M15X Upgrading

Hey folks,

I've mostly been stalking around these forums for quite a bit, but finally resigned to the fact that it's better to ask than just read. My venerable M15X finally suffered a catastrophic harddrive failure, and after so many years of it running hot (And I, shamefully, being too lazy to open it to clean the dust bunnies growing...), I figured it's about time I actually popped it open to upgrade (since that was part of the chief reason why I got it in the first place, lol...) Now, the only caveat to this is that I'm temporarily living in my brother's apartment right now, so easily-fixable upgrades without too much hassle would be preferred. Budget is not an issue, though, my M15X is my one and only baby.

These are my specs and my thoughts on them:

Intel i7 Q740 at 1.73GHz
Works fine for me, haven't really felt like I needed to upgrade my processor.

8GB RAM
I've read that this is the maximum for an M15X, but someone on TechInferno mentioned that even though the BIOS doesn't recognize anything above 8GB, 16GB will still work and function as it is. If so, I'm thinking of 2x8GB Corsair Vengeances.

ATI Radeon HD 5800 (I think 5870, it came stock)
I was rather surprised to see this in my system read-out, funny that I don't even remember putting this as a customization option when I first got the M15X. It's been struggling a lot with more recent games, however. I definitely need to repaste it I think, in addition to cleaning out the heat sinks, but what do you guys think would be a workable upgrade for this?

Stock 500GB HDD
I seriously considered swapping out my optical drive for a 500GB HDD and my current HDD for an SSD, but then I realized I still love having an optical drive. I chose to upgrade to a Seagate Momentus XT 750GB. I did consider a WD Scorpio Black. Part of the reason for choosing that is that I've had more HDD failures with WD drives than Seagates in my experience.

I'd greatly appreciate some feedback as to my thoughts on upgrades! Thank you guys very much!

 

First thing you should do is get an SSD. It should be an absolute priority. Boot time, index scanning, file searching, virus checking etc etc all become lightning speed!
You don't need the fastest SSD due to the SATA-II limitations of the M15x but the Crucial M4 or Samsung 830 or 840 are all excellent choices.
One of the optical drive HDD caddies comes with a small enclosure to mount your old optical drive! Unless you really use that drive a lot I'd swap it out.
Icy Box IB-AC642 Adapter for 2.5 inch SSD/HDD Laptop Extension

8GB RAM is plenty for gaming so it depends what other applications you run as to whether you need additional RAM. It is possible to get 16GB though.

i7 920XM or 940XM will provide a boost with 2.13Ghz stock speed and overclockable to around 3.3-3.4Ghz but you can run into problems with throttling when paired with a power hungry gpu.
7970m (power hungry gpu) also an excellent option as its plug and play and can run new games on Ultra. A slightly less power hungry card (but with half the performance) is the GTX 660m but it requires .inf file mods to work properly.

Check the link in my signature, its a great video guide to upgrading components in M15x.

 

Do you frequently use the ROM drive? If not, get a slim external for it. Get an SSD. I was skeptical at first, Now I rock a 256GB ssd + 1TB HDD [WD Blue]. I mostly get what I need off the net, hardly do I ever need a rom drive but that's me.

Your GPU could use an upgrade, too. If you feel it struggling, get any of the following: gtx 680m / gtx 580m / amd 6990m / amd 7970m.

Your CPU's final upgrade is going to be a 920 or 940XM unless you get an entirely new laptop.



Good luck

 

Not sure about GTX 580m in M15x. Unless you've actually know someone using it I hear it is too power hungry and produces too much heat for the M15x. Avoid it!

 

Thanks a lot, guys!

As much as I do want an SSD to replace my HDD, it lacks the capacity I seek. My M15X serves as my desktop computer away from home on extended trips, and I do carry it around too, so carrying another optical drive reader around isn't exactly the most feasible option for me (furthermore, where I'm staying, desk space is at a premium). Even though I don't use it that much, it's the convenience that I need when I'm running around. So until larger SSDs come out and are cheaper, it's not too feasible an option for me - I want one though lol. I've been looking around for 6990m's and 7970m's for a couple of weeks now but haven't been able to find a reliable seller stocking the Dell cards without charging a super-premium from them. I'll definitely start poking around for a 660m though. I want to upgrade my processor too, but it's going to be a while before I get home, where I can reliably work on my laptop too, so I'll get the processor now and save it till then.

 

There are at least 2 people selling Dell 7970m in the NBR Marketplace right now! Go take a look under general, marketplace, computer components.

 

This is perfect advice. Dont forget adding an SSD will help with temps as well as there are no moving parts.I have 2 Corsair Force GS's and have no issues with them at all. 8GB is plenty for gaming you won't need more unless you are video editing or something intensive like that. Don't be scared of getting a 7970m either they are getting cheap now and they are really powerful for what they are, especially with some overclocking.

 

Again, thanks so much for all the help guys. In hindsight, I'm now looking at upgrading my CPU, GPU, or both. Now, as fatboyslimerr said, running a high-power CPU and GPU is gonna cause throttling issues. Between the two, I'm thinking that my CPU is more likely to need the upgrade than the GPU given that 1.73GHz is.. a bit pathetic. Would I need to upgrade my power brick if I'm just upgrading CPU to a 940XM?

Also, what are my other options for a GPU upgrade if I go for a CPU upgrade to a 940XM, can I do a GTX460m or GTX560m, or 6970m?

Edit: Eying that 940xm for sale like a hawk right now...

 

Yes you will need to eventually upgrade your power supply but leave it for now. Just wait and grab a 7970m, you would be stupid not too.

