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    Quick Few Questions On m15x GPU Upgrade Options :)

    Discussion in 'Alienware Area-51/Aurora and Legacy Systems' started by wentalong, Dec 30, 2011.

  1. wentalong

    wentalong Notebook Guru

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    Hey all,

    First ever thread on these forums :D and i brought a m15x R1 the other day for £300 inc insured delivery from a friend which had no GPU in it but a x9000 and 3GB ram, so im looking to add another graphics card and i was thinking of something along the lines of a 6970m or 6990m however im unsure whether it wil work with the R1 m15x as most people are using R2 systems with 6970's and 6990's in, so will a 6990 or 6970m work in my R1 m15x?

    also can i buy any 6990m card from the bay if i want to or does it specifically have to be a clevo card like i've seen most people use?

    Many Thanks,
    Merry christmas and happy new year! :D

    Curtis,
     
    wentalong, Dec 30, 2011
    #1
  2. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    Hello and welcome to NBR, wentalong!

    First off there is no R1 or R2 with m15x.
    Yours is the Alienware area-51 m15x, a pre Dell Alienware while the other one is simply named Alienware M15x, released by Dell.

    Yours, the m15x, has a MXM 2.1 graphics card slot while the Dell model, the M15x has a MXM 3.0 slot.
    The mobility 6970 and 6990 cards are MXM 3.0 type B cards so physically incompatible with your laptop.
     
    katalin_2003, Dec 30, 2011
    #2
  3. wentalong

    wentalong Notebook Guru

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    Thanks for the reply mate! :)

    And i wasnt too sure on what to call it so i thought r1 would be okay but thanks for letting me know, and thanks for letting me know about the GPU situation,
    Cheers,
    Curtis.
     
    wentalong, Dec 31, 2011
    #3
  4. el_corsez

    el_corsez Notebook Geek

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    You have a few options for the m15x. First off, do you want to buy new or used? If new, check out mxm-upgrade, they have 9800GTs for the m15x (or Geforce 280 but they run pretty hot).

    Otherwise you can look for an ATI Radeon 3870 (which I recommend since nvidia cards have a bad habit of frying), a Geforce 8800GTX, or a Geforce 260. It's rumored that the Radeon 4850 would work too but no certitude here.
    There are some other graphics cards that would fit in the m15x but these above are the higer end.

    The question is, do you have a heatsink for the graphics and which one is it? There are 3 different ones, one small (low end cards), and two larger ones (one for nvidia cards and the other for ati cards).
     
    el_corsez, Dec 31, 2011
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  5. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    The MXM 2.1 260m and 280m have the revised solder so you shouldn't have problems with them but it's true that cooling can be an issue with the m15x heatsink :(
     
    katalin_2003, Dec 31, 2011
    #5