Best Upgrade for M15x

[Jerochy]

Hey guys,

Lemme give you my specs before I forget:

i7 920xm

8gb ddr3

gtx 260m

250gb ssd

stock 180w power brick
1080p screen

 

I got an m15x off craigslist for $400 with those specs above. So far, I'm really happy with it, but it lacks a little in newer titles (and by lacks I mean doesn't open any games that require dx11 as you might have guessed). I want to upgrade the GPU, but I'm kinda torn on what I should get. Also, I have been cruising A LOT of other forums and posts people have made, but a lot of them are from 2010-2013, and the majority of the information is either irrelevant anymore, or just not right in regards to price to performance, or easy swaps. Oh, and I don't play the most demanding games and I do have a main computer to play the few I do. I mainly wanna just toy around with WoW, Heroes of the storm (which my current GPU does alright with both), maybe a little Rust, might be buying the Witcher 3 in the future... along with BF4... my steam library kinda sucks... 

Also, I am concerned as my CPU get's pretty hot. I reapplied thermal paste and dust it out every once in a while. It get's into the 70's when I'm playing WoW, and I decided to download MSI afterburner just for kicks to see what's really going on. I was SUPER SUPRISED to see that my CPU usage was hanging around 15%-20%. Before I dusted, I would get thermal throttled and I thought for sure my CPU was at like 90% usage if it was getting this hot. One thing I'm wondering about is if getting a better GPU would decrease the CPU temps. Probably not.

I work with desktops a lot and I'm well versed in how to build one, troubleshooting, and that sort of thing. I'm just not as good when it comes to laptops. 

I'm pretty set on the gtx 460m as it costs under $100 on ebay and it was an option for the later m15x's so, from what I've read, you can just plop it in with the pre-existing x bracket and download the gtx 460m drivers right form nvidia's website and you're gtg.

 

The gtx 560m also looks like a really nice upgrade, but apparently you have to modify config files and your fans might be blowing full blast and it's a little more expensive than the 460. But, it has dx11 and while it might not be the best experience, it will launch fallout 4.

I found a gtx 660m on ebay for around 150 which, from what I read, would be HUGE upgrade from my 260. I've read, for the most part, it isn't too hard to install hard ware wise. I heard the kernal is thicker than the one on the 260, so you need a copper shim, but I haven't seen anything about how to get one or how to install it. Also, same as the gtx 560m you need to mod files.

The 680m would be great, but it's close to $300 used which was almost as much as my laptop in general. 

If anyone has any upgrade stories at all or insight on which card I should pick for the best price to performance to easy install to fans not blowing full blast, I would much appreciate it. I will be reading all the responses.
 

[Hackentosher]

1 minute ago, Jerochy said:

Hey guys,

Lemme give you my specs before I forget:

i7 920xm

8gb ddr3

gtx 260m

250gb ssd

stock 180w power brick
1080p screen

 

I got an m15x off craigslist for $400 with those specs above. So far, I'm really happy with it, but it lacks a little in newer titles (and by lacks I mean doesn't open any games that require dx11 as you might have guessed). I want to upgrade the GPU, but I'm kinda torn on what I should get. Also, I have been cruising A LOT of other forums and posts people have made, but a lot of them are from 2010-2013, and the majority of the information is either irrelevant anymore, or just not right in regards to price to performance, or easy swaps. Oh, and I don't play the most demanding games and I do have a main computer to play the few I do. I mainly wanna just toy around with WoW, Heroes of the storm (which my current GPU does alright with both), maybe a little Rust, might be buying the Witcher 3 in the future... along with BF4... my steam library kinda sucks... 

Also, I am concerned as my CPU get's pretty hot. I reapplied thermal paste and dust it out every once in a while. It get's into the 70's when I'm playing WoW, and I decided to download MSI afterburner just for kicks to see what's really going on. I was SUPER SUPRISED to see that my CPU usage was hanging around 15%-20%. Before I dusted, I would get thermal throttled and I thought for sure my CPU was at like 90% usage if it was getting this hot. One thing I'm wondering about is if getting a better GPU would decrease the CPU temps. Probably not.

I work with desktops a lot and I'm well versed in how to build one, troubleshooting, and that sort of thing. I'm just not as good when it comes to laptops. 

I'm pretty set on the gtx 460m as it costs under $100 on ebay and it was an option for the later m15x's so, from what I've read, you can just plop it in with the pre-existing x bracket and download the gtx 460m drivers right form nvidia's website and you're gtg.

 

The gtx 560m also looks like a really nice upgrade, but apparently you have to modify config files and your fans might be blowing full blast and it's a little more expensive than the 460. But, it has dx11 and while it might not be the best experience, it will launch fallout 4.