 

I'm still looking at upgrading my CPU to a 940XM though, since a more powerful CPU will be giving me more utility than a more powerful GPU as I use my Alienware for my engineering work and run resource-intensive software like Solidworks as well as gaming. What GPU can I run with a 940XM without throttling?

 

Unfortunately even my GTX 460m throttled when paired with 940xm. Your best bet might be a GTX 660m due to lower power consumption of Kelper chips. Don't expect earth shattering performance though.

Sent from my cm_tenderloin using Tapatalk HD

 

cheeky... as a 660m owner I can tell you for a fact there is no throttling what so ever with this card, plus with the much much lower power requirements the card can be overclocked massively and give just a good a performance as the 6990m without the heat or throttling the 6990m suffers from.
as for the 7970m great card but to many issues with throttling on both gpu and cpu when ran with a 920xm or 940xm hence the reason why I went for the 660m.
as for gaming with it I get between 50 and 60 fps in bf3 all maps not bad for a card that doesn't give earth shattering performance
temps wise on stock my gpu temps never go above low to mid 70's now, and that's after a couple of hours gaming with it.

 

I wasn't being cheeky, just stating the obvious that a GTX 660m is a mid-range card, its not a 680m or 7970m.
It also costs half the price! Undervolted 7970m runs cooler though

 

I agree with most of the posters here.

1st: SSD will be your most major and noticable upgrade in terms of general use
2nd: CPU.. The lower clocked non-XM 1st gen i7's aren't that hot. The 920XM and 940XM both overclocked are BEASTY
3rd: GPU.. I had a Clevo 7970m when I had my M15x and if I had to do it again. I think I would go the .inf editing route with a 660m to not worry about throttling. The 580 and upper nVidia tier have issues with their GPU clock staging and not hitting certain clock rates without custom bios and editing bios (I BELIEVE)

The stronger PSU (>150W) isn't really needed, as the M15x won't draw much more than 150W due to motherboard design limitations. Its a nice upgrade if you are maxing out the brick so it won't be running so hot due to being near its limits. Any chance you're by the greater Washington DC area? I have a spare Delta 240W AW powersupply sitting around that I'd just give away over coffee.

 

SSD and get yourself the Sammy 840. Sata II has its limits but where is matters in terms of random reads and writes and actual performance (not seq read and writes) Sata II is no bottleneck yet.

CPU get yourself the 920xm unless you find a 940xm cheap. Very small difference. The 940XM features the ability to move the base multi up instead of the turbo multis. Not really a difference. Also it might afford you the ability to push it ultimately to 133mhz faster than the 920xm. At those speeds though you might find it not stable to use anyway so probably 920xm is the best route as they are almost always cheaper.

GPU for now is the 7970M. For good out of box performance set it to 875mhz/1450mhz at 0.975V. I can share this vbios with you. I have also set the 2D clocks at 200mhz/150mhz at 0.8V. This card at these settings will run very cool and also very powerfully. The only other real contender at present in terms of price/performance is the 675mx OCed. The 660GTX while a gr8 midranger will also be hotter when heavily OCed compared with the 7970M at the above settings. As for throttling the 7970M at the above settings will not throttle if treated properly even with the CPU completely maxed out at a stupidly high OC. I am working on finding the exact point where that no longer is the case and it looks to be at around 1V so there is still a little more headroom in the bag.

HDD. I recommend Hitachi. A gr8 company. My 7k500 500GB drive is now running in my ODD bay as a backup drive and in its 4 years of life never a hiccup. I also chose their airconditioning units for my house over the rest of the competition here in Japan due to the build quality being visibly much higher (plus the 10 year warranty ). So this is also a good option. In fact Hitachi now offer the 1TB version of the same drive.

Definitely get a 240W PSU. You will find the M15x will be much more confortable with the extra headroom delivered by the much less stressed brick. Also the 9 cell battery really helps to elevate the laptop so the fans can suck in cool air more easily. Also even with a powerfully configured 920xm/7970M setup a new 9 cell will be able to give you 3-4 hours battery life for ordinary tasks like surfing, listening to music and word processing.

Ram. 16GB as stated is possible. Get what you need.

 

Great! Thank you very much! I don't have the parts yet, but I'll definitely contact you once I do for the vbios. At this point in time it looks like I'll go find myself a 920xm unless I can find a cheap 940xm, and then have an undervolted 7970M. What is your definition of "treated properly", by the way? I believe I do have a 9-Cell battery, but it doesn't appear to elevate the laptop. I need to check again, but I'm quite sure it's a 9-Cell.

Thank you very much for your offer! Unfortunately I'm based in Boston, and the closest I ever get to DC is New York. Again, thank you for your generosity, though.

Thoughts on this one?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/computer-components/719919-fs-2-x-dell-ati-hd7970m-2gb-gddr5.html

 

The 6 cell sits flush with the bottom of the laptop. The 9 cell juts out. You will know sure enough.

I have a thread entitled *M15x throttle fix* have a look there

 

Yes I bought my 940xm from Riri. He'll package them extremely well and they are probably lightly used.
€260 is a good price!

 

I've seen the thread. I don't want to have the hassle of having to gradually step up the load to prevent throttling though. Can an undervolted 7970M run with a 920XM passively without throttling?

 

Its not such a big deal. I'm running my card undervolted and overclocked which has got rid of most of the throttling.
Worst case scenario you need to let the game run at the game menu (if it uses 3d clocks) for 30 seconds or so while the fans spool up.

With everything at stock then its less of a problem anyway.

 

Can't be bothered huh? Get a new laptop then. This old beast needs some love and coaxing. If you ain't got that love then don't waste your money upgrading. :thumbsup: