is the cpu, gpu of the new M17x upgradeable in the future?

is the cpu, gpu of the new M17x upgradeable in the future?

If there is a new cpu or new gpu being released from the factory

ie. can some kind souls please confirm that I can purchase the new cpu or gpu from dell and upgrade my m17x?

will dell upgrade the parts for me ?

 

If the developers stick with the current MXM 3 standard, yes.
It's not compatible with the upcoming new centrino platform though.

 

It's unlikely Sparky.

Though it's certainly possible, don't make any plans to upgrade beyond QX9300 or the current GPU's.

 

You can upgrade to any Monty mobile CPU but you won't be able to upgrade to the next generation mobile i5/Calpella CPU.

 

you will be able to upgrade the GPU to the newer ones

as long as they use MXM3.0 which should be the NewGPU's for about 1-4 years

 

NEVER EVER EVER back on AW releasing a GPU upgrade for anything, read previous forum posts about the promised M17 upgrades which have failed to appear.

the CPU will upgrade but dont back on any GPU upgrades

 

the m17 was a fluke

it used mxm 2.1 which was a dieing mxm, i made the mistake and purchased a good laptop but i did not check the GPU or cooling system.

i understand you are mad but AW does not have to back anythign you can install any GPU you want

 

There is no accepted standard connection type for mobile video cards like there is for desktops. Some people wish with all their might that MXM would be like PCI-E but it's not....it's not even like AGP. It can't ever be a standard until everyone uses it.

In the mobile market you don't have 3rd party manufacturers like Sapphire, XFX, Sparkle, or whoever building video cards using MXM connectors that can be used in every notebook built with a video card. It's the notebook manufacturer that decides how to build the GPU for their notebook and using MXM connectors is usually the exception not the rule.

Just because an MXM connection is used does not mean you'll have a readily available MXM card available to upgrade to when the next-gen GPUs come out.

 

lol well you can't have a intergrated gtx 295


the point is its the standard for high end laptops and clevos and most asus and msi laptops

 

One thing people even if a new gpu comes out your computer might not support it.

Here what happen with mine there was 3 gpu for my laptop. a Geforce 8600, 8700 8800gtx or 9800gt. When I order the laptop with 8600 I ask if the Motherboard can support 8800gtx. you get oh ya it should be no problem becuse you have keyboard lighting. That change over time. I know this from experance

Please DO NOT TRUST ALIENWARE ABOUT GPU UPGRADES.

What they do not tell you is you might have to upgrade a Motherboard.

Now cpu that I not sure.

 

this motherboard can support any GPU

as long as its MXM compatible

also CPU support for any montevina CPU

 

i think you missing the point on this one moo

i bet Aw said the same for the m17 when that came along...now we are stuffed unless they do decide to pull thier fingers out

cpu upgrade will def come along until mobile i7, GPU upgrades i wouldnt bank on it, they will use some excuse to buy the m17x replacement, like cooling issues, bios issues, space issues or your motherboard needs changing with the gpus

all excuses AW have used before and will use again to promote selling thier latest and greatest

 

you ARE missing the point you dont have to buy GPU's from AW dang ......

i dont care what they say ....

the m17 was design incorrectly because their is no SLI, other wise we could have 9800m gt or other stuff

so please quit bashing AW they did screw up by saying they were going to release one but its better they didnt because the m17 could not cool them.


What AW did was smart not dumb.



anddddddddd

any MXM 3.0 GPU out right now has been confirmed to work

 

Moo you are missing the Point. I have the frist generation of M17x. I only had the money for the 8600gt. The one main question before Buying this laptop. Will it support the 8800gtx. Oh yes sir it will support it. I ask do I have to buy a new motherboard. No sir.

Here what Happen. I order Two the 9800gt. The tech told me Oh yes it will support the gpu becuse you have keyboard lighting. I get the grapics cards. They had me look up the Motherboard serial Number. This is after I order the GPUs. It went from oh ya it will support it to you have to pay $$$$ to upgrade the Motherboard.

Yes wishful thinking but beware.

 

that is unfortunate but i cannot think of any reason why they would not i would ask kevin.


the point is technology has progressed we have 15 inch laptops that only supported 260's useing 280's

m15x useing 280's

the list goes on ... most laptops now will support them ... high end gaming machine are slowly becoming similar to desktops but they have a little ways to go.

 

the OP asked if his computer would support it , i answered

i dont care about what AW said .... the laptop will support them ......we are not debating AW track record merely a laptop

 

Don't bank on being able to upgrade past what's initially offered for an Alienware system. This *might* change under Dell, but don't count on it. Technically speaking, Moo is right in that you can physically install a new card in the future, HOWEVER, trying to get said card is difficult at best. (I would have installed 3870s in my system by now). Also there's a question of not knowing if your laptop has the voltage and cooling capabilities to support it. If you try to put in an unsupported MXM card in your computer and end up frying your system, don't look toward Dell or anyone else to fix it.

 

I been hearing stuff about newer geforce cards. See the thing is If they release a new gpu let say after you get the M17x. But the gpu need 10watts more power. There where you would have to upgrade the motherboard. It dont matter if the motherboard supports the MXM 3.0. If the Motherboard has the power to support the GPU.

See my laptop is MXM 2.0. But the geforce 9800 Needed extra power which was also MXM 2.0 The only way I could run geforce 9800 was to upgrade the Motherboard.

No bios upgrade or tweak of the laptop would run the 9800gt.

I know this from Dealing with alienware.

 

its not guaranteed but it sufficient to say the cooling system is good and the motherboard can fit new GPU's and that the power requirements should only go down with time


and you can find 3870's alot of places

 

Sure you can.. you just can't get them from Alienware. Find me a link right now and I'll buy them....

It's not like the process easy and I would want NEW cards.. not someone else's hand downs. I mean really, the m17 can't be upgraded to anything but 3870s. What would the reason be for someone to be selling them for? To replace them with the same 3870s?

Just because the laptop says it supports MXM doesn't mean you can just drop whatever card you want in your system. The truth of the matter is NO, it's not supported by Alienware. It's difficult at best to find cards even if you wanted to. There's voltage/cooling factors to deal with. End of story.

 

http://web.eurocom.com/ec/ecu_pricelist(1,0)

eurocom

little pricy but still

read the Clevo guide to find a list of resellers, with that list choose which one you want to try to deal with and they could send you a pair from a new system .... but good luck... not many just ship out cards RJtech i have heard does sometimes...

 

Grey728 I know that for a fact. The geforce 8600 and 8700 where lower power then the geforce 8800gtx and 9800gt. That what mess me up. Not sure about the ATI but it could have the same issue. There is a MXM website that you can buy mxm gpus. But no heatsink fans.

 

Yeah. I've seen that list before. Honestly, I don't believe they sell them even if it is listed, but I'll inquire about it.

 

trust me eurocomm is real

 

AtolSammeek, you're situation it terrible. It makes me hesitant to purchase a baseline m17x in the hope of upgrading in the future. I would hate to go through that as well.

 

the m17x will be proven as an upgradeable laptop i assure you.....

even getting 2x 280's will last you 2-3 years on gaming....... the 9600m gt and 8400m gt and 7950m gtx can still game @ decent resolutions

 

The new M17x uses MXM 3.0 type B GPU slots, they have a max wattage of 75W, all the new GPU's that will be coming are getting smaller and smaller, current ones are 55nm next ones are 40nm, and because they are getting smaller, Nvidia and ATI can fit more stream processors on the chip increasing performance while producing around the same heat and using the same 75W as a chip that has only two thirds or maybe even half the stream processors at 55nm.

So technically, seeing as MXM 3.0 b is the new standard there is a lot of head room for potential upgrades, the big question for the next few years will be BIOS support.

 

with the amount of work put into the laptop i think this laptop will be recieveing upgrades to the laptop so they do not have to redesign a new laptop

 

It was just annoying. But I got lucky. I found a sleep mode issue and ask to have the motherboard upgraded if that what was causing the sleep mode issue.

Basicly what would happen is when I went into sleep mode manual or shut the lid it did so fine. When I exited out the computer would run for 1 or 2 mins 20% of the time the computer shut off.


The one thing about CPU and GPU that get smaller They like to add more stuff so the size basicly stays the same. But they still use less heat.

 

I wish I had your optimism but history tells me otherwise. The tech specs look great on paper.. no question.. but we'll see in a year or two from now just how 'upgradable' this new system is. We'll then renew this debate again with the next model.

 

I think there a few Models that are between techs Manufactures like to use up the old stock of supplys. What i wish companys like Alienware or Dell is go we want the high end stuff now. Or give a option to stay with a Low end Motherboard with a discount.

Other things we have to look at Look at how much change in a few years.

