What are the upgradable part of M17x?

Hello there, M17x fellows, I have several question wanting to ask you guy since most of you here are M17x owners anyway I kinda going to switch some M14x to M17x because I felt M14x just dont 100% satisfy me (But it's a really good laptop) my biggest question was, How flexible is the laptop? I mean What are the upgradable parts?

1st Question: I know that for all Alienware laptop you can upgrade RAM, Optical Drive and HDD, but how about the GPU and the CPU? Are they soldered onto the motherboard just like M14x and M11x? And if they are not, how hard is it to replace the GPU? Because I'm also plan to get the base version and manually upgrade to whatever I prefer myself to save $$$.

2nd question: How about the heat, I mean on one of my M14x thread ( CPU Run HOT!!!) The CPU on my M14x run really hot, as seen in the link I provide above, Core 0/1 reach 99C, and the package thingy reach 100C!!! So I was quite worry about the cooling on the M17x since it will produce much more heat than M14x I guess.

3rd Question: About the RAM, it list only the 1333Mhz version on Dell website, is it possible to upgrade it to either 1600Mhz or 1866Mhz?

4th Question: Should I wait for the Ivy Bridge to release on M17x? Which I think they might redesign the laptop and roll out the M17x R4

Last Question: How about the overall impression of the laptop, is it worth the upgrade (from my M14x), because like I said I felt my M14x is somewhat underpowered with the GT555M. And are there any problem that I should know beforehand?

Thanks for reading and answer this in advance, I'm really appreciated it.

 

upgrading gpu is fairly easy. the main thing you have to worry about by changing your gpu is whether the systems bios supports it or not.

same thing goes for the cpu.

cooling on the m17xr3 is nicely done (in my opinion). there is no throttle on the cpu or the ati 6990m.
there is however a slight throttle problem with the nvidia 580m but its easy to fix.

ram: you can use 1600/1866mhz with the i7 2720/2820.

waiting for ivy bridge: it most likely will be revealed at the cebit 2012 in march (maybe kepler mobile will be there too).
this means you can buy a new alienware in april or so.
you know how it goes, there will be always something new and better.

overall impression: my last notebook has been an xps m1710. i bought it in late may 2006.

since then i had multiple notebooks: m1730, m17xr1, some clevo ones... they all went back to factory because i wasnt satisfied.
but with the m17xr3, i finally found one which will accompany me for the next 2 years or so.

 

Thanks for the reply, but I still need more people to comment on this, because I cant make decision base on a person though, Can anyone here who's the owner of M17x R2/3 have your idea and thought here please, thanks.

 

I think mrm2x did a good job of answering your questions, but I'll echo him...

This will be totally up to you. What areas is your M14x struggling with? What are your goals for the laptop? If you are highly mobile with it, than maybe the 14x is a good choice for you. I take my m17x everywhere and I don't have any issues with it.

They are not soldered like the M14x and are actually quite easy to replace. Sometimes getting the base version upgrading later on is a good idea, but I do not believe that this is the case with the GPU. I would say spend the extra money right now and save yourself later on (dell wants 650 bucks for a 6990, but if you do it right away its only a couple hundred bucks).

The M17x cools pretty well (I don't think it cools quite as well as my G73JH that I had prior, but it does the job well). I don't think I've seen above 78C on the cpu since owning it.

You can upgrade to the 1600 or 1866, there are some benchmarks in this forum, you'll have to search for them however since I do not have a link to them. I would get the lowest amount of ram you can from dell, then upgrade it yourself.

They probably will have an R4 with the release of Ivy Bridge and the new GPUs. The thing about waiting is there will always be something bigger and better around the corner, it's up to you as to when you want to "pull the trigger"

I love my M17x, it runs great, handles all of the games that I play on it, and was a great value. The available gpus on the 17x are a great deal better than the 555M, so if you're needing more power in the gaming department, it's a great way to go. I haven't had any issues with my laptop, so I can't comment there.

You're welcome, it's what we are here for.

 

Portability isnt my problem, since because at the time I decide to get an Alienware, I was already intend it as a desktop replacement, so it will be on the desk with the power plug in 85% - 90% of the time, but still sometime I will take it else where with me on some occasion.

Yeah, the biggest thing is that on some source I've read somewhere, it said to be a backward-compatible with the Sandy Bridge system, that why I ask if I may have to wait for the R4 version to be release plus because of the flexible of the upgradability of this laptop, make me get to decide whether I should wait for the R4 or just pull the trigger now.

Anyway again thanks for the answer, I'll stick around both sub-forum, so then it will help get to decide whether to get it now or later.

Oh btw another question, which is for eg if Alienware roll out the R4 version, is it possible for me to get the R3 version on their website (Alienware.com)?

 

Ivy Bridge is supposed to be backward compatible with Sandy Bridge, it will be up to dell to release a bios update that will support the new processors, but I believe dell will do that. If its a large step up from sandy bridge, I'll upgrade the cpu in my laptop (if possible).

Typically if they have a new release, you can get the old one for a while on their website, until they run out.

 

Dell already did with the M14x series, the A04 BIOS update which the description of the update was "enable compatibility with newer Intel CPU".

So I think they also have already release it for the M17x series as well, maybe?

 

If I'm not mistaken this is for the upcoming Sandy Bridge refresh?

 

Oh, yeah, Oops... I forgot about that, lol.