M9750 upgradability

Hi guys

I am newly registered to this site but have found many useful bits of info from here over the years.
Having had my Alienware for around 4 years now and being completely happy until this point, i have just encountered the first game it has struggled with.
Having searched online for days to no avail, my question to you is can my Alienware be upgraded beyong its current stats (and what with) or is it time to bite the bullet and buy a new one?

Current spec - Area-51 m9750, intel core 2 t7600@ 2.33Ghz, Nvidea GeForce 8700M GT, 4GB RAM, VISTA Ultimate 32

My thanx in advance

 

hey dbiggy,

i have the same set up as you and so far theirs little Ive found.

but I can tell you what few upgrades i have done to mine (so far)

1. ditch vista and upgrade to win7 is a must!
the altogether response and performance increase alone in the m9750 just from upgrading to 7 was stunning.

2. get some arctic silver 5 on yer chips!
theirs like 5 chips inside that the heat pipes touch if i remember correctly.
all computer company's are guilty for this, they throw some square sticker thermal compound on the heat sink for, the GPU, CPU, North and South Bridge and when assembled is just left too ooze all over the chips, a big factor on why some people's m9750s get dead chips I bet. got to keep this beast cool no matter what.

3. If you take any interest in the method to overclock the m9750,
then you can upgrade your memory, the chipset tops out with 667MHZ DDR2 Ram Sticks *BUT* you can upgrade and pop 800MHZ sticks in.
the 800MHZ sticks prior to overclocking will be running at 667MHZ regardless so when you overclock its just more stable on the memory side.

That's all Ive officially done so far, next ill throw a SSD in with a 7200RPM or 10000RPM HDD in the 2nd bay

I even tried getting some input from origin to see if they would be interested in overhauling my m9750 but they turned it down and told me to contact dell so screw them too.

sucks because the chipset is limited to 32bit hardware so even tho we have 4GB memory and running a 64bit windows it only uses 3GB of the memory

now i wonder, right before the m9750 were discontinued did alienware/dell offer it with the 64bit vista??? if soooo then there might be a different mobo out there.. hmm...

 

Upgrading to a 3870 mobility would be awesome! You can even go crossfire if you can find both + a cable.

 

Thanks for the respone glenn with 2 n's,

I'm wondering though, do your mentioned upgrades make a greatly noticable difference or is it like putting an umbrella up while the ship sinks?

You stay dry a bit longer but sooner or later your gonna get drenched!

 

What's your primary activity? You are at the max CPU - max memory.

If it's some officework/surfing windows 7 + an ssd will make your laptop feel like new.... but if it's gaming :s

 

Mostly gaming. All the other features are still good enough for my needs. 4 years without a problems still been my best run with a laptop though.

 

If you are using a single 8700m finding a 3870 would be nice, if possible 2 for crossfire.

It's really at it's end now, not enough cpu power, limited memory.

 

Or, you can do what I did and stuff an FX3700M in there.... Can't speak for reliability, though, I had a bad card, and then jumped ship. (You need AS5 or another good thermal paste for it.)

 

Another possibility but the 3700M uses a lot more power then a 3870 and the 9750 does not even have a HE tab. Does not seem like a very good idea tbh!

Maybe an 9800M G(T)S or the quadro alternative? Twice the amount of shaders and double memory bandwith

 

Yeah, it wasn't, but I did it anyways. Amazing performance. I wonder if a 4850M from an M17 would work..