What can I upgrade to fix it? M15X

Hi everyone!

My girlfriend's birthday is coming up and she has a M15x. I don't know much about computers, but I know the basics. The laptop is mostly stock specs, with the exception of some ram upgrades. She likes to game (League of Legends), but is always the last one to load and lags a lot. What can buy her that will fix this? I was thinking of buying her a new GPU, maybe the amd 7970m? Will it run ok with the rest of the parts?

I anyone would be kind enough as to post a link for some of these parts at a good price that would help so much, I'd hate to buy the wrong part.

Thanks in advance,

pan.

 

A solid state drive would definitely speed up loading times as would more memory, 8GB minimum.

But a graphics card upgrade will definitely give the best improvement in performance. 7970M is a good choice but if you are spending some $$$ try to pick up a GTX 680M. Its quite tricky to install but all the information is here on the forum and a few people have actually done it so they can chime in to help you out. The 680M definitely works better than the 7970M and throttles less. 7970M is cheaper, easier to install and probably more available but can throttle (stutters in games) if you also ugprade to an extreme processor and try to overclock.

Both are currently available on the NBR marketplace actually at very good prices, particularly the 680M.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/com...-dell-amd-7970m-r3-r4-heatsink-x-bracket.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/computer-components/727435-fs-dell-gtx-680m.html

 

I agree with fatboyslimerr, while a memory upgrade or an SSD might help, the new GPU will help her more with the gameplay.

 

Thanks for the rapid reply guys! I'm leaning more toward the 680m. That's a great price fatboyslimerr! where would I buy a heatsink compatible for it though?

 

Heatsink is always the same, there is only one for the M15x gpu. What differs is the x-bracket. It depends what card your girlfriend currently has but if its the GTX 260M I think it will work with the GTX 680M.
There is a possibility that the screws currently on the heatsink aren't long enough to apply proper pressure in which case you'll need to buy some screws that fit in that x-bracket and remove the screws currently attached to heatsink, along with the c-clips. Can be tricky but if you imagine you need to "ping them off" its not so difficult.

If you do manage to get a 680M you'll need to read up about modifying the inf. file of the nvidia drivers. There are some modded drivers available online, particularly @ Tech ¦ Inferno.
Take a look at this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/725555-questions-680m-m15x.html that might help.

 

What about the 670mx ? You think that would be worth it ? /easier ?

 

choice of which graphics card is yours to choose, the 670m is a nice cheap card and powerful to. just try and make sure you get a dell card.