 

One more thing.. the ONLY laptops to ever have a legitamate upgrade path have been Clevo's. If a highly anticipated/expected upgrade was in the works but fell through due to some unforseen reason, they at least attempt to right it. The 8800 debacle of yesteryear comes to mind here. They at least offered to upgrade the motherboards to support the new cards. No such luck with Alienware who would rather you buy a new system than upgrade.

 

History is just that, history, times are changing and so is computer technology as well as upgrade ability in laptops.

 

Well alienware offered to upgrade the motherboard but for a price. But when I order the laptop I ask to support the newer grapics card. But went on deaf ears.

 

Mmm yeah people had to pay for those new Clevo mobos they were not given for free.

 

One day I hope they make Laptops like they do desktops. you buy the parts from everything to Motherboad to case and build your own laptop.

 

It is already starting, with these GPU upgrades, it never used to be like that, but now we're making some progress and eventually it will be exactly like desktops, we will figure out what we want to use it for, pick out an appropriate sized chassis to suit the need, find the right motherboard and power brick, and then start buying the core items CPU, RAM, GPU's, its closer than we realize.

 

Haha GPU upgrades been around 6 years ago. I have a Sugar Clevo Pro star 8794. I was able to upgrade the Hard drives Ram cpu and gpu. To bad it was 6 year old laptop haha.

 

the problem we face is two fold

1) AW have a very very bad rep when it comes to GPU upgrades, be it the m17 saga or older

2) if you can source upgrades from other sources they are stupidly expensive

Now AW sold and took cash from me for upgrades that are not now being released, finding compatible stock from alternate sources is all but impossible.

my problem is that AW will lead you on and on and on with possible new upgrades then BAM then they release a new laptop which is all of a sudden compatible with everything

for instance, moo is going to spend $1500 on a new laptop when he would have spend $500 on possible upgrade

thats $1000 aw is up times that by 000's of customers and $$$ you can see where thier loyalty lies

 

I meant with mainstream companies like Dell and Alienware, they are embracing the upgrades more than they should be for a commercial company, Clevo has always been a special company way ahead of everyone else, now companies like Dell/AW are not afraid to compete against that.

If it wasn't for the Complete Care, transferable warranty and upgrade potential of the all powerful M17x, I would have ended up with the Clevo M980NU.

 

The point was that it was offered, not that it was free. I would gladly pay for a motherboard upgrade if it means extending the life of my laptop so long as it makes sense to do so.

I paid $3500 for my system with the same promise of an upgrade path only to be burned a few SHORT months later. The same can be said for customers who purchased m9700, m9750, m17x, and m17. Now the new M17x is available. That's a lot of 17" laptops to go through and my m9750 is only 1.5 years old, two years old if you start from initial release of the system. Now we're on the 3rd 17" laptop.

Hardly. MXM has been around for what? 6 years now? OCZ is the closest to bringing the concept of do-it-yourself laptops to market but their implemenation of it is that of a reseller and not much more. When we start seeing standards from the industry (much like how the industry states what PCI-E or USB will be in the future) like standardized drop in motherboards, standard heatsinks with listed thermal effeciency, etc.. Then and only then would I start to believe that the industry would be ready in a year or two. 3rd party sellers would also then come into play like BFG, PNY, etc and we could finally purchase parts "off the shelf"

Buy a laptop today for what it can do today and what is offered on it today. Not what you think you can "theoritically" do with it 1-3 years from now with unreleased tech.

 

You need to go back and re-read my other posts....

And as far as I've heard, Alienware, did offer to upgrade the mobo for a cost.

 

Alienware never offered a mobo upgrade, not really. Consider this situation in which AtolSammek found himself in:

Spec out two identical m17x's with the only difference being the low end and high end GPUs. One would assume that the only difference between the two systems are the GPU's, hence an easy upgrade. The problem is that to get the upgraded GPUs that were already offered, we would also need to pay for a motherboard upgrade as well to get the GPUs to work! For some unforseen future GPU, I could understand the need for a motherboard upgrade but needing a mobo upgrade for existing GPUs offered side by side is rediculous.

As for rereading your posts, no thanks. You're of the camp where you think upgrading is a possibility and I do agree with you. But just don't factor future upgrades in as fact or a 'pro' reason to purchasing this system.

Perhaps your optimism comes from owning a Clevo system, but with Alienware, support for the system drops to nothing the moment after it's released (Future upgrades/development support, not tech support).

