M15x upgrade/install advice

Hey guys, I’ve had my m15x for years now and it just won’t run what I want anymore. After loads of research I’ve decided to install a 940xm, gtx 460m (for now), 240w adapter, and 16gb ram all for under roughly $200. Now when I receive the parts (I’m new to the upgrade family) I was curious if anyone had any advice about things like heat sinks, thermal paste, and thermal pads? And just general installation advice/help. Any advice would be so greatly appreciated. Thanks guys

 

Adapter is kinda useless since the EC limits it to 180W anyways. Deadsmiley tested this and it would cause issues if you had a card +OC CPU that would run need beyond 180W. Not like your CPU an handle anything beyond HD 8970M anyways, just saying tho.

Thermal paste:
As usual conductonaut for best cooling, however it does conduct electricity so you can short your system if you're not careful, if you're looking for the best non conductive, then kryonaut (good fit) or ICD (bad fit) depending on heatsink fit are the best ones to go.

You'll have to mod heatsinks once you get a new card tho.

 

Recommendations? Scratch the adapter then? Isn’t the 460m plug n play?

 

Idk about that to be honest. I don't know what card you had previously.

 

Firepro m6100 is way more bang for your buck than a GTX 460M

 

How does the M6100 fit? Compatibility? And how is instal? Also is the 920xm a good cpu to run with it? Very sorry for all the noob questions in advance.

 

Firepro m6100 (Really a Radeon 8950M): https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Preci...066755?hash=item362735bb43:g:CfEAAOSw56NaJbqr
920XM: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core...402164?hash=item5d7acfdff4:g:FGMAAOSwETJaBK~N

Don't bother with the 240W PSU, just don't wildly overclock your CPU.

100$ upgrade that breathes serious life into your machine. Spend the other 100$ on a good SSD.

 

cool I’ll pick those two up, thanks a million. Hopefully I don’t run into any problems installing them

 

Be careful when isntalling the M6100, the stock xbracket is too short, and you will crush the core. swap over your xbracket from your current graphics card so you avoid that.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I’ll order them today! I imagine I should get thermal paste to..?

 

yes, and new thermal pads. I typically get a sheet of arctic 1.0mm pads for 7$ and antec formula 7 paste

 

Perfect, got them in my cart. Lastly, any advice on how to use the paste and pads? Lol. Never done it before

 

1. Always handle MXM cards by their edges. Do your work on an ESD mat or use a grounding strap.
2. Apply your pads like so. Ignore the thickness measurements, add/remove pads as necessary to make proper contact (as thin as possible) with your heatsink:

3. You want to wipe clean both the heatsink contact area and the GPU die area with 91% alcohol to make it a clean surface. Use a rice sized grain in the middle, the put the heatsink on and tighten the screws, that will spread the compound for you without air bubbles.

or send me everything and I'll do it for 50$ if you're really that uncomfortable.

 

I’m gonna give it a go once all the parts arrive next week. I’ll be back on the forum with any questions I might have, which I’m sure there will be some lol.

 

Got everything installed and working nicely

 

With one exception, GPU is running WAAAAAY too hot. 90°C+.
CPU seems okay tends to run around 70-75° under stress.

 

make sure your pads are placed with the proper thickness, make sure you have proper thermal paste, make sure your screws are applying enough pressure from the heatsink to the die. My 970M tops out in the mid 70s under load.

 

Hello again, everything is working properly now. Gpu temps have dropped quite a bit not exceeding 85° but I’m still going to re apply pads and paste just to double check and ease my mind. Also, I oc’d (slightly) the 920xm and it was running fine for a while until it’s now started crashing the m15x, power cord tripped, complete shut down, sometimes have to disconnect battery and drain the extra life to reboot it, works fine until it happens again. 3-4 times. I’m imagining this is a 150w psu problem?

 

Yes if you overclock 920xm it is very power hungry and will trigger hard shutdown due to power starvation.

