Alienware M15X Upgrade

I see no reason why not to. The 920xm can still hold it's own
I haven't the funds for the 980M so will simply OC the 680M to death for the time being
Also who knows how AMD will respond. It seems they are waiting for the 980m to release before they bring out a new flagship card.

 

Will the stock alienware GPU heatsink (260M) work with 7970m/8970m/780m ? My 920xm temp seems ok now. I think i have read somewhere that the thermal paste takes between 2 to 200hrs to settle down and spread by itself. My crucial mx100 512gb works like a charm. Just need a good GPU now and will get the PSU

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Congrats on getting it to work. The old bracket MAY and I am not 100% sure on this may work on the 780m - nVidia series cards. It will not work with the AMD series cards. You will have to get a new bracket for the AMD cards, which may end up coming with the card. If not, I would invest in one. As far as the heatsink, it should be fine. If you have IC Diamond, there is no cure time. Artic Silver 5 has a 200 hour cure time. This is why I use IC Diamond for everything.

 

IC Diamond 24 the one u suggested me is worth it. It was expensive than other paste. I swear its worth it !! Thanks mate

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It's no problem and enjoy! Let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Or if you want to OC the 920XM.

 

If u can please point me to a thread where 920xm OC is discussed and i will go through it. If i have any Q i will ask for ur help apart from Prime95 what software do i need for OC and will stock cooling suffice for OV and OC ? Thanks

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You will need a program called ThrottleStop. Link: Download ThrottleStop 6.00 | techPowerUp And the install guide: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...arket-upgrades/531329-throttlestop-guide.html I would monitor temps and clock speeds to make sure you are not throttled when OC'ing. Start with 2.8Ghz and work your way up to what is stable. I would not have it hit higher than 86-88C. If a test lasts for more than 4 hours without an error or bluescreen, it should be pretty stable.

As far as Overvolting, I would not try it unless you are comfortable with the temps. Overvolting will raise temps in addition to the higher clock speeds. King of Interns and SVL7 has experience with overvolting, and you may want additional cooling if temps hit a high value. Stock cooling without an overvolt will depend on clock speed, cpu load and ambient temps. You have to balance it based on what you see on Throttlestop. Hope this helps.

 

Does these temps and clocks look normal ? I am using 150w psu and havent changed it yet btw.





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They look kinda high for the multiplier you set. Did you paste properly and cleaned the heatsink vents?

 

Also don't you need to have Clock Mod, Chip Clock Mod and Set multiplier all ticked, with set multi at turbo?

 

Those temps are to high you should get max 85c at max clock at stock voltage and cooling.

If you OV you have to improve the cooling ALOT.

 

I have cleaned the heat sinks with with compressed air. Will look into pasting again. Line method pasting or spreading ?

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Do i need to tick them all and go further ? In set multi option, i only can get 16T. 16T triggers the turbo i think (15+1), am i right ?

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I will re apply paste

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This is the previous paste when i opened to replace it. That was over heating.



After paste reapplication, the following ...



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I'm following this thread closely, I have the same laptop and I'm thinking of upgrading the 720QM to 920XM.
How about the processor work? One more cheerful system is perceived in the day to day?
I doubt if interested more heat to do the same as the 720 or if the contrary is a radical improvement. I usually use applications, casual games.
Thank you very much.

Un saludo desde España o/

 

It looks like the whole paste has moved to the sides. You have to be sure you are putting the right amount in the right spot. Look at youtube for guides on how to apply thermal paste. Before that you need to entirely clean the CPU. That means the die and the corners. Put a small line down the middle of the die and screw down a little at a time on each corner EVENLY. If you spread the paste with fingers, you leave the possibility of creating air bubbles. This will degrade cooling performance. If you still have overheating issues, I would take a look into your ambient temps. Also, re install your old cpu and check temps too. Those temps are too high for that much of an overclock. With that temps, I would avoid overvolting till you can lower it.

 

The 920XM will provide a huge benefit so long as you use Throttle Stop to overclock it. Be sure to have a PSU that can supply the power. 210W+ recommended. If you do gaming, I would look into possibly upgrading your GPU as well. Overclock result on each chip varies, but my 920XM can hit 3.6Ghz on 4 cores. It's stock clock is 2.0Ghz

Hope this helps.

