m18xr2 - upgrade time, some suggetions.

I have to tackle fixing my 1103 Wireless card dropping out, which i noticed after moving and not using cables as much, the price I get for a stealthy router install. This got me to think. I could get a 'new' 18 leftover or I could upgrade the one I've had since 2012 that hasnt been a lemon (besides the 1103 card), besides i like the metalbody

Besides SSDs, it still has:
3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3720QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.6GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
English Keyboard, 101 Key, M18X R2
18.4 inch (467.36 mm) WLED WideFHD (1080p) display (1920 X 1080)
2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M
1103 Card

I am thinking of and welcome suggestions so I dont make bad choices based on other's experiences. I have done some searching on the site to check before posting.

1)I want to go to 32GB RAM, I was thinking HyperX Impact 1866
2)3920xm or a 3940xm
3) I will need the 3 pipe heatsink, almost positive mine has single, im not sure the best place to source one.
4) Leaving 680 m for now, if someone knows of the SLI parts sourcing so i could get them I would consider grabbing them to have on hand for a cheap dual 680m rig later. Or it may pay to get a single better card.
5) the 1103 might have to go,what else uses the 3 antennas well with my rt-68u router on the other side?

My r2 is more like a museum piece, in the sense it doesnt move around much and is usually on an external monitor, I need more memory for VMs and staying up to speed. I'm at my 3 year itch cycle for a laptop and am looking for feedback on upgrade vs new stuff. Im not sure I dig the newest AW offerings although a 13 or 15 would get me portability to actually carry one again (used to have a 15)

Thanks

 

3 pipe heatsink found thanks to the classifieds.
ordering up 330w PSU
fixed my 1103 for now with new driver, i had already done the other procedures (no app, older driver), not sure what happened but its happier now, might get a intel 6300 anyway.
pulling trigger on 3920xm or 3940xm shortly
still scoping if anyone is using the 1.35V memory with 32gb with success. I need the 32gb for some big VMs for work.

 

I would hold on to the R2 man. You can upgrade the R2 with a pair of Nvidia 980Ms, keeping it a contender for the most powerful laptop on the planet. Not sure where people are sourcing them, but eBay's got them for around $800 each. There's honestly not a whole lot you can't play (maybe not at ultra settings) with an XM CPU and 680M SLI.

Since you're talking about work though, just upgrade the CPU and stuff as much RAM as your OS can utilize in there. I'm not sure if there's a work-around, but Windows will only use so much RAM, dependent upon which version you're using. I.e., Home Basic (8GB max?) can't use as much RAM as Ultimate or Corporate can (32GB?).

 

Please let me know how you fixed the killer 1103 problems (driver specific). I get drop outs/limited connectivity ALL the time. I just placed a bid on the Intel 6300 as I will be abandoning OS X and no longer need the AR9280. I would add a 680M SLI or save the dough and upgrade to a GTX 970M single card. RJtech has them for $450 if I remember correctly.

 

on my windows 8.1 pro OS installed this
https://www.visiontek.com/download-drivers.html for killer N as driver, didnt use setup I have none of software suite on.
under properties, power management of the device, I unchecked allowed to power off device.
It seems pretty good now, buts its day 2 since change. I used wire so much before I never noticed my dropouts.

 

You have been running OS X on your M18xR2? How did that work? Are you abandoning it because of limited functionality on the hardware platform, or just don't like OS X on any platform?

 

I'll add my above posted driver install for 1103 seems stable in a few days of use.
got everything i need for a 3940xm install, 32gb of 1866 ram, 330w supply, and getting the sli parts to take mine up to as cool as 2012 offered at least.

 

I have been doing OS X on PCs a long long long time. I started when I was a high school freshman running tiger on a compaq using OS X vanilla kernel due to Apple's transition to Intel over powerPC. The M18xR2/M17xR4 was pretty much a perfect platform....minus the sound card. The 7970M was a royal PAIN to get working, but eventually I got full hardware acceleration under OS X. Wireless networking was solved with an Atheros AR9280 card, power management was native after patching a few kexts (kernel extensions), even the webcam worked. The sound card however, I was never able to patch properly. It only ran on max volume, which pretty much unusable since it was so loud. The M18x R1/m17x R3 is currently the best platform for hackintosh/OS X due to the ease of patching the IDT sound chip. Haswell rigs are worthless because ALL of them have package C-states locked, so OS X only kernel panics and it is a lot of patching (more than worth the effort) to get it working so I just quit on the Alienware 17. That is a whole other world and it has taken years off my life haha.