Upgrades! :D - Get the Most Bang for Your Buck

Hi guys!

Few days ago I become a proud owner of AlienWare M14x R2. I always dreamed about such a piece of tech and finally got the funds and also I got it for the right price (2nd hand)
Before anything else I should also add that English isn't my first language so please forgive me.

For the last couple of years I had a Dell Inspiron 1520 - I totally loved the design and that, how well-built was that laptop. I got it fully upgraded but architecture had it's limitations (my 1520 was from Nov 2005) so I finally decided to go with M14xR2 as build seems to be similar at the first glance.

Anyway, the long story short I want to upgrade it as much as possible to enjoy it for another 10years
So I would like to ask you guys for all your wisdom and knowledge about this subject to help me out with the right decisions in regards of upgrades. What's worth, what's not.

Subject 1)
The CPU:
Currently running i5-3210 but strangely enough it's running 2.9Ghz - 3.1Ghz for most of the time even without ThrottleStop ON :O
I might only suspect that something has been changed in the BIOS but I don't know it yet so well.
None of the less CPU is rather most important for me at the moment. My hobby is video editing as I'm having a lot of fun doing it. Last month I even started YouTube channel which was a kick for me to finally upgrade my hardware
BTW. If you want, please feel free to check my channel, although, it's in Polish but you can get an idea why CPU is something that I crave about
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpcpLkGxmT2kln46R0enOZw

I found the list of supported CPUs:
i7-3520M/3540M (dual core)
i7-3610QM/3630QM (maybe the 3612QM/3632QM/3615QM, but I'm not certain)
i7-3720QM/3740QM
i7-3820QM/3840QM
i7-3920XM/3940XM (not easy to install)

Today I checked an eBay to look up the price for some of them and also with passmark rating (the more, the better)

3610QM / Passmark rating: 7471 - 130€
3630QM / Passmark rating: 7634 - 165€
3720QM / Passmark rating: 8249 - 190€
3820QM / Passmark rating: 8516 - 400€ ??
3840QM / Passmark rating: 8907 - 270€
3920XM / Passmark rating: 9237 - 350€

Of course, the fastest is the fastest but 350€ it's not nearly as much as I paid for the whole laptop :/
I'm considering 3720QM but I'm curious of your opinion. Is it worth it? What's you reckon?

My 3210m is currently running between 50-75C Sometimes up to 85C which I'm finding a little bit too high. I guess that I should open it up and change thermal paste and if I will get my hands dirty would be great to swap it on the fly.

Subject 2)
RAM:
Currently I have 8GB installed. Two slots for 4GB. I'm not sure should I upgrade it to 16GB, probably yes but with SSD it's not such a big deal, though
I was looking online and I can get 2x8GB for bout 100€ which can bearable. But which to be looking for. I found one from Corsair i guess but it was 1.5V and seller replied me that it wont be working with M14xR2 as I need 1.3V. Is that true?

Subject 3)
GPU:
I was able to swap graphic card in my Inspiron 1520 but probably it's not possible here, right?
If not, what can I do? GPU Bios upgrade (i did it also with Inspiron 1520 to change Voltage and Clocks).
If that not either, maybe some nVidia Toolbox or whatever it called to change clock speeds. If so, is it worth it. Wouldn't it run too HOT? I was reading somewhere that this GPU is throttling when it's temp hits 70C which in real life performance would means only that it will slow down faster.
Please share opinions about this one too.

Subject 4)
Storage:
Here I don't need to change anything but none of the less I can share info what I have
- C: primary is 256GB Samsung Evo 840 SSD - Win10, Programs etc
- D: mSata, 32GB Kingston - I got it with the laptop so why not? Currently I'm keeping there some games (It's slower than Evo840)
- E: I'm getting rid of DVD and installing there 2nd HDD Caddy with 1TB HDD as I had in my Insporon although, there was PATA interface and here is SATA for optical drive so I ordered it on eBay from China, in a blink of the eye I should get it to my door step... or about the month time but I can wait.

Subject 5)
Display:
I have a feeling that my display isn't great... but happily I'm using it hooked to two 4:3 monitors
Anyway, when traveling I have to use it... Colors are washed up and blacks are more... like a gray... is there anything can be done with that?

