Dell Alienware m18 R2 Cpu upgrading

[Xeper8x8]

My CPU is on the brink since its old and its bottlenecking my gaming performance at 1.20 ghz, so i gotta get another one. I want to upgrade it to the highest one for my machine which is Intel Core i7-3940XM (from what ive researched). Now, if i do this, do i have to have a different cooling system? Like different heatsink, fan etc? And do i have to upgrade my GPU as well? Luckily their considerably cheap so im happy with that at least.

 

Specs:

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-3630QM 2.4ghz

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M

PSU: 240w

Battery: 6600mAh
BIOS: Alienware A14

Bit: 64bit

HDD: Kingston SSD 120GB

Ram: 24GB DDR3

OS: Windows 10 Enterprise

[Coolmaster]

That socket is soldered, you can't upgrade it's CPU. This is wrong, it is PGA so you can upgrade it.

Edited December 13, 2020 by Coolmaster
I was wrong :(

[Xeper8x8]

13 minutes ago, Coolmaster said:

That socket is soldered, you can't upgrade it's CPU.

So what does this, https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Alienware-M18X-R2-Upgrade-CPU-Intel-Core-i7-3630QM/td-p/5520051, mean?

[Xeper8x8]

58 minutes ago, Coolmaster said:

This is wrong, it is PGA so you can upgrade it.

So i CAN upgrade then? I thought that dude was lying for a sec lol. Also, i did a little more research and ppl were saying you gotta get a triple pipe heat sink for the Intel Core i7-3940XM. Man, those are expensive lol. Do i have to get another type of fan too or is the one i have good enough? Cant find anything on fans. Do i have to upgrade my GPU also? Like, would the GPU be able to keep up with the Intel Core i7-3940XM? Sorry if these are dumb questions as i've obviously never upgraded these parts before...only hdds and other similar parts.

[Coolmaster]

Honestly that system is very old and I wouldn't invest any more money into it. That laptop is massive, and I bet super loud, and has terrible battery life. You can get a Walmart Motile, for $400. That system has a much much much better CPU, and even the integrated graphics will be better than a 660M. And it will actually be portable, and not a massive brick.

[Mark Kaine]

40 minutes ago, Xeper8x8 said:

So i CAN upgrade then? I thought that dude was lying for a sec lol. Also, i did a little more research and ppl were saying you gotta get a triple pipe heat sink for the Intel Core i7-3940XM. Man, those are expensive lol. Do i have to get another type of fan too or is the one i have good enough? Cant find anything on fans. Do i have to upgrade my GPU also? Like, would the GPU be able to keep up with the Intel Core i7-3940XM? Sorry if these are dumb questions as i've obviously never upgraded these parts before...only hdds and other similar parts.

while it's almost certainly possible to upgrade the GPU, it would likely be very expensive, as mobile laptop GPUs aren't exactly a thing that gets sold regularly as a part... (it's also heck of complicated, I've seen a tutorial, but unfortunately I'm not finding it anymore, it was nvidia 840 to 850m on some oc forum iirc...) 

 

But you may not even need to do that, maybe a cpu upgrade alone would already be sufficient...  you'd have to try it out and it seems to be a lot easier and cheaper than upgrading the GPU so why not? 

 

ps: @Coolmasterhas a good point also tho, it might just not be worth it anymore and better to move on 

[Coolmaster]

I just look more into the laptop. https://www.amazon.com/alienware-am18xr2-11481bk-18-4-inch-anodized-aluminum/dp/b00ang3vxy 

And it is so massive. 17lbs and 8 inches thick. And a 35W CPU with a 50W GPU will drain that battery so fast. You may as well get a desktop.

[Xeper8x8]

12 hours ago, Xeper8x8 said:

My CPU is on the brink since its old and its bottlenecking my gaming performance at 1.20 ghz,

Lmao well today, its at normal again. By normal i mean not running at 1.20 ghz (normal being 2-3 ghz)...Can anyone explain that?! Idk how long it was at that low speed for yesterday, id say maybe a few hours since i had it on all day, but was afk for few hours and didnt start gaming until late in the day at like 8pm or so when i noticed the slow speed. idk, ill see what it does later today.

[MattyB79]

The M18x R2 can take an i7 3920XM or 3940XM. You will also need to upgrade the heatsink to the 3-pipe one to take the extra heat these chips put out. I have mine running at 4.2GHz with no voltage changes but it can go a lot higher if you really want to tweak it.

I'm also running a GTX 1070 in mine. I also have an MXM to NVMe adapter in the slave GPU slot and I'm using a 970 Evo boot drive.