which mxm socket does the area-51 m15x have

I have a area-51 m15x laptop and the geforce 8800 gtx that was in it died
so I have to get a new gpu and need to know witch mxm socket it has
I'd like to get a HD 3870
and will the heat sink that the geforce 8800 have no it work for a HD 3870?

thanks for any help you give

 

calling alienware, they'll willingly charge you an arm and a leg for a replacement card, but you'd be looking for MXM III

which, I believe is actually MXM 2 Type III, but I can't be certain.

any MXM III cards should fit/work, we've seen people using nVidia, ATI, both supported and not, official and not. the biggest difference between official/supported and not, is that the HDMI port stops working on non-supported cards.

someone used a GTX260M (i think) in the system and it worked except the HDMI output.

happy hunting.

 

Is this it:
Alienware m15x upgrade guide

 

that page reports it as an MXM IV, I've also seen MXM HE that will fit...

 

That is right, an MXM type IV slot will accept type HE, type III, type II and type I cards.

 

fromt he picture i can tell that it's ethier a type 4 or a HE but it's sure that it accept the HE cards while nobody tested a type 4 yet

 

be careful what card you get. even though it fits, it doesnt always work. i learned the hard way.

 

Yes be carrefull with the graphic card update.

I also have a area-51 m15x laptop equipped with a geforce 9800M GT which died. (my laptop was out of warranty: 1year and a half)

Due to the poor efficiency of the original thermal dissipator of the m15x, thermal shutdowns can be expected..
;-( Personally, I think that's why our GC have been damaged

 

I am quite glad that at 2 years my 8700m is still going strong..
Has anyone upgraded the gc wih good long lasting results?

Pete.

 

i had 8700M which has died twice and had been repaired and died again.
i'm looking for 8800GTX or 9800GTX but those black chips(on the GPU) seems to be different..
can i still use 8800 or 9800 on mine?

 

Yeah i have a 9800m in mine, but I found out that the 9800m and 8800m versions are no different from one another.

 

It's Type IV HE. Non HE cards should work as well. I would urge you not to get a 3870 mobility and try and find another 8800m GTX or something along those lines as the 3870 mobility is quite weak compared to the 8800m GTX.

 

The 3870 should last longer though, I'm using a 9800, but it sucks on DX 10, like many of the current games are utilizing.

 

Nvidia 9800m GT 512mb - eBay (item 230560215721 end time Dec-08-10 22:43:43 PST)

 

Anybody know where I can get some new thermal pads for my 8800 heatsink? The old ones are worn out.

 

Why do you need thermal pads? Just paste isn't good enough?

 

Are you sure? When I put in my new ati card way back when...I tried it with only paste and the card was HOT. I redid the gpu and paste several times because I didn't know what was wrong. Finally, I ripped off the thermal pads from the 8800 heatsink and reused them on the ati heatsink where the memory chips were and the temps went way down to normal range. I think the pads are there for a reason.

 

My 9800 has no such pads.

 

Well, i guess i'm special then. It worked for me. But, that's besides the point where can I get some pads do you know?

 

Can I upgrade my alienware m15x to a 460m GTX?

 

or even a 480m GTX?

 

or even a 480m GTX? which is REALLY EXPENSIVE

 

Sorry double post....

 

The 460m should work if you have an MXM 3.0 type b slot.

If you have the older area-51 m15x, then you can't because there is no 460m or 480m in the mxm 2.1 form.


Thermal pads can be found on ebay.

 

280m is the best, but it's EXPENSIVE and the gains are limited. The best GPU can get that's realistic is the 9800m GT or 8800m GT, And again as earlier stated if you Diverge beyond the 8800/9800 you will lose your HDMI capability.

 

Yeah my m15X (before dell's 'All Powerfull' Range) has a MXM2.1 slot - upgraded from the 8700gt to HD3870 just over a year ago. AW charged me about £139.78 for the card and heatsink which didnt seem too bad.

Runs quite quick and stays alot cooler than my 8700gt used to (85-90 was prett common) now with my HD3870 it rarely hits higher than 75.

Cant say how the 3870 would compare to the 8800 but I'd recommend it.

 

Hmm.. with the 3870 you wouldn't be limited to drivers from August, 2009 too...

Neat idea..

 

Users looking for a better thermally managed laptop, the graphics card in my sig should work and its a pretty good card. It has the least amount of shaders for any 256 bit memory bus card (48) and its very similar to the 8800m GTS (64 shaders)

At 65 watts the TDP is well below that of the 9800m AND its still better than the ATI 3870.

You should also all have thermal pads on the vRAM or some kind of copper spacer, especially with the NVIDIA cards and no temp sensors on the chips. You never know if they are actually being cooled. the pads in my sig may or may not be the right thickness.

no.

 

The NVIDIA 8800m GTX in my Alienware m15x-R1 died a while ago and was not recoverable by 'baking'. Since then I've been looking for a replacement.

I pretty sure that the Alienware m15x-R1 contains a MXM 2.1 Type III slot.

As such I was wondering if an NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M MXM 2.1 Type would work in my Alienware m15x-R1?

I'm concerned not only in terms of the slot compatibility but also the BIOS capability between the GFX card and the laptop.

Any advice is appreciated!

 

You might want to read this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...tems/384642-area-51-m15x-nvidia-gtx-280m.html

If the 280m fits, so should the fx 3700m. Don't know about bios capability. Depending on which version of the 3700m you buy, you might be able to flash the 280m vbios onto it and have it recognized as a 280m. I think the version that you want in that scenario would be the HP fx 3700m with a .10 vbios sticker on the card (not .5).

 

@moral hazard:

Thanks for the advice!

I am making the assumption that the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M is the similar to the 280m GTX. The concerns I have are:

a) The performance of a Quadro card for gaming at is deafult bios and/or will this require the bios to be flashed to 280m?
- this thread didn't looked promising but I;ve PMed the OP directly:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/388637-new-generations-best-workstation-15-4-alienware-m15x-p-fx-3700m.html

b) The temperature of a the FX 3700M in an m15x running similar to a 280m GTX!
- I had seen the thread you specify a long time ago but always had concerns over the Alienware m15x-R1 chassis+cooling handling the 280m GTX. As such I've been looking for a 9800m GT or a 260m GTX at a reasonable price but with no luck. Hence the FX 3700M.

c) Durability of the FX 3700M.
- The 8800m GTX was a lemon! Some customers were even entitled to refund: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-area-51-aurora-legacy-systems/523582-nvidia-gpu-litigation.html
- Given that the Alienware m15x-R1 was also a lemon I'm very sour about still working with this laptop.

 

I'm about to test the 280m gtx with lower clocks/voltages when it arrives (which will still make it run faster then anything else available on the a51 m15x), i can update you on temps (should be a bit lower then the stock 280m gtx, hopefully enough to get it in the 8800m gtx temperatures range) and how it runs if you want.

 

If you can get the card running at full clocks (extra) it will give you great performance without needing to be flashed with the 280m vbios. If you run it with the same clocks as the 280m it will give you the same performance in games.

I have one and played crysis/metro 2033 and lots of other games on it just fine with great settings (but my screen res was only 1280x800).

3700m will run really hot, I think it was one of the reasons my motherboard failed.

Yeah it might be a lemon, but I don't know for sure.