Need Help Upgrading Old Alienware M15X

Hello Everyone I'm Kind of of Noob here in upgrading Laptops GPU And CPU

i Found This MXM GTX 980M 8GB And i want to install it into my laptop
i heard that i might need a new charger + some tweaks in NVidia drivers !!!
but do I also need a bios update since my laptop bios is old A08 ?

my laptop specs are I5 540m dual core + gtx 460m + 8gb Ram + 256 SSD
PS: i have both a 150W charger brick and a 240w Charger

any help would be appreciated

 

You will probably need the 240w charger. Search here or on Alienware site to see most recent bios (A09?). Processor upgrade would be on the list - 920xm or 940xm (largely interchangeable for performance). 980m generates lots of heat, and draws quite a bit of power. You will want to use ThrottleStop to manage undervolting to get the most out of your upgraded machine. There is lots of info here and on the TS forum on configuration for the m15x, because of the huge difference that TS made (Thanks, UncleWebb). You will need a modded Nvidia driver inf file to use the 980m in this laptop. I used the 970, but that was a different driver. Keep us posted - we'll try to help.
Best,
Joe

 

You cannot undervolt on anything older than a 4th gen Intel CPU.

 

Thanks Bro, I will Try this , i Ordered the Gtx 980m and Waiting To get To me in this couple of days when it arrive i will post an update , thansk so much for your help and fast reply !!!

 

Ohh Okay , Good To know , then i can only undervolt the gtx 980m Right ?, i think the software is msi afterburner or is there another app for this ?

 

Also no. You can try the Maxwell bios tweaker but if you don’t know what you’re doing you will cripple the card

 

ok thanks for the info Raidriar !!!! Really Appreciated

 

The gtx 980m is a graphics processor (Nvidia). The i7-940xm and i7-920xm are Intel cpus (I7, 4 core, 8 thread, Clarksfield). They are very fast, and do benefit greatly from undervolting - especially in this machine. Upgrading from your i5-540 to one of these processors will make a huge difference. BTW, the 920xm and 940xm will run with 16 GB ram. The bios will not see it, but Windows 10 does.

 

Great Info !!! i Was Thinking About Upgrading My Rams To 16Gb , is there any particular sticks to go with or any ddr3 stick will work flawlessly ?

 

I have not seen reports of difficulty with particular ram sticks, so I suspect that these MB/CPU combos are not all that fussy. I would pick one of the established brands - Crucial, G-Skill,... Note that some of the memory selectors will tell you that 8GB is max for this machine, as will the Dell site. But 16 GB will work.
Sounds like you are on the right track.