Let's share upcoming upgrade plans for the M15x beast :)

I bought it, now it's just a waiting game.

I looked up if there's anymore model, the 3 port ones are almost 20usd lol

 

I have the same one as Gofspar. It works fine. Don't expect true USB 3.0 speeds though, but do expect much faster file transfer speeds over the standard USB 2.0 ports. For me, the addition of two more USB ports to my laptop was the main reason I got it. It also fits fairly flush with the laptop frame, but does stick out about 1mm or so. Also, when I try to unplug a USB device from the card sometimes, the entire card comes out. I suspect any express card will have this issue though. The spring loaded retaining mechanism seems a bit weak.

I'd go with the 2 port card because of the extra power port. Some hard drives will need extra power.

 

Please let me know how the m290x goes as i found one way cheaper then a 970m and i just want my wifes m15x to run games nicely. Yes i caved and gave it to her for valentines

Going to build custom heatsink with spare gpu heatsink any suggestions for cpu cooler to tie a custom pipe setup to? Im thinking it might be possible to just replace the 2 pipes with direct liquid connection to cpu cooler. Any thoughts?

 

M290X is native with a 6990M, 7970M or 8970M backplate, all you need is to grab some 2mm by 5mm screws and it works good.

You need a 920xm or something if you dont wana bottleneck the m290x. my 740qm bottlenecks it hard.

 

How does the card clock?

Should be better binned than the 7970M. Ought to easily hit 1ghz at stock 1.05V and I hope alot more.

If you can routinely game at over 1ghz. Considering the 4gb vram and maturw drivers at this point the card might have an edge over the trusty 680M both OCed.

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Don't have a mobo. :/

 

Thanks for the heads up. I'm going to put the video card in then buy the cpu when i get the cash. the thing is i have to do it a bit at a time. for now i'll have to use my i5 540m lol which kinda stinks

 

I recommend playing games on very high settings to move bottleneck back over to GPU as much as possible.

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If I'm not mistaken, 920XM is around 120usd on ebay. The 940XMs are much more expensive though.

 

I just got 1333 CL9 from a dead laptop. 2x4GB, should be enough for now.

 

Get a SSD off of ebay and get a HDD caddy for the dvd drive.

 

I don't think I need one right now. The laptop is just used for school, and I already have a powerful desktop.

 

An ssd will make a considerable difference. I`m running a 240 gig ssd make sure you put it in odd bay tho cause that is sata 2 connectiong vs hardrive bays sata 1

 

I`ve started looking into building a liquid cooling rig for my M15x. Thinking with the 9cell battery i`ll have the clearance that I can mod a bottom panel to allow for water block on gpu heatsink. biggest challenge is going to be soldering a copper block to the pipes. It`s doable but totally not an easy task. I`m thinking that a small rad would be ok for this. what do you guys think?

 

uhhh definetly not

they both run at sata 2

 

I'm pretty sure optical drive bay is only SATA-I. Main HDD bay is definitely SATA-II though.

 

I got same speeds with both drive areas. 270MB/ps with my Intel 530 SSD.

 

it would really surprise me if the ODD bay was rated for higher speeds than the hdd bay, usually its the other way round.

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Main HDD speed is SATA 2?

Would be a waste getting a 850EVO then?

 

no IOPS is what you feel, what makes the drive feel fast.

so SATA 2 makes no difference with the snappyness

 

Are you certain the ODD is the same as the main bay!? That means raid is a possibility lol

 

It doesn't because the motherboard doesn't support. Unless you're talking about software RAID which is just horrible!

 

even software raid would have to be supported on a bios level...

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no I'm just pointing out that in my bios it showed sata 1 connection speed on main drive and sata 2 on odd drive it was wierd

 

were those changeable options?

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This is just a label, although it is confusing. It lists this according to the slot number, not transfer speed. Both SATA slots are SATA-2 but the HDD slot is labeled "Sata 1" in the BIOS (the first Sata slot) and the ODD slot is labeled "Sata 2," (the 2nd Sata slot).

