Alienware 18 with 980M SLI by HIDevolution

HIDevolution Alienware 18-HID19 NVIDIA Dual SLI GTX 980M Gaming Laptop

So I guess 980M is compatible with AW 18 then?

 

Yeahh problem solved!!!! Now i got to try with my R2

 

If the AW 18 has the current 780M Dual SLI, do I need to buy new heatsinks for 980M SLI or just the cards?

 

Just the cards most likely.

 

The cards and thermal pads. I think the 980M require two extra squares of padding on the chip.

 

But for m18x r2 from 7970m cross fire to 780m sli, I need the heatsink, sli cable, both cards and what else?

 

Any reports on whether those RJTech cards work?

 

Thermal pad placement has changed a bit.

GTX 980M:

Spoiler

GTX 780M/880M:

Spoiler

Heat sinks from 780M or 880M will be fine. You will need the card, some thermal padding, and some good thermal compound. Then you're set. :thumbsup:

 

The wife will not be pleased.

 

Where do I get the thermal pads for 980M for sale?

 

First you need to find out what size goes on the top of the card. Should be the same size as the 780M/880M.

I think it's 1mm: Blue 100mmx100mmx1mm GPU CPU Heatsink Cooling Thermal Conductive Silicone Pad | eBay

 

I see.

Ok, now who would like to buy cards from RJtech and see if it would work on the AW machines?

 

I dont think you will need different heatsink, we can use AMD heatsink. Just need to replace thermal pads position or may require different size of it. I just compare both Nvidia and AMD heatsinks, both looks similar except face plate coatin.

 

If you're upgrading from AMD, you'll need the x-bracket and SLI cable for NVIDIA GPU's.

 

Haaha i just check cards from RJtech, its is not visible that their stock got SLI connector on card, without connector it is indeed useless for R2.

 

I dont think different specific X-bracket required as bracket position are same on both AMD and Nvidia series card. It's just tough to remove x-bracket from older gpu.

 

Wait, So I just need the SLI cable, X bracket, and the pads from 7970M to 780M SLI?

 

According to Mr. Fox's teardown and upgrade thread, you will need new heat sinks if you plan to go from AMD to NVIDIA.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...sink-7970m-crossfire-upgrade.html#post8568526

Maybe he can confirm this himself. He's online now.

 

Basically, you just need SLI cable, few thermal pads and of course those two little monsters 980m You can re-use both thermal pads (on memory chips). You will just need few pads on voltage regulators and other chips.

 

Ahh yeah Mr. fox did replace both heatsinks when upgrade to Dual 7970m. Honestly, both heatsinks are same, except face plate coating. And coating can be removed to cut as per Nvidie gpu die size.

 

I think he said the comparison between the two is minimal, so it may work. Not sure what the differences are. I've never owned AMD in a laptop.

But if you're going to drop $2k~ on an upgrade, you better do it right, lol.

 

True dat!!!

Since RJtech does not have the SLI connectors, where are we going to buy one that has one? Ebay?

 

hahaha lol that i agree with you bro. Honestly i already bought two Nvidia heatsinks without researchin that AMD heatsink will work with Dual 980m////

 

Where did you buy them, brother?

 

Well now you got right question m8. Actually we got no conformation that whoever sellin cards on Ebay got SLI connectors either. I did contact upgradeyourlaptop on Ebay, actually they do not have cards in stock. Hence they cant confirm me about SLI connectors.

 

You mean heatsinks? I got it from Ebay. Unfortunately i got old ones but im gona use my AMD heatsinks.

 

Ah, you are going to use the AMD heatsinks for the 980M?

Let me know once you did it. Kinda sucks no one is selling it at the moment.

 

Yes i will aggghhh got to wait till 15th of next month for cards

 

15th? That's the ETA for the 980M with SLI connectors?

 

I hope this means Alienware is coming out with the 980Ms for their own machine stock. I'm not skilled, knowledgeable, nor brave enough to install my own cards so I must wait for AW to do it for me, but it sure is a restless wait, and I have a feeling it's just begun...

