AW17 R1? Upgrade options

I am still highly confused about which model aw laptop i own. Which makes looking at other threads about upgrading difficult.

I am guessing it's an 2015 Alienware R1 but i could be wrong, Information from my invoice:

203-41580 N00AW713
338-BDSI 4th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4710MQ processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.5GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
391-BBEI 17.3 inch (439.42 mm) 120Hz WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) TrueLife w/3D Bundle
490-BBRS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M graphics with 2GB GDDR5
​

Looking to upgrade the GPU.

 

You have the last upgradeable Aw 17. Created 2013 and refreshed 2014. You can upgrade up to 980m with some tweaks. @woodzstack is the man you should talk with. + @Ashtrix @thegh0sts

 

Thanks, Ill drop woodzstack a line.
Just so i know in the future, it is an aw 17 R1?

 

Aw17 can have many names. Aw17R1 or even R5. Also Aw17 Ranger. This is the last Aw model with socket hardware. Newer 2015 models have all soldered hardware. Aka BGA!!!

 

Yeah Ash and Ghosts have maxed out thier knowledge on the AW17. I might have provided some hardware for both of them, but whenever I forget something about the AW17 they come to mind first.

@Scalee welcome to NBR man ! Take the time to finish your profile, and what can I help you with ?

 

Thats AW17 for sure. The CPU is the dead give away

You can use pretty much anything available MXM 3.0B wise, which means from 580M<->980M and even workstation cards. If you just do casual gaming, I recommend the 970M - affordable and keeps cool. If you want max performance, and plan to max out this laptop little by little then I recommend a 980M.

Either way, you will want to use windows 8 or windows 10 for best results performance wise. Windows 7 really has no more support driver wise. DX12 will only be windows 10, and both 970M/980M do it with drivers past 361.XX+

 

not to mention the UEFI requirement and it don't work on windows 7 because of that requirement and the video mode that is used when is the POST phase of the pc booting.

remember if you plan to OC the GPU then you need to get Prema's v2 vbios for anything after 361.xx

 

Your machine has an 860M so you need to upgrade your heatsink from 75W 2xpipe to triple pipe 100W heatsink (YP26V part no), Next is don't forget to get the M17x R4 GPU and CPU fans more info on ranger fan upgrades, they are plug and play, the GPU fan is a must else your 970M /980M will reach high temps, use the 860M thermal pads for placing on the 9xxM maxwell cards and remember the X-Brace you'll be getting will not be like the 860M fit because it's clevo's, It needs a little bit more pressure to screw down the heatsink onto the GPU die be careful a bit.

Previously until 365.19 (get this driver it's the latest best Nvidia driver) the 120Hz wouldn't work, now you can upgrade the panel as well but remember It might get regressed and need a 60Hz downclock.

Spoiler: more info

More useful links,
980M thermal pad placement
Techinferno 980M INF mod for 365.19, for Alienwares & the DT driver works 100% fine
980M on AW17 thread

 

wonder if you sell the 125w 980DT (msi) lol

 

you mean that, the DeskTop 980 ?

Yeah we have them. Much cheaper then else mind you, but we only have a few, I do not stock 50 at a time.

 

I would try the 980 desktop if it weren't for the additional power connector :/

 

I believe @Mr. Fox or someone else at T|I tried to use the 980 without the extra power connector and it booted fine, idk about load issues though.

 

Oh yeah ? Well it IS in fact still a MXM 3.0B mark 2 card. I wouldn't be surprised if you can "HAX" most these laptops to use them. Also - you CAN provide power to the card through other means, on almost ALL laptops. If anyone wants to do a test, we can buy a Pheonix, take a multimeter to the power cables going to the card and find out what power it needs, and then we can probably find that inside most laptops if we look around or mod it without issues. Just a bit of soldering and running some wires and a connector is probably all we need. I would recommend taking it directly from where the battery connects to the laptop.

 

How about the MSi 980DT that doesn't have a power connector?

 

Not recommended. That power source is there for a reason, and so are the extra power phases added to the motherboard for the support of those GPUs. The 180W 980 draws too much power and may fry the mobo. The MXM slot cannot supply it with enough. @Prema knows of someone that did fry a motherboard trying to run it without the extra power.

That MSI version might work, but probably gimped a fair amount compared to those that use the auxiliary power. If I recall, the TDP on that one isn't any greater than a 980M running an aggressive vBIOS mod.

 

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

Obviously there is a race between the 970m and the 980m.
If i look at some benchmarks comparing the 860m and the 970m and the 980m, The results are something like this: (based on FPS in certain games)

860m - Base - 0%
970m - +100% performance (double the fps)
980m - +130%~ performance (another 20-30% depending on the game)

I just checked my powerbrick and it seems to be an 180W brick. Which from what i read is not enough for the 980m,
But would it be enough for the 970m? Or will i have to get the 240W brick anyway?

 

But probably won't run 1200mhz stock?

 

Yes, the 980M will need more power, 240W PSU, get it from Dell original OEM.
And If you want to run the card cool and want a cooler card and don't want the top MXM GPU performance & $$$ investment feel, free to get the 970M instead, the TDP of the 980M is way higher than 100W, It's 130W+ and 970M is advertised as 75W but that also pulls closer to 80-90W. Also get the Triple pipe heatsink for either of them, 970M will stay cooler with that 100W Heatsink & remember No Optimus, for that you'll need to use the Optimus INF and stay on Optimus ONLY, if you go PEG you will need to Install the PEG INF again, So we all ditch that Optimus (It gets the Hotwell CPU more hotter and the GFX performance switching is not Ideal though the battery life benefit is good as a trade-off. Worthless imho)

Spoiler

I'll just post this too..
Now that Pascal and Polaris are due in August, mobile MXM's might make their way soon and you can just try tossing em in but it's either hit or miss since the Maxwell throttled in the M17x R4 / AW17 / AW18 (Still does in SLI, the TDP is more than the PSU that AW18 330W does, AW gimped the mobo not to take 2x330W like M18x R2) same M18x R2 (Throttles in SLI on OC). For now the vBIOSes and INF mods keep the throttle at bay in Single GPU Stock/OC configs on non BGA filth Alienwares. So the Pascal game is a serious gamble I think it should work technically with the UEFI restriction on the AW17 like Maxwell, but the throttle and all no idea until it gets into market and someone tries..