Use HWinfo or similar app to see what actual speeds are.

 

Oh okay well thanks for the info

 

Thats better. Now I can feel the air






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That is a beast. I presume you've removed some of the mesh?

 

Yes and managed to cut myself too lol. Imagine how little air could get into that fan. I removed half of the intake struts.

Coolermaster had no intention of making something that was actually useful!

 

lol size of that, some in operation pictures

 

Idle temps: 34C on GPU and the cpu is bouncing between 38-43C all the time at idle. This after a gaming session that lasted 2 hours

From boot up I expect to be able to maintain lower idle temps.

 

Great temps especially for your setup, my congratulations!

 

Thanks mate. Load temps for cpu and gpu to come.

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THE EXCITEMENT !!!!

 

finally have the money now i'm going to get that video card for my wife's laptop and get her m15x running nicely. I should be fine with my i5 540m for now until i can afford a newer processor if i drop in the r9 m290x right

 

wouldnt that bottleneck the 290 like fook ?

 

Yes it would.

I got my right angle adapter today, does anyone know how I can safely pull out the center pin from the adapter?

 

Big time. I have a i7 820qm and my m290x gets bottlenecked like crazy. Max gpu load I've ever seen was 60% during gaming. That being said, I came from a 5850m and the performance is like night and day so you'll still see a difference.

Just get some needle nose pliers and wiggle the center pin till it comes off.

 

remember tho this is only temporary til i can afford a 920xm and overclock the **** out of it. i plan to pust it to 3.4 ghz if i am building a custom liquid cooler for my machine

 

Lol with water cooling you should be able to hit 4ghz

 

I'll try to visit the engineering department at campus tomorrow and see what they have to help.

 

Pulled the center pin off, still says power adapter is "unknown" in the bios.

Not sure if I did it correctly, most of the pin is gone but there's a small amount of metal remaining.

 

If you pulled the pin, then the BIOS is supposed to read it as unknown. Just turn off adapter warnings.

 

Ah okay.

If the pin is pulled correctly, battery won't charge right? (So if turned off and plugged in with adapter, alienware logo won't glow.)

 

-double post

 

Correct, the pin is there to communicate between the power adapter and the computer. If the pin is removed, then the computer will not recognize it and will disable charging of the battery, therefore the battery charging glow on the logo will be gone too.

 

Ah okay. Thanks for the advice.

Wondering what part number is a screen assembly (without the lcd)? I need to replace mine.

Maybe also a 4K panel if there's any that's compatible with the M15x's internal connector.

 

The screens come factory fitted inside the assembly. If you were to try to fit a new LCD inside an assembly it wouldn't be perfectly sealed and you might get bits of fluff or condensation inside the screen.
Best to buy the whole assembly. The glass on my assembly is scratched but trying to fit my LCD inside a new one would look worse than putting up with a few scratches.

 

Also, there's a plastic cage that surrounds the back of the screen. That plastic will have to be cut off to get the screen in there. Otherwise the screen cover will have to be removed to fit a new screen in there, and removing that cover is not an easy or safe task. Dust is surely to get in either route you choose. So like fatboyslimmer said, just get a new complete assembly.

Just a note that even new assemblies can have specs of dust in between the cover and panel. I've had three different and brand new M15X screen assemblies and all three have specs of dust in them but you'd have to hold a light source to the screen to actually see them and they surely pose no problem when actually using the display. I guess it's just luck if some panels have absolutely no dust particles in them.

Keep in mind there are two models. One is the FHD (1920x1080) display and the other is the HD+ (1600x900) display. I have both on two separate laptops and I can tell you that both are gorgeous and I find myself preferring the lower resolution of the HD+ screen. The HD+ screen also seems to have better contrast and darker blacks than the FHD display, at least to my eyes.

Part numbers are in links below:

Full HD Screen:

https://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=12409

HD+ Screen:
https://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=10739