Alienware M9750, Hardware, Drivers and Upgrades

Ok so I've had my M9750 for awhile now and have fixed just about every problem you can imagine on it. For many there are some very confusing aspects about this machine that took me awhile to figure out. I have put all the guides/driver locations on this thread so that you wont have to go hunting around for them.

However I still have some interesting questions to put forward so if anyone can help please do, I will be very very thankful.


1st off I know the 8800s are not officially supported by alienware however from a hardware point of view I can find little to suggest it cant be done. What would the results be if I happened to just get an 8800 (or 2) and use them in my M9750??

I also know that the best CPU you can buy for the M9750 is the T7600 2.33GHZ, however the T7600G is also on the same platform and has multipliers unlocked. Would this work in an M9750?


1) Graphic Drivers - All you need is listed here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=203797

And an SLi guide can be found here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=202449

2) Hardware -

No the 8800GTX is not going to be an option provided by Alienware, the 8700 is as far as they will go.

The 8700's DO run much much better on XP even after the MASSIVE improvements provided by newer drivers and SP1 for Vista.

Apparently The ATI 3870s are compatible and much more powerful, watch this space or check out ichime's thread here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=319975&highlight=m9750

Oh and this is a bit of an old one but thought it might be worth mentioning, the M9750 can only adress 4GB of memory! If you are running an Sli set up thats already 1Gb, OS take 512 MB, which only leaves you with 2.5Gb to use as RAM. In short If you have 4Gb of RAM only 2.5Gb will be used.

3) Temperatures -

Its no secret that the M9750 runs hot, however there are a few tricks that you can use to drastically change these temps to be much cooler. Applying Arctic Silver 5 is a good one, and so is the use of a Zalman NC-2000 notebook cooler.

However the best results I managed (and for FREE!!!) was Undervolting, and it does not compromise performance at all. A guide to undervolting can be found here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

I will add more to this soon, and any questions are more than welcome (especially if anyone can answer mine at the top )

 

I've been told 8800's wont work because the hardware is physically incompatible so unless nVidia have recently released an 8800 which is compatible then that wont have changed!

 

Really? I was under the impression that they used the same format as the 8700?

I did however just read this:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=355470&page=2

Dont know how true it is but would be great if they did work!

 

Ya know,

you can run the ATI 3870's in the m9750.

ichime has done this and as soon as I get 4870's for my M17, the m9750 will egt the dual 3870's as a "hand me down".

And as soon as the 4870's are available for upgrade, there will be a glut of 3870's for sale.

 

I'm not sure on this but dont Alienware usually want the old cards back when you upgrade?

 

Hmmmm can anyone confirm that they themselves actually have them running? And does SLi work? Moreover how much better are they than then 8700s?

I was fed up with the 8700's in Vista so went back to XP and now running crysis at a very impressive 30-50 fps on a mix between high and med settings (shadows on low).

And does anyone know about the T7600G?

Thanks fot the help

 

You've only got to search the forum, here's the link about 3870's in an m9750:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=319975&highlight=m9750

And no. Alienware doesn't take the old cards back, you already paid for them.

 

Thanks just wanted to know for sure before i shell out on a pair of 3870s, what sort of performance could you expect out of a pair of these in x-fire? 3DMarks?

And do you know if the T7600G CPU will work its basically a T7600 with the multipliers unlocked as far as I can tell.

 

two HD3870 in the m9750 should get 11-12k in 3dmark06, maybe more.

EDIT: upon further reflection, 10-11k seems more reasonable.

 

Thanks guys! This is GREAT news!!! I will definately be getting a pair of those then! Though will the M17 drivers for them work?

With those GPU cards in the M9750 will still hold its own!

Shame about the CPU limit though, but the T7600G is a possibility aparently, the overclocking capabilities are most welcome!

 

Hi can anyone post their CPU overclocking results? Ive managed to get my 2.00GHZ to 2.16GHZ and was wondering if I could push it to 2.2.....

I did get a few crashes when I pushed to 2.2 but that could be because of my undervolting values (1.100V on highest multiplier, which runs stable at 2.00GHZ).

My only concern is that when running ORTHOS i get temps around 85-87 after 10 odd mins. I think it might be time for some Arctic Silver.....

Also has anyone EFFECTIVELY overclocked they're GPU's?

 

orthos pushes the CPU to the max those are very high temps

 

Yeah I figured as much......really think i need to add some thermal paste. I recently cleaned out my fans so its not like I have a build up of dust either. Dya think Artic Silver 5 will fix it or a send off back to Alienware?

 

I also have this issue with my TV tuner, my setup was originally with vista. Im now running XP (non media centre edition), can anyone suggest a good program to use my tv tuner with?