Subject 6)
Connectivity:
I had some issues with Bluetooth under Win7 but after upgrading it to Win10 problem solved itself.
Wifi card probably was upgraded by previous owner to Killer-something a/b/g/n ? Anyway, when at home I have it connected to ethernet

That's all for now. Please if you can participate to my project I would be thrilled!
And I hope this thread will be a huge help for other users on this forum.

Thanks
Paweł

 

1) The leap isn't that big. The heat could indeed be improved.
2) The laptop uses standard RAM, 1.5V should work. Only the Alienware 14 needs DDR3L or 1.3V.
3) I wouldn't recommend any of that, neither overclock the GPU with a toolbox nor replace the card.
5) What is your current max res?

 

2) but this is M14x r2 so 1.3V?

Native resolution is 1366 x 768 of my screen.

 

Only The R3 or 14 takes low voltage ram, the r1 and r2 use standard 1.5v

 

Thank you for your answer.
After few weeks with my new machine I can see that even after deactivating Page File in the system while still performing some multitasking I don't have any problems even with 8GB of ram So not quite sure yet if I'm going to upgrade it. I need to test some games as well and than I'll know what to do.

But guys! What about CPU? Any ideas? While RAM and disc space isn't a problem (250GBSSD, 32GB mSSD, 1TB HDD in dvd bay + 1TB network drive) CPU is a weakest point of that all.
While editing video I'm often waiting just for some simple tasks, splits, transissions, subtitles etc. Rendering is surprisingly fast and I'm happy with it.
Which CPU will you pick? Which you have?

 

Little update.
I upgraded CPU to i7-3720QM and it's running awesome! Way higher performance! Using throttleStop all 8 threads are locked at 3.5GHz, but also for the first 10-15sec it's set for 3.6GHz
The thing is that when set to 3.6GHz on all 8 threads it consumes approx 51-52Watts but it's TDP it's 45 so better not take it too much. With 3.5GHz it's between 43-44W

Also, worth to take it apart as mine had some stuck dust between fan and radiator. It wasn't overheating or anything like that but after taking it off now could overclock GPU to 950Mhz and GPU's Memory to 2650 while still having around 50-55C on GPU! And believe me, makes sense as can run Fallout 4 with higher settings and it's not throttling as GPUs temp is around 50-55C.

About CPU... if you are playing games there is no point for you to upgrade. While playing different games i noticed CPU usage of 10-35%... Seriously!

Although, if you are video editing it's worth it!

 

Hey man I just read all of your posts and you've made me want to upgrade my alienware. I bought my alienware 3 years ago it was a refurbished for 800$ and here are the specs.

CPU Core i7 3630qm @ 2.4ghz
Ram 12gb
gpu 650m
harddrive is 500gb stock 5400rpm

Basically at its current state the laptop battery can't hold any charge and dies in 10 minutes. The laptop becomes super loud and only then is it smooth. All steam games like dota and rocket league can barely run unless the fan winds up and the computer goes in overdrive. The computer hasn't been cleaned since I bought it at all. Is this something worth saving? Your posts have made me wanna fix it up because I need a laptop for the next 3-4 years.

I am thinking about buying upgrades but does your laptop run games smoothly and at good framerates? If I do this I want to make sure I can use it for dota or a few games.

Upgrades in mid are:

Harddrive - 250gbssd samsung for 90$ on amazon
Battery - 65$ on amazon
WLAN ac card - 29.99
Thermal Paste 7$

What do you think?
I also want to get what you got and remove my cd rom drive. any links on how to do that?

 

Also what are the things I need to do to increase performance?
throttlestop? Intel speedstep disable?
And do I also need to upgrade bios or do anything unlock bios?

How do you get your cpu to 3.6. my cpu is at 2.3. I need to learn how to disable speedstep and get throttlestop to turbo my computer from 2.3 to 3.4. let me know if you can help

 

Msta 250 + ssd 250 raid is a good optiom.

CPU i7 3610qm or 3920xm ...
Quad core or best quad core performance

Unlock your BIOS

2x8 low latency slots os ddr3 or ddr3l

Sorry my bad inglish

Enviado desde mi Nexus 5 mediante Tapatalk