 

The thing is that ALL the current GPU's being offered on the new M17x use MXM 3.0 b, so there is no "lower end" GPU to buy that would use a different slot that would make you "have" to upgrade your mobo to use the 280M's or upcoming 4870's.

I understand your point if you're talking about a laptop with an MXM 2.1 motherboard wanting to upgrade to a card that is MXM 3.0 b which would require a new motherboard but in this case, all the current cards offered and all of the known upcoming cards will use MXM 3.0 b, so they WILL be compatible, whether you choose to believe it or not is entirely up to you. BIOS support on the other hand is different, its up to Dell/AW to support these cards.

 

As taken from MXM-Upgrade.com and you're right. There's good reason to hope for a decent upgrade path for GPUs in the future.

"MXM 3.0
November 19th 2008

And no, we don't mean Type III, we mean version three. To date, we've seen 1.0, 1.3, 2.0 and 2.1 cards in the field. It didn't seem to make too much difference. Some software changes, support for the display port format, an additional mechanical format... We've never been able to pin incompatibility issues to MXM revisions even though there are probably some cases buried in the mountain of 'no go' upgrade attempts.

MXM 3.0 is different. There will be no back or forward compatibility. The reason lies in the redefined connector, which is completely incompatible on both the electric and mechanical front. So, don't even think about 'hacking' a 3.0 module to fit in an older MXM notebook. Simply will never work. Some more info...

Features:

- Only two mechanical formats
-> Type 'A' 82x70mm, 35W TDP
-> Type 'B' 82x105mm, 75W TDP
- Up to 4 dual mode Display Ports
- 16 lanes PCIe Generation 2
- Legacy VGA support

There is actually no pressing reason in this feature set to move to 3.0 It's obviously better 'future proof' so for new designs it will most likely be the choice of preference but perhaps evolutions of existing designs will stick to 2.x for some time..

Compatibility

As said: forget about backward compatibility. Type A will fit in both Type A and Type B notebooks, which seems logical. Type B modules will be restricted to Type B notebooks, again as expected. The good thing is that they clearly took a lesson from previous experiences, which means height restrictions on the card have been clearly defined, a 'generic' thermal interface was made, a generic bracket was defined,... Odd thing is that manufacturers are explicitly allowed to stray from the board outline as long as the notebook will accept 'generic' cards! While this makes sense from an OEM point of view, it is unfortunate for end users. If vendor A makes a 3.0 card and adds some height and board area there is a very decent chance it will not fit in vendor B's notebook. This is actually very reminiscent to what we've seen with Arima cards for the board size and a horde of height restriction differences.

On the electrical side, things are comparable. While most signals are very well defined, there are a few OEM reserved pins that can be used at the OEM's discretion. They can add additional power rails, features, or a control mechanism to prevent the insertion of non-native cards. There is no guarantee that such a OEM module will operate in another 3.0 notebook. Or blow up, for all we know. It is clearly stated that 'generic' 3.0 modules will not use these pins but even then it remains to be seen if OEM's will make these pins mandatory for correct operation or not. If they want to be MXM 3.0 compliant, a generic module must operate without the additional pins.

On the software side, things are once again the comparable. A normal graphics card would always 'carry' it's own vBios onboard in a small EEPROM. In this case, the spec mentions explicitly the option to integrate it in the system bios. To be MXM 3.0 compliant, the system should be able to accept 'generic' modules with an onboard vBios. Besides that, a MXM 3.0 software spec was defined. This software structure will tell the card what display interfaces the system requires and will tell a bit about thermal limitations of the system etc. Comparable efforts where done in the past but we suspect that non-implementation, free interpretation or just bug infested implementations have been at the base of some upgrade failures in the past. We seem to see a strong push to have a uniform implementation this time.

All in all, generic modules should always work in MXM v3.0 compliant platforms but manufacturers are at liberty to add some off their own flavor to their own cards, even if they make the system v3.0 compliant. So the big question is whether the 'MXM v3.0 compliant' sticker is a big enough carrot to lure OEM's to make life easier for end users (or service centers, system integrators, boutique stores,...). The second big issue is that all graphic card manufacturers that produced 'generic' MXM cards without a specific target have stopped doing so. All the cards we ever sold were designed for a specific notebook. So even if all future notebooks are 'MXM v3.0 compliant' that may remain nothing but a nice catchphrase if no MXM v3.0 compliant cards are offered on the open market..."