Where to send my M17r2 for a cpu upgrade?

It's time for me to upgrade the cpu to an i7. I'm scared to do it myself. I rather send it in to dell/alienware...What are the minimal prices, wait time, and who do i call?

 

If you buy it from them they will send onsite tech to install. If you bought somewhere else I doubt they will do anything.

 

Get yourself an ES CPU off of ebay, and we will show you how to replace it.

 

I would also doubt that Dell would install anything but an OEM chip....im not sure, but i wouldnt think so, therefore it would mean spalshing out big money on a genuine OEM one....i reckon Ebay would still be cheaper than buying OEM from Dell ....

 

^^^^^ Save your self $$$ and headache with Tech problems because the guy has never worked on an alienware. If i was to guess a CPU swap would take like 45min- 1hr (dr650se =p) min for someone who has done it before and probably 1.5 hr for a beginner all the way to 2 hrs if you take your sweet sweet time. The money you will save is close to $500 or more and the tech headaches are priceless.

I was looking at prices for CPU chip aftermarket from dell and i about SHAT my pants.

820qm/840qm: $1300
920xm/940xm: $2600
128gb ssd: $399

Now the nice thing is the techs said i can keep my old parts and sell them on ebay to recover some of the cost lolz...where do i begin...if i am on ebay why not pickup a $400 chip, get some supplies (beer n smokes =p), don't forget some good thermal paste, Pads, service manual and NBR



http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...l-compunds-gpu-cpu-m17x-r2.html?highlight=cpu

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/523915-pics-cooling-mods-done-tx-4-clip-mod.html

You can do some Thermal Mods to get a 10-20 degree drop depending how extreme you want to get



http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...g-mod-huge-improvement.html?highlight=thermal

 

Yeah, screw OEM. That's my two cents. I've always used ES/QS CPUs with no problems, and I'm a heavy overclocker.

 

The OP clearly stated that they are not comfortable with doing it themself.

Just call Alienware - I am sure they will sell you an upgrade chip and send a tech out to do it. The tech might be an idiot, but at least their work will be covered under warranty. You should be able to find the Service number on the Alienware website.

As far as pricing, I would expect to pay *at a minimum* around $500 for this service by going through the official channel for the lower end i7 processors, and probably $1400 or more for the Extreme chips.

 

$500 for *maybe* a 620/640. Retail for a 740 is ~$400, and a 840 is ~$600, not including dell tax, state tax and in-home service fees. It should also be noted, that upgraded components do not carry the original system warranty, and carry only a 1 year warranty. So dont go thinking that extra cost is going toward something.

 

I called AW for a CPU upgrade and have nothing good to say. They wanted to charge me for a tech to come over, the "upgrade kit" ($250.oo what is that? thermal past?), and the new CUP. I dont want to contradict "Easirok" but it is very easy to replace a CPU in the M17x, and you can save hundreds of dollars doing it yourself.

In the end I went on ebay got a CPU for about $300.oo less than what AW wanted to charge me, and put it in myself. This saved me all in all about $600.oo in the end. Also, if you get your hands on a good thermal past you will see an improvement in CPU temps.

I have had to call the AW (Dell) techs before, and out of the two people that came by, only... zero ...had ever opened an M17x before. so in the end after looking at threads here you can open up your M17x with more Exp than what some AW (Dell) techs have.

Best of luck to ya', and I would love to know how it turned out in the end.

Slice,
RED_XIX

 

So pay $800 extra and have some other person who has no idea what they're doing install it instead? That is not a great alternative. There's nothing to be uncomfortable about. It's 15-20 screws. Goes back together the same way it came apart. It's not like putting a PS2 back together with all of the cheap-o paper ribbon connectors, etc. These are very well-built laptops. Between the folks here at NBR, and the awesome tear-down videos on Youtube, there's nothing to be afraid of.

 

Yes, taking these laptops apart is not that hard, and if your a first timer, just remeber to take your time, have a good lighted area to work, and plan the work out so that you place the screws in some logical order.

The screw locations are marked by letters that designate the size of screw used, which helps keeps things in order for re-assembly.

 

get your processor here: http://myworld.benl.ebay.be/shirleyfu1117/

 

Dell uses (or at least the tech that serviced mine) shin etsu micro si, which is already a pretty good paste.

 

wouldnt they use whats best available in a certain country and believed to be a good price/quality?

 

Guys, I agree that it isn't very hard to open these machines up and replace CPU, etc. I myself have replaced my own CPU, memory, wireless card, and drives, and have also done the cooling mods for GPU/CPU. I open my system up quite often just to clean the dust out and occasionally for repasting.

For *me* and many of *you* this is no big deal. But for many other people, the mere though of even opening a laptop up is extremely stressful. Not everyone knows what each of those parts does, nor how delicate they may be (or how expensive to replace if you mess something up).

For the same reasons that I don't work on my own cars (not even to change the oil), some people will just not be comfortable taking apart their laptops to upgrade them. Especially given how expensive these Alienware machines are. We are talking about someone who has invested several thousands of dollars.

I know if my dad bought one of these machines and wanted to upgrade the processor there is no way in hell I would suggest that he try and do it himself.

 

I never opened up a laptop before and now i disasemble them like nothing. Can anyone post a link to the manual? it will give a pretty good idea how easy it really is. also Mr_Moo has a nice videotutorial about this somewhere.

 

Here the manual:

Alienware: Online Documentation

 

If you go very slow and follow this guide/video:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/401382-how-change-your-m17x-cpu-guide.html

You should be fine. I had that video running on a netbook beside me and I paused and reviewed parts of it several times and went very slow. It still only took about an hour.

I also looked at the manual but with that video is not needed.

I did break one of the tiny tabs on the left side of the touch panel but the panel went back on fine and is not loose. Be very careful with that part.

I used the best shin etsu from Frys

 

My wife, someone who has never before worked on a computer in her life followed this video to upgrade her computer while I was deployed.

Just be careful and take your time. You really can't break something unless you're clumsy and start yanking on things that aren't either unscrewed or unlatched properly.

 

Subscribed for interest.

And bump for tips on how to get 6970

 

Woops read GPU upgrade, my bad.

Unsubscribed for my bad moment