multitude of information on forum!

first of all just want to say how happy i am to see so much activity in regards to alienware users! when looking into upgrade options im happy to know that im not the only one here with the 17x r4 looking to upgrade.


now there are so many threads here with various details on which and what to upgrade.
i myself have a alienware 17x r4 and from what i was able to pull up in the monitor screen refresh rate is 60hz. The machine runs on windows 10 atm. I have read that there are issues in which people are permanently ruining their displays if they try to upgrade the gpu with the windows 10. Thats terrible!!!
anywho, is there a specific thread dedicated to 17x r4 users looking to upgrade, like a tutorial or something. And how difficult is this process?

Also, i have not seen any links to a u.s online store that sells these gpus...maybe i can buy myself one christmass!! lols.

edit:did some research, can i go by the instructions here on the first post? seems pretty straight forward!!!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-17-60hz-gtx980m-upgrade.768673/

edit2:i also found this in amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Nvidia-GeForc...id=1447441093&sr=8-2&keywords=nvidia+980m+kit

would this "kit" work. i mean i know it says 17x r4..but just want to be 100% sure. and would it come wit hinstructions on how to install?

 

I'm in the middle of doing that same upgrade myself. Yes that upgrade kit will work, and in case you dont have one installed already, you will need an 100W heatsink.

As for buying it online, options seem quite limited from the research i've done. Here you have an US store:

http://www.hidevolution.com/nvidia-gtx-980m-8gb-upgrade-kit-for-alienware-17-and-m17x-r4.html

You could also check out the marketplace on this forum, there are new 980m's up for sale.

 

@midnit

Just a short advice first: if you want to have the people going quick to the point with your questions consider to add a signature that helps to see more about your current laptop configuration.

I expect you are R4 / 60Hz / W10 (what W10 by the way) and certainly you have a current GPU in the range of 5xx - 7xx Nviida.
If you want to give a kick to the laptop you need to consider 970M or 980M IMHO:

• 970M is good and will save some W and °C but with still fairly high fps
• 980M will give you even more power & fps with also more range for OC the GPU if you are a fan of speed but at a cost of W & °C

I will soon post you some links to help but please let me know first what is you first choice of GPU - and don't be too scary regarding the possible brick of LCD - can be 100% avoided if you carefully follow the advices of your fellow friends on this forum or Tech inferno one.

Waiting your feedback man.

 

I strongly recommend you go the eBay route and look for the 980m mxm sold by Woodzstack. Cheaper (as in $100 cheaper than the one on Amazon...) and he'll be of a great help getting things ready (flashing the card to the vbios corresponding to your system, include thermal paste, thermal pads and replies very very fast to any questions you might have. He was also kind enough to send the card as a "gift" so I don't pay customs for the card...

Just double check a couple things:
1- You need the 3 pipes heatsink for the 980m. I personally had it with my 880m but if you don't then he can sell it to you as well
2- Check your power supply. You need the 240W one
3- Make SURE you use the screws included with the GPU to reattach the heatsink as I learned the hard way that the old ones used for the 880m were too think for the 980m... Had to unmount the heatsink again, reclean the thermal paste off the GPU, and reapply it from scratch...

I installed the card just a week ago so if you need any help installing it, I'd be happy to help as well

 

So happy with all the replies! The 17x r4 I have has a 680m.

I presume the heatsink for this card is suffice. I think the ac power should be be good too. Recently updated the bios via dell system detect the other day. .. Is that a problem?

The processor.. Is a i7-3610 [email protected]

 

I am 99% sure your heatsink will be ok. For more info and pictures about the inside of the R4 go to that post (is one of mine ). If you recently updated your BIOS then you should be in A12 I bet. It is only an issue if you want/need to get an 'unlocked bios version' the last one existing is the A11.
To check all the stuff and also the PSU power run an ePSA.

On how to install physically an 970M + first W10 you can have a look here (again one of mine ). It is quite long but give a lot of tricks and mistakes and also point on few of the very useful threads. I have not detailed any of the pasting / thermal padding steps but I guess you can find instructions on the web either for the 970M or 980M.
Right now I am quite happy with this upgrade (running ok for 5 weeks).

I will keep the last bad guy (THE DRIVER - its choice and install) for another post.
If you do prefer the 980M then you need to look also in other threads; so let me know and I will point you to them. But it is very similar to the 970M upgrade.

One last thing, I have a 120Hz laptop screen and it could be useful to know if you have the same or the far more common 60hz.