Alienware 18 - 780M SLI -> 980M SLI

I was wondering if anyone had any information about the different heatsink needed to swap from 780Ms to 980Ms

I can't find the 980M heatsink on ebay. I can only find the AMD 100W heatsink. does it fit correctly? or do I need to mod it?

Also what thermal pad sizes if it matters at all. and do you guys think I should put some thermal pads on the MOSFETs that are known to blow up?

This is the AMD heatsink I found.
https://prnt.sc/uzyixj

If anyone has a link to the 980M heatsink, that would be best too.

 

I have slave official 980M heatsink for sale

 

You wouldn't happen to have both by any chance would you? or a different part number for that to look up on ebay or somewhere else?

This is what I have used to look up.
AT0UN00J0F0 for primary, and AT0UN00K0F0 for secondary GTX980m.

 

I don’t think that it’s worthy change heatsink, the only one difference between gtx 780m and 980m is one choke vrm, the first heat sink slot wouldn’t fit perfectly but with some little work it would be perfect

 

Reason I wanted the heat sink is because they are so cheap on ebay, got both AMD ones offered for 22-42, lowest to cheapest range. so just not having to switch GPUs in and out of heat sinks, is worth it, I also don't have the tools to mod it.

The 980M go for 219 each right now. which is pretty reasonable considering where it was a few years back lol.

 

I don’t have the primary, already sold that one ($50)

 

Gtx 980m sli is a nice boost from 780s, but these days doesn’t make sense at all sadly. did u bought those for testing or for gaming?

 

And surely you should flash premaMod to avoid several throttling killing the real performance

 

I did not get them yet. but I was thinking about it tbh
I've had this thing for ages, just figured id upgrade it, and keep it as a project of some sort.
I do have an m17 r2 with a 2070 but, in all honesty I cant for whatever reason get used to it or like it, and I am probably going to sell it down the road some time. I have the fans on that thing spinning up for no reason. just opening chrome will cause it to spin up. just garbage.

I barely game anymore, so its not about performance. just wanted to max out the AW 18, and keep it around.

 

Hahahah yes good old machines are way better, surely new Alienwares sucks, before they use to be for pro ones now the market target and all the brands that use to sell gaming laptops has changed the rulez.

 

that is very true lol.

Nothing compares to the older stuff IMO. All that soldered cr@p now.

 

Sent you a PM....

 

as been said , the 780M heatsink is more then enough for the 980M
as for the second part , i'm very interested in knowing the answer for that question. ( MOSFET's)

 

I know they are "enough" but under load, or overclocking etc, it is not ideal. Besides a 780M Heatsink goes for 20 bucks on eBay. Its more for easy swapping without reapplying thermal paste, pads etc.
My question was whether the AMD heatsink was a better fit than the 780M heatsink, and whether it needed to be modded in a similar way for optimal results.

 

Best fit will always be the heatsink designed for the 980M

 

You need the amd one! That’s fit properly, the gtx 780m one if its the same of the gtx 880m heat sink, will flex on vrm

 

Hello.
New in the Forum here.
I'm going to upgrade my 18 R1 sli 765m with one gtx 980m.

I've already bought the 100w heatsink.

Any version of 980m that I find will work or does it have to be with Dell vbios? Throttling problems with any bios?
I've found 980m's with different year of manufacturing dates. Codes that initiate with 14, 15 and 16 (2014, 2015 and 2016 I guess). Any one will be good to go?

I play occasionally, but since Sli is getting abandoned, I'll stick with one 980m.

Is there anything that I have to know to make the upgrade?

Sorry to invade thia thread, but didn't want.to open a new one..

Thx in advance.

 

Just doesn’t make sense at all nowadays getting an gtx 980m. Just there are gtx 1060/1070 mxm, gtx 1060 has already better performance than gtx 980m. Lower power, cooler and quite

 

But for the 1060 mxm, do I have to use a modified Bios for the laptop?
The driver must be modified to right?
And the heatsink for the 1060m. Wich version works with it?

 

Yes you need a bios mod.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/release-alienware-18-bios-a12-unlocked.802249/

 

And about the Hdmi In. I'll lose it if I upgrade for the 1060m?

 

so, u must to have A12 unlocked bios, I guess that you must to have an A12 or previous bios not the last one that should be the A13 or A14. So first figure out what you have already installed. You need te unlocked one because you must to set switch graphic mode, so Intel hd as internal display, and it would switch to nvidia for games , talking about gtx models the ones that are on eBay are okay just plug and play. Drivers are pretty easy to get modified just must to put few strings on nvdmi.ini file. 100w heatsink it’s oke

 

It works perfectly

 

I have mine AW18 with gtx 1060 currently works flawless. I get like same desktop performance in game

 

@Leomn you mentioned 18 r1, do you mean m18x r1? if so then the max upgrade it can handle is 880m, altho most people advise using 780m since 880m can have issues

 

Mine is the Alienware 18 R1. Not the m18x.

Have updated the bios for original A15 and since de A12, it gives upgrade for Gtx 9xx series.
I'm going for the 980m, since the 1060.is way to expensive for me to buy.. the 980m is already expensive too rs.

 

ah ok was just making sure, would hate to see a bricked alienware otherwise lol

 

Hello guys..

My gtx 980m arrived..

Just installed...
Nvidia Gfx in Bios.. no problem at this time.

First Windows loading, no problem, but when I tried to install Nvidia drivers.... window 10 freezes...
Powered down the laptop, powered on, and now when windows is loading, it freezes..

I can boot on safe mode with no problem...

Any advice?

Ps: booted in safe mode, used ddu to uninstall any nvidia driver, rebooted, and windows 10 loads with no problem...
When windows try to install correct drivers for the 980m, it crashes.

 

probably need to mod the drivers with that machines specific hardware id for the gpu

 

How can I mod the drivers?
I've looked a tutorial but in the driver, my machine Id was already there...
Probably missing something..

 

If your ID is already in the inf then you have proper driver support and no mod is required. I would contact the seller and request to send the card back

 

You don’t need to mod the drivers. Just grab the latest from Nvidia.