Official Alienware M17XR4 thread

[echiz3n]

ran 3dmark 11 on stock got a score of P5951..
but my cpu is not recognised

 

[Kyo_kusanagi86]

ran 3dmark 11 on stock got a score of P5951..
but my cpu is not recognised

What your Full specs?

 

[ondooy]

 

[echiz3n]

My mx17 worth upgrading to win 8 or maintain my win7 pro?

 

[trigger25sg]

I upgraded the gtx660m to gtx680m for my alienware from ebay. They sent me a wrong card and send me dell quadro K5000M.

After whacking my brains for a few hours i got it to work. Everything is working fine in games havent tried professional software yet. Optimus working too and turbo boost.

If anyone wanna buy the quadro K5000m can hook me up. Gaming performance is same as gtx680m on alienware. Below is a screenshot of the card.

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/12/12/03/eg7.png

 

[xndr.teh.parser]

I upgraded the gtx660m to gtx680m for my alienware from ebay. They sent me a wrong card and send me dell quadro K5000M.

After whacking my brains for a few hours i got it to work. Everything is working fine in games havent tried professional software yet. Optimus working too and turbo boost.

If anyone wanna buy the quadro K5000m can hook me up. Gaming performance is same as gtx680m on alienware. Below is a screenshot of the card.

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/12/12/03/eg7.png

you did the upgrading by yourself?

if that's so, then maybe I can just buy the base model with gtx660m and do the same thing like you did.

would you mind telling the ebay seller where you bought your gtx680m? Also, how was the shipping? etc etc.

Thanks

 

[trigger25sg]

you did the upgrading by yourself?

if that's so, then maybe I can just buy the base model with gtx660m and do the same thing like you did.

would you mind telling the ebay seller where you bought your gtx680m? Also, how was the shipping? etc etc.

Thanks

This is a benchmark of the quadro k5000m a.k.a gtx680m. On ebay is usd 2500 lol.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e371/demonhunter76/k5000m.jpg

Temps are good around 70 degrees and its like 5-10% faster than my msi gt60 with gtx680m maybe its a difference in processor. Alienware m17xr4 3820 qm vs msi gt60 3610qm chip.

Yeah i done the upgrading myself, depending on the card. Some are just plug and play some you need to flash a dell gtx680m vbios over it.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M 2GB DDR5 MXM 3 0B VGA Module | eBay

Bought this for alienware.

MSI GT60 VGA Upgrade Kit NVIDIA GTX 680M 4GB DDR5 MXM 3 0B | eBay

Bought this for my msi gt60.

Hope it helps for anyone looking to upgrade.

oh ya almost forgot, if you playing on the bed, get a laptop cooler. coz alienware sucks air from under the laptop. Without cooler play on bed i get like 80s temp. On a flat surface i get like 70 on full load.

 

[xndr.teh.parser]

This is a benchmark of the quadro k5000m a.k.a gtx680m. On ebay is usd 2500 lol.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e371/demonhunter76/k5000m.jpg

Temps are good around 70 degrees and its like 5-10% faster than my msi gt60 with gtx680m maybe its a difference in processor. Alienware m17xr4 3820 qm vs msi gt60 3610qm chip.

Yeah i done the upgrading myself, depending on the card. Some are just plug and play some you need to flash a dell gtx680m vbios over it.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M 2GB DDR5 MXM 3 0B VGA Module | eBay

Bought this for alienware.

MSI GT60 VGA Upgrade Kit NVIDIA GTX 680M 4GB DDR5 MXM 3 0B | eBay

Bought this for my msi gt60.

Hope it helps for anyone looking to upgrade.

oh ya almost forgot, if you playing on the bed, get a laptop cooler. coz alienware sucks air from under the laptop. Without cooler play on bed i get like 80s temp. On a flat surface i get like 70 on full load.

can u help me upgrade mine when i buy one?

also, i researched about the upgrade from 660m to 680m, it says that you need a new heatsink for the 680m, is it true? does the heatsink comes with the 680m when you buy it from ebay?

 

[trigger25sg]

Nope you can use the gtx660m heatsink it fits. Just add some thermal pads on it and you need the x bracket from the gtx660m. thats it very simple swap.

 

[xndr.teh.parser]

Nope you can use the gtx660m heatsink it fits. Just add some thermal pads on it and you need the x bracket from the gtx660m. thats it very simple swap.

one more question, when you bought the gtx680m from ebay, did you still pay for gst? and how many days did you wait for it to arrive?

 

[Browniefloppy]

you did the upgrading by yourself?

if that's so, then maybe I can just buy the base model with gtx660m and do the same thing like you did.

would you mind telling the ebay seller where you bought your gtx680m? Also, how was the shipping? etc etc.

