Need advice on upgrading! (beating a dead horse)

Yes - I've searched, spent HOURS digging around here on this subject, I know it's beaten to death, bare with me!

I've rocked this M15x now for I think nearly five years, it's my baby! I game on it everyday, given work is done and kids cooperate. It's never let me down and ran everything thrown at it. Current games I've stuck with like BF4 run flawless and I've managed to get a consistent 80-120 framerates, without setting it to rock-bottom. I'd name other games, but it's just easier to say I've played nearly everything current and past gen (300 games between Origin and Steam...Sigh)... But lately I find I need that extra kick (primarily with games like DayZ, but I don't think a quad-gpu rig can get that game over 30FPS...lol).

So I'm looking for some real-world advice on a upgrade path. I've been the guy that had to have the glory and bragging right and best of the best; not looking for that advice, smarter now. I'm a guy with kids and a home and managed this long with uhm, this dinosaur. In short, looking for some considerate and realistic advice, so far, all I've managed to find is builds and posts advising the go-big or go-home mentality to college kids with huge loans to spill'em on.

Intel Core i7, 740QM
AMD 5870 (Overclocked 730/1030)
8GB DDR Memory
64GB OCZ SSD Primary
1TB Segate HDD Secondary (DVD Rom tossed)

Now, I know people will discourage the 69XX series, runs hot, prices considerably high. Been looking at 7970's. I imagine I could search the couch for enough change for one, but am I going to have to dish out another $300 for screws and brackets or can I utilize my existing hardware being AMD originally. In short, I'm looking for the CHEAPEST boost here, not expecting dual R9 290 performance just a nice extra 10-20 frames in games I would normally have to lower to hell to enjoy. Would prefer something plug and play as well, I'm capable of modding and installing hardware, just don't want to get into bios flashing and grinding things... Suggestion on alternatives or any further details?

Processor isn't of concern, it hasn't bottled neck'd me to any point of being an issue, I'm sure it would with a higher end card playing Battlefield 5 should/when it comes out... But I'm keeping an eye out for a cheap 920XM, unless others know of others (besides the 940XM).

Looking forward to some advice... Thanks guys.

 

The 7970 are getting cheaper now the gtx970m have arrived, so the only updates i would do in youre place get a 7970m but make sure the thermalpads are the right ones. And a SSD is a must i think.

 

Mmmm did the SSD upgrade recently, defintely very nice for loading Windows and apps installed on the Windows drive, note it mentioned in my specs... lol

Any thoughts on the 770m?

 

The 770M isn't worth it IMHO. 7970M or 680M as minimum should be your goal.

Look out for a 680M 4GB too. 2GB version is fine I have one but vram requirements are going up.

680M beats 7970M in performance noticeably when both are OCed I have owned both and can attest to that fact.

740qm will become a noticeable bottleneck in modern AAA titles and strategy games when paired with a modern GPU.

Look around carefully and you might find a 920xm for as little as $180. I am selling mine at that starting price on ebay UK. If it doesn't sell then I am sure I could give it to you for around that price.

 

I would also suggst the 7970m.. I'm selling mine which is a Dell 7970M which should work out of the box with the x-bracket, GPU and some thermal paste. You will only need pads... PM me if interested.. I'm just waiting to get rid of it..

 

Pm replied...

Thanks for the input everyone...

No tech idiot, but the 770 a newer series performs worse than it's previous 6XX counterparts? Man, have I ignored the tech field for so long!

Have seen decently priced processors, but at those prices getting one is no issue once it's an issue. Right the the gfx card poses a large purchase issue for me so it'll be the first step. Besides here and eBay, any other places to obtain these parts?

 

Hey king, you did the 7970M upgrade right? As far as you know, does all Dell vBIOS cards work with no problems unlike the M17x R2? I heard that 015.022 cards had issues in R2 and only 015.021 worked.. it seems like for the M15x there is nothing like that from what I'm reading but is this true since even Clevo cards have worked?

 

The 770M is a junk card.. It won't beat a AMD 7970M or 680M because its got less shaders and limited to 192 bit bus I believe...

 

7970M works fine. M15x is more receptive to the various versions of cards. All dell cards work no problem. Clevo cards feature some issues such as forced fan speeds etc

 

Thanks for the confirmation ...

 

What size sheet and density is required for thermals pads to install a 7970 in the M15x? Specific brands to avoid lookout for?

 

You can purchase a heat sink from dell and they will send it assembled with pads. I think around 20 bucks but you should be able to reuse your old pads and heat sink. I have a 8970m 4gig that ill sell you for 275. It is a great card for the m15x and it ran everything at great frames and high settings. The processor can wait for a bit so its not as big of a hit. Everything else in your system is great. Let me know if you are interested in that 8970m.

 

Interested for sure. Just pending some funds at the moment.

Anyone else able to throw out any documentation on the thermal pads?

