HD 5870.
I called Dell for information regarding this and all they offered was a lower model gpu: GTX 280M...
Sadly, I have no hardware knowledge at all... any help would be great. I have more specs of my laptop in case you need it:

Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 940XM (2.13 Ghz, 8MB, 4C)

other than that, I'll have to look it up.
I love my piece of machine, my lil monster, and I really don't want to replace it as it's a damn good one.
I will upgrade the RAM(how far should I go?) and add a HDD(SSD for Windows), now only the gpu remain...

Many thanks!

 

Without modded BIOS, etc I believe the 7970 is considered the highest in sheer frame rates though the 680m often gives a reliably higher fps on average.

The Upgrade Monkey store on Ebay seems to be the most popular place to get cards and spreaders, etc and are very helpful in figuring out what you can use.

 

7970M or 680M (both at stock clocks are at a level of heavily overclocked 5870M CF wihout the issues that comes from a dual GPU config)... could be possibile that 970M will be working with R2, but that's not known just yet.

The ram for everyday use 8GB is more than enough... max possibile is 16GB (2x8GB) but not every ram works....

 

You can use one gtx 680m and oneo r two hd7970m in crossfire, for one card no problem, some tweaking on the heatsink screw for the 7970m and some modded driver for the 680m. For two 7970m in crossfire it's a different story ... mine works without too much problem after quiet some time of tweaking and things. I should wait if i were you, investigation are running about the 970m in the R2 , here is the thread :

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/gtx-970-gtx-980m-in-m17x-r2.762937/page-5

Some chinese guy had succes with a msi card, you should wait and see if it's doable without too much porblem.

 

Thank you for all the info.! I ordered the 680m with the bracket from e-bay and my buddy will install it as soon as it's in.
Got a ssd and 8 gig ram as well now so I'm good for a wile again ^_^

Have one more question, are there any good cooling cradles for my Alienware? I bought one from the local shop and it's ok, but I have to place my laptop on a different spot to be able to have effect of the cooling.
One that fits perfectly or is designed for Alienwares(and minimalistic??).

Thanks again guys!!

 

Great to hear that

Not that i would know... i usually just put a 1-2cm thick book under the back side of the laptop to lift it up a bit... makes wonders regarding the temps.

 

Make sure you understand that you will need to use .inf mods for the nvidia drivers to install.

 

Thanks guys, I passed on the info.!

Came across a new issue though. Bought a Samsung SSD and I though it would fit in my second port for a HDD... it seems it doesn't fit. It's like the opposite
Is there something I should check at the shop? Hope I can swap it
And some other friend told me I should watch out installing a SSD for windows... he didn't remember the specifics for the M17x.

 

Did you mess up and buy an m.2, pcie ssd, or msata? Your machine can only take an sata II or sata III ssd ( also it will only be able to use sata II speeds mind you ) 250mb/s write and read max. (although it will only use 250mb/s a sata III ssd will work fine)

 

It's SATA II and it's compatible with my first HDD bay but not with the second. The second bay port is a male connector like the SSD.

 

You need an adaptator like this :

 

But does it fit? There is like no space around the HDD compartment.
Look:

Image by Anastasios posted Mar 28, 2015 at 2:35 PM

 

You have to put the adaptator in this connector, the sata side go in your SSD connector and the part with the little gold contact go in those little slots in the motherboard connector. Like this :

Here is the cheapest i have found : http://www.ebay.fr/itm/Dell-Alienwa...202?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item43c642a4f2

 

Thanks man, will order it right now.
We keep hitting wall with everything. We removed the 2x3 gb ram and inverted a single 8 gig 1600 mghrts and it didn't detect it. Then replaced it with 2 x 4gb 1333. That did detect them but windows didn't want to get past the 'Starting Windows' message. We installed again the original ram and still the same
What on earth is going on!
Read somewhere that Windows 7 64 bit doesn't accept the ram at times, and needs to be reinstalled. So yea...
And we didn't start on the gpu yet.
So I have issues with the new ram, SSD that doesn't fit and possibly have issues as well after installing with the adaptor and gpu that needs tweaking.

Any tips on the ram and possible SSD issue after install is much appreciated!

And guys, without you I would be lost. Very big thank you!

 

For the SSD you shouldn't have any issue, i have use a ocz vertex 2 50go , a crucial m4 64 go , a crucial m500 240go and now a crucial m500 128 go witout any problem. Just put it in and install windows. You should put the ssd in the primary hdd bay, put it in the secondary bay firt to duplaicate your windows from the hdd and then put it in the first bay. Windows should boot from secondary bay but who knows ...

For the ram i have hear a thing about the number of ram chip on each stick, some 2*8 GB stick doesn't work because of the too much number of ram chip and the memory controller inside the cpu can't handle them. The ram speed is not a problem they slow down automatically to mach the max ram speed for the cpu.

For the stuck windows you might have to repair the windows installtion, put in a windows dvd or bootable windows usb key, boot on it and choose repair windows, it's under "install now" button on main page.