Thanks

I think it better and cheaper to upgrade with dell. The base model which is $3800++ just need to top up another $500 to $4200++ and u can get gtx680m with warranty. I had the same idea as u when I brought mine but now seem like got to fork out another $800+- for the gtx680m and don't know what to do with the old gtx660m.

 

[trigger25sg]

I think it better and cheaper to upgrade with dell. The base model which is $3800++ just need to top up another $500 to $4200++ and u can get gtx680m with warranty. I had the same idea as u when I brought mine but now seem like got to fork out another $800+- for the gtx680m and don't know what to do with the old gtx660m.

I think the gtx680m upgrade is 900+ now provided you customise a system from them. If you are like me buy it from retail your out of luck. Anyway its better you give them up call instead of buying online, the person gave me a $300 bucks discount off the 3.8k base model configuration haha. I bought it from retail for quite a good price so i got no options left but to do my own upgrading. Alienware quote me sgd $1900 for gtx680m alone. Thats really crazy

Nope no gst and shipping took about 5-7 days to reach my home vis usps or fedex.

 

[trigger25sg]

Ok sending the quadro back and just got a clevo gtx680m to play with in my m17xr4. Installation was pretty easy temps are VERY impressive compared to my msi gt60 (tough job for 1 fan doing cpu and gpu cooling).

After installing i was surprised it was listed as a dell card in my alienware instead of clevo or other brand, even after flashing to a msi bios its stuck listed as dell in gpu-z. Installed the nvidia 306.97 whql drivers, clocks are stuck at 324 @ full load.

After whacking my brains a bit, the latest nvidia beta drivers work fine. last whql was 306.97 so i will just use the beta drivers for now until they release the next whql.

Done a few test stock clocks with the beta drivers. heaven ungine seems to have a bit of performance drop vs 306.97. Moving on to 3dmark11, 719 clocks/900 memory got about 5.8+ k in points. I done a few image enhancements to full quality on nvidia drivers and flashed to a overclocked msi bios 915 clocks/ 1125 memory 3dmark broke the 7k mark. Here is a screenshot.

I can overclock higher but i think i just stop at here. i only want to play games in peace instead of getting the max performance and worry about temps or frying the chip.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e371/demonhunter76/clevocards.png

It goes to see how much headroom or power can still be tapped on this beastly card. My temps are about 78 degree on the overclockd gtx680m msi bios in my alienware m17x4.

I am sure the 7970m will overclock sky high as well, but i don;t have 1 yet to test or play around. Conclusion msi dell or clevo cards do work in alienware m17xr4. Only difference is the dell card its 2 gb and the msi and clevo being 4gb.

 

[xndr.teh.parser]

Need help.

I bought my alienware in malaysia, but i think the configuration is messed up, and I want the Windows OS to be reinstalled but I dont have the CD.
Can I take my alienware to the Alienware in Suntec or any Dell Store here and have them serviced?

 

[trigger25sg]

Alienware should be premium warranty worldwide 1st year i think. Just give them a call and ask a tech come over your house and tell them your problem. I dun think you have to carry that monster down.

 

[xndr.teh.parser]

Alienware should be premium warranty worldwide 1st year i think. Just give them a call and ask a tech come over your house and tell them your problem. I dun think you have to carry that monster down.

Anyway, I clean installed everything myself. spent the whole night for it.

Does anyone here do repasting of CPU themselves?

I just played left4dead2 and here are my CPU Temps:

Are my temps normal? my processor is i7 3820qm.

 

[trigger25sg]

Hi guys, i was thinking of upgrading my alienware m17xr4 wifi card from intel centrino 2230 to maybe bigfoot 1202 or 1103 myself, anyone having any issue with the bluetooth or drivers on windows 8?

I think big foot 1202 is 2 antenna and 1103 is 3 antenna.

 

[crysis3love]

hello would any one of you kind souls with a high end graphic card be able on one of these be able to film a gameplay video of it running crysis 3 when it's out?

Thanks!

 

[fxloading]

PROCESSOR 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3740QM Processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.7GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 8, English (64bit) edit
COLOUR OPTIONS Nebula Red with Soft Touch Finish edit
HD DISPLAY 17.3" (43.94 cm) WideFHD (1920 x 1080) WLED LCD edit
MEMORY 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM (2 x 4GB) edit
HARD DRIVE 32GB mSATA SSD and 1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive (500GBx2)(Raid 0) edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X DVD + /-RW Drive with DVD + R double layer write capability edit
VIDEO CARD 2GB DDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680M edit
WIRELESS NETWORK CARD Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230 With Bluetooth 4.0 edit
WARRANTY 3-year Premier Service with Accidental Damage Services and Dell OnCall

I check in dell website, above configuration cost $4,660.041, and not able to change GTX680M to 7970M. anyway to reduce the cost from top?

 

[trigger25sg]

There is enduro issues on 7970m with m17xr4 maybe thats a reason why they took 7970m out of the website.