 

Ahh, u need 210psw+ for OC .. No wonder it didnt went 3.6-3.7ghz on 1-2 cores and multies kept pushing back, even 24x on all cores kept throttling down at some point. Gonna repaste this weekend, have been busy with work so didnt bother doing it. I will order the delta made PSU, they are on ebay and at reasonable price, the 240w ones.

I am still looking for the GPU, no good deals and no UK sellers ... I missed R9 M290x for £200 auction on ebay, no 1 bid on it. I thought it was a different card and kept on researching the difference between 8970m and R9 M290x just to find out its the same thing after the auction has ended

World of Warcraft expansion is set end of this year. Stopped gaming for 2 years, planning a come back after a longggg break !

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my current 150w PSU is delta made, I ordered the delta made 240w PSU ... just a quick question, will the stock heat sink / cooling suffice for the 780M GTX or the 7970M / 8970M without griniding ? will the X brackets be compatible with my current heat sink ? I have a 260M GTX now by the way ...

what is the difference between 2K0KW and 3YMNY ? both are Alienware OEM 780M GTX part numbers. Both are PnP ?

 

I have the gtx 780M, the standard cooling doesn't exactly suffice. I know a guy with an m15x and gtx 780M that had way lower temps and he could even OC it, so maybe there is something wrong with my heatsink(I repasted a lot of times and it made no difference, the results are the same)
That being said, when you play something demanding and the CPU doesn't hold you back the temp will quickly go to 80C then slowly to 90C and above. I don;t know how much above, I never let it pass 90C, but I suspect it would eventually reach the thermal shutdown temp. However, in most games the CPU is a bottleneck for this card, even overclocked to max.

I have a KoI cooling mod now and temps go toward 80C when playing smth demanding.
In the end, I think a gtx 680M would be better for the m15x, it's a lot less hassle. I would sell my gtx 780M and switch to a 680m, but I have a bad experience with that card(had a new one and it fried in 3 days).

 

Right ... So basically its 680m, 7970m, 8970m ... Which one of these can OC highest on stock cooling and wont bottle neck with the 920xm OCed ? I have ordered a delta made 240w PSU. Regarding the pin mod i have read somewhere, how about dont remove the pin and remove the battery instead ? Because back then i noticed a slight decrease in performance while battery was in. I always gamed without the battery present and delivered as intended results ... Just a thought ...

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100% gtx 680m. That would be my choice now. Runs cooler and overclocks higher than 7970M. Pulling centre pin 100% necessary.

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Can u link me how to remove pin please. Will it work on delta made dell 240w psu ?

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Does an OCd 680m match with stock 780m or 860m ? I think i am going to get a 680m ...

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Heavily OCd 680m can match 780m. 860m sucks majorly unless its the Maxwell version which is SoC only.

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I just received my delta made dell 240w psu ... Need to look for something to take out the middle pin ...

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I am able to get 7970 for £200 inc delivery charges and 680m for about £250 and 8970 around the same price as well. I only lack a GPU now and can upgrade 16GB ram later on ... Need to make a final decision ... 7970m or 8970m or 680m ... 7970m is better than 8970m as some benches. 680m is better than 7970m ... I think i would go for 680m ... Any last minute suggestions ? I have downloaded package of 680m vBioses ...

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Should the stock cooling / heat sink / fan suffice for a heavily OCd 680m ? (Got 260m at the moment) will the X bracket included with it fit with my heat sink properly ?

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The X bracket from your 260m will fit the 680m properly.

 

The 8970M will future proof you in regards to high res textures due to 4GB ram. This only is important when you have ultra settings on high res games like Watch Dogs. While the 7970M scores higher in some benches to the 8970M, they are almost identical. The 8970M will run cooler and will have more ram. As far as the 680M, have not had much experience with it.

I would not pull the pin on the actual adapter. I would look into a cheap right angle adapter and pull the pin off that instead of the PSU. It's cheap and will do it's justice. There are plenty of guides and references here for this. Hope this helps.

 

Nope. If you heavily OC it you will need some auxiliary cooling under the gpu module to actively help cool it. Then again it depends on your definition of heavy OCing. At stock voltage the stock cooling should do pretty well I the card OC's pretty well on stock voltage. If you overvolt the card which for me is heavy OCing then you should do as I do

From what I can see so far I prefer the 680M to the 7970M. The extra vram on the 8970M will be of little use as the GPU just hasn't got the horsepower to fill so much vram even when OCed. By the time you do your framerates will be rock bottom.

