so, what's the M17x R1 GRAPHICS CARD ultimate upgrade?

hello, i am a proud owner of a m17x r1 purchased from dell outlet

now the video card is 280M SLI

my question is If I can upgrade to card to dual ATI 5870 gpus with Crossfire cable directly with R1 A07 BIOS?

no issue of the CF cards with the NVIDIA MCP79 chipset?

and What's the M17X R1 GRAPHICS CARD ultimate upgrade?

Is it possible for installing a single 6970M/6990M/GTX570M/GTX580M in the R1?

 

The answer seems to be the AMD mobility 5870:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/610357-m17x-r1-5870-crossfire-running.html

As for the other cards, it is possible to physically install them as they are MXM 3.0B cards but i can't tell you if they will function properly as there hasn't been any confirmation to this date that i know of.

 

I could get a GTX485M for $299
worth the money ?

then sell the GTX280Ms , $50 for each

but the GTX485M just slightly faster than GTX280M SLI in DX10 games

and I can't make sure whether the GTX485M could run on R1

If the R1's MXM3.0b TDP is 75W , all is over

 

You could sell the GTX 280Ms for more than that.

That's true, my guess is that it will take a 485M (probably won't output on the integrated screen) but won't take two of them.

Bottom line is that you won't know until you try, nobody has reported anything yet.

 

Your biggest issue would be vBIOS, TDP could possible be an issue as R1 never supported 100 watt TDP cards. Yes it should work physically (MXM 3.0B), probably a better question to ask those crazy MXM modders here..

 

Nor did the R2 and it still took the mobility 6990

 

Unless you choose to upgrade to 5870s your on the leading edge of R1 modding
No one has tried any of these cards and in theory they should all work
$299 is very cheap for a 485m, that's less then half the price of what a new sells for! I would say that there is no reason why it wont work so long as your happy with the price and performance (and dont want to upgrade to sli 485s) its worth a short
don't forget though that if you have more money to throw around there are other more powerful solutions to try... a single 6990/580 or dual 5870/6970/6990/460/470/560/570 (I think dual 480/485/580 is a waste of time as you cant feed them with enough power)

 

the GTX485M is an ES version
the seller said it has no problem on a clevo P150HM
it can be OCed to 765/920/1600 and benched P4xxx points in 3DMark11

I will take my machine to their store and try this ES version videocard
If it is successful , I will get the single card for the replacement of GTX280M SLI

 

Sounds good at least you wont be stuck with the 485 if it doesn't work

 

My advice:

I have been around the forum for a while, and saw a few "try" to upgrade the GPU on the M17x/ M17x R2. And my opinion is:

- Never go with an Nvidia card for an upgrade, the only one which will work well on the M17x R1 is the GTX 285M. It'll work on SLI mode also. But you can off course overclock the SLI GTX 280M and get a similar performance than you would get with the GTX 285M. Why not to go with a Nvidia upgrade? well, because I'm 100% positive on you'll not get any 400M/500M to work on SLI mode on the R1. Plus if you're lucky enough you'll get the single card to work but you'll lose fan normal function. the fan will be working always at full speed. The guys who got the SLI 580M went through hell to make them semi-work, and I'm pretty sure the cards dont work 100% well.

P.S: Someone tested a 470M and it didn't work on R1. To give you an idea.

- AMD, works better on upgrades for some reason.

- HD 5870 CrossfireX will work on your system. Is a nice and safe upgrade.

- Someone reported he tested a HD 6970m on crossfire, and it didn't work nor SLI or single mode. But I think you have more chances to get a 6970m to work on R1 than to get a 485M to work on R1. Plus 485M draws too much power for R1/R2.

So if you wanna take a risk go with the 6970m ( because is almost as powerful as a 6990m but a lot cheaper) and forget Nvidia, just my opinion.

 

R2 can support 580M, so why wouldn't it be able to do 485M? As it's been shown, R1/R2 officially didn't have 100 watt GPU cards, but R2 can do 6990M CF/580M SLI with some modifications. Worst case if the 485M doesn't work...resell it?

 

He has a M17 R1 not the M17x R2.. and the R1 es less upgradeable in terms of GPU. And the R2 can support 580M.. yes, but the card doesn't work as good as it should. Come on, will you enjoy a laptop which is running the 100% of the time the fans at full speed? M17x R1/R2 are not exactly silent when fans are running at full speed. 6970m/6990m are not exactly 100W cards, they use less power than that anyway. And the guy who got 580M SLI to work is planning to sell the cards.. why??? there most be something not cool about 580M SLI on the R2.

Plus, selling high end laptop's hardware is not that easy as it sounds. The potencial buyers for a 485M are only Clevo/Sager owners, or someone who wants to "see" if the card works on his laptop.

Anyway if he wants to test, I am 100% interested in the project

 

6970MCF on a M17x R1 ? sounds crazy
But maybe an underclocked single 485M is suitable for the R1

I will try the 485M ES in their store

or wait the Mid-end Kepler 75W card

 

Crazy why? R1 and R2 both have the same power capabilities. Only difference is the chipset (talking about motherboard stuff). And R2 can handle CF 6970m.

If the 470M didn't work... But you are in love with your idea of the GTX 485M so go on

 

no one try 7970M on the R1 ?

 

Someone reported the HD 6970m didn't work.. so..