 

1mm phoya pads for the mem.

 

I personally went this upgrade route.

i7-720qm processor ---> i7-920xm.

mechanical harddisk ----> SSD

radeon 5850m ----> radeon 7970m (great performance ; price ratio). Make sure you buy a dell card. I will probably look at a GTX970m in a couple/few years

If you are going from a radeon 5850m to a radeon 7970m, you can use the existing heatsink you already have. But, its very important that you buy a 7970m with the proper X-bracket.
The 5850m X-bracket does not fit it. You will also need to buy thermal compound and the heatpads for the GPU RAM.

You will need to file the screw holes of the new X-bracket down. This is because the screw holes of this X-bracket are longer than that of the X-bracket from the 5850m.
If you do not file it down, there will be insufficient heatsink pressure on the 7970m (which will cause high temps and thermal shutdowns).

Furthermore, for my m15x, i needed to undervolt and run at lower than stock clocks in order to keep temps below 70 degrees when gaming. Bear in mind that i do not use any form of additional cooling for my machine.

Less than 80 degrees celcius is actually alright i think. But, i prefer to go below 70 degrees when the GPU is at load.

 

+ Rep

Thank you very much, that is the sort of informative knowledge I was looking for. I couldn't find ant technical tips specific to the install other than "put it in and use good compound", which is kinda common knowledge... lol

I keep my system 99.9% of the time on the cooling pad with the bottom cover removed for the best air flow. Providing my temps keep below 85C peak I'm happy. Anything more I get a bit uncomfortable.

How much would you say you shaved off the xbracket?

 

Compare the old X-bracket with the new X-bracket and file the screw holes to the same height.
Its quite a lot that you have to shave off. More than half the length.

 

You don't have to shave anything off if you just remove the plastic or metal washers that hold the screws to the heat sink and screw down into the posts on the gpu. Doing that will make it so that you get proper contact. Works for all cards.

 

Hey, I know that this is slightly out of the frames of your question but, have you considered simply replacing your m15x via the new (as of Feb 13) Eurocom Alienware trade-in program for m15x owners? http://www.eurocom.com/ec/release(286)ec
Its something like 25% discount in exchange for your unite, which makes even more sense when you consider that they openly and fully support upgrades (theres a section for that in their website: http://www.eurocom.com/ec/vgas(1)ec)
The reason that I am saying this is that from what I understand there is only so much you can do with the m15x, ask yourself this: how much would it cost you to get the best GPU for that laptop, and then how will this gpu's performance stack up against the 980m's performance? (and what about a 980m sli against that?) does upgrading a m15x still makes sense? (+if you end up getting the Panther 5, which runs Desktop cpus as well as featuring SLI .. that 25% discount could amount to over 1,200$ )
Just be gentle with the pitchforks >_<

 

Different strokes for different folks, I suppose!

I don't believe in needing the most newest and cutting edge equipment. It's frankly a massively poor allocation of funds, especially when you don't have bucket loads to throw away on splurge purchases for recreational enjoyment only - and support a family to boot. Way I've done things for maybe eight to nine years now; I buy one laptop as highly configured as I can (usually $2K being my budget), and enjoy it for a term of four to five years, than once it get's to the point it's wore out, showing age or unusable for my tasks I'll splurge for a new system.

When I got my M15x there really wasn't to much more on the mobile market higher than the 5850/5870 at the time; same story with my previous system. The main reason I opted for an Alienware over some nonsense HP or some other system was so I can upgrade it and drag the term out a bit. Plus I've had WICKED warranty and support with Dell, flat out (for the record yes I know other brands can upgrade besides Alienware). Here we are nearly four, maybe five years later and it still runs everything thrown at it with the obvious conditions.

As it stands, I got my 7970M for literally free as a settlement for a balanced owed to me that I wrote off long ago. So all that remains is a CPU and PSU, roughly $300 and it will be "fully" upgraded. My outlook is, I got by so well with the previous card, and now with a card that is literally 2x to 3x the performance, new CPU on the way and PSU, I should be setup for another term I'm expecting. But I realize your point, if one was to dump, $1000 on a video card, $200 on a CPU and $100 on the PSU, that's $1300 you can throw to a new system.

In short, I can gain performance piece by piece at my own pace as funds allow, versus "suffering" and trying to save for an extended period of time to afford a whole new system.

But.. Those new external desktop GPU platforms for the new series are ever so tantalizing. All in all I'm still much in love with my M15x which is still in the same shape as the day I bought it... Minus the custom automotive paint job I gave it to match my car.

