Which is the best upgrade could I do to my M17x R2

I have a M17x R2, processor i7 x 920 @2 GHZ, 8 GB DDR3-SDRAM 1333 MHZ and 2 ATI Radeon HD4870, I want upgrade it for better support of high def gamming but I can't find wich other videocards and CPU could be supported by this model, anyone can help me with these? Finnaly, could you recomend some web site to buy the parts?

Thanks a lot

 

Your specs are damn close to mine. The i7-920XM is about the best CPU you can get for your notebook. The only more powerful one is the i7-940XM, but the small boost in processor speed doesn't justify the cost of one of those CPUs. Better to spend your money on a new GPU. The best out right now are the AMD 7970m and Nvidia 680m. You can get either from Dell, Eurocomm, or from eBay.

 

That's good news, that will cost less than change the CPU too, so if I change both videocards, you thing woul affect the temperatur of the laptop? Is it complicate do it my self or will required some complicate setup? thanks

 

You will only want one of the 7970ms or 680ms. Good news is that just one of those cards will run circles around your current 4870m crossfire setup. Installing it is not too complicated. You just have to transplant the heatsink from the primary video card to the new one.

 

That measn that I'll need remove both of the current 4870 and install only one 7970, or do I need leave one of the 4870?, sorry If I bother you I wanna be sure, in the other hand, theis will increade the temperature, currently I have a generic cooler pad and I really think is not helping a lot, wich cooler pad could you recomend to me ?

Thanks

 

Not a bother. That's what we all's are here for. No, you would remove both your 4870m cards before you install the new video card. I know some users have had temperature issues with the 7970m. Haven't heard of any temperature issues with the 680m, but it could be 680m users aren't posting their temperature issues here. As far as notebook coolers, check out this thread for suggestions: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/392665-notebook-cooler-m17x.html

 

The other option (although a slightly more expensive option) would be to go with dual 6970's, if you want to run dual video cards. They will run fine in your current setup and I've had zero issues with mine (both from Eurocom including the crossfire cable) for over a year now. I even run mine with a slight overclock, but it's definitely not needed. I also upgraded from a pair of 4870's to my 6970's and it was a HUGE increase in performance.

Just something else to consider.

 

You currently have pretty much the best configuration recommended by our engineers but if you would like to upgrade I've seen some success stories with the 7970 and 660m.

 

If I updrade to 7970, where could I get drivers for the M17X R2?

 

If you get the Eurocom 7970m, it will come with the drivers on a CD. The clevo version, you just download the drivers from the AMD driver website.

 

Why can't you just use the official Radeon drivers? 7970M on the R2 doesn't support switchable graphics.

 

Just upgraded mine with a 7970 and it works great.
Can easily run Black ops 2 with the very highest video settings and run stable above 70 fps without heat issues.


Would concider also going for a SSD drive or two to speed up loading etc.

 

The Eurocom version of the 7970m uses a different hardware ID so the WHQL drivers won't recognize it. It needs a modified inf (which one can do if y'all know what to modify).

 

You don't need to run the installer, just right click on your standard VGA adapter, and target the extracted INF files. I had to do this for a LONG time for my 5870's as official ATI drivers would cause CCC to BSOD my system.

 

Or you could do that^

(I wonder why the AMD drivers would BSOD your system? It never has to mine...)

 

What happened was because of the Dell vBIOS of the 5870M card, you had to use ancient Dell CCC, because when you installed the newer ATI package, the newer CCC would cause a BSOD.

 

But the newer VBIOS should be good with the AMD drivers, yes? Cause that's what I'm using is the official AMD drivers (and have been for a long time). Never had any blue screen issues with opening CCC or updating to the latest Catalyst package. When I do my yearly clean install I have to install the original Dell Catalyst driver and then I can update to the latest Catalyst package.

 

You could flash the vBIOS, but I find it ridiculous you have to flash vBIOS in order to get official display drivers to work. Ever since 12.x I haven't had the BSOD relating to CCC.

 

Well the only VBIOS update I've ever done is flashing the VBIOS that Dell released for the 5870m card to fix the shutdown issues. Everything went back to normal after that and I've been able to update the Catalyst drivers without a hitch since then.