M18x upgrades

I currently have an Alienware M18x - R1 that has an Intel i7-2920 processor and nVidia 560M GPU and heard that it may be possible to upgrade both of these to a more current part, like the i7-4900 series and the nVidia 980M. Does anyone know if the M18x - R1 will support these upgrades? If not, what would be the highest series that I may upgrade to? Also, would you have any recommendations on where to buy them? Thank you very much for your time.

 

Your cpu is already maxed out with the 2920xm and the 980M is not compatible with the M18x R1 unfortunately.

I understand the best gpu setup available for your system is the GTX 780M in SLI.
You will have to get left and right 100w heatsinks (580m heatsinks) and an SLI bridge cable in addition to the two 780 cards (assuming you would like to max you system out?)

The heatsinks and SLI cable you should be able to buy directly from dell, you can find the part numbers here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...roblems-discussion-thread.629369/#post8126703

As for the 780m's you can get them from most clevo resellers, RJTech, Power Notebooks, Eurocom, XoticPC, HIDevolution etc or from Dell , I have used RJTech in the past but their 780m is a bit expensive imo
Some one else may have experience with the other sellers.

I know the Clevo 780m works in alienwares I'm just not sure if the msi 780m also does, may want to check that before you buy a msi card....

 

Well, that's too bad the motherboard cannot be upgraded but it's good to know that the video card can be. I really appreciate your feedback. Thank you.

 

Mr. Fox have actually upgraded his motherboard, to a R2 model.



If you plan to do it, you will need to obtain the following components to upgrade your M18x R1:

• 9D7N3 - M18x R2 Motherboard (GRP9C, G6CJP, FRVMD are also valid parts numbers)
• YYFHR - M18x R2 I/O Daughterboard with ribbon cable
• XVNKP - M18x R2 3-Disk HDD Caddy
• M9T51 - M18x R2 SATA Interposer

 

Yep all depends how deep your pockets are!

 

You can upgrade your MoBo to M18xR2 one and then install i7-3940XM and 980M however 980M is not recommended as it has throttling problems. Mobile CPUs from i7-2920XM to newest 4xxx are basically same, newest version are about 10% more powerful on same clock so it's not needed to upgrade further than i7-2920XM.

 

Yes for benchmarking and overclocking the 980m does throttle but not at stock clocks and with the right drivers and vbios

 

Wow, thanks. So what Intel processor is the 9D7N3 equivalent to and does that mean the more recent 900 series nvidia graphics cards will work in upgrading the system as well?

 

Just write i7-2920XM on ebay and buy it outside dell. You will save a lot of money because all CPUs are compatible.

 

The Intel i7-3920XM is the Ivy bridge extreme cpu for the M18x R2 motherboard (9D7N3), however the M18x R2 is backwards compatible with the Sandy bridge cpu's (as are all ivy bridge laptops)
This means you can put your 2920XM in a M18x R2 motherboard and like GodlikeRU has said save yourself a heap of money seeing as you wont get much more performance out of a 3920XM anyway.

And yes if you swap your R1 motherboard for an R2 motherboard you will be able to install the 980m as well.

I will suggest that you at least look into buying a complete M18x R2 and upgrade that rather then going all out on the R1 it might workout cheaper once you sell the R1..... I think @TBoneSan is still selling his M18x R2 all kitted out with a 3920Xm and HyperX ram etc, it just needs some graphics cards.
Chances are you will spend less than $3k to get the system and a pair of 980m's and still have an R1 to sell when you could spend up to $3k on your R1 and only have your R1... what I'm saying is just be careful or you might end up over capitalizing on the R1

 

It's not so easy to get good M18xR2 now because 18 inch model will no longer be produced and it will be a lot harder to buy used model because nobody wants to sell last 18 inch AW laptops so I recommend upgrading R1. You can always buy used Motherboard and cost will be even lower.

 

Depending on where you live, I might have some for you. check my sig for availible R2's. Every single one is either in MINT condition or brand new.

 

Besides the motherboard, you must also have an I/O daughterboard and ribbon cable assembly, and a new SATA interposer. Those parts are not interchangeable. The ribbon cables/sockets are wider on the M18xR2.

If you want to add an extra drive, you will also need an R2 HDD caddy. One of the benefits of having an R2 versus R1 is having an extra drive, two drives extra if you count mSATA. Both require the purchase of additional parts.

