Need advice from seasoned AW14 owners on upgrades???

Hi,

I have in the last month purchased a base model aw14. It came with the following specs

I5 CPU
6gb ram
720p screen
Gtx 765m gpu
500gb hdd

Now the first thing I have done is upgrade the screen to a full 1080p, and what a difference....

Now I'm thinking should I upgrade the CPU to a i7-4700, increase the ram to at least 8gb, or should I put a 500gb ssd in or should I put a 256gb msata and a 1tb hdd...

Not sure of the order, what would you do if you had the machine I have...

Thanks in advance

Ian

 

Hiya Ian,

Nice screen upgrade, mate - the IPS panel in the 14 is a beauty, isn't she? :thumbsup:

I think the best way to spend money on your machine would be to add a large-ish SSD or possibly even a large mSata - probably a 512gb mSata would be my choice, and that way, you got a lot of SSD space and could also partition it to cache the 500gb HDD you've still got in the machine......that way, you get the very best of both worlds and you can still utilise the original HDD, then CPU (if you really felt you needed to - if you did need more CPU grunt, I'd probably save up and grab a 4900mq/4910mq over the 4700mq) and then memory.....in that order. I have 8gb in mine and it's fine.....you might be able to find a single 4gb module on Fleabay for a few quid...just make sure they are of the same spec as the ram in there now, then remove the 2gb and slap the other in and you're away to go regarding ram.

HTH

 

I would also go for the mSATA + HDD combo, try a 256GB for the O.S and software. I don't think you'll need more than 8GB memory either.

 

Thanks guys...

i will have a look around to see what i can find.

thanks alot

Ian

 

Ian, I suppose you are aware of the fact that you are getting a laptop with a one and a half year old GPU right? It isn't the best GPU to go with at this time when new game releases are upon us with probably very demanding Graphics for that GPU

 

I agree with Luis & Steve. For strictly gaming, there's really no point in having more than 8GB's of memory. At the very least, it should not be a "priority upgrade."

With that being said, a full pledged SSD upgrade will do wonders for you. With how cheap SSD's are these days, I would recommend grabbing one ASAP. The 250GB Samsung 840 EVO is $129 on Amazon, and Samsung also offers an mSATA variant of the 840 EVO.

As for the CPU, I don't think that's necessarily a priority upgrade either. The 4210M should be powerful enough to handle most games with the 765M. However, the 4710MQ is a great, affordable CPU. And you will notice a difference with that upgrade, especially in CPU intensive games (i.e. BF4). The 4910MQ is not really worth the extra money for gaming. Although, it is going to allow better performance for other tasks like video editing, and also offers more room for overclocking.

 

Hi guys

Thanks for all the advice

I have picked up the following and about to put into the system

8gb 1600mhz ram
240gb msata ssd samsung pro
1tb hdd 7200prm

Looking to find an i7-4700mq, not desperate to upgrade the CPU but if one comes along i will get it

The only problem I've had with this system is the factory win 8 image on one of the partitions was corrupted when I got it. Dell have sent me the windows disk but it's the vanilla version, so I want it to look like Alienware on all screens. There's a thread somewhere with the links I need.

Off to get sorted

Thanks a lot

Ian


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Nice buys! - can't go wrong with that lot. I've seen 4700mq's on Ebay for a few hundred.....maybe bag one at a later date. As for restoring the 'look and feel', I think this might be what you are looking for: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html and maybe this one: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...re-look-feel-after-clean-install-windows.html

 

Hi Guys,

Just wondering if you can offer some advice..

installed all the drives etc... the last job was to install the new ram

Vengeance® — 8GB High Performance Laptop Memory Upgrade Kit (CMSX8GX3M2A1600C9)

this is the memory i got listed above in the link...

once installed i dont get to post but it beeps twice, pointing to no ram detected...

i thought it was the right ram, scratching my head a bit to understand why its not working, any ideas...

thanks in advance

Ian

 

Those modules are 1.5v - the new Alienwares all use low voltage ram @ 1.35v......1.5v do not work.

 

All sorted now, I thought I had ordered the 1.35v variant, took them back to scan to exchange. In the 14 now and all is good.

Thanks a lot

Ian

 

Nice to know you got it sorted. :thumbsup: