is it any worth buying a m15x (upgrades in mind) ?

hello, i've found a m15x in my country with these specs:

intel core i7 processor (i guess its the 720qm)
4 Gb RAM
ATI mobility radeon HD 5730 (could this be upgraded to: 6990 or 7970?)
280GB HDD
15 inchs screen

dunno which model of m15x is, if r1 or r2, a little help would be welcome.

ps: vendor says there's an issue with the optical drive, it only reads original cds and dvds, weird thing is it does not read its own backup dvds, is there any fix?

srry for bad english

 

You can put up to the 920/40XM i7 chip which is really very good. Can still keep pace with upper end Sandy Bridge chips (2820qm) due to their unlocked nature. The RAM can be increased up to 16GB, while yes you can put both the 6990M and the 7970M inside. Highly recommend going the 7970M route as it is cooler and more efficient than the 6990M not to mention much more powerful!

There is no proper R1 and R2 as far as I know. The orginal m15x was equipped with core 2 duo CPU's and older MXM 2.1 graphics cards.

Considering the spec you quoted included an i7 and 5730M this means you have the latest laptop The Dell owned Alienware M15x.

I recommend binning the ODD and getting a cheap external drive. Perhaps one that can also read blu ray's for added flexibility. Then you can put a fast small capacity SSD (say 256GB) in your normal HDD slot and up to a 1TB HDD in your ODD slot


Also if you go the 920XM plus 7970M route which is recommended you ought to upgrade the 150W PSU to the DELL flextronics 240W PSU. It is actually no bigger than the 150W physically but will run much cooler as it won't be as stressed.

Good luck and have fun upgrading

 

How much are they asking for it?

But +1 for what king said, there are a ton of different upgrades you can do, as the computer sits now it will still do things good but it can be improved.

 

vendor wants almost 1k$ for the machine, i've offered him around 850$ hopefully he will accept, but some other things come in mind:
-upgrade price (atleast for the 7970m, by the time i save something for the i7 920 or 940xm)
-heat (my sister owns a laptop with the 720qm and its a bit warm, considering its tdp 45w, while the 920/940 draw 55w)
-battery life ( since first i7s do not have IGPs, the 7970m will be running on all the time ?
-usb 3.0 ( though i've seen or heard an express card can supply an usb 3.0 port, am i wrong?

cheers

 

The M15x probably isn't for you if battery life is a concern. Pretty much need to have it plugged in 100% of the time. While you can squeeze out maybe 3 hours if you really try, performance is really bad on battery. Wouldn't be able to game or anything like that. You can overclock it for good on-battery performance, but than your looking at like an hour of battery, if that.

Ya you can get a USB 3.0 for the express card slot. I haven't personally, but I remember reading the thread about it.

Upgrade price: I'm not sure how much the 7970m is.

Heat: Sorry can't really help you here either, my 740 with fresh paste has really good temps, so I think 920 would still be safely under the limit. But I haven't used the 940 personally. I plan to upgrade to one soon though.

 

1K is a rip off I am afraid. It needs the 920xm and a much better GPU to be worth that much!!