*M15X + 6970* Anyone thinking of trying when they come out?

That looks like the Dell card. Could be good news.

 

My card should be here tomorrow. I will take some picture by itself and post it on here.

 

whats the cheapest Dell will sell the cards for? 500$ is a lot of money.

 

The cheapest is 575 from dell. I had originally order from them but they had delay it two time so I had cancel and order from aikimox. You won't find anywhere right now that sale this card less than 550.

 

If it works and/or can be flashed to the Dell vbios, then I might be sold.

 

Called Dell, after talking to 5 different sales reps, 2 of which refused to sell me the card because I didn't own an M17X R3 I talked one down to 360$USD + Taxes & Shipping total = 431$. I placed the order and was told that as long as it's in an Alienware machine that it will be under warranty. I placed the order should be here by tuesday.

 

seems very cheap

 

Looking forward to those pics and your impressions.

 

That sound like it for a 5870m.

 

Regarding svl7's fan problem. I was talking to a friend of mine at work about this, and he remembers something about this occurring on another ATI series of cards. Might be worth researching?

Are those pictures of the installation ready?

 

Hey, thanks... haha, I definitely had fun yesterday, SLAYER and Megadeth at the same evening, not something yout see everyday \m/ hahaha!!

Here's the pic with the metal bezel (or whatever it's called) on the back of the plate... I wrapped mine in insulating tape to be sure it doesn't short anything... hope I can get one that fits properly soon.

Yeah, this seems to be the same card as I have...

On standard clocks it will outbench the 5850 and the temps while gaming are ok so far. Check out the benchmark thread for the scores.

Omg, this sound too good to be true... This would make me jealous, really... arrrgh

 

Slayer and Megadeth? You are so lucky. The uk isnt getting the big 4 til July, even then Jeff Hannerman isnt gonna be in slayer and Scott Ian wont be with Anthrax

Anyway, back to topic, thanks for the pic!!

 

And thats the 260m Bezel?

 

Well, it was indoor in a small club, way better than a sonisphere openair imo, hahaha, but yeah, you're right, Hannemann wasn't on stage, but the Cannibal Corpse guitarist who replaced him did a fantastic job anyway.
You've got bad luck in the UK, the "European Carnage Tour" doesn't stop there for a gig afaik...

But back to topic... when you get a card make sure you also get a fitting metal bezel for the card... the standard one from your 260m, 5850 or whatever won't fit properly.

No, I tried both, 5850 and 260m have exactly the same.

Edit: I don't know whether the bezel is included when you get the card from Dell... probably it is. Both the replacement 260m as well as the new Dell 5850 (which I got from Arch Nemesis) had the bezel included... make sure you get one when you buy the card.

 

Did the Bezel come with the card?

 

No, I took it from another card I had laying around... that's why i said make sure you get one. I'm in contact with my seller, hopefully he can send me one that fits.

 

Hmm, I might see if MXM upgrade will provide one with the card. Failing that, I might see if Dell uk will supply a card, they might provide the necessary holder as well.

Failing that, can you remember where that bezel was from? Do we know what Inap used to hold it in?

Is it worth you and inap collaborating and creating a mini installation guide for the improvisations you made? Like the holders and drivers you used?

BTW svl7 I'll have a longer chat with my friend at work about the ATI drivers and fan issue, I didnt get much of a chance to talk to him today, unless of course you have already found a solution.

 

just swap the mounting plate from your existing card. its just held together with some kind of double sided tape.
also i do have a gpu swapping guide, its for the 5870 but would still help with any card.

 

I would think the existing 5850m and 260m metal bracket would fit. Did you use the 5850m metal bracket when you did the swap inap?

 

yeah i used rogue's 5850 bracket, but any bracket from any M15x card will work.

 

No, it didn't fit for my card, as you can see in the picture which I posted earlier... though it's good news that it fits for the Dell card.

 

thats strange. then how does the heatsink line up?

 

As you can see, the holes fit perfectly, but not the rest... they touch some resistors... it's not an ideal solution atm, but it works, at least temporarly.

Edit: Forgot the pic:

 

As svl7 stated, when you get the card (at least from dell) it'll come with the back plate.

The one i sold to svl was brand new and sealed and came with it's own bracket.

 

hmm maybe it was the same for the dell version too but i just didn't notice. i only had a limited amount of time so i didn't check to carefully.

can you mark where they are touching maybe we can do a mod on it.

you can prolly do something like this: so the mounting plate will be 2 pieces.

 

On the other picture you can see where the metal thing should be (marked in orange)... when you compare it with this picture you should be able to make out the small resistors which get covered by the retention thing.



It's almost impossible to make a good picture which shows what gets covered... hope this helps a bit.

I have yet to hear from MXM-upgrade, I hope they can send me one...


