upgrading the m15x hardware

What do you guys thinks as far as CPU, GPU, hdd, wireless?? is it possible to add a second hdd in the lappy already..i dont remember if ther was room inside and the wireless card, is it possible to up to that new one with the 450mbps that intel has? o and as far as hdd's go, i want SDD , i might have to wait for price to drop unless anyone here has a drive in mind?

 

CPU - the X9000 (2.8GHZ) is the highest you can go.
GPU - 8800M-GTX is, for now, the best that'll work. rumor has it that the HD4870 might work.
RAM - 8GB will work in the m15x.
HDD - 500GB@7200RPM (Seagate) is the fastest mechanical HDD you can get. if you want an SSD, almost all will work, but they're fairly expensive.
wireless: you've already got draft-N, but you could upgrade to the new intel cards if you wish.

 

In terms of CPU, the max you can go would be the X9000; your system won't boot properly or at all with an X9100 or any montevina-based chips.

For the GPU, you currently have the best available GPU the M15x can handle in terms of TDP (8800M GTX = 9800M GT). But, it may be possible to upgrade to something higher, possibly an ATi Mobility Radeon 4850 or 4870, depending on the final TDP. You probably will have a hard time getting the latter (if available for the M17) from Alienware, and you'll have to scavenge a 4850 from an MSI GT725 (granted that it's an MXM-III card.

You should be able to upgrade your WiFi to the Intel 5300 with no issues

And you can upgrade your HDD to an SSD with no issues as well.

 

nerd. (you beat me by 2 minutes)

 

Whizzo's getting a lot faster when it comes to responding to posts, I've noticed.

 

i do what i can ichime posted the exact same things as i did anyway

 

hahaha...well you think i wold noticed a difference from the t9300 to the x9000? and eventually, the 4870 would work you think? it is better than the 8800?

 

the difference between the x9000 and the t9300 will be negligible in almost all applications. as for the GPU, if the HD4870 will indeed work, it should definitely be more powerful than the 8800m-gtx.

 

well ill just second every thing that said because there smart and its right

 

edited..sorry Whizzo...

 

the 4870 would crap all over the 8800gtx

 

based on what?

 

probably based on how its smaller brother (the 4850) is already doing so

 

my vision of it pwning anything in my m17 lol !!!? idk...still its better then the 8800gtx

 

how dare you come in here and sound knowledgeable...
but thx

 

lol we are sorry, but it would be awsome if the m15x does indeed work perfectly with the 4870 makes me alomost wish i got it

 

would be awesome, i agree. but heat is already an issue.
aside form that, any linkies for the 4850's beating the 8800's?

 

well the TDP is apparently supposed to fit, but i'm still sceptical. we might see the 4850, but the 4870? jeez, what a beast... throw in 8GB RAM, the X9000, and an SSD - boom, 12-13k in 3dmark. fastest 15 incher on the planet.

 

a 4850 and x9000 8 gigs of ram and a ssd i think if you put that in E's hands he'd breat 15k lol ...the ssd adds alot and the 4850 i thought was getting like 12 k .....i unno but im betting 14 k with all that

 

How good is the laptop driver support for ATI notebok cards compared to nVidia?

I know that nvidia is helping with notebook drivers now and we've always had laptopvideo2go but I have no knowledge about ATI drivers. Can anyone enlighten me ?

 

ATI's driver support sucks, in general.