 

Okay cool. I’ll stop oc’ing then until I maybe get the 240w psu for now.
Also, Raidriar thanks for all the help, couldn’t have done any of this without your advice. Especially the M6100, it runs like a champ and has made me very happy with my M15x again(which I’m only using temporarily until I can afford something new)
Which is also why really the only thing left that I haven’t upgraded is the hdd

 

get 512gb ssd, makes your life very great when using the m15x, HDD too slow these days.

 

If I can find one for a decent price I just may. What psu do you use with your M15x?

 

240W PSU

 

Thanks again man! I’ve ordered one yesterday actually. Maybe I can get a solid slight oc now!

 

turn stealth mode on/off a couple times when using the 240w psu

 

Lastly, I know you said you’ve got a 970 in yours. If I ever decide to upgrade would I be able to go to a 970 being the novice that I am? And is it worth it? Will my 920xm support it?

Edit: forgot to mention I got the 90° adapter for the 240w psu so I can pull the pin on that for throttling purposes since I read it won’t charge the battery after that and can just remove the adapter when I want to charge it.

 

yes and yes. 970M works great in the m15x and the 240W PSU can charge battery no problem

 

Awesome! Modifying files though? That sounds kinda beyond my skills.

 

It is really easy. Open ini file in notepad. Consult a simple online guide what to change and you are done in a jiffy.

 

sir all of you have refference? i want upgrade the alienware m15x, may be the link ebay for cheap stuff

 

Ok got the new 240w psu. Oc’d the 920xm with no power problems or anything whatsoever for a little while now. Pushed all 4 cores to 3ghz and it was fine. Was running everything at 60fps perfectly. Pubg, overwatch, sea of thieves blah blah blah. Temps for cpu and gpu remained under 83°.
BUT.
Somehow someway or another the DC port on the M15x has stopped working last night, Both my 150w and 240w adapters work fine but neither will charge the notebook, and it’s not just a “plugged in, not charging” deal, I mean it’s not even registering as it has chargers plugged in at all. I’m thinking somehow the dc port got shorted out maybe, seeing as for the remaining battery life I had everything worked normally as it should while I was playing with it trying to figure out the problem. Now I’m familiar with the internals now that I’ve taken the M15x apart several times, unfortunately to replace the dc port (cheap fix) requires desoldering and desoldering to the mobo
Oh, I’ve also tried to power drain method a few times with no luck. Does this sound like a dc port problem?

 

I replaced the DC jack on my M17X R2 a while ago. I didn't actually need to do it as it turned out that it was my charger which was broken. Its not too difficult if you get the right equipment (good iron, flux, quality solder and a desoldering braid/solder sucker). There are some guides on how to do this on Youtube. As long as you don't massively overheat the board you will be fine - but i'd suggest giving yourself a good few hours to do it. It took me about 4 I believe as everything needs to be removed.

 

Quick update, I’ve got the entire M15x apart, ordered a new mobo seeing as it was $55 as oppose to getting soldering materials and such. and since I have it apart an ssd as well. May still try and repair the old mobo eventually though.

 

For 55 dollars you might as well then lol. Keep the old board for spares in case you need another component and you should get a good few years out of that machine.

 

Right! That’s what I was thinking as well.
Currently have a 920xm, 16GB Ram, and a FirePro m6100, but since I have it apart I’m gonna try and grab a 970m IF I can find one for under $300 ugh.

 

Good luck. If you can't find a 970M though, then the 8970M is also pretty good. There is technically an "M390X" as well or a FirePro W7170M (they are the same card). Performance should be just below that of the 970M, but finding one of those is quite tricky, and nobody has ever tried one in an M15X.

 

@Raidriar im edging more and more towards that 970m, I’m glad I’ve taken your advice so far. The M6100 has treated me well but I desire more now.
And since I stated earlier that I have the M15x apart I may as well upgrade a few more things. Before I dip in too deep with a 970m is there anything I’d need to know?

 

Don't overclock the 920XM too much or you will starve the 970M for power. I hope you get a good ASIC quality 970M, because using svl7's bios it may curb the voltage down to 0.95V instead of default 1.0V which gives you some more headroom. Use good quality pads and paste. Keep the M6100 as a backup card, it's a very cheap and powerful backup card. Pretty much a 680M for 60$, can't beat that. I think I will pick one up for myself as well.

