Possibly buying a used M15x, need some info please.

My cousin wants to sell me a used m15x. It has an I7 cpu and a Radeon 5730 with 6gb of ram. It was shipped in December of 2010. I have the service tag but I don't see anywhere that gives me R1, R2, etc. What Revision number is this? What revisions exist for these? I also see some stuff about upgrading these, can you replace the CPU and GPU in these? I currently have a M11x and that's not possible on those as everything is soldered in. Any info or pointing me to any informative threads would be great, thank you!

 

There really is no r1 or r2. The one your cousin is selling is the dell alienware M15x which is basically the latest one which is obviously discontinued. Yes you can upgrade the cpu, gpu, ram, hdd, screen. Best for cpu is 940xm, but better off with the 920xm. For the gpu, the 7970m. How much is he selling it for?

 

Thanks bud, + rep! He only wants $450 and it still has 9+ months on the warranty, so I figure it's a steal either way. It has the 740QM I7 CPU, any good? Also how does the 5730 stack up and what would be a good upgrade for it? I want it to be mostly plug and play and 100% functional with minimum tweaking. I was doing some reading and saw some cards give issues. Also I want a budget card, I know I saw the 560m was going for $100-150 on ebay but the 580 was like $500+. Either way it's gotta be a lot more powerful than my M11x, which has run most anything I've thrown at it with some minor hiccups in only a couple games. I would still prefer an M14x as it would fit better on my lapdesk ( I have a Razer Naga and Razer Nostromo on both sides of it), plus I'm used to getting 4+ hours of battery with light use but for the price, how can I pass!?

 

In all honesty for $450 i'd buy it too, because the M15x is just amazing. There would be a difference in terms of gaming because you would have a 1080p screen vs your 11x 720p screen. The 560m is plug and play for the most part; you just have to mod the driver ini files (adding a line or two, full thread about it). The 580m is a no go, too much power draw. The m14x would be more portable than the M15x, but for gaming performance, M15x hands down! The 5730m card would let you run games on low settings, and some games you may have to turn the res down as well from 1080p to say 900p or so.

 

Yes M15x at that price is amazing! I recently upgraded my dated gtx 460m to a 6990m for less than $140 and feel that was money well spent.
The CPU should be fine to start with. You can always upgrade to the 920xm or 940xm when you have spare cash.

6970m is also a cheaper option and very good value for money. These cards are plug and play. Someone on this forum recently fitted a GTX 660m 2GB with no problems (except ini mod) so you really have a great choice of cards.

 

Indeed. On the topic off battery life my M15x in sig equipped with 9 cell battery can get a good 2.5-3 hours light use. This with about 70% usuable capacity. A brand new 9 cell would allow me to run 3-3.5 hours no problem. Turn the screen brightness down a little and perhaps 4 hours might JUST be possible lol. This in a machine with dual SDD, HDD, 920xm and 7970M

In the future the next gen gpus will be even more power efficient in idle mode so even better battery life!

 

WOW! If you don't get it I would! haha. It's a really nice deal... You can put in a 5870 with little to none tweaking

 

Well I sold my M11x (I miss it already!) and picked up the M15x. Man this thing is big, especially coming from my M11, I would be happier with a M14x but for the price I paid I'm not complaining. Doing some research it seems like my 5730 is a pretty low end card. I will be looking to replace it eventually. Seems like the 6970m and 6990m are popular choices and offer good bang for the buck. Anyone know where to get these at a good price? I don't see any on eBay. Fatboy I saw you got one for $140? Also are their any other GPUs in this performance range for < $200?

 

6990M sure is bang for buck. Another card to look out for in coming months after a price drop (once newness wears off) is the NVidia 675MX. Nvidia cards do take a little vbios tweaking to work properly but this card is next most powerful after the 7970M and costs ALOT less than the 680M and a little less than the 7970M.

Also out now is the 660M GTX it is also a good little card and if you OC it you will get better performance than the 6990M!

Compared with the M11x sure the M15x is big and chunky! Also the M15x hasn't been refreshed since it's release 3.5 years ago. It is going to be chunky!
The M14x is alienware's best selling laptop. They realized the M15x would lose them too much money as nobody would buy a new one for several years due to upgradeability!

You made the right choice going old school. The M14x is a joke. Your new "old" laptop has the potential to absolutely crush and destroy the newest M14x where it counts; in games! This will continue while alienware use soldered on midrange GPU's in their plasticky bestseller

 

Thanks, good info on the cards. I do much prefer the the footprint of the M14x but indeed it is a shame that the GPU can't be upgraded. I've kind of grown accustomed to not being able to upgrade as I haven't owned a desktop for 6+ years. I tend to purchase a new a laptop every 2 years or so. I'm not a hardcore gamer but I do like to be able to play whatever on decent graphical settings. The M14x would suit my needs and be more comfortable sitting on my lap. Then of course I would have to upgrade in a couple years instead of just buying a new GPU. For now though I'm going to upgrade my GPU and I'll hang on to the 15x and see if I get used to the bulk. It's actually already growing on me and I'm definitely enjoying the larger screen. I ran a 3dmark06 yesterday and only got about 8300! I think I was getting 6500 with my M11x R1 (1.66ghz C2D with 335m) so not a huge jump in performance from that to this so my GPU has definitely got to go! Pretty sure my 720qm will give me all the punch I need for now though.

 

Yeah the 720qm isn't a bad chip. HOwever it is starting to show its age due to its low clockspeeds. If you do upgrade the cpu jump straight to the 920xm. With an OC it is 100% faster! Not a joke. I can run 3.3ghz all all cores and about 3.7ghz on 1 and 2 cores

 

My 6990m has a stock 3dmark11 graphics score of 3200. Not sure on stock GTX 660m score but I've seen one with stable OC at 3400!
Although I did get my 6990m up to graphics score of 3600 I doubt I'd actually be able to play games at those clocks due to temperatures.

The overclocking potential of this card almost makes me want one just for fun! 7970m I think has a score around 6000....................................................need a say more?

 

However at 3600 you would have to clock the core up to 1300mhz! The 660M would at that point be no more power efficient lol