upgrade help with the alienware 18 r3

I am the proud owner of an alienware 18 r3 that is in need of some upgrading.

i7 4710mq and dual nvidia 860m

I want to upgrade the graphics cards, but im not sure where to start. If i get the 780m can i just get one and use my other 860m for physx? ( it would be hard to afford two 780m cards at the same time)

where is the best place to buy laptop cards? what about the brackets?

do i need a new heat sink for the 780m from my 860m cause the 780m uses a lot more power?

i have pretty bad hand shakes, due to some personal problems, so doing computer stuff myself is very hard and nerve racking. just upgrade to an SSD was pretty difficult.

is there a reputable place i can send my beloved alienware 18 for them to put new cards in?

i think i remember mr fox ( what a hero this guy is) saying powernotebooks did something like this, but i cannot find that thread.

I feel like my cpu is okay for gaming right now, and i really just want to upgrade the graphics card, but maybe I am wrong?


Sorry for the long rant, I just have more questions than google and clicking through threads in here can provide. All recent threads are mostly sadness over failed 980m upgrades.

 

1) Buy my 4900MQ

2) the best place to buy the upgrade is Upgrade Monkey

3) Do what I do when I want to upgrade, I call Dell, tell them that my X component is giving me problems but I don't want to cost them money to replace it under warranty, instead, I bought my own part I just need help installing it, when they say no they will only replace it with the same part, ask to speak to a supervisor and explain to him that you are saving them the cost and want to replace it with a component that is approved and sold on similar Alienwares. Heck I had them send a technician just to apply my Liquid Ultra on the CPU

4) Since you're gonna be opening the laptop, might as well buy some GELID Extreme Thermal Compound to keep them GPUs super cool and some Liquid Ultra for your CPU

5) What the heck is an Alienware 18 R3? did you just make that name up? There is no R3 buddy

 

Personally, I wouldn't go from 860m SLI to a single 780m - what's the point? - there is no gain to be had, in fact probably the opposite. A single 980m is gonna require lots of tweaking get up and running. Dual 780m's is probably your best upgrade path and I would be concentrating on that over a CPU upgrade. You will need new heatsinks (I believe) as the 860m HS is dual piped vs. the 780m triple pipe HS. You can get parts easily enough off Ebay (or Dell, if you like) and they may well perform an upgrade installation for you. Depending on where you are, you might even find a forum member close by who might kindly assist you with performing the upgrade.

 

Stay away from the 980m for your 18.

 

Yup, the 780M SLI setup is as good as it can get for the Alienware 18

 

Just got home from work, and just want to say thank you to everyone for responding!

Looks like im hunting for a dual 780m set up,

matrix leader 6, while i would love to buy that cpu for that price, the graphics cards and my cars squeaky breaks are higher on my purchase list and are most likely going to soak up all my budget. Hope you sell it friend, and I will keep my eye on it in the mean time.

 

The CPU was not a serious comment, just mentioned it to have you lay down all your options as it is a steal