What all can I upgrade

My current setup is

i7 Q740 @ 1.73GHZ
4 GB ram
ATI Mobility Hadeon HD 5730
ST9250410AS Hard Drive

Could I please get some upgrade advice with links? please and thank you. I am currently about to add a second harddrive which will probably be a 1TB 5400 rpm drive 8MB cache.

 

There are TONNES of threads on this topic.

i7 740QM >> 940XM $300-$400 on eBay

4 GB ram >> 16GB $180 Newegg

ATI Mobility Hadeon HD 5730 >> 6970m/6990m There's a sticky for that.

ST9250410AS Hard Drive >> SSD Take a look in the SSD section of the hardware forum.

What matters most is what do you use your machine for? What do you need to upgrade?

 

I am currently using the laptop to play WoW college work run AutoCAD and other similar programs to AutoCAD

I thought the computer could only go up to 8GB RAM?

 

It will take 16GB, it's been proven here.

For your uses, prioritizing the CPU and RAM is the probably the best option.

 

Would it be best to upgrade the ram first since its the cheapest piece?

 

Do you find yourself running out of ram?

 

does it depend on what is he doing like gaming or graphic designing

 

Right, he said he uses CAD programs. But if there's never a situation where he's pinning the RAM he currently has, then that isn't a priority to upgrade. In which case, the CPU would make much more of a difference.

 

Alternatively, you can check out the OP of the Owner's Lounge, it has many useful links.
Also, i know the search function is broken so here's an alternative:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ion-how-search-forum-read-before-posting.html

 

Well if you want a visable increase in performance you should upgrade to an ssd or gpu, as a cpu xm performance wont be noticeable unless you overclock it. You have one of the weakest gpu available. To this day my favorite upgrade would be the ssd. You should also benefit from a ram upgrade since u run autocad, 8 gigs would be good unless your willing to dishout the cash for 16gigs

 

Whoa! Fantastic thread!!!

I'm a student studying animation and use a bunch of 3D and editing programs.
After Effects eats my RAM really quickly when doing the RAM tests, usually gets up to about 90% of 8GB.

So how do I get 16GB RAM? I thought it could only do 8GB max!?!? If I could get 16GB it would save me so much time!!! Would I need a CPU upgrade or anything else?

Specs:
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 740 @ 1.73GHz
Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Graphics ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850
750GB HDD @7200
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
9-cell battery

What would I need to upgrade to get 16GB RAM?

Do I have to send it off to Dell? or is this a Do-at-own-risk kinda thing? And what of warranty?

Sorry for the hijack, dpsht316... I'm just as curious as you are...

 

Just look up a nice 2x8Gb kit of soDIMM and replace your old sticks (keep them safe just in case ).

 

So they need to be the DRR3, yes?

What are the possible issues that could arise with doing so?

Anyway, is it something I should get a Dell rep to do? Or is it a sneaky cloak and dagger kinda thing?

 

Yes, DDR3, it needs to be a kit like this one:

Newegg.com - CORSAIR 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Memory CMSA16GX3M2A1333C9

I'm pretty sure you can find cheaper but the above link is for informational purposes only.

As for installing the sticks, there's not much sorcery to it. Watch this video (you don't have to take out the hard drive to replace the memory sticks) so you'll get a better idea of what you need to do:

Alienware M15x Teardown 1 of 3 **READ SAFETY PRECAUTIONS PRIOR TO REPLACING PARTS** (Official Video) - YouTube

Basically after you have removed the battery and the back panel(door), jump to 1:14 in the video.

 

The link you have is for Mac, I'm assuming you're saying that it'll work with the Alienware?

Would I need to change any settings to allow for the extra 8GB ram? or change any bios settings?

I know very little about hardware installation, I have a friend who's teaching me when he can...

Would I have to run a memtest once installing the new ram?

Appreciate the info, mate.

 

T-ravisty, all you gotta do is tell it what cas latency you have and the frequency its running at, if it doesn't detect it already Also, you can change the voltage if you want. Nothing else in the bios.

Thanks to the people who tried this. This is very useful to me because I only have like 6gb and I need MORE and people told me that it wouldn't worked. I knew the m15x can handle anything you throw at it. Thanks for proving them wrong! Now, I need more RAM!