 

ASIC? I overclock mine to x24 stable. What’s yours set at? Tdp? (I know they’re all different, just for reference)
Is flashed vbios required? I don’t bench or anything, just to play games.
Also I’ve seen a video of someone putting a 970 in, but he had to modify the x bracket?
Also, thanks for taking to time to help with advice, it’s much appreciated.

 

You can use regular clevo x-bracket, you will need clevo screws though (smaller than dell screws). No heatsink modifications. You need to flash vBIOS. Also get 240W power adapter and an L shape adapter, pull the pin from the L shape adapter so that you bypass the throttle. For gaming my 920xm is at 23-22-21-20, but can do 26-26-26-26 for CPU benchmarks.

 

I’m weary of the L adapters now considering the last one literally melted in two and broke my DC jack, which is why I’m in this spot to begin with. Tearing down the M15x to replace the mobo. I do have the 240w psu though.

That being said, @Raidriar and @Arrrrbol the more I search the threads here and read up to not ask redundant questions I see you two are prevelant in the M15x upgrade forums so I apologize in advance for asking the same questions everyone else already has.

While I wait for my replacement parts I’m keeping close eyes on the US based available 970’s in hopes of maybe snagging one up. Several Of the Clevo 970’s that I’m currently watching come with the heat sink and screws, so that would solve the Clevo screw problem.

 

970m on the way!

 

Raid, not having much of a budget right now for upgrading my M15X, could I get away with just upgrading the video card in my machine? What is the standard video card that comes iwth it, 1 gig of memory? If I wanted to go to a 4 or 6 gig reasonably priced card, what would you recommend? Thanks in advance for your help by the way.

 

Please understand, VRAM size has nothing to do with performance. Stock cards for the M15x include the GTX 260M, Radeon 5730M, Radeon 5850M, and GTX 280M, all of which had 1GB of VRAM. the M6100 is a very cheap, very powerful card with 2GB of VRAM that is about 2 x the performance of the 5850, about 2.5x the performance of the 280M, and about 3.5x the performance of the 260m/5730M. The GTX 970M is a 6Gb card and one of the most powerful options (and frankly, the most common sensical option) for the M15x. It is 2.5x the performance of the M6100 and runs 300-350$

On a budget, buy the M6100 and don't think twice about it. It is a great card. 920XM runs about 50$ now and you really should spring for both together, 100$ is not a lot of money to invest in a notebook.

 

@Guarddog32 i have the 920 + M6100 and it runs excellent, I recommend it as I took Raids advice on it also.
I may be willing to part with my 920 soon though seeing as I’m just waiting on my 940 + 970m to arrive.
Also, @Raidriar I replaced my mobo (with the correct one) since the DC port took a crap on me, re installed windows and all the appropriate drivers, but now when I run overwatch (it used to run no problem at 70fps never dropping below) it only will run at 15-25 FPS and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. There’s no temp or power problems as I’ve monitored everything with HWmonitor trying to figure it out.
When I run Overwatch though the cpu is maxed most of the time at 100% where as the gpu seems to not be doing anything sitting between 5-30%.
This is annoying and I just cannot figure it out, any ideas?

 

Toggle stealth mode on/off a few times and try leaving your 920XM at stock clocks and see what happens

 

Is the 920 you are referring to an upgraded CPU? And the M6100 is the upgraded GPU, is that correct?

 

intel 920xm is CPU, AMD Firepro m6100 is the GPU. Reuse your x-bracket from your current GPU as the one from the firepro m6100 may be too short and you can crush the core, but I'm not sure if that is the case.

 

Does the Vram jump from 2 to 6? Is there no such thing as a 4 gig gpu?

 

m6100 increase vram to 2gb from 1gb. If you have the cash to spend I will be putting my 970M up for sale shortly to fund other products.....good card and it undervolts very well, though I think it will be out of your budget range. 970M is the only 6GB vRAM card you can get for the m15x