 

M17X R2 will be no issue to install the 7970M ,right?

I will manage to replace R1 to the R2 mainboard for $190

worth it ?

 

You will also need to place the CPU, the frame that separates the keyboard from the motherboard, the audio board (the board on top of the optical drive) and possibly the screen. That in addition to replacing the mobo would run you maybe $300 without the screen replacement, $600 with it.

 

Not really, you may need to modify a lot to get that to work. So if you really want a R2, sell your R1 and get a R2, R2 is cheap at this moment.

 

q2v3 for 17$
R2 mobo for 190$
7970M for 365$

(8GB RAM,128GB SSD reserved)

sell the R1 mobo + GTX280M SLI for 188$

here is the tutor for upgrading the R1 to R2

http://dell.benyouhui.it168.com/thread-1911045-1-1.html



Now the question is ,anyone succeed in upgrading 7970M on a R2 ?

 

Where do you get a 7970M for $365?

 

this guy bought it from DELL China for 2300 RMB ($365)
http://dell.benyouhui.it168.com/thread-2125421-1-1.html

 

ah us Americans miss out

 

So what is a stable and fastest Graphic card for r1 my mine shows GeForce GTX 260m & GeForce 9400 (i have sli enabled) i dont want to do any modding so whats fastest & stable and i dont get what people mean like example this guy says he has 9400 and 2 260m is that onboard and 2 dedicated or what please help (remember i got M17x r1)

and i wanna be able to run games on max i am gonna upgrade to core 2 quad extreme as well and what is the best ram i can put in it i saw people put 16gb so can i put 16gb if so what type or if not whats the best 8gb ?

 

Uh I think the best confirmed GPU is 5870M CF and R1 max RAM is 8 GB DDR3.

 

can you send me a link to the fastest ram (i am gonna be running core 2 quad extreme)availible for it and btw here is a link to the 16gb thread can u tell me what you think about it ?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...x-r1-r2-owners-lounge-thread-part-1-a-11.html

 

I don't think fastest RAM makes any difference here, you are going to be limited to chipset before any faster RAM will make any appreciable difference. And it said the M17x R1 did not boot with 16 GB RAM, which means the maximum is 8 GB. The M17x R2 while it does not "officially" support 16 GB RAM, it does work as my R2 shows 0 MB in both DIMMs but Windows sees 16 GB.

 

ok thanks and btw i am gonna get ths SSD it is ranked the fastest Amazon.com: Samsung Electronics 840 Pro Series 2.5-Inch 128 SATA_6_0_gb Solid State Drive MZ-7PD128BW: Computers & Accessories (is it good or should i go with something else?)i was also looking at the vertx 4 btw and i am gonna get this ram Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBSQ

and i know most of this is off topic of the thread but is this wifi good and will it work on r1 m17x? (you seem to know alot about these) Amazon.com: Bigfoot Networks KillerN-1103 Notebook Wireless Card: Computers & Accessories and back to the graphic card the 5870 ,what do i have to do with flashing bios i got confused do i just download the r2 bios and flash it on my r1?

and i would need to buy x2 5870's? and with crossfire do i need any special cables ? or just plug in and go to flashed bios and enable?

 

I just picked up a gtx 580m and it boots like it should(only reads as a vga driver) on my m15x. From what I read here there is no way for it to work in my m17x-r1? Thanks.

 

That may be true, but the 6970M is still on par with one for $200 to this day. That and the GTX 670MX is going for $375 at the moment and it's faster while drawing less power. >_> So the GTX 485M isn't worth double that price you're stating it's "worth". And on top of all of this, the 675MX is still cheaper than the 485M according to this logic, being sold for $475. >_> So no. The 485M is priced accordingly if anything...which I still think it's overpriced if the NEW stuff is priced similarly.

 

so u say a 670MX would work on the m17x R1?

 

See my trials and tribulations with the GTX 670M. It won't work

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/688681-m17x-gtx-670m-not-working-2.html

 

I know this is an old post, but I am writing this in hope that anyone does not go through the anguish I am facing currently.

If you have a ALIENWARE M17X R1 - and want to upgrade your video card / GPU- DO NOT do it, unless you know what you are getting into!

Radeon Mobility 5870 will be seen by the system, but the fans will not work properly. The amount of work stress and pain to make them work, is unbelievable, as there are hundred of posts about this, but no answer.

Do not just read the guys first post, that says you should upgrade 5870. That was majorly retarded of me.

 

What Mobility 5870 did you get? Dell or Clevo?
If your fans are running at 100%, you can create custom fan profiles using HwInfo.

Additionally, what's the vBIOS version flashed on your card?

 

It's got the original vBios from an Alienware R2. It is definitely a dell card. It's all nice and red.
Below you can see what clearly happens. The fan, never left 30%, never wants to.
And no... I cannot change that fan speed with HwInfo. I tried. That fan stays at 30% since if I try to force it starts coughing with HwInfo, it tries to power up, stops and repeat infinitely every 100ms.

 

Hi Roy -

Thank you for the heads-up about problems upgrading the M17X R1 graphics card! It sounds like you've saved me a lot of pain.

I was thinking by now I oughta be able to upgrade mine from the gtx280m SLI it currently has, but I'm really not interested in protracted debugging or any instabilities.

Were you able to get your M17X back to a happy state?