New, looking to upgrade M17X-R2. Please Help.

Hey everyone, I've been a desktop gamer until I purchased my Alienware in 2010, So I am new to upgrading laptops, However I would like to upgrade my Alienware M17X-R2. When I originally started looking into this Dell told me that my M17X-R2 had been "fully upgraded and the only way to upgrade was to purchase a new system" I'm guessing this is not the case? I would like to upgrade my Processor and my GPU. wondering what people have upgraded to and how to tell whats compatible. Heres what I am running.

Harddrive:
500 GB Samsung SSD
500 GB OCZ-Octance SSD

Graphics Card
2 Mobility Radeon HD 5870

Processor
Intel Core i7 920XM 2.0GHz (3.2GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache)

Memory:
8GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 4GB DDR3)

As stated im new, so anyhelp would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

CPU: You pretty much has maxed out.
A 940 that is only possible "upgrade" shouldnt give you much more. Ive "downgraded" to 920 from 940 and most is at least as fast since i run overclocked most of the time and can push it as much as the 940.

(using T-stop all the time it runs.)

Harddrive: pretty much maxed out. Of course you can buy bigger etc. All i did was two SSD in RAID0.

Memory. As the ones before.

GPU: Well here is where you can do some damage.

No M17 after the R-2 runs faster than this now on GPU and GPU heavy. Mantle should improve us further helping out for "weak" CPU's when its been worked on a bit. Donno how the new drivers are yet.
Pretty all but perhaps 2 setups in the M18's using SLI or Crossfire would outperform it.
You have to go to 7970M in crossfire. ..........

Check this out..... on how to do this upgrade.



There is no M17 running on 240W PSU able to power this 100% stable at stock clocks or above.
The setup pulls 280W and up.
This mean upgrading your PSU to, to make it 330W.
Most of all should be in that guide.

 

All answered brilliantly by Throme.

Only thing i would add, is that when you start upgrading your GPU's, your R2 will become something more than just another laptop....

And it can be costly too, 2 x 7970M cards is already ~ $800-$1000
Premium Thermal Paste, Premium Thermal Pads
Plus New PSU, and destroying your old PSU, which adds that little bit of salt/pepper on top of everything...takes Premium time also

Another thing worth mentioning is if you have a girlfriend, prepare for complaining.
So straight away buy her a bottle of wine, 8th March is just around the corner, so chuck in some flowers too.

 

BTW im quite sure 1 off 7970M is quite a bit faster than the setup you have already if you find that PSU and double the price on GPU's is a bit much.
Single card can use the PSU that you have.

The full upgrade is perhaps even close to 1200$ and + work.

But as flingin says. I spend WAY to much time in front of it, not to everyones likings

 

Thanks for the responses you guys are on it! :thumbsup: Looks like I've got a lot of reading and research to do now.

 

If you choose to go green instead of read (GPU) sadly you will not gain as much since 680 is not supported in SLI for the R2.

IF you are going the 7970M direction, post your Questions in here or techinferno so that the 7970M clevo gang can answer you if it is a GO for buying the cards you found. There could be problems flashing VBIOS on the cards if you get the wrong one. Sangemaru's guide will show you all about that.

There are less issues with the Clevo's than the Dell's when it comes to crossfire in our R2's and more compatible cards. I am running Dell's but with Clevo VBIOS.
It has its price. Clevo VBIOS get picture but no sound on HDMI. I simply had stuttering in my cards with the Dell VBIOS.

That price is not that steap. Putting on a pure HDMI to DVI converter and adding a DVI +sound to HDMI converter if you really want to use it to run your TV.

If the sound is not good enough you can go this way with that.


You could also go this way with a converter like this.

The components i linked are not recomandations by me, its just to show that there is equipment out there that can be of help.

For now i dont use HDMI with sound from my computer.
You can of course do it the cheap way and re-flash your VBIOS between using HDMI with sound and gaming. (not recomended to flash back and forth all the time since flashing could be risky.

 

Any decision you take, good luck! The 7970m is not officially supported but there are many success stories with that setup.

 

As stated above, I would scrap the 5870M (CF setup is only equivalent to a single 6970M), I'd go with a single 6970M/6990M or 7970M as a 7970M isn't that much more than a used 6970/6990M unless you can afford 2 in Crossfire of each.