Edit: Just seen your pic, nice idea, but some resistors will still get covered...

 

ok that picture helped alot wow this is a tough one, even the r3 mounting didn't work for the M15x. also just confirmed that the dell card will have this problem too. should still work fine or the last resort is cutting everything up and have 4 individual parts for the mounting plate.

here is the dell card for reference

 

Thanks for clarifying this!

Yes... that's a possible solution, but the pressure of the heatsink won't be spread across the PCB board at all, it would be concentrated at four spots, not ideal either imo.

 

your prolly right, but i still think it could possibly work. too bad i don't have a spare mounting plate for an M15x or i would try to mod one for ya. although i have a spare clevo one but those mounting things are too tall.

 

Hehe, thanks anyway!! I hope they can send me one... otherwise I will look into a little mod like you suggested or trying to make a custom one (when I find time and access to the right tools).

 

let me know if ya need anything. the plate i can make but need the hole thingy for the screws.

 

So is there any real issue to use your 5850m bracket slv7?

 

So the card I ordered from Dell won't just install directly into the M15X? If the stock bracket won't mount how does the HSF connect?

 

It would still mount. But it touches some resistors, I think it should still be fine to use.

 

would increasing the height of the X bracket work? maybe you can add a washer or something to it. just a thought

 

Well, the bezel stands out a bit more because it's on some resistors... it's really a tight fit in the end, increasing the height of it more would definitely not work.

My conclusion is: It works so far, but it's not and ideal solution... and you have to make sure that you don't short anything. Just contact your dealer and see that you can get a fitting bezel with the card.

 

Joebarchuck created a video about repasting the 6970m in the R3. In it, he shows a relatively large heat pad on the back of the 6970m adjacent to the bracket. Are you using a similar pad in your transplant? Could it help? YouTube - Alienware M17X R3 Re-pasting Guide and 6970 re-pasting guide - Newegg Promo Code.

 

No, there's no such pad. Wouldn't help anyway... I guess it's mainly there to make sure that the card doesn't make contact with the motherboard which you can see beneath the card... in the M15x there's everything covered with plastic anyway, you can't see the mobo from the card slot.

 

Inap, didn't the bracket that was on your 6970 have a black rubber layer? Did we use that part on our test?

 

yeah it the protective double sided tape and yes i did use it on our test. the M15x mounting is useable but does make contact with some part not sure if it has any long term effect or not.

 

I am thinking of buying the 6970m from Aikimox.

I was wondering svl7 if the card is ok now (fans speed and driver), forget about the mods... This can be done in time, eventually.

I only wanted to know if it really makes a difference between 5850m and 6970 (which will never be used at it's full performance in m15x, probably).

Can you kindly confirm the above, at what stage have you reached?

Thank you.

 

I just installed the latest drivers, 11.4 preview, works fine so far I'm pretty swamped atm and didn't find time to really look into a good solution for the fans, but the manual fan control with HWinfo32 works great for me.

I have yet to hear from Kris from MXM-upgrade about whether the card works with the Dell vbios (this might solve the fan issue, maybe not... we'll see) but he's pretty swamped as well atm.


Anyway, the performance of this card is fantastic, it's almost overkill, haha. I mean the 5850 is already a great performer, but the 6970m outperforms it easily at stock clocks, check out the benchmark thread... and I'd expect the card to become even better with future driver updates, it's still a pretty new card.

Whether it's worth the money is up to you to decide... it's not a cheap card at all. Maybe I can make some FPS measurements in some games later this evening. I haven't installed a lot of games atm, but for example BO or L4D2 is on the system and if you're interested I could try to get some numbers.

 

I thank you for your quick reply. I do not mind paying for the card, this is not an issue. My concern is, if it will really work properly or there will be issues, just like you mentioned that you have to control the fans manually. Specially that I was told about the card that it is a AMD original card and not the DELL one. I am 100% sure I will have the same issue as you have (fans problem).

I think is better to wait until you will figure it out how can this matter can be solved. Other than that I do not have any concerns.

Thank you once again for your support.

 

Would you be kind enough and provide me the link with the benchmark page? Thanks

 

Here you go, you should find the 6970m benches on the latest pages...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/539841-official-all-powerful-m15x-owners-lounge-part-5-a.html


Edit: Fail, that was the owner lounge... hahaha... here's the correct link: M15x benchmark thread

 

Thank you.

 

So, how much is 6970m from Dell?

 

isn't that link for the owners lounge????

 

Hahaha, omg, I fail... Thanks inap!!!!


M15x benchmark thread

 

Just got the card in. Currently installing it now. The fan is on pretty high like slv7 mentioned. I'm doing a fresnmh install as well so it might take a little longer. I'll post some bench tonight.