Upgrade query (yeah, another one, I'm sorry!)

Hi all,

Been a while since I last posted on here. To those of you who remember me I just wanted to let you know my life has changed dramatically. Got out of the miserable situation in London and I'm now living in Zambia (yeah, I still can't understand it myself..), and life is much, much better.

On to business then!

I've been looking on the net and it looks like the M15x is now available with several options that weren't open when I purchased mine (Feb 2010).

Specifically - The GPU upgrade. I got the 260M and it now looks like they're offering a better NVIDIA option and also an ATI card. Which is preferable for performance and is it possible to upgrade to either of these cards from the 260M?

Furthermore it would seem the CPU options have widened aswell. When I ordered the M15x it was a choice of the 720QM, 820QM and 920XM. Now I'm seeing a 940XM? Same question as above; is it possible to upgrade from one of the *20M series to a *40M model?

Would either of these jobs be particularly difficult (if they're even possible) and would I have to change anything else in the computer? Such as the MB? Also, would my notebook be able to handle the increased power consumption and heat generated by the upgrades? I know the chassis of the notebook hasn't changed so I'm guessing this is a stupid question but I just want to cover every angle with the help of you knowledgable folk!

If either operation DOES require a MB change, would it be possible? I'm guessing it would as, like I mentioned before, the physical size of the chassis hasn't changed so if they can fit a different MB in the newer model it should be possible for the older one.

Pretty sure that's all the information I'm after. Apologies for the essay and many thanks in advance for any help and advice you can give me.

And it's a real pleasure to be back, after such a long absence!

 

Hello welcome back. Both these options don't require a change of motherboard. Our M15x's can handle: 240m gt, 260m gt, 280m gt, 285m gt, ati 5730, ati 5850 and ati 5870. CPUs include 720qm, 740qm, 820qm, 840qm, 920xm, 940xm, and many more (I've just listed the quad cores). the M15x is really customisable you don't have to worry about motherboard changes.
Word of advice: if you want to get an extreme i7, go with the 920xm, it is easily overclockable to over 940xm levels.

 

Thats fantastic! Thanks for your help.

 

It also works with 460m GTX.
Dunno why widezu forgot it, since he has one himself

 

Ha oops!

 

Worth noting though that the Dell GTX 460M is underclocked, that's worth mentioning too =P

 

Would also be worth mentioning if its easy to flash its bios with normal clocks or not. Was curious when I saw this.

 

Underclocked?? Why????

So if I buy one from somebody other than Dell will it be running at full performance?

Whats the general procedure for changing GPU's and CPU's after physically swapping them out? I know the GPU will need new drivers but the CPU is just plug n play right?

I'm looking at a i7 920/940XM and a 460m GTX. Although it's gonna be pretty bloody tough to find 'em in Zambia... They're about a decade behind in computer and internet technology here. I'm actually having my games posted to me from the UK because max download speed is ~20kb/s (I never liked Steam anyway.......). It takes about a month for delivery via DHL but it's still faster than downloading.

 

CPU is plug and play, the GPU needs drivers. Make sure to uninstall the old drivers before exchanging the GPU.

Afaik there can be some problems with audio through display port when using non-Dell cards, not sure whether this applies to the 5850.

 

So is the stock 460M a 1GB card or 1.5GB? And what do Dell put it out as?

 

Well the card has a 1.5GB memory. The Dell version is underclocked by about 12% when on full power but it has higher overclocking headroom because the build quality is perhaps higher. I have a clevo card and the default clocks are higher than the Dell ones. Don't worry about default clocks though you can always overclock beyond that. The 460m is a really tough card.