m15x insides!

Ok well i know alot of people wanna see whats inside it so here we go. If you want a certain pic of something let me know and ill open her back up.



ram before I did the change to 4 gigs


Ram after the switch to 4 gigs




Ok there they are

 

Nice pictures. Does it look like the video card could easily be upgraded with a little work?

 

lovely. looks like there's quite a few screws to deal with before you can get to the ram.

 

what kind of ram is that?

 

What MXM-XXX is it on the GPU?

 

nice photos. it's still hard to fathom they were able to stick a 8800M GTX in there.

 

wow thx a lot Packer +rep
it seems that on 1st photo on the left side from WLAN there is one empty mini pci express slot what could work as WWAN. I will try to put my Sprint card in there and see how goes. the only thing i dont see is addional wires that work as antenna though

 

I'm also interested in what type of MXM card the Video card is? Maybe a picture of the VGA card without the heatsink on?

 

I just gave AW a call asking if there is any chance I can put a dual 8800 GTX in a m15X. She said no even in the future. Wow that was a quick answer to a quick question.

 

Dual = 2 cards = double space.

 

it is a infineon brand... CAS5

 

I guess that they could of put something with CAS 4 inside...since it's really not a 2$ laptop.

 

Is that another aerial cable (blue wire) taped up with grey tape to the left of the wi-fi card?
Thanks for the pics

 

I saw that same wire when I opened the bottom notebook aswel. Not sure what it could be used. Looked around to make sure everything was plugged in.

 

Packer,

how hard/easy was it to replace the RAM? I have 2 gigs in the mail and will be installing them on monday.

is there anything i will need to be careful about? or was it straight forward? any feedback would be great, as this is the 1st time I'll be doing something like this...

 

since the bottom comes off and exposes pretty much everything, you should just be able to clip in the ram just like any other notebook with a ram door

also in answer to the mxm question due to the specs of the card it will be at least mxm type III or IV, I am sure the next person to apply arctic silver will post details or send an image to that nice mxm upgrade site

 

The extra aerial cable and unused mini PCI slot screams WWAN card to me (3G broadband)
I'm sure somebody will try it soon enough

Could also be for TV Tuner as well

 

I think it's an MXM-III slot

 

if its mxm III then users of previous aw notebooks may be able to upgrade
now that would be great

and of course if they can manage to stick to that format future vga releases might be applicable to the m15x letting me upgrade both my processor and gfx in the future BLISS

 

look at this

http://cgi.ebay.it/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=140198739997&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=004

the auction is over, there are 2 good pics. if you exclude the pins in the right side you have the same connector as an 8600M GT (MXM-II).

 

yes the connector is usually the same but its where the screw mounts are that seem to make the big difference

 

It was pretty easy u just pull back two clamps and slide it in

 

Just another question to you, Packer445: Was there a big performance-boost when you switched to 4GB of RAM? Did you do some benches? I am also planning to upgrade, but since the 32bit OS can`t handle much more than 3GB of memory I am wondering wheather its worth the money atm.

Thanks in advance,

Paendrag

 

im probally gonna upgrade to 64 bit @ 4 gigs in the future. a little dissapointment is that this only has two ram slots when alot of others like it have four. this meands you have to get it 2gb format to have 4gbs. also the ram is only 667mhz not 800.

 

dont worry alienware/user 4gb ram sticks can't be that far away

the fact that you feel the need for 4gb btw must mean that you have got used to vista
just like we all got used to 512mb/1gb for XP remember how expensive that used to be?

 

So what is in the upper right hand corner of the first pic to the right of the HDD??

I just got an m15x and am wondering if it's another miniPCI slot for the turbo Mem and if it's a MiniPCI that could be used for anything.

If it is I hope they come out with a physx for miniPCI. Screw the Turbo Mem...

 

nice pictures, thanx

 

Right to the HDD usually sits the Turbo memory card and the bios battery, I think the slot is miniPCI, wich sums up to 3 slots in the system (1=wifi 2=turbomem 3=unused)

What stroke me when I took of the service cover of my m15x is that the heatsinks are so darn small! No wonder those fans are blowing like turbines to keep the system cool...

 

If anyone cares, I have successfully put a Dell wireless USB mini PCI card in my m15x and connected the blue wire to that. It was a challenge forcing the drivers to install as they check for a Dell machine, but I now have a working Wireless USB in my m15x. Less cables make me more happy! (Bad English, but hey)

N

 

sorry to ask, but how does "wireless USB" work? is it a wireless connection to a USB hub?

 

Thats exactly what it is - and full speed, no less. This is the hub:

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=377793

The MiniPCI card eliminates a need for a dongle...

N

 

well that's neat. i wonder, would it be possible to put like a TV-card in there?

 

I am curious about the HDD. On the Alienware site they show the HD removal but looking at the pictures the HD connection interface doesn't look like SATA. Is it just an adapter for a standard SATA drive or does the M15x have a proprietary HDD?

 

i'm willing to bet my pants it's not some sort of propriatary drive. i guess it's just a connector of sorts.

 

I tend to agree since the pins line up perfectly with what would normally be SATA connectors. I just want to make sure. I was going to buy an upgraded HD from Newegg, but didn't want to waste money.

 

hey guys don't worry thats just an adapter goes the HDD goes down instead of slide in. Heres a pic

 

Awesome. Thank you so much that was very helpful.

 

It is either and MXM-IV or an MXM-HE. You can tell by the extra set of pins on the right side of the card. They are not there on an MXM-III card.

 

Is there a difference between IV and HE? If so, which is newer?

 

so, if you wanted to, its quite easy to get a bigger hard drive in there? and if so, would it be against the warranty to do so?

 

AW specifically says upgrading the HDD or RAM will _not_ void your warranty. so you're good to go.

 

yes you can upgrade to a bigger drive