The 7970M at a decent OC (still higher than stock 8970M) could use 2GB well. I cannot imagine this card even at 1000+mhz being able to effectively use anything more than 3GB. So basically unless you can run your 8970M at 1100mhz or more on the core and 1500mhz or more on the vram I don't think 4GB makes much difference to 2GB.

 

If i get the 680M, do i need to undervolt it or can i just plug it in and OC on the stock voltage. Do i need vBios for stock settings on the 680M ? The one i may be getting is a Dell OEM one.

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I am looking for a connector where i can removed the pin and connect it to the PSU. I got my delta made 240w psu and unlocked my A09 bios. Do i need to change something in the unlocked bios to maximize OC potential on stock voltage for the 920xm ?

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Nope. Simply use throttlestop and OC away.

Each 920xm chip has different potential though! Gotmilk got lucky (pun intended) His chip is able to achieve a ridiculous 3.6ghz stable across all cores on stock voltage. I could only get about 3.3ghz max on stock voltage. With an overvolt however I can just about beat him though! However it costs me dearly in terms of heat! I have extensively had to mod the cooling to manage the monstrous heat of the 920xm overvolted to nearly 4ghz!

I have no doubt if gotmilk does the same voltmod he would be able to achieve 4ghz on all cores at 30x multi. At 3,2ghz though the chip is still no slouch when paired with a decent GPU in games. The overvolting is just a nice option to those of us that want to get a little more out of the system.

 

I can get 23x - 24x stable on all cores. Not more than that. Gotmilk70 is luckyyy !!!

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Yeah that sounds about right. I could do 24x stable all day in Prime 95 at 25x though core2 would always crash out shortly into the test. Fine for game though.

Now I rock 28x stable on all cores and 29x on 1-2 cores. Get's hot though. Even today just watching a movie with the 2x 80x80mm fans on idle speed I still reached 66C max temp in ambient 22C. Although that core was hottest by 6C lol.

Take a recent game like wolfenstein new order however that uses the cpu fairly well and it reaches 90C easily with the fans on max speed. The fans can deliver nearly 50cfm each haha.

 

I am gonna place an order for 680M tonight and soon i will be part of the upgraded M15X family (^_^) ... Thanks to fatboyslimer, KOI, gotmilk, chopsy, screenio, zakablovia and not to forget slv7's amazing vBios contributions to the NBR community. I learned alotttt from you guys and the forums here

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Hold on man. Maxwell is about to launch. You might see some price drops coming very soon. Also the 970M is looking to be a very tasty mid range card! It will blow the 680M/780M out of the water. Only the 980M beats it and apparently only by a paltry 20%.

 

Aha ... Do u have any ideas about the middle pin. Instead of literally removing it, i want to be able to connect it to an external connector and remove the pin instead of the original PSU.

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Shouldnt i order 680m ? U mean i should wait ? How long for them to release ?

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Right Angle Connector Converter for Dell Laptop Power Adapter -LC90B | eBay

Here. Simply pull the pin out of the male end of the adaptor (part that plugs into the laptop. Then use it and you will have throttle free experience.

 

KOI is Legend !!!

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A couple of weeks I believe. Check out the threads about Maxwell in the gaming section of the forum.
Also AMD tonga should release soon too. Should be a nice bump over the current gen AMD tech. Cheaper to boot and will be the 970M main contender.

 

Will do. I am getting a deal on the 7970m for less than £200 and 680m for £250. I think i will delay it for now and wait as you said

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Hopefully the new gens nVidia and AMD GPUs shud work on the M15X (^_^)

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Hmm those prices sound about right. Not worth more. I sold my 7970M very recently for a bargain price of 165 quid + shipping the 680M is worth about 200 quid. However this tech is old. I only got the 680M because it was available at 165 quid a price I could easily sell the 7970M for. If it were a higher price I would have waited for Tonga and Maxwell to save the day.

At this point it is worth waiting I think at least for possible price drops to occur. If not even for getting your hands on a new part and make us all jealous of you haha. All gpu's have worked so far. As long as the mxm 3.0 standard is used it will work. The m15x is the most compatible mxm laptop in existence to date.

 

Haha ! Usually after how long do sellers post the new gen GPU parts as soon as they are released and what are the prices like usually ?

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Alienware replaced the M15x with the M14x but even their latest creation gets destroyed in games by an upgraded M15x. This will continue to happen if Maxwell and tonga work something I bet is the case.

 

I think the only limitations would be the MXM slot in the M15X's power draw max 100w-120w ?

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