Alienware M17 Upgrade GPU to what? MXM 2.0 or 2.1?

I am trying to find what videocards are options for an Alienware M17 (not R1). I have seen that ideally one would buy from Alienware, the ATI HD 4850 1GB, but that isn't possible out of warranty since Dell took over Alienware or something along those lines.

I have dual 3870 512mb, but I want to be able to play Diablo III. And I read that cannot use SLI, which means maybe I should upgrade from Crossfire to a single faster card, but it's MXM II 2.0 I think maybe 2.1. How do I find a card that will handle Diablo III or am I SOL?

 

The 4850 is the best possible option for your laptop unfortunately. You can find them on ebay every now and then.

 

Table was selling a few 1GB 4870's in the FS section on here about 6 months back. Keep an eye on that section, perhaps more will pop up. That would be one of the best cards for your laptop, though a 4850 would also do well.

 

Pretty sure the 4870's will not fit this laptop.

 

Yes, the MXM 2.1 4870 fit, somebody already tried it. Had issues enabling crossfire i believe.

 

They are the same size as the 4850. As long as you get one with a Vbios that supports the M17 you should be all set.

 

I'm confused, is it 2.0 or 2.1 MXM? I think it's supposed to be MXM 2.1 type III

Would that era card work? Is it possible to get crossfire on anything else?

 

Yes it is mxm 2.1 type III (and type HE, but only the primary slot).

You can get crossfire 4850s and 3870s. That's about all. But the key is to have the right crossfire cable. Without the cable it wont work.

I had an ASUS 4870 working and it was I who had trouble getting crossfire to work. Why? Because the crossfire connector is different on those cards.

lets say hypothetically you got your hands on 2 ASUS 4870 cards, where are you going to find that special crossfire cable?
I searched and couldn't find one anywhere online.
Unless you find a dead asus w90 that happens to have the parts you need to scavenge.
But that's highly unlikely.

If you look at nvidia cards, the 260m and 280m both have HE tabs on their mxm cards. This means you can't fit 2 of them in SLI because the second mxm slot in your system doesn't have the slot for the HE tab to fit.

So you really don't have much of a choice, get the 4850s if you can find them. Otherwise 3870s are still decent, might be better off putting the money you were going to spend on this upgrade aside for a new system.

 

That does sound like about my options, I found one 4850 alienware on serverpartswarehouse Alienware ATI HD4850M MXM2.1 III/HE video card Area51 M17/MSI 1722

Could I just buy two? Expensive maybe not worth it.

 

Yeah that’s where I found them as well. (I’m looking for a red PCB 4850m card.) The price they have is outrageous! Also I’m a bit wary of the integrity of the site...

 

That would work, but it's such a high price.
I guess you could sell your 3870s (maybe make $200 total from them). Still seems like a lot to pay for that upgrade.

 

That's honestly too much to pay for those cards no matter how much you love that system.
Moral Hazard is right, you will be better off saving for a newer system.

 

By the way I kindof agree with you but the money is tied to interest free credit card shopping limited time only.

Would these MXM 1.3 cards work in the M17?

 

Which mxm 1.3 card do you speak of?

 

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ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4850M (M98) GDDR3 1Gb MXM 1.3 Type III

I guess that serverpartsearehouse stocks both 2.1 and 1.3.

 

That must be a typo, they are both mxm 2.0 not 1.3.

It supports HDMI (which isn't supported with mxm 1.3).

And I have no idea what mxm 2.1 is, probably was only meant for Type IV MXM cards which aren't really around.

Anyway all of the MXM 4850 cards will me MXM 2.0 type III or MXM 3.0 type B.

While the 4870 mxm cards can be MXM 2.0 type HE or MXM 3.0 type B.

 

So if I wanted to shell out the cash for this, would you advise just buying two of the '2.1's (or the 1.3s?)? Seems like it.
Also as I understand it there is an optional HE slot but only for one card not for two. Is it actually possible to get two 4870s with this machine?