 

The new series with eGPU is NOT tantalizing at all. Really limited performance at PCI x4 and the cpu is soldered meaning no upgrade path at all. Gimped crap. The M15x you own is the only true 15 inch gaming laptop Dell has ever made. Plus the eGPU is huge. No you make the correct decision to keep your trusty M15x

 

i just went the 920xm, 770m route.

im very happy, snagged the 920xm for 100 shipped and the 770m for 250 shipped.

overall its damn good once both are OC

pulled a 6000 in 3dmark11 (yes i know its low but its pretty good for this card)

 

hmm i find it interesting that eurocom are wanting m15x's. Shows that they must still be in high demand especially if they are upgraded to the max.

I have a m15x that originally had a i7 720qm in it. I use this machine mainly in my office and to sneakily play hearthstone from time to time. The graphics card in it is a 5850m.

However over the last 3 months I noticed that my machine would become incredibly slow when watching 1080p youtube videos and it would generate a large amount of heat. It was even heating my office room at one point. I was looking to spend about £1200 on a brand new laptop with a 970m in it. Then i thought why waste money.

I purchased a 120gb ssd that I still need to install at some point. Also got a 920xm which installed flawlessly. My 5850m is also on the way out as it there are now red artifacts on the screen. I was going to buy a 970m but then I thought I do not game at the office apart from hearthstone (a lightweight blizzard card game) so I just bought a replacement 5850m.

It is amazing how long lasting this m15x is and I am now glad i didn't spend over a grand to replace and bin it.

Ow I also bought a 240w psu and a right angled converter is on the way. I think I will overclock the 920xm as the temps at stock and at load seem fine. I will create a thread soon asking for advice no doubt. I am guessing I might have to flash a custom A09 bios maybe? Or maybe it can all be done via throttle stop?

 

Actually guys, if i do get an upgrade itch in the next month or so and wanted to whack in a 970m in my m15x. What would I have to buy from the following page:

http://www.eurocom.com/ec/vgas(1)ec

They do sell some X brackets but there are a couple of different 970m upgrade options. Which ones would be suitable for a m15x.

Thanks

 

Well then - SCREW that! I have only seen pictures and read a few spec sheets on the new systems. I assumed they were the same old Dell-way of doing things and everything major was modular making replacements or "upgrades" feasible. For example my first Dell laptop was an Inspiron 1520, it offered some-what of an upgrade path... Hear me out; you could buy it with a lower end discreet graphics and processor configuration and toss in the bigger 8600GT GPU and Extreme Core 2 Duo CPU when you had the cash - this was on a Inspiron! Now the new Alienwares are gimped up?... Very disappointing to hear that they crippled the new systems longevity; I know they are in it to sell machines not upgrades but if the new external GPU is only PCI X4 than they REALLY, ultimately screwed the entire package up.

Well if it's true that the new systems are so well put, gimped up crap, I can see why the M15x demand is so popular. Like I mentioned earlier, my originally configured system STILL is incredibly capable for it's age. With them having the sources for hardware I would not be surprised if they are buying them, upgrading them and having a 3rd party or sub-company selling them under an alternative name. I'm sure there are a lot of people with more money than experience that just rather buy a new system with a discount. Than go our route.

You shouldn't require a custom Bios to overclock that 920xm/940xm, in fact if your running the newest Bios version from Dell, when you boot into your Bios, you should be able to find a screen allowing you to overclock and change parameters of your processor. Alternatively, I know a lot of people love to use ThrottlesStop.

When it comes to GPU's you'd have to see what others have done for a specific GPU on these systems. Seems to be a bit of a different processor for every GPU. For example a 7970M drops right in, no issues aside from either using smaller screws for the heat sink or filing down the x-bracket. Now the AMD 6XXX cards I was looking at require you to pinch the M15x heatsink in a spot as a capacitor can prevent flush seating. Lots of minor little details that can hinder a process if you just jump in. The Nvidia's seem to require a bit more work, drivers and vBios wise. I know as long as you stick with an Alienware/Dell sub-vendor cards you save yourself a lot of headache. Everything is fully functional this way.

As far as what 970M to get, they are all the same, just the difference being in the equipment they include for a specific application. You would only need the card, x-bracket and the thermal pads to get it into your M15x. The specific packages cater to some systems needing longer or shorter screws to make the system heatsink fit the different video card and x-bracket. Definitely check out what others needed to get a 9XX card into these systems.

I recall reading that the new Nvidia 9xx cards are very much plug and play - just very expensive.

 

But also overclock blocked. Things are not looking good for enthusiast laptop owners....

 

I don't get it... LOL

Sigh!

Is it like that for all the models or just the smaller and 15" models?

Makes me want to buy a second M15x and hide it away for parts... Can see huge price jumps in the future.

 

all 9xx series cards are OC blocked unless you use the original release drivers. think its 344.75

dont quote me on this though hahaha

 

This is the case.. As a matter of fact any driver before the 347xx series like 344.91/346.87 still allow OC.. NVIDIA have backtracked on the OC block and next driver set will allow OC again..

 

so they say... ill beleive it when i see it