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.

    What upgrade on my M17x

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by MelbourneAUS67, Jun 17, 2011.

  1. MelbourneAUS67

    MelbourneAUS67 Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hi everybody,
    I've got my alienware M17x-R2 with a Q9000, SLI GTX260, 8gb DDR3, and an hard drive 500gb 7200rpm.
    I thinked to upgrade it with an SSD 128Gb and how much of memory can I put? :???:
    Thanks!
     
    MelbourneAUS67, Jun 17, 2011
    #1
  2. pmassey31545

    pmassey31545 Whats the mission sir?

    Reputations:
    533
    Messages:
    1,394
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    You have 8Gb-that is enough. An SSD-as I am finding out-will make a world of difference. I heard it for a while, but when you see it in action-WOW. Get one. It will help immensly. And you could upgrade the CPU, but that'll cost $400ish. I think an SSD will give you the biggest gain for performance.
     
    pmassey31545, Jun 17, 2011
    #2
  3. Dreamliner330

    Dreamliner330 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    82
    Messages:
    475
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    31
    SSD...you have enough memory.
     
    Dreamliner330, Jun 17, 2011
    #3
  4. TurbodTalon

    TurbodTalon Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,392
    Messages:
    3,147
    Likes Received:
    158
    Trophy Points:
    131
    An SSD will make the computer boot and load applications faster. An SSD, believe it or not, will have absolutely no impact on gaming performance though. I'd suggest a pair of 4870s. Sell the 260s to recover some of your cash. The QX9300 is the best CPU you can slap in there as well. To get more memory, which you don't need, you would have to buy 8GB DIMMS, and I don't think they're very cheap.
     
    TurbodTalon, Jun 17, 2011
    #4
  5. FragZero

    FragZero Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    8
    Messages:
    198
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Be a pioneer and try a 6970!

    And yes, SSD is a nice upgrade.

    Could try one of those ES Q9200 on ebay which are overclockable. Cheaper then a QX9300 and ppl run them at high speed - low voltages
     
    FragZero, Jun 17, 2011
    #5
  6. Simplified

    Simplified The Most Awesome

    Reputations:
    428
    Messages:
    766
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    That is a R1.

    Upgrade in this order if you want gaming performance.
    1: upgrade gpus to 2x 4870m or 2x GTX 280m/285m
    2: upgrade cpu to QX9300
    SSD wont affect FPS in games as TurbodTalon said

    Upgrade in this order if you want fast system response, like faster boot times etc.
    1: SSD
    2: QX9300 (will not boost response, but nice to have. Will boost cpu intensive tasks (Very nice to have for programming))
    3: upgrade gpus to 2x 4870m or 2x GTX 280m/285m (will not boost response, but nice to have.)
     
    Simplified, Jun 17, 2011
    #6