Orginal M15x looking to Upgrade =o)

I have an orginal M15x
i believe one of the first editions made, it has a display port LoL

i7 Q720 1.6GHz
4GB Ram
260M GFX


im looking to see how hard it would be to upgrade to a better video card?
i have more RAM ordered... now i would like a better GFX card and maybe a better CPU if it is possible to swap those....

these forums were a big help in building my M15x 6 years ago i hope i can get the same help now.

 

920XM/940XM for cpu
GTX 970M for GPU
2 x 8GB DDR3-1333 for RAM

 

how affordable are the GFX or CPUs?

and im assuming its not just a drop in and go switch like RAM?

 

It actually is drop and go, just make sure you get new thermal paste. 920XM should be around 100-130 USD. GPU should be around 400-450 USD for a 970M

 

The 920xm is pretty much the default CPU upgrade for the aging M15X. For video cards, you can always go for a good mid-range card like the Firepro m6000 if you can't afford the 970m, or if you are in the $250 price range, the 680m GTX is a great choice.

edit: If you get a 920xm and plan on overclocking, you're going to want to upgrade your power supply to a 210W or 240W Dell model.

 

Update to A09 BIOS before you drop in anything.

Sent from my overpriced Galaxy S6 Edge +

 

I remember when those were released lol
Ive personally updated every bios from launch...

I still have the hard cover owners manual and the original box my M15X came in lol

 

I bet if I look hard enough I could find all the Disks that I made to install all the different bios updates lol

 

You should install the unlocked A09 BIOS.

 

I tried the unlocked A09 myself but I didn't really find it useful. It had a lot of unlocked features which didn't seem to do anything. If anyone is interested in trying it, it is available with instructions in the link below.

https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-Alienware-M15x?page=3

 

I'm glad I found this forum/thread. I also have the original m15x and was thinking of upgrading.

Will these upgrades bring this beast back to modern times? I used to play games on it and stopped. I'm getting back to it a bit and wondered if a new machine would fit best or if an upgrade was an option. I would also use it for photo editing.

 

M15x is quite old, but with the upgrades mentioned in this thread, you will certainly breathe new life into the machine, especially with a SSD, more ram, new CPU, and new GPU. Be mindful though...it is a 6.5 year old processor, which qualifies as relic by computer time tables.

 

i read somewhere on here that overclocked it still kept up with haswell in performance.

 

double post

 

Maybe Haswell i5 and i3 but definitely not haswell i7, not even sandy bridge upper i7s. 2920XM craps all over the 920XM

 

ordered my 920xm and 16GB of RAM today

Picked up a 5870 thanks to Maxslo should be a good hold over untill the 970's come down in price

 

Pretty much the only way you will find a reduced price 970M is to go used. After Pascal mobile drops the used price should improve. Good idea getting an interim card.

Sent from my overpriced Galaxy S6 Edge +

 

My new interim card is a .... 260M!! Behold the power!!! Thanks also to Maxslo

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

 

ShaZadam. Lets wait together for the next gen! I reckon AMD might just being something interesting to market! Something like a 970M replacement as powerful as a desktop 970!

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

 

I'm waiting for Polaris aswell hope AMD comes to play this time...

 

its funny, how with a 920 and 16GB and a 970 these PC's can hold there own in todays market sure they are not the best... but its cool to know they can compete all while being 16years old lol

 

More like 6 years old?

But yes, very cool!

Sent from my overpriced Galaxy S6 Edge +

 

Ha ha ha long morning at work yes 6 years lol

 

Well 7 years come autumn. Capitalist greed knows no limits.

This is why benchmarks exist to justify the "performance" of a new system however also it is the disgusting reason why companies like Nvidia actually release drivers that cripple their older generation cards despite the older tech having great performance.

Sickening really.

 

How do you cool your 980m in da M15x? Is it good to go on stock or does it even overheat on stock under full load?

Edit: Nevermind, found it! http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/980m-in-a-m15x-feedback.792246/

 

You won't find great news. The 980M is not a good fit for the M15x. RX 480 mobile is where it is at when it gets released