Don't buy 580M heat sinks. Get 680M heat sinks or use 7970M heat sinks and peel off the black plastic shield from the AMD heat sink. The 580M heat sinks won't provide the proper cooling to components on the edges of the GPU.

 

Thanks again guys. That's some great information you shared and I'll definitely give it some thought before proceeding. However at this point, I seem more inclined to keep the R1 and just upgrade that. From these posts, it would appear easier and cheaper to just upgrade to the 780M SLI graphics and related parts without the sacrifice of much speed. I want to thank you all for all your wonderful assistance. You've really helped to make my day(s).

 

I may be in the market to sell my laptop, listed in signature, as well. It is gorgeous with a 2.5 year next business day warranty remaining, October 2017. It's loaded with the highest Ivy Bridge Extreme CPU and I also have a set of Dell 680m's, which are covered under the warranty and new 32GB Kingston HyperX Impact Black 1600MHz DDR3L for it as well. It has a 1TB SSD RAID 0 array and a large storage drive. The optical drive was upgraded with a Panasonic UJ265 Blu-Ray Player and Burner. The like new 780m's that are installed currently are Dell brand. A beautiful, maxed out M18x R2 with 2.5 year warranty are hard to find. It would not be cheap, but is ready to go out of the box. Only reason I would consider selling is because I am thinking about getting out of gaming and going with something smaller like a new 2015 Dell XPS 13 Infinity Touch or build a reasonable desktop for my needs. I am finding I am tempted to game too much with such a nice machine sitting around.

 

If only I had the money, that does sound like one sweet rig.

 

Yeah man, it's killer and I looked for a bit for one. I just need to get more serious with other things and every time I say, "I am going to not play as much" or "I can cut back and make time for other things", I find myself always tempted or giving in. I have a job where I need to maintain my physical fitness and feel like I have slacked here lately. Wish ya did too! I bought it from a known member of this community and was definitely taken care of.

 

Well, this is at the end of my Alienware warranty but Dell has let me extend the extended warranty on the computer until 12/16. Meanwhile I have nbeen experiencing a number of problems with this machine so they are offering me a replacement or system exchange for the following computer:
Alienware 18 R1
8 GB Dual Channel DDR3L 1600MHz (4GBx2) Memory
18.4 Inch WLED FHD (1920 X 1080) TrueLife Display
Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M with 2GB GDDR5 - NVIDIA SLI Enabled (Standard)
Windows 7 Home Premium
Processor: Intel Core 4th Generation i7-4700MQ processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.4GHz w/Turbo Boost)
English Keyboard
Dell Outlet Alienware 18 R1
8X DVD +/- RW Drive
English Keyboard
Broadcom 4352 802.11 ac 2x2 and Bluetooth 4.0
8-cell Lithium Ion (86 wHr) Battery
Palmrest with Non Variable Pressure Technology
Dell Support Center 64 Bit 2.0
Wave Systems Software
2 MP FHD Camera
1TB, 5400 RPM 2.5 inch SATA 6Gb/s
Documentation
330W A/C Adapter

However I do have some concerns. Even thought this M18x appears to be able to have a higher processor of i7-4700 series, it's memory is smaller to my current system of 12 gigs of ram, and my HDD is a SATA 7200 - faster than what they offer in the exchange. Additionally, this system exchange is not what they described to me at Tech Support. They said I would be getting the newer 17" with the i7-4710 processor, 970M graphics and the 256 SSD and 1TB HDD. Do you feel this something that I should continue to negotiate with the system exchange group? Also taking the M18x replacement, would I not be simply inheriting someone else's problems? Especially since they say the M18x is no longer supported?

Please let me know your thoughts, I would be most grateful. Anyway, I also thought I would pass along the new M18x system specs for those inclined since Alienware can make them run using the newer 4700 series of processors. Thanks again.

 

Already a step above yours. I say go for it.

 

I concur. I would jump on this AW18 if I were in your place.

 

Thanks for sharing your opinion guys. I also hope the above specs info will help others in upgrading their machines as the M18x seems to be able to use the Intel Core 4th Generation i7-4700MQ processor which is more current than the other aforementioned processors that this machine was able to be upgraded to (and likewise a 980M graphics card?). Although I do have have the know-how to install this ugrade, at least we now know it's possible. Thanks guys for all your input.

 

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