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    Looking to upgrade my M18x R1.

    Discussion in 'Alienware 18 and M18x' started by Kenny_h2o, Aug 17, 2015.

  1. Kenny_h2o

    Kenny_h2o Newbie

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    Hello,

    Let me first start by saying that if this thread is in the wrong location I apologize, and if it needs to be moved I understand.

    I am in the market to upgrade my M18x R1, currently I am running 2 x 6970 the came with the unit. They are quite outdated for the gaming I do, it seems like they are the only thing holding me back. I've been doing some research and it seems that there's plenty of options out there.

    System specs seen below.

    I7-2920XM Sandy Bridge - OC'd to about 4.2 constantly.
    2 X AMD Radeon HD 6970M's from DELL (looks like 2MB each from what HiWiNFO tells me.
    8 G Ram - DDR3 ( I was curious if an upgrade in memory would help as well - or if it was even possible with my R1 motherboard).
    Windows 7 Pro (I heard that I should NOT upgrade to windows 10?) - is windows 8 worth the upgrade?

    I guess my questions are what is going to be the best bang for my buck... I don't want to go with the 980M as I seem to see it's not really compatible. That being said, the 880 doesn't seem to be a viable option either. I kind of have my mind set on the 780M.

    Should I get two right away? Would one of these cards be an upgrade over the two I have in crossfire right now? I don't really want to build a desktop, and I love my M18x (which I noticed is discontinued -.-) Is there a lower model which would give me significant increase? Would AMD be a better option? I'm not really partial to any brand, though I have seen more Nvidia threads. I noticed also there's quite a few resalers for these cards, certain sites have full kit's but they seem overpriced.

    I don't want to make this post too long winded so I will just leave it there for now.

    Thank you for your time,

    Kenny.
     
    Kenny_h2o, Aug 17, 2015
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  2. SkylineLvr

    SkylineLvr Notebook Deity

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    780Ms will be a great upgrade. You will also want to get yourself some 100W heatsinks for them as well. If you're on a budget, then you might want to look at a couple of 680Ms. They would offer a really nice upgrade at perhaps a more reasonable price.
     
    SkylineLvr, Aug 17, 2015
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    deadsmiley likes this.
  3. deadsmiley

    deadsmiley Notebook Deity

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    Your Win 7 Pro is good. Leave it be unless you are just dying to use Win 8.

    RAM can be upgraded to 32GB (4x 8GB). 16GB should be plenty. Check your usage while gaming to see if you need to upgrade.

    780M would be a good choice. Check the NBR market on these forums. They can be had for under $400 each. I think you will need the SLI cable too.

    One 780M is roughly twice as fast as a single 6970M (depending on the game).

    880M is too hot and its finicky to get setup. At least that has been my experience.

    You already have a great CPU, so nothing to change there

    Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
     
    deadsmiley, Aug 29, 2015
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  4. deadsmiley

    deadsmiley Notebook Deity

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    deadsmiley, Aug 29, 2015
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    Mr. Fox likes this.