 

Well it all worked so far! Awesome ^^
Does anybody know if the R4 keyboard layout would work on my R2? I want to buy the French layout as it has more special signs as the regular QWERTY.
The only ones I find are for R4 or as expensive as ordering it from Dell(+/- 80 euro).

 

All M17x R1/R2/R3/R4 and M18x R1/R2 keyboards are the same so you can exchange it with any one you'd like.

 

huh? Really? Then it must be defective. I attached the 2 ribbons from the keyboard on my laptop, as it was with the original. And then tried to power on my laptop and nothing happened. When I attached my old one I could power it on again.

 

Yeah most likely, i've used M18x keyboard on my R2, the M17x ones were just too damn expensive...

 

Not to be a parade-rainer, but perhaps not. I had an issue with my M17x R1 keyboard, so I ordered (what I thought) was a replacement part for a M17x keyboard. Didn't work; the keyboard would not light up, no input possible. I tracked down the exact part number of the R1 keyboard, and it went in smooth as silk. Moral of the story: always do the three extra minutes of leg work for the right part number.

 

How will I make sure it's the right part number?
Checked the backside of my current U.S. Keyboard and did a search for part numbers. He only thing I found was someone here posted some part numbers of all the 17 series, the keyboard part number wasn't even found on mine... really confused now
So I have maxslo that said that the R4 keyboard should work and zomiegoat that said the check part numbers.
Any other help?

 

The green ribbon or the one from above is the R4 AZERTY frensh and blue ribbon billow is my current R2 QWERTY us international one.

 

Your part number is 7M2GV...

Now that i think of it, i know my keyboard had blue connector, and the M18x keyboard i bought as replacement also had blue connector, could have something to do with that, anyway here is one that should work for you: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400747070349

You can tell if it's ar R1/R2 keyboard by looking at the up/down/left/right keys.... if there are arrows it's R1/R2 original keyboard, but if there are triangles it's R3/R4/M18x...

 

I would like to order that one, as it's very cheap. But being 2nd hand with possible cosmetic degradation, I rather get it new then from Dell. Thanks though!

 

I've bought from them before, the keyboard may be used, but I couldn't tell that from looking at it. If you really need a new one, i think Dell is the only way

 

Well what a strange turn of events.
So the one from eBay was Send back. Called Dell and ordered one from them and it was exactly the same as the one from eBay and of course didn't work. I called them again and it seems they took a gamble by sending me a R4 one.
So I get my money back and get to keep the new R4 French keyboard for free.
I ordered again one from eBay that specifically wrote R2.
Ow well, anybody interested in my brand new R4 French keyboard?

 

Hmmm... Don't know if it would work, and I don't have much knowledge of the pre-Ranger models, but if the buttons on the R2 and R4 keyboards are identical, would it be possible to dismember the two keyboards and use the R4 AZERTY layout buttons on the R2 QUERTY keyboard and assign keyboard layout and language in Windows?

I'm probably way off the mark there........

 

My friend tried that with his M11 and they simply broke...
Too risky.

 

I used the m17x r2 keyboard on my m17x r4 for two days, had no issues at all.
Also did use the m17x r4 key board on my m17x r2 it worked fine aswell .
Also I did use the m17x r2 key board with m18x r2.

 

Do you have any idea why it failed with mine? You only need to connect the 2 ribbons like the original, right?

 

I normally connected only one because I had all my laptops parted out for a complete clean up.
Then I randomly connected each part from different unit and to say all parts work on each other without a hassle except for Cpu .
But I did switch the Cpu from m17x r4 to m18x r2 , it was a 2820qm . It did work fine.

May be there is a issue with your mono connector ? Or may be dust build up inside it , it normally doesn't happen but there is a chance.

 

Ermmm you connect just one ribbon out of two from the keyboard to the laptop? Hard to believe as I tried that before...

 

It would work with only the bigger (data) cable attached. The other (small) one is for the back-light, so it's not essential. Tried on M17x-R2 and M18x-R1.

 

Yup it's the big ribbon.
Small one is for backlight.

 

I don't understand... how is it that here everyone tells me it will work while I have already tried with 2 new ones and nothing happens...
Isn't there a part number comparison with my laptop to see if they will match? Or anything...

 

I guess I am the only one running a 860M in my Alienware.
At some point I will upgrade to 9x0M series, if the price is right.

 

I'm using now the 680m, and very happy with it.
How is yours in comparison?

 

Works great. The only issue I have is that the screen backlit won't power off, when windows turns off the power to the screen it becomes completely white (this happens also at post and pretty much every time the display is supposed to be turned off). I had to enable a black screensaver but the backlit stays on. It's a combination between my RGB LED and the GPU vBIOS I think. On the other hand I am currently powering 3 displays and I have been gaming on the card without issues.

I am looking forward to the 9x0M series. Maybe with them I won't have any issues. Before I had a 675M which worked flawlessly (currently it's been put up for sale).