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    Considering upgrading instead of buying new... pros and cons?

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by Clarksfield, Jan 18, 2013.

  1. Clarksfield

    Clarksfield Newbie

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    SO, Ive had my M15X for a couple years now, and I'm considering doing some upgrades.. here are the specs:

    500GB 7200RPM hard drive
    I7 740qm processor
    8gb ram
    ATI Radeon 5850M

    I use this laptop for gaming and school. I haven't tweaked anything with the computer other than adding an extra 2gb of ram. I love the build quality, and It's in great shape still. I was considering going to an M17 or 18, and starting new...... but I don't know if an upgrade to my M15X would be a better idea.

    Pros and cons? I'm comfertable changing the graphics card and processor myself, but im not sure how much of a performance increse I'd see.

    any direction would be helpful.
     
  2. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    About the video card, you have the best one we recommend for the system but I've seen some success stories with the 7970m on it. That one would definitely boost the video performance.

    About the processor, you still have a very decent one and I don't think you'll need anything better yet.

    The m15x still runs like a charm.
     
  3. JohnnyFlash

    JohnnyFlash Notebook Virtuoso

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    What are you taking in school? Any kind of 3D modeling work?

    The biggest thing between the M15x and M17x R4 is battery life.
     
  4. King of Interns

    King of Interns Simply a laptop enthusiast

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    With 9 cell the battery ain't half bad but doesn't make it very portable. I get up to 3 hours specs in sig.

    The main question is what do you need more of? CPU or GPU power?

    If you need both upgraded and money isn't an issue I would recommend waiting for the next gen 8970M. More power efficient than the 7970M by a good margin and therefore a better partner with the 920xm. Currently 920xm and 7970M needs some tweaking to stop gpu throttling in game.

    Then again if you don't do video encoding or photoshop/cad etc then the 740qm has some mileage left in it even with a high gpu. While it's lower power tdp would help reduce throttling issues on gpu.