The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Upgrading CF 4870's to 5870 question

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by lancorp, May 22, 2012.

  1. lancorp

    lancorp Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    558
    Messages:
    3,258
    Likes Received:
    55
    Trophy Points:
    116
    I have an m17xR2 with a malfunctioning 4870 (CF won't enable, even though the system sees both 4870s).

    I thought this might be a good time to upgrade to 5870's.

    I found the part numbers in owners lounge thread, but wondered about fans. The owners lounge lists left/right fan part numbers under the 5870 section, but not under the 4870 section.

    I assume the same fans that cool the 4870 are also used for the 5870's or is there different fans? I can see that I have two fans installed already for the video cards, but don't know if the 5870's need a different one.

    Thanks!
     
    lancorp, May 22, 2012
    #1
  2. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    14,963
    Messages:
    5,671
    Likes Received:
    1,521
    Trophy Points:
    331
    Yes, same fans, same heatsinks :)
     
    katalin_2003, May 22, 2012
    #2
  3. Greywolf22

    Greywolf22 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    849
    Messages:
    1,453
    Likes Received:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Or you could consider upgrading to a pair of 6970/6990's :)
     
    Greywolf22, May 23, 2012
    #3
  4. imglidinhere

    imglidinhere Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    387
    Messages:
    1,077
    Likes Received:
    59
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Heck a single 6990M would drop a pair of 5870Ms even! :p

    If you can just go for one really powerful GPU, why don't you? ;)
     
    imglidinhere, May 23, 2012
    #4
  5. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

    Reputations:
    5,413
    Messages:
    10,711
    Likes Received:
    1,204
    Trophy Points:
    581
    2 x 5870M is about 300 dollars, 2 x 6990M/6970M is going to be 600 bucks and you'll need to do some modding.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, May 23, 2012
    #5
  6. Megatony73

    Megatony73 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    37
    Messages:
    298
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    30
    If you can do this without alot of trouble, then do it. My brothers one 6990m is almost always better than my dual 5870m's. Hence my impending upgrade to the r4 with a 7970m.
     
    Megatony73, May 23, 2012
    #6