Need advice on upgrading Alienware 18

Greetings all,

I am looking to upgrade my Alienware 18, here are the current specs:

Intel Core i7-4700MQ 2.40 2.40
8GB RAM
GTX 765M SLI

So I was wondering which GPU is the best option, as i have read 970m/980m throttles.
Do I need a CPU upgrade too?
What kind of memory should I get?

I am a total newbie when it comes to this kinda stuff, so I was thinking of buying the parts I need and taking my laptop to a local computer shop and have them install it for me. I am currently living In Nanjing China so I would purchase the parts off taobao.

As I said I am a total newbie so I'm not sure if there are other questions I should be asking.
Any advice of how I should go about doing this will be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

I upgraded to 2X 980M's
1866MHz DDR3L 32 GIG

maybe in the future 4930MX

i have no problems at all !

love my beast

 

When you upgrade GPUs , you need to upgrade the heat sinks too. Right now I have a heat sink for extreme processor and a 100 watt main heat sink in the for sale thread.

 

Wow how much did that set u back?

Is the SLI worth it?

Did you consider any other options?

I mainly just wanna run the latest games at the highest settings with a high FPS.

 

980M SLI works perfect in Alienware 18

 

If your wanting to run the latest games at highest settings with high fps then you have no option but to run sli.

 

Thanks for all the great advice.

So i think i have decided to first get a single 980m and if I am not satisfied maybe purchase a gaming desktop in the future.

So i have one more question for you guys, more of a request. I just need to know everything I need to upgrade my 2013 alienware 18 from a 765m to a 980m.

I read some stuff about heat sinks, thermal paste... I have no clue.

If someone would kindly guide me in the right direction of what i need to purchase, or any advice, that would be great.

Thanks again.

 

I have a CPU heat sink and a 100 watt heat sink for sale in the for sale thread that is for Alienware 18.

As far as thermal paste , I read good reviews on Cool Laboratory Ultra brand.

 

What are the essentials when upgrading to 980m?

 

heat sink , thermal pads and thermal paste. Also the driver that is listed on

 

So my heatsinks with my 765m sli cant be used with 980m? I was asking a seller of the 980m on Taobao and he informed me that i dont need anything extra? Im not sure if it was miscommunication on my part as my chinese isnt completely fluent, but I guess I just need know in detail what i need those things for or if i could possibly already have it in my system. Which is what the seller seemed to imply.

Sorry to be so annoying with so many questions.

 

You will need a 100 watt rated nvidia heat sink , can either be from a 780m, 880m ( with a little modding) or the actual heat sink of the 980m , which is hard to find.