Step by Step: 980m Install in Alienware 18

Dears,
I have an Alienware M18x R1, model with CrossfireX of 6900M. Can I update my system with the 980M? How can I verify that?


Thanks!

 

Not Available yet.

 

No. 780M/880M are highest options.

 

Can anyone confirm the 100w AMD heatsink can be used on the 980m? I have 2 R9 m290x I am trying to swap out to 1 980m.

 

Yeah, it will work fine for 680M, 780M, 880M and 980M. Basically the same heat sink with a different piece of plastic on the die side of the copper heat plate. You must peel off that black plastic shroud or it will interfere with die contact. AMD and NVIDIA orient the die differently. Once the black plastic is peeled off then you're good to go.

 

Just a question, sorry for bumping if it's already answered.

Why the need of the modification on the heatsink?

 

Does anyone have thermal pad size and placement for 2 x 980m GTX with modded heat sinks?

Never mind I just measured the existing ones

 

If you have part number AT0UN00J0FO (Left Heat Sink), and part number AT0UN00K0F0 (Right Heat Sink), you do not need to modify your heat sinks as these are the gtx 980m Heat Sinks by Dellalienware.

 

Craaaaap are you talking about that bit of plastic on the right heatsink in the picture??? Bugger I've been scaring the interwebs looking for new heat sinks or fan mods or anything to help coz one of my gpu's "the main one" keeps throttling and running hot 92°C but only when i cant sli and I can't remember ripping that plastic off but was a while ago since I done the build... Also while I'm here do you know if the m18x fans push more air and will fit in the AW18 as my old m18x was waaaay louder.. thanks






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You do not need to remove that plastic shown in the photo as long as it is not touching the die. That is an NVIDIA heat sink. On AMD it is a diamond instead of square and the opening it too small. The M18x was louder primarily because Alienware gimped the max fan speed to help the AW18 run quieter. At full speed they run about 500 RPM less than their maximum capability.

 

Bugger thought it was going to be an easy fix.. I tried to increase fans last night with hw info but couldn't adjust the gpu fans. But found your guide a few hours ago so I'll have another go tonight.. I really hate having aftermarket software controlling my fans but no other choice as I'm unable to clean and repaste till next week when I get home. My other thought is to make the holes in the grill on the underside bigger "if the repaste fails" as taking that bottom plate of dramatically lowers the temperature so drilling out the holes hopefully does the same

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Ahhhh FFS that's with all the fans @ 100%. I don't even have a screw driver to see if the heatsink is blocked.. really hoping the heatsink isn't stuffed them things are hard to find especially the ones made for the 980m's not to mention people charging a premium for them.. funny thing is this only happens with gears of war 4 and some of the games using the oculus. :/ :/ :/ :/

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All good was just thermal paste. Was thinking It couldn't be that coz I thought I had done the build only 6 months ago but my sense of time is terrible ha ha was well over a year ago so yer repasted and all good

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Hello guys, I'm looking to upgrade from 880M SLI to 980M SLI (seems to be a nice upgrade for now). But I have some questions:

• What second hand aftermarket cards work on the AW18? I'm thinking about cards pulled out from Clevo, MSI, etc.. All of them work on the AW18?
• All the aftermarket video cards come with SLI connector? (SLI ready in other words)
• Are the right and left video cards phisically the same? I mean, can I buy two separate (main) video cards and make them work in SLI, or do I need to buy one main (left) video card and one slave video card (right) specifically?
• About the x-bracket. Why do I need to buy x-bracket? aren't they the same as the 880M x-bracket? or x-bracket can't be pulled out from 880M or what's the deal?
• What's the mod in the heatsinks about? I can't really tell based on the first post pictures what you did.... The stock 880M heatsink is not compatible with the 980M as is?
• The fans still need to use HWinfo to work? I thought the fans were working well with the last BIOS upgrade. Am I wrong?

Thanks.

 

Pleaseee help, I think I got solved all my doubts, except the one about the mod on the heatsinks. What's need to be done?????

 

You don't have much to worry about, with the stock vBIOS from Dell (distinct ones for each card), the fans should work fine independently. Alternatively, Prema's vBIOS for the Alienware 18 also accomplished the same.

The 880M heatsinks should work fine with the 980M. This has been my own experience and that of others.

 

1. Look at Clevo, Dell, and MSI 980M MXM cards all work.
2. Clevo and Dell 980M always have the SLI connector, some MSI cards did not so be careful.
3. There has not been a master/slave type configuration for video cards in a long, long time. physically the same, no special vbios needed unless you have the Alienware 18, then you muse flash the Alienware 18 vBIOS to the corresponding cards or else the secondary card fan will not activate and you will cook your 980M secondary. M18x R2 does not have this issue.
4. You will not need to change x-bracket if you use Dell 980M. Clevo 980M x-bracket uses smaller captive screws to tighten to heatsink. You can swap over x-bracket from dell 880M to clevo 980M just fine though
5. Should be compatible as is
6. Native fan control with nvidia cards, no need for hwinfo.

 

Is this the right link to 980M SLI vBIOS?

http://www.dell.com/support/home/cl/en/clbsdt1/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=9W9F7

Also, is the Prema's vBIOS a better option than Dell's? What's the difference?

I bought a couple of this MSI video cards:



Based on pictures, they come with SLI connector, plus the seller told me they work on SLI. This video card come with it's own x-bracket. My question is if my 880M's screws would be compatible with the screw hole on the x-bracket??

Aditionally and just in case of any issue I bought this x-bracket:



This suppose to be compatible with 780M/880M/980M.