 

Can't get 2 4870s unless you find the right crossfire cable for the asus 4870 cards. They are cheaper though, like $225.
ASUS W90 HD4870 1GB DDR3 MXM III VGA Card [W90_12070] - $224.99- laptop-ac-adapter.org
Then you have the very risky job of cutting the HE tab off the second card.
I did see one person try this and he killed the card. I did also read that someone was also successful when they cut an HE tab off a card. maybe it's better to cut the plastic part of the case that gets in the way of the HE tab.

So it's possible in theory but very risky.

No reason to do it anyway because the alienware 4850s have double the vram.

If you had to pick between the 2.1s or the 1.3s, I would flip a coin because it wouldn't make a difference.

The upgrade can't be worth $600 though. If you sell your m17 you could probably get $400. Put that cash together and you'll have enough for a new notebook that has an LED display, supports dx11, usb 3.0 and all of that new tech. It will make a difference.

 

How would you recommend selling? Though I'm spending like 500 to get it back up and running as is (new proc, new screen, new dvd drive, missing usb port replace maybe). This is literally the only other thing to upgrade aside from RAM.

 

Did you already spend the $500 on the CPU/screen etc..?

I mean if you didn't, put the $500 together with the $600 for the GPUs and you have yourself a nice clevo p150EM with a GPU better than 4870x2 plus you get dx 11. LED backlit screen, USB 3.0. SATA III. All of those new things that can make a big difference overall.

I thought the m17 looked really interesting earlier this year when someone was selling a barebone in the marketplace. I spent like $200 on that + $400+ on GPUs (some of which didn't work). I had to replace the screen (was like $60 iirc). Power supply blew up in the first month or so, had to spend $60 on a used one.
Put a lot of money into it and in the end it just wasn't worth it.

Just a month ago I got a sager np8150 barebone ($250), a 7970m ($550 including heatsink), some ddr3 ram which was cheap. I already had HDDs and a DVD drive. The CPU I got was a cheap sandy bridge pentium, which I swapped into my toshiba and took the 2630QM out of that.


In the end I spent like $900 total on the sager np8150 and got a very nice system.
I had to do that because I'm in australia and it's hard to get a notebook with a decent GPU for around $1k here.

While if you're in the US you can buy from xoticpc or somewhere like that and get a system with similar performance to my NP8150 for a tad over $1k.

Although maybe you don't live in the US so this could not be relevant.

 

Question on the video cards: does it matter if I get a master and a slave? I found OEM Alienware M17 ATI Redeon HD 4850 1GB Slave Video Card MOBL-VM981GBSLV OEM Alienware M17 ATI Redeon HD 4850 1GB Slave Video Card MOBL-VM981GBSLV (this is the third variety on the same card from the same website only this one is explicitly a slave and costs $43 more). Also found a master on ebay, ATi HD 4850M, 1Gb, Master Video Card For Alienware m17, OCZ Whitebook, ASI IQ17 | eBay for again about $50 more USD than the 'standard' 4850 on serverpartswarehouse.

I'm in the US and I would go for a newer generation of card but things like the screen being glossy turn me off. The alienware company ztronics stocks screens including matte 1920 x 1200, is it possible to switch from a glossy screen to a matte screen or is that only for exact replacements?

 

It is a good idea to get a master and a slave.
2 master cards wont fit.
2 slave cards should work, but you will have to flash the vbios on one of them to the master vbios, that can be tricky.

Oh and new clevo notebooks today have the matte screen option.

 

Couple points:
I went for the video card that costs less, two undeclared as master or slave. The auction on the master ended, and they sell regular and slave on serverpartswarehouse.
What will I need to do, or should I presume that it is coming as master or both as slave? As in I am going to install the cards myself if I have to, how do I go about flashing the vbios?

And I think that I could still return the video cards though my shipment is going to be held as my address stopped mail for two weeks. Should I return one and buy a slave?

And if I need an explicit master, what kind of card would I be getting two of? Master slave or otherwise?

Thanks a lot.

 

Crossfire 4850 would probably do the thing as they are faster than 3870, but I would rather stick with one overclocked Quadro FX3700M 1Gb (128cuda=9800M GTX)