Video card upgrade finally completed, fairy tale ending included!!!

Well, after having ordered and installing a 7970 from Eurocom, and as a result having my rgb display panel wiped out, my attempt at upgrading my M17X R2 did not go well. But this story has a very happy ending. After having all of the issues, I got my rgb replaced by Dell (purchased the ultra extended warranty when I bought the system), and I sent the 7970 back to Eurocom. They tested the card and did not find any issues, but I was obviously very gunshy (am a Network Engineer by trade, and been tearing apart laptops, servers, sans, and countless other system types for over 15 years, installing this card was never an issue for me, but blowing something else up in my system due to an incompatibility issue was) about putting it back into my system. So, after working with Kevin and John from Eurocom we decided I would sent the system to them.

During this time we also decided to put in a 680M (4GB card), instead of the 7970. I am very happy to report that Kevin got the card installed, and working fabulously, and doing so on a single 240 watt power supply (modding my two power supplies was discussed if needed). One of the issues I was having with the 7970 is that my system board no longer recognized my power supply, telling me there was a non-dell power supply connected to my system, every time it booted up. This issue no longer occurs, and everything works. I was playing Crysis 2 in 1080P 3D on my TV through HDMI, with the highest possible settings flawlessly. Audio through HDMI also works no issues, and the system is now once again a monster, and the fans work properly, without setting up HWInfo profiles. It has handld everything I have thrown at it thus far, and done so in spades. Have to turn down a few things when playing at 1080P in 3D on some games (The Witcher 2 and a few others), but on my RGB everything I have run so far has ran extremely well, and incredibly smooth, including The Witcher 2, and Max Payne 3. Both Arkham games are a treat to behold in 3D. Night and day difference between my two 4870s, and this single 4GB 680. Being a guy who loves his 3D gaming (played numerous games in 3D on PS3 and 360), but not wanting to give up my RGB, I now have the best of all worlds. I also have to note that the 3D from this system is light years beyond what my PS3 is capable of, and I now have a massive library of 3D capable games, VS the 20-30 that are available on console. If I had to find and list a single negative, it would be that I can no longer use factory (read non-modded) drivers, but that is really no issue at all since the drivers are readily available at LaptopVideo2Go.

I have to say Eurocom provided tremendous support on this, and did a fabulous job. I can't thank Kevin and John enough. For anyone upgrading their video card, with a card from Eurocom, in their M17X and having issues there is light at the end of the tunnel, and it is absolutely awesome to behold and for me worth all of the trouble getting there.

 

Great read and congrats.

 

Congrats! I'm feeling so jealous with the specs you have there. Awesome work!

 

Appreciated guys! I actually upgraded to dual SSD's running in raid 0, Crucial M4 512GB drives, and 16GB of Corsair Vengeance ram as well, just a couple of weeks back. Added to my i7 920XM, and this thing is pretty smoking. I am extremely happy with how it has turned out. I am sure there are a lot faster out there, but it does everything I ask of it, and does so amazingly well. Should have just bought a couple more years out of this thing, before actually have to think about buying new. I also have the option of adding a second 680 in the future if the need arises.

 

Nice, i didn't know the 680m even worked in the r2.