Upgrading M17xR2 . . Please Share Your Opinion

Hi All.

I am upgrading my M17xR2 Laptop as follows:

500GB 7200rpm -> to Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB (ordered) - (500GB will be installed as slave)
ATI 5870 -> to CrossFireX (Right slave Vga) (ordered from dell cos of warranty issues)
4GB 1333MHz Stock Ram -> to 8GB 1333MHz Global-Memory 204-PIN SODIMM (ordered)
Intel i7 720 CPU -> to Intel i7 940 - Please suggest a good seller for the CPU (currently found laptopmonkey on ebay)
Broadcom WiFi -> Intel N6300 (ordered)

Please share your opinion on the above.

Thanks to All

 

Do you have a 3x3 mimo router already? Otherwise the N6300 will provide nothing extra over the Dell 1520 (besides Intel Mywifi, but the list of devices that support it are small)

If I had to choose again, I would have skipped the $60 charge and stuck with the dell card.

 

Thanks for your reply

Yes i have dlink 650 and 685

The thing that is confusing me more is , shall i get the ES version of the i7 940 cpu ?

 

Plenty of people use ES samples, there's been a suggestion that they perform marginally worse than real OEM processors, however, $580 vs $1200-1400 speaks for itself.

 

was reading on the ES, bits and pieces from forums,

Is it true that there is some functions which are disabled in ES (or locked multipliers) ?

 

technically it's possible, however almost all these sellers test these chips for functionality anyway. so realistically no, it's not.

 

I bought my 940 XM (ES) at Shirley CPU on Ebay.

Shirley's CPU items - Get great deals on Intel Core 2 Duo series items on eBay Stores!

A little feedback on this Chinese reseller :

I received my parcel 5 days after placing my order (I'm French, living in Paris). The package was 50 times bigger than the volume of the chip itself, fully loaded with bubble plastic film. The CPU was lying on a smooth terry cloth in a rigid plastic box. The plastic box was wrapped in layers of soft plastic film. Very impressive.

I also fond a I7 Core Extreme sticker and a syringe of No-name thermal grease in the package.

I installed it with a thin layer of Noctua NT-H1 thermal grease.

The CPU is behaving as intended, 5% O/C from Alienwares bios is running smoothly even if I prefer to use Trottlestop (UncleWeb, I love you.). I benched the bad guy for 2 days with Wprime and OCCT... It kicks *** , really.

I rose my TDP/TDC to 84/63 and my temps are just fine. 46°C idle, 85°C maximum while gaming, it peaks at 92°C under extreme load (OCCT).

My gaming experience is not the same anymore, the difference between a 720 qm and this 940 XM (ES) with TS is way beyond my expectations. (my multipliers are unlocked, bad *** unlocked !)

Sorry for my english, I'm not a native speaker.

 

Thanks A lot [M]Miles . .

I have contacted the seller already . . will be here in a week hopefully

the only part that will take 4 weeks or more to arrive is the 5870 slave with cable directly from Dell

why local dell authorised dealer shop is insisting I will loose my warranty if I upgrade ? I upgraded warrenty for 3 years parts/labour

Now I must start reading/looking for good thermal paste and thermal pads ... (available in Europe)

 

I have almost the same configuration you're aiming :

I7 940 XM - CFx 5870m - 8GO Corsair 1333 MHz - C300 128 Go

Just a quick thing on the C300, it will run in SATA II (not III) in you M17x-R2 so expect less than the specifications advertised by Crucial.

Don't forget to look at you C300 Firmware version, 002 is good to go, 001 need a flash ! (and it requires a low-level format, so you should do it before you put 7 on it).

 

Thanks,

how should I know what firmware it is running ?
can I low level format the drive from bios ?
Is Low Level required only when updating firmware ?

I have ordered Global-Memory DDR 3-1333Mhz any Idea how do they compare with different brands ?

 

1) Crucial website !

Take the USB Stick method, because you will have to set your Device in ATA (IDE) in the bios to do so, and the DVD/BR drive may not be working in this mode)

C300 Firmware release and feedback thread - Page 22 - Crucial Community

2) Properties of your SSD.
3) You will have to do it from boot through DOS.
4) Low level Format (when you fully erase your drive).

 

Thank You !!

so lo level formatting is only necessary if drive is firmware 001 ?

 

You got it dude !

 

My experience was similar to Miles' post above. However I purchased mine at the time from an ebay seller named "extremeprocessor". The shipment originated from Taiwan I believe.

I received the CPU in under 48 hours even though they did not commit to anything faster than 10 days. It was packaged well beyond what was necessary, and it also had the stickers.