M15X Upgrade - should I bother?

Hey everyone. Apologies for creating what's likely a duplicate thread or something that can be easily answered by doing forum searches - there's just so much data here that I spent about 2 hours combing the forums for about half the info I'm looking for.

Anyway, I have an 11-month old M15X with the following goodies:

• I7 740QM
• ATI 5850M (that I have only gently played with OC'ing via MSI Afterburner)
• 8 GB of Kingston HyperX 1600 RAM (yes yes I realize this is overkill )
• Seagate Momentus XT
• 1080P display
• A big honking Cooler Master Strike Force cooler
• A09 Bios

TBH, I've been pretty happy with this machine. I had one issue with a dead LCD that required the Dell techs to come out and replace the screen, but otherwise, it's been rock solid and I use it primarily for gaming as well as some work applications including a bloated memory hog known as SCOM 2007 R2. Being me, of course, I've managed to get the thing to stutter here and there, particularly with the aforementioned memory hog
and some poorly optimized games like Dragon Age 2. Also being me, I'm looking to squeeze every bit of life out of this machine that I cost-effectively can.

At this point, my only real options for upgrading this machine are the GPU and CPU but I'm wondering if it's really worth the time and the effort. I could drop the money for an 8xxQM or Extreme Edition i7 Mobile CPU, and I've read up on the 6970m GPU threads. Are there more powerful PSU's that are compatible with this laptop that won't fry the machine? Can anyone point me towards a reliable set of appropriate benchmarks, or people in the same position weigh in on their own experience?

I appreciate it. Thanks!

 

welcome to the boards ...

i'm also keen on upgrading my machine, and was planning to do the following upgrades:
CPU - i7 920/940XM
GPU - 6970/6990
HDD - SSD and swap out optical drive with existing HDD
RAM - 8GB

I estimate i will probably spend close to NZD2000 ... which makes me wonder if it would be more worth it to just get a new notebook after another year ;P

Anyway ...... seeing as how i dont game that much anymore, im going with RAM and SSD first ... i've already bought a HDD caddy which will replace the DVD drive (which ive used a grand total of 3 times since i bought my M15x in Dec2009!) ... will get the SSD and ram soonish =)

PS: what speed is your HyperX running at? Is it still 1333 or did you manage to overclock it to 1600? =)

 

Imho, depending on whether working with applications or gaming is more crucial to you - it's either SSD(applications) or the 6970/90m that I would start the upgrades with.
As in most modern machines it's the HDD rather than CPU that bottlenecks the load/boot/transfer speeds.
As for gaming 6970/90 is reputedly one hell of a beast and the best GPU you can stuff into an M15x at the moment.
So far I've only expanded the memory and bought a caddy for second HDD from:

Alienware : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

My next buy would be an SSD(hopefully Intel 300 series) followed by the CPU(I run virtual machines on my M15X and the more cores I can assign the merrier). 6970 will have to come last - tbh I'm pretty happy with the way 5850 performs at the moment, but that's just me )

PSU'wise I believe we're stuck with what we've got(correct me if I'm wrong), but you can get the AC brick for M17x which is 240W rather 150W as in M15X. It won't enable your machine to use more power, but it won't run as freakishly hot as the M15x's own powerbrick, thus hopefully extending the lifespan.

Overall if your main concern is whether to upgrade or not bother at all - I'd say - go for it. M15x is easier and more fun to customize than any laptop I've come across so far, and when fully upgraded would keep delivering for a couple of years to come.
Best of luck)

 

heck, when fully upgraded by end of this year, i would expect it to last me until end of 2013, and if i dont play the latest games, it would probably last even longer! =)

 

I'm probably gonna get yelled at for this but I have a brand new i7-920XM ES for $275. I'll pay shipping in U.S.

 

That seems like a good price. If I didn't have one I'd buy that off you in a flash.

 

Instant buy if I hadn't already one... fantastic price!!!!

 

oooh! .... niceeeeeee

 

yup thats a $100 less than what i paid for mine

 

Noelho -

Nope, it's still at 1333. Heh heh.

Also, I have the HD caddy from newmode mentioned above but I have yet to install it. So far I haven't gone near SSDs due to (imo) insane price-to-capacity ratios but that may change in time.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I guess the unstated part of my question was, "would it be worth it just to chuck this system and get a sandy bridge m17x or something similar?"

I'll look into upgrading this here beast a bit more.

 

That's a nice price. I found one on ebay for $250 + $10 shipping brand new. Its Crazy to think that getting a 920xm when buying a new machine costs roughly $1000. Now they are dirt cheap.

I had a i7 620m, and the 920xm didnt really improve my system as drastically as I had hoped. I would op for either an SSD or GPU upgrade and skip the CPU upgrade for now.

You can always try overclocking your 5850....very cost effective seeing as its free.

 

I wonder if any of those lucky SSD owners(ideally combined with i7 620m CPU) have had the processor holding them back ? Speculations are welcome )

 

i doubt it ... =)

ive finally ordered my 8gb ram, but am going to hold off on SSD until there is price drop in NZ, or until i head to Malaysia for a holiday ....

with the exchange rate and the prices in Malaysia, i can save over NZD150!