Upgrades for an M17xR4?

I have a M17xR4 and want to upgrade a few things....


Right now this is my base setup:

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• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3840QM CPU @ 2.80GHz
• Multiplier x Bus Speed12.0 x 99.8 MHz
• Stock frequency2800 MHz
• Instructions setsMMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, EM64T, VT-x, AES, AVX
• L1 Data cache4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
• L1 Instruction cache4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
• L2 cache4 x 256 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
• L3 cache8 MBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size
• Turbo Modesupported, enabled
• Max non-turbo ratio28x
• Max turbo ratio38x
• Max efficiency ratio12x
• Min Power36 Watts
• O/C bins+4
• Ratio 1 core38x
• Ratio 2 cores37x
• Ratio 3 cores36x
• Ratio 4 cores36x
• TSC2793.9 MHz
• APERF3624.6 MHz
• MPERF2739.7 MHz
• NorthbridgeIntel Ivy Bridge rev. 09
• SouthbridgeIntel HM77 rev. 04
• Graphic InterfacePCI-Express
• PCI-E Link Widthx16
• PCI-E Max Link Widthx16
• Memory TypeDDR3
• Memory Size32 GBytes
• Display adapter 0
• NameAMD Radeon HD 7970M

I am using 2 of the Western digital black 750gb hard drives.

So, I want to upgrade my video card (Sticking with ATI ((AMD)), I am looking at SSD's but they are still pricey (I will only buy samsung SSD's) and 1TB SSD's are pricey and low in capacity. (During CES this year, Samsung told reporters that they had 2TB SSD's in the EVO 850 line, but because they did not see a demand for them, they never brought them to market). This makes me a little pissed off as a consumer because I have been waiting for storage for my laptop to break the 2 TB limit, and in theory, that would drop the prices of 1TB SSD's if 2TB SSD's came to market now.

Also, looking through my bios yesterday, I saw that I had the option for mSATA.

This brings up my next question. On a M17xR4 can I have a 1TB or 2TB mSATA and then 2x 1TB(or 2TB) SSD's in the hard drive bays for 4TB storage plus the mSata? for 5TB total space on an M17xr4?

 

Wasn't aware there was an mSATA slot on here and I've opened mine multiple times. I swapped out the optical drive to install an SSD so you could do that as well.

 

It's under the keyboard and requires almost a full strip to get to it .

 

You have the fastest amd card. The only real upgrade is the 970m and 980m (see thread for details as it's not plug and play).

 

:-( So there are no upgrade options as far as the video card go, I will check out the tread on that, do you have a link to it?

Right, I thought there wasn't an mSATA on the M17xr4, but apparently there is. I did not realize it was that hard to get to it. But I guess once it is in, it is in. a 1TB mSATA and 2x 2TB EVO 850's might keep this laptop in the running as far as speed goes for a while. Samsung just needs to start selling the 2TB SSD's.

 

How about ram? I remember seeing that the Dell Precision M6400 or M6700 supported up to 64gb of ram, it looks like the current version the M6800 only supports up to 32gb of ram. I know there are laptops out there that will take 64gb of ram. I am not sure if it is the processor, or the north or south bridge that limits the ram.

Is it possible to put 64gb of ram in an M17xr4 and have it work? and where would I get the dimms?

 

Yeah but just be aware the mSATA port is only sata2, the drive bays are sata3. Not that you'll notice any difference but if you create a RAID array to include the mSATA the whole lot will drop to sata2 giving slower benchmarks.

I tested both sata modes on a previous model and I could not see any change in things like load times, just always very fast .

 

Don't know about the max mem but it depends on what you are using the machine for. I very much doubt you need more than 6~8gb for gaming. I've never needed it and it makes no difference to the speed of the machine.

 

So if I keep the mSATA separate and then only do Raid with the drive bays, I would get the best of both worlds? I am looking at 64gb of ram, not to run Microsoft Office or check emails . I use Photoshop and Premier allot, looking to edit 4K video and 80mp raw files from medium format camera's. Right no game will need that much ram.

 

Oops, sorry dude, you do need it . I'm not even sure if win 7 standard can even cope with over 32gb. One for others to advise.

For the drive bays, yes that's the preferred config. Put the OS on the msata and your big data on an array in the drive bays.

 

I have been running 64bit versions of windows since they were available, so as far as windows addressing more than 32gb of ram, that is not an issue, trying to get the M17xR4 to read more than 32gb of ram is the tough question.

 

Right, sorry, no help there .

 

Windows Server 2012 R2 standard actually caps you at 64GB if I recall correctly. You *have* to use Datacenter to go above that. Would be interested to know if Windows 8.1 Pro supports more than 32GB (tested, not Microsoft's numbers because their dev team and tech writing team never get it right)

 

Is there a wireless AC solution that fits the M17xR4?

 

Oh, and where do I get a tear down manual to find the mSATA connector on the M17xR4?

 

Storage wise you can have a 1TB mSATA SSD at most and with 3 possible HDD slots, you can have 2 2TB M9T HDDs + 1 1TB SSD ( 1 HDD + 1SSD in 2.5" slots and 1HDD in Optical bay)... GPU upgrades wise, the 970M and 980M work and work perfectly in Optimus mode.. Here is a link to my upgrade thread for 970M.. 3840QM is enough.. just OC with XTU...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-17-m17x/767872-alienware-17x-r4-970m-upgrade.html