About the heatsinks I read somewhere that without the mod the video card will fry, I guess that's just a myth . The bad thing is I already bought a Dremel just to make the mod ! Well I guess the Dremel will just sit there..

The last thing is about the thermal pads. Would the old thermal pads work also for the 980M? I mean the ones that were there on the heatsink for the 880M. Or do I need to change the thermal pads?

Thanks.

 

Yes that is a SLI compatible 980M. I would swap the xbracket with the dell one you have. Change thermal pad, use high quality 1.0MM pads all around.

 

I bought generic thermal pads. Is there much of difference between one thermal pad and another? Here in my country is pretty difficult if not impossible to find high performance thermal pads...

 

i used arctic cooling thermal pads, bought from ebay, 6.0 w/mk conductivity. generally minimum of 3.0 w/mk conductivity i recommend.

 

Well finally after a long wait, my video cards arrived yesterday. Installed the card on my laptop, pretty much plug and play. To help others, this are my comments:

• There is absolutely no need to mod the NV100W heatsinks, they don't fit exactly perfect but they're good enough.
• If someone else buy MSI video cards and it already comes with x-bracket there is no need to replace the x-bracket. The screws of 880M's x-bracket will fit just fine.
• The thermal pads from the 880M can be re-used on the 980M though there will be needed one (1) extra little square thermal pad per each 980M.
• SLI 980M vBIOS from Dell website works perfect on the MSI 980M, though after the flash the video cards will show as brand Dell instaed of MSI.
• Overall the process is plug and play, both fans work fine with last NVIDIA drivers.

I have a question for those who own the 980M SLI. What's the expected 3Dmark 11 score? I got P16.200... 2K jump from the 880M SLI.

 

sorry for bumping a comment I first made here

Unfortunately, my heatsinks are not the ones made for GTX 980Ms. So, I think I am going to get a brand new set and do modding.

Don't want to ruin my warranty XP

 

If you read my last post, there is no need to mod the heatsinks NV100W (the stock heatsinks for the 880M), just make sure to properly apply the thermal pads and thermal paste

 

Tyranus07 is correct, you can use the 780m/880m NV100W heat sink for the 980m but if you plan on any type of over clocking you should mod the heat sink to fit the 980m or you could look for the 980m heat sinks, I have attached a picture with the dell part numbers for official 980m heat sinks Left and Right.


If you can not see the gif for whatever reason, the Dell part numbers are:
AT0UN00J0F0 for primary, and AT0UN00K0F0 for secondary GTX980m.

 

Hmm? My heatsinks have the NV100W Sticker. So, I can just get the GTX 980Ms?

 

Yes you can, just make sure not to over clock at the chips do not sit right on the heat sink. You "SHOULD" be fine as long as your fans are working and you don't block the intake or exhaust of the fans.

 

Error DELETE me please.

 

I see.. But, I think the mod is needed since, I need optimal cooling.

 

I have a spare official 980M secondary heatsink if anybody wants to buy that

 

i admit I do the same thing with tiny heatsinks all the time hahaha

Anyways - one guy on ebay linked me this a moment ago... thought to reach out and wave to him... 0./

 

New unlocked A12 bios shoud changed things now with legacy support

 

Just read this whole thread. I'm looking to go from SLI 780m to single 980m.

At first it seemed like a hassle but later in the tread it seemed less so.

Would this be a plug and play upgrade now?

 

You know of anywhere you can buy these?

 

I have a spare official alienware 18 980M secondary heatsinnk for sale, PM if interested.

 

Would you like to add me to the list, of available and willing people to sell maxwell videocards ?
I walk customers through installation if needed, and I try and be as close to a one on one as I can afford to be time wise.

Our site is https://www.alezka.com

 

@woodzstack, my 980M SLI setup the first card have an ASIC quality of 66.9% and my second card is better with 73.2% ASIC quality. Should I swap cards to gain a lower temperature and better efficiency usage? I'm using Prema's bios and my max temps are below 77C but I want to test if possible your own custom 980M bios because I think 1.0620 V is a bit high in Prema Bios. What are your opinions about the cards? Thanks.

 

No your good this way, your main card drives most of the work and the lower ASIC means it will bleed some temps but maybe offer better performance, I think around 70% ASIC is the sweet spot for the master.

 

Gave you some rep, enjoy, you been here long enough you;d think it would have happened by now.

 

Just upgraded to 980m sli. Why is intel extreme tuning utility showing my cards only have 4gb of ram each instead of 8gb each?


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Download gpuz and see the detail of your gtx 980m

 

Trying to run 980m sli, but one of my fans isn't working, I've tied flashing the Bios with the 980m sli one from the Dell website but doesn't seem to have helped. And im using the A12 system bios.

Anyone else has this issue or know how to fix it?

Thanks

 

I had the same problem when installed my 980M SLI but on a M18X-R2 model, the GPU fans don't respond and overheats in minutes. The solution I found is to follow the HWInfo64 tutorial made by Mr. Fox for Alienware 18 and M18X some time ago. That's a life saver.
https://imgur.com/a/UYC3s#0

 

Thanks I've tried that, but was under the impression that the fan issue had been sorted with the new bios and such.

 

Flash MSI 980m Bios.

 

Do you know which bios?

everyone ive tried hasn't worked.

Thanks

 

nevermind got it sorted, there is a different dell bios for each card lol. runs great now.

 

How do you know if all your fans are working or not? I have 980m sli with A12 bios.


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Using msi afterburner in game and hwinfo out of game.

I don't think the second fan was working at all before so it would get too hot while gaming and both cards would throttle right down.

 

Where does it show fans working or not in hwinfo64? I don’t want to change speeds. Just want to know if all three fans are working as they should.


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