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    M15x Spec MAX ?

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by waihonh, Apr 22, 2011.

  1. waihonh

    waihonh Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi there,

    I am currently having the m15x and I have 840QM, 460M, and 4gb ram and 500GB XT

    I just wanna know if there is possibilities that I can max the GPU in the future?

    like the max SPEC of the M15x will be 940XM, 460/5850, and 16GB ram and a SSD drive ? since DELL is discontinuing the M15x.

    Coz I am thinking to switch to M18x in the future if the system can only be upgraded to a 940XM which is not really beneficial to me.


    B
     
    waihonh, Apr 22, 2011
    #1
  2. Jdpurvis

    Jdpurvis Notebook Evangelist

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    It seems that the GPU can be upgraded to the 6970m - there are a couple of long threads about this - including a discussion of power requirements - esp for 6970 and 920 or 940mx. AFAIK, the chipset does not permit RAM to be upgraded beyond 8 GB. However, I do not know of any applications or games that even come close to maxing out with 8GB. SSD is certainly possible as a replacement for the primary disk. Some have moved a large hard disk into the space formerly occupied by the optical drive - there is also a thread on this.

    As for the processor, there is no way to upgrade to a Sandy Bridge processor - different chipset. However, the 940mx or 920mx would actually add significant horsepower for multithread applications - they are unlocked, so that (power and cooling permitting) one can run all four cores at the turbo speed instead of one.

    Of course, the other question concerning m15x vs m18x is screen size - how big a machine do you want? Not that the m15 is tiny, but it is definitely less bulk to move around.

    Happy shopping!

    Joe
     
    Jdpurvis, Apr 22, 2011
    #2
  3. waihonh

    waihonh Notebook Enthusiast

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    Jdpurvis thats my concern really coz if i cant max out my M15x i will prob sell it straight after the M18x comes out.

    to me i think graphics card is more a concern to me rather than CPU coz I never use up my CPU but graphics seems important to me. But it is pretty sure that the 6970 won't be an official launch for the M15x so prob we have mod our own Bios which is beyond my knowledge and techniques. XD

    Thanks <

    B
     
    waihonh, Apr 22, 2011
    #3
  4. dttran83

    dttran83 Notebook Deity

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    No mod required just plug and play. The only problem now is if you get the 6970m from clevo you have to use a external solfware to control the fan. Other than that it work great.
     
    dttran83, Apr 22, 2011
    #4
  5. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    A maxed out M15x would stand:
    i7 920/940XM
    8GB
    512GB Kingston SSD
    ATi 6970m
    1080p screen with blu ray writer.
     
    widezu69, Apr 22, 2011
    #5
  6. waihonh

    waihonh Notebook Enthusiast

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    What kind of external software is required ? so basically the clevo 6970M wont push the fan ?

    is the 6970M really hotter than the 460M by alot ??

    thanks

    B
     
    waihonh, Apr 23, 2011
    #6
  7. dttran83

    dttran83 Notebook Deity

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    Only the dell 6970m is where the fan will work automatically. I don't know about the clevo version. The one i have is directly from AMD so there is no vendor on it. I use hwinfo32 to control my fan speed. If you don't Use program the fan will alway be on high and you can heard it pretty loud.
     
    dttran83, Apr 23, 2011
    #7
  8. DingYao

    DingYao Notebook Enthusiast

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    Actually, a REALLY MAXED OUT M15x would be:
    i7 940XM
    8GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM
    2 512GB SSDs in RAID config (Replace blu-ray with SSDs, who needs optical drives anyway :p)
    ATI 6970m
    1080p screen
     
    DingYao, Apr 25, 2011
    #8
  9. xeroxide

    xeroxide Notebook Deity

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    can't do raid, no bios support :(
    unless someone has hacked it
     
    xeroxide, Apr 25, 2011
    #9
  10. svl7

    svl7 T|I

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    And it doesn't make sense putting a SSD into the optical drive space... the optical drive isn't connected with SATA II, it's SATA I or even P-ATA, can't remember.
     
    svl7, Apr 25, 2011
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  11. Jdpurvis

    Jdpurvis Notebook Evangelist

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    I checked - optical drive is SATA I. So I would think "Maxed out" for drives would be as large as an SSD as you can afford in the regular drive space (256GB?) and a larde SATA drive (750 GB, I think - I haven't seen any 1 TB drives that would fit, though there might be some).

