Should I get back into a M15x?

As the title suggests I sold my M15x a few years ago and was thinking of getting back into one. I've found one that has a blown fx controller and needs a new battery and charger for £100. this doesn't bother me as I would like to upgrade the CPU from 720m to a 920xm and GPU 260m to a 970m anyway so will need a bigger power supply and would change the motherboard at the same time.... or would I be better off getting a newer model 15 that still has the upgradable GPU? as the price probable isn't far off once I have spend the money or are none of the newer ones upgradable?

Thanks

 

Which newer model AW 15 are you referring to that you can upgrade the GPU? Only the 2011 version has upgradeable GPU. The 2015 version has a soldered GPU...

 

Thats why I was asking I wasn't sure if there was one that could be upgraded. I guess not then haha. It does have the graphics accelerator though. Is the CPU soldered too?

 

I suggest a new one if you can afford it.
The external graphics card solves any real upgrade desires with the GPU.
As far as the CPU, yes soldered, just buy the best one you can get in it. Chances are the rest of your laptop will become obsolete before the CPU can't handle what it needs to.
Also look at other options, I do believe MSI also has an external GPU option for their laptops with better hardware but equally or more bulky than the Alienware version.
Buying and fixing up an M15x is for when you have less money and more time, or a passion for it. Its an aging machine and a gamble.
Its like buying a 20 year old used car, sure it could run great, you could spend a little of the money you saved on it to make sure the obvious things are running well. But you know in the back of your mind, one day the transmission is going to go, and you'll find that while you might have saved some money while you had that car, you also lost all that time you could have been driving a nicer more dependable vehicle that wont cause as much hassle and will do everything you want it to.

 

Haha nice diplomatic way to say be passionate or don't bother. I have to agree with this. If you have the passion and enjoy creating something then give it a go. If not don't bother.

Yes the motherboard might die but then again a replacement motherboard can be found for 100 dollars on ebay Still though as far as reliability goes this laptop was built to last. It was of the first generation Alienwares that Dell built after they took over the brand. Since the first gen Dellienwares costs have steadily been cut and reliability and longevity disappears with it. I can promise that this laptop will outlast most 15 inch laptops that feature ivy bridge chips.

Also it is hardy. I have taken apart this machine and abused it stupidly and still it lives on. I voltmodded the cpu using thin metal wire in the cpu socket and achieved 4.5ghz and the voltage circuits didn't crap out despite being waaay over their limits. No I wouldn't say it's a gamble but you do NEED passion to justify getting one and putting it to rights.

I will be re-visiting this passion of mine soon I hope and will be updating it completely one final time

 

Heck, I just bought 2 of these things because they are just so freakin cool. I already replaced the CPUs with 920XM. That made a HUGE difference. I have an SSD in one. Both have working DVD drives. I have done the mini PCIe to USB mod to get the mouse dongle on the inside. I gave up the ancient Bluetooth for that, but I have AC wireless cards coming with Bluetooth on them. And... I just ordered a 970M.

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Totally agree. After 5 and a half year my motherboard crapped out on me. Bought a brand new one from China for £86 incl. insane 4 day shipping. Very happy to recommend picking up an old one and fixing it up. Its a very fun machine to take to bits and it now works flawlessly again. Win10 boot time is insane.

While I was troubleshooting I took this pic, this is what the machine looks like with no CPU, GPU or anything really attached other than fans, keyboard.


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Right I've decided and gone ahead and bought a reconditioned alienware 13 with 1080p and i7 5500u and a 860m. I worked it out in my head and buying the 15x and the 920xm and a decent graphics card, more RAM, new battery and power adaptor would put me about the same cost if not more. Plus I use my laptop for work so made sense to have something a bit newer with warranty. My old m15x was pretty heavy to be lugging around everyday and when I do travel for work and the screen on my current venue 11pro is a bit too small for using as a laptop but fine in the dock. I might still keep my eyes peeled for 15x that I can repair and play around with as I did enjoy my m15x and then I can let my eldest use it for her games so shes not using mine and I still have something I can tinker with and it doesn't matter if its out of action of a few days.

Thank you all for your advice and king of interns I look forward to your future posts when you revisit yours,

Cheers,

Sam

 

Ooh I like the sounds of that mod a lot!

And I agree with the above. Part of the reason I decided to upgrade my M15x over buy a new laptop was obviously cost, but the true reason is that I wanted to learn more about computers and how they actually work. This forum inspired me that all these upgrades could be done and was (and still is) a great way to connect with a lot of like minded (and far more knowledgeable) people. It's definitely not the most time efficient way to proceed, but the challenge has been a lot of fun (but isn't for everyone).

 

This is the mini PCIe to USB 2.0 card I bought. There are others available. I just picked this one based on location and seller rating.
When you are snapping off the "legs" to make it fit your slot be sure to put a pocket knife over the line where you want to it to snap. Otherwise it will break at a mounting hole. If I had thought about it for 2 seconds I would have realized this.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261329863023

I just put this in the slot where the Bluetooth normally goes and it works perfectly with the exception that it doesn't work as a bootable drive if you were to use it for USB storage.

Part of the reason I went with the 7260 AC wireless card is it comes with AC wireless (obviously) and Bluetooth 4.0. So losing the ancient Bluetooth 2.0(?) isn't a big deal.

 

How did you get 7260 card to work as M15x has 3 antenna wires and that card only has 2 sockets?

 

The M15x service manual describes which wire to connect to main and aux connections.

Then I just installed the driver and it works. I don't have an AC router yet. I am getting a 300mb connection to my N router.

BTW, my P170SM-A has 3 antenna wires and the 7260 AC wireless card and it works the same way.

I bought three of these cards so I can update my other M15x and the M18x R2.

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Checked the manual and you are totally right. I may have to upgrade to one of these myself as they are pretty cheap! Thanks for the info.

 

Wow. That's really good to know, especially with the issues with the 370 bluetooth mini card not working in W10.

Am buying one right now and will check the manual tonight.

 

I haven't tested Bluetooth with this card yet. I haven't even checked to see if it exists in devices manager. Tonight when I get home I will check it out.

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Cheers, much appreciated.

 

@MadK17 and @fatboyslimerr I am going to take this discussion over to the "Upgrading a Vanilla M15x" thread. The OPer has gotten his answer and made his decision.

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