sager upgrading questions re raid and mxm

I'm seriously thinking of abandoning the Studio Xps 16 and going with the 9262, and had a couple of (very basic) questions.

For raid setup, that's something you can just do yourself through bios right? So whatever you request with the 3 hdds, you can change it later? Just make to make 100% sure of this.

This has MXM IV video slots, 2 of them. How realistic are the chances of being able to upgrade video down the road? I've heard MXM is sort of a gimmick.

 

Yes you can configure RAID yourself. It is very possible to upgrade your video cards down the road, although it might not be cost efficient. Its realistic, its possible, but I dont know which cards are MXM IV compatible right now.

 

Follow up question, if anyone else replies lol, with the 2 MXM slots, we know the 9800m GTX at least will fit in there, since that's what it comes with.

If I want to SLI, is that something I have to spec from the get go, or does Sager allow you to send it in and they can add it for a fee? They have no sort of faq at all. Which is sort of worrisome I suppose.

 

you can customize any components you want... even down to the brand of RAM, HDD, Optical Drive, etc...

just contact the vendor.

have you read the Clevo Guide yet? .... if not, then I recommend you do.

as for videocards.... (which I also included in the Clevo Guide)

you can upgrade the videocards yourself, pretty simple to do and wont void warranty.

___________________

Videocards available (for high-end models with MXM Type IV) :
so far the MXM-IV for Clevo notebooks (M570RU, M570TU/ETU, M860TU, D901C) have seen:
- 7950GTX
- 7950GTX SLI (with Clevo D901C)
- 8700M GT
- 8700M GT SLI (with Clevo D901C)
- 8800M GTX
- 8800M GTX SLI (with Clevo D901C)
- 9800M GTS
- 9800M GTS SLI (with Clevo D901C) ... not confirmed yet.
- 9800M GT
- 9800M GT SLI (with Clevo D901C)
- 9800M GTX*
- 9800M GTX SLI (with Clevo D901C)
- Quadro 1600M
- Quadro 1700M
- Quadro 2700M
- Quadro 3700M*
...... more to come.

* not recommended for the M860TU... due to power and heat.

Thats a lot of videocards that's supported by one MXM Type IV slot.

 

You should not need to sent it to Sager for SLI, SLI is based on the motherboard support, which should inherently be there, and an SLI bridge which you should be able to obtain yourself.

 

For SLI there's an SLI cable that you can just ask for when upgrading to 2 cards if you want to install it yourself. You can also just send it in to Sager or whoever you bought it from.

 

Sweet. Thanks guys. Looking more and more like 9262 is it for me. I just love the idea of having 3 hdds in my notebook. Well technically it's still a notebook, tho I figure the battery life might not make it across the room to the other outlet.

 

all types of MXM are compatible with MXM IV. This is, a MXM I/II/III cards will fit and work in a MXM IV and a MXM IV will not work in a MXM III notebook etc. It all resumes to power consumption, heat dissipation and size. (if the manufacture respect the specification).

 

I learned a ton from that Clevo guide, whoever typed it up, kudos!