    Joe
     
    Jdpurvis, Apr 25, 2011
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  12. DingYao

    DingYao Notebook Enthusiast

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    If that's the case, its awesome for game installation.

    256gb of ssd uberness for Windows, and 750gb of hard disk space for games.
     
    DingYao, Apr 25, 2011
    #12
  13. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    No no no. Kingston 512GB SSD for windows installation, games and software. 750GB HDD for documents, music, films and other things that you may find on a hard drive...
     
    widezu69, Apr 25, 2011
    #13
  14. TheHighlightGuy

    TheHighlightGuy Notebook Consultant

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    TheHighlightGuy, Apr 25, 2011
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  15. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    No because it is 12.5mm high. I think it needs to be 9.5mm
     
    widezu69, Apr 26, 2011
    #15
  16. TheHighlightGuy

    TheHighlightGuy Notebook Consultant

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    Agh you're right
    I'm looking and it seems 750GB is the max...for now :D
     
    TheHighlightGuy, Apr 26, 2011
    #16
  17. 2097

    2097 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Ive upgraded mine over the year

    720 upgraded to 920xm
    4gb ram to 8gb ram
    500gb HDD to 128 vertex 2e SSD + 500gb ( optical drive)
    geforce 260m to 460m

    The best upgrade i did was the graphics card. The 460 is a lot more stable !
     
    2097, Apr 26, 2011
    #17
  18. xeroxide

    xeroxide Notebook Deity

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    both ports are sata II
    i tried both and got the same results with atto benchmark
    both ports marked as sata II and both devices reported using sata II as the active interface. (checked using aida64)
    this would make sense since it's the one controller for both devices.

    i don't have it anymore but perhaps the device itself (cdrom drive) was sata I

    in the end i put the ssd in the optical drive slot since i'm more likely to change the storage hdd rather than my system hdd anytime soon.

    oh the caddy can fit 12.5mm drives easily.
     
    xeroxide, Apr 26, 2011
    #18
  19. Jdpurvis

    Jdpurvis Notebook Evangelist

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    Both of these items are very useful information. It certainly makes sense that the optical drive and the HDD use the same SATA controller - so the SATA I spec is for the drive, not the controller. It's also good to know that the optical drive space can hold a 12.5mm drive.

    Thanks!

    Joe

    Perhaps these tidbits should be added to a sticky somewhere (for new users?)
     
    Jdpurvis, Apr 26, 2011
    #19
  20. svl7

    svl7 T|I

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    That would be great. You're sure? SATA I would still be enough for HDDs if I'm not mistaken... does anyone knows how to check this? I thought I once knew how, but maybe I'm wrong or I simply forgot how to.
     
    svl7, Apr 26, 2011
    #20
  21. xeroxide

    xeroxide Notebook Deity

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    yeah pretty sure, bios reports the same thing... mentions sata I/II under the drive settings. i had an old 160gb hdd in there before i got my ssd which i knew for a fact was sata I and that's what it stated. put in the new drive and it states sata II.

    my atto bench looks normal and not bw limited in any way, although since i'm new to ssd's i'm not sure if that was ever a problem with sata I to begin with.

    the bios still shows the drive under "optical" drive, however it's just a label and the automatic detection seems to work as intended, detecting the drives speed and capacity correctly.

    *edit*
    oh just confirmed with intel storage manager, under advanced view of the drive the
    "current serial ata transfer mode" is set to "generation 2"
     
    xeroxide, Apr 26, 2011
    #21
  22. svl7

    svl7 T|I

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    Ok, great! Thanks for confirming this!
     
    svl7, Apr 27, 2011
    #22