 

Try PcHub for those parts. They can get them in if they don't have them in stock. They can take while but are priced reasonably.

 

I just ordered two spare SLI bridge cables directly from Dell Spare Parts for the M18xR1/R2. They are only like $4 each, LOL. You'll pay probably ten times that or more on eBay.

Here is the line item off of my electronic invoice.



The NVIDIA 100W heat sinks for the M18xR2 are only like $25 each directly from Dell Spare Parts. You can use the 680M heat sinks for 780M, 880M and probably 980M. They include new thermal pads.

 

Any idea if HiDevolution ships to UK? My M18x r1 just kicked the bucket, and this beast fits my bill perfectly for specs (I give a damn about). Also, how does warranty work ordering from these people?

 

Brother, what is your opinion about this 980m cards from RJtech?

 

HidEvolution will ship anywhere. I had them ship me my R2 to Japan since they cost about 30% more here.
I've had a great experience with them and excellent support. Ask for Ted and he'll get the job done for you. Maybe even throw in a sweetner.

 

Bro Tbone, do they install cards?

 

Just reading up on disassembly guides for the 18, watching youtube videos. I am getting pretty excited to do this I just want to make sure that I don't make any mistakes in the process. I don't have the most experience taking apart laptops and this one seems to be fairly advanced, including removing the palmrest to actually get to the graphics cards.

 

I'm sure they do. Although if you were to buy the parts of them they'd be pricey.
Have you looked at brother Fox's teardown video? It's got everything you need in it if you want to do it yourself.
It sure helped me out my first tear down.

 

Laugh Out Loud!

 

They should be the exactly the same as 980M cards from places other than RJTech. They don't make them, just sell them. RJ has been around a good while and I've never heard anything negative about their company.

They get a 9.83 out of 10 on this rating site: R and J TECH Reviews - rjtech.com Ratings at ResellerRatings

 

Should we purchase for our AW18? 8GB 980m?

 

Or you could purchase them for my R2?

 

Brother if I'm rich, ill buy the cards for the whole AW boards

 

Yeah, if buy a couple of 980M they are definitely going to go in the M18xR2, not the 18. They deserve to be installed in the machine that will deliver the most performance bang for the buck. Plus, time spent on R2 versus 18 is about 10:1 in favor of the R2.

 

Mr. Fox who are you kidding? Youre totally getting 980M.

 

Of course he is.. even if he doesn't know it yet :laugh:

 

Maybe. I really want to. Probably so would be more accurate. I'm not trying to kid anyone, but I am trying to convince myself spending that much money is OK. I think logic will win, because a 980M upgrade will be about 60 to 75% less than I would spend building a desktop exotic enough for me to be pleased with it. It will be one or the other, but not both. I probably won't be going first. I won't have the cash for another 30 to 60 days, and I want to see someone else show me how great it works in the M18xR2 using their money first. I'm 99.9% sure it will work fine.

I know, that sounds really lame, but it's not as lame as personal regret where money is involed, LOL. GTX 880M, and all of the drama surrounding it, totally changed my sense of urgency about being an early adopter for most things PC. I'm going to act more like a Missourian and say "show me" more often.

 

Brother Fox, are you buying the cards from RjTech?

 

Amen to not being an early adopter. I jumped on a pair of Gigabyte 970s because of an incredible deal, and got cards that sounded like a dolphin at the dentist. (no that's not my video, but my cards sounded exactly like that). RMA'd the cards and got back cards that still whined but were at least tolerable and could be made to not whine by playing with FPS limiter.

The other thing is OCing the cards can become tricky if the ASIC quality differs by too much that it affects the VDDC. There's an entire thread documenting this in detail so I won't go into it here. Suffice to say it gets very annoying especially when you start overvolting the cards.

I would definitely wait until nVidia comes out with a better driver. 344.48 does NOT fix this issue sadly.

 

Do they charge for shipping? Or is the price inclusive? I've never actually ordered anything from the US before.

Also, this Ted, call them yes?