question beofre I buy

I have been researching for the past hour, to only gettingtopics from 06-07 about upgrading alienware laptops. Now I have found my way here.

I am thinking about getting their cheapest but let them put a better processor in it.
What my question is, do their laptops still accept graphics card upgrades, and if so are these parts found somewhat with ease?

Thankyou

 

gpus aqre the hardest thing to find you need to call a differnt company to find some sager clevo etc(but if your talking abou the m17 get both graphic cards form them since the white book has been slashed by ocz)

ram hard drives cpus can all be found on new egg

cpu change is easy and the gpu change is medium dificulty and ram and hard drive are easy

 

so if i were to add the better GPU would leave me with better chances of upgrading cpu no sodering right?

yeah i'll def leave the ram up to me shopped around for some on my current laptop and it was insanely cheaper than what hp or big retail outlets were chargeing

 

what laptop are you looking at getting? some cpus and gpus are sodered(depends on what model you want which is why i want to know)

but gpus are usually kinda hard to get but they are out there.

 

I was looking into the m15x, mainly cause I get a 5% discount because I'm a student

 

o well in that case yes you can upgrade gpu's easy and cpu's easy
the gpus that fit are 3870 8800gx and 9800gt and the 4850 is saposed to fit (those are the good ones the 8700gt will fit to )

but with that you need to get the 9800 gt to get the better heat sink the 8700gt comes with a smaller less powerful one but whizzo a member here has one for sale (the 8800gtx one)

the cpu is easy take out the old one and pop in the new one

all this will void your warrenty though

 

thankyou very much for making me feel alittle more comfortable making this purchase.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=254627
why not to buy the m15x

som info on gpus specially the 3870
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=352766

list of know issue fixed and not fixed
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=284634

the m15x is a solid machine and the only real issue is the hinges but somepeople have got it some havent . its saposed to be fixed alot of recent buyers say it has been some dont. But at its price now its a good deal. the battery life is amazing i wish my m17 got its kind of battery life (6 hours with smart bay battery )

 

yeah I have been reading the why not to buy thread, still not wavering though. Perhaps alittle gorrilla glue around the area were the lcd starts to split might solve it.

I don't wanna pay more cause like in a year or two ill be buying a desktop

 

oh yeah, hows the m17 with changing out parts?

 

beautiful lol cpu can be changed gpu's can be to but i have not seen any whitebooks with any graphic card but the 3870...but im sure it will support differnt ones. its a solid machine 2 hd bays ddr3 ram quad core support etc any laptop as long as it isnt sodered you can change it

 

Just don't buy it. waste of money.

 

whats ammater with you ?

 

I'll just cross my fingers, from what I have read and looking at post dates from them, all the issues were coming from about a year ago. So hopefully things go my way.

Just one more thing I notice that they sell you your recovery disk, is anything special about it? I also am guessing that I will not get a Windows installation disk with my laptop. How hard is it to get and the let's say I have to wipe my drive out, how hard is it to get the alienware sowftware back on there?

 

it comes with disc i believe a system disc etc not sure with you m15x owners but the recovery disc will restore yoru computer to exactly how you had it when you got it

quite useful

but i think there is a partition on your hard drive that has it on there

 

yeah...you get the OS install disk plus a driver/utilities disk...you can get a "respawn" disk(Alienware-speak for restore cd) disk for $50 if you like, but could make your own for the cost of a blank dvd when you receive the machine...

there's also a partition on the hd from the factory with "respawn" on it...you can restore to factory settings by pressing f2 I think when you first turn on the pc...

 

agreed!!!!!!!!!!!

 

thankyou guys wont be spending extra money on that disk ill just make it myself

 

The m17 is upgradable as well, the GPU(although hard to get as mentioned by mr moo) cpu, hdd, and ram. I would get dual cards for the GPU.

 

I upgraded my m17x to SLI. Its very very easy but make sure you order your parts through the rosewell crew and not alienware cs. Alienware cs sent me the wrong graphics card with no fan or screws... My laptop has panels for easily upgrading your ram, graphics card, and there is a couple of other things but I didnt investigate too much.

 

Forgive my n00bness,

But I've been looking at the MSI GT627 lately and a similar spec'd Alienware version brings it well over $700 more than the MSI...

But from what I'm reading you guys talk about, it's possible to get the bottom line M15X and upgrade it on your own through "3rd party" parts?

 

That usually goes for almost any notebook, at least in the areas of RAM and HDD. CPUs are the next most-often upgradable component, with GPUs dead last, although the M15x does technically support MXM so upgrades can come on down the road, but they're hard to find 3rd party and often expensive. I personally am probably going to get the most basic M15x except for graphics card, then upgrade the RAM, HD, and grab an X9100 off of eBay for half the upgrade price.

 

Upgrading the graphics card is way easier then the CPU. Its 6 screws total including the panel to get to the cards......

 

the panel has way more screws than that. of course, the hard part is finding a high-end GPU with the correct size and MXM spec.

 

The panel has 2 screws and there are 4 screws holding the card onto the fan, thats it...

 

m17 has 9 alone on the panel and i think 6 on each card