I found a gtx 660m on ebay for around 150 which, from what I read, would be HUGE upgrade from my 260. I've read, for the most part, it isn't too hard to install hard ware wise. I heard the kernal is thicker than the one on the 260, so you need a copper shim, but I haven't seen anything about how to get one or how to install it. Also, same as the gtx 560m you need to mod files.

The 680m would be great, but it's close to $300 used which was almost as much as my laptop in general. 

If anyone has any upgrade stories at all or insight on which card I should pick for the best price to performance to easy install to fans not blowing full blast, I would much appreciate it. I will be reading all the responses.
 

I didn't know you could pop in those mobile cards, I figured they used a different connector or form factor with each generation. Also consider getting a GTX 670m for about half the price of a 680m. Should offer quite a bit more performance than the 460m and more importantly, less heat output. I'm not sure how it was on laptops, but the gtx 4xx series cards put out 4.75 metric fucktons of heat.

[Guest Kloaked]

3 minutes ago, Jerochy said:

One thing I'm wondering about is if getting a better GPU would decrease the CPU temps. Probably not.

It won't.

 

4 minutes ago, Jerochy said:

If anyone has any upgrade stories at all or insight on which card I should pick for the best price to performance to easy install to fans not blowing full blast, I would much appreciate it. I will be reading all the responses.

The fans are going to spin fast while you're gaming no matter what you do, mate. It's a laptop, so it's going to get really hot and it needs to keep itself cool. There's no magic way to keep your components cooler than what the system it's built in already allows for.

 

Getting a new GPU will not take the load off of the CPU at all, as games will try to use your hardware most it can, especially on a laptop.

 

Like I told you on your other thread, be wary of upgrading that laptop. I've had Alienware laptops before and while they're built fine, they're laptops. They're not always meant for GPU or CPU upgrades, especially in that form factor. The system may not even accept a new GPU than what it came with. So like I also said, you're not guaranteed for it to work.

 

Good luck, though.

[Jerochy]

2 minutes ago, Kloaked said:

It won't.

 

The fans are going to spin fast while you're gaming no matter what you do, mate. It's a laptop, so it's going to get really hot and it needs to keep itself cool. There's no magic way to keep your components cooler than what the system it's built in already allows for.

 

Getting a new GPU will not take the load off of the CPU at all, as games will try to use your hardware most it can, especially on a laptop.

 

Like I told you on your other thread, be wary of upgrading that laptop. I've had Alienware laptops before and while they're built fine, they're laptops. They're not always meant for GPU or CPU upgrades, especially in that form factor. The system may not even accept a new GPU than what it came with. So like I also said, you're not guaranteed for it to work.

 

Good luck, though.

IM GOING FOR IT MAN. I'll let you know how it turns out, it's just a matter of me choosing which one. I'm thinking the 460m is the way to go just because it will probably be the closest to plug and play there is and I'm not trying to mess up my laptop too much. Thanks for the reply.

[Dukanater]

i have a m17x r3 i got back in 2009 for college and light gaming i used it as my main gaming computer up till October of last year when i built my desktop to finally replace it but from the homework i did back then price to performance everything i looked into for upgrading was a waste of money other than a SSD upgrade which you already have.

 

for thermals tho speaking from experience open that baby up and clean her out the way the 2 blower fans work in the alienware computers the fins in the back were the air comes out gunk up pretty bad and fast! i probably took myn apart to clean it every few months during the time i used it as my daily driver. also replace the stock thermal paste with something decent i found that helped a tiny bit but mostly you just need a decent cooling pad if you want to game on it i played wow on myn for almost 4 years any extended play time required a cooling pad. 

[Jerochy]

37 minutes ago, Dukanater said:

i have a m17x r3 i got back in 2009 for college and light gaming i used it as my main gaming computer up till October of last year when i built my desktop to finally replace it but from the homework i did back then price to performance everything i looked into for upgrading was a waste of money other than a SSD upgrade which you already have.

 

for thermals tho speaking from experience open that baby up and clean her out the way the 2 blower fans work in the alienware computers the fins in the back were the air comes out gunk up pretty bad and fast! i probably took myn apart to clean it every few months during the time i used it as my daily driver. also replace the stock thermal paste with something decent i found that helped a tiny bit but mostly you just need a decent cooling pad if you want to game on it i played wow on myn for almost 4 years any extended play time required a cooling pad. 

Thanks man. Last time I blew it out was October and I was playing WoW at 50 degrees, no cooling pad. Yesterday, it went up to 74 just downloading a patch haha. I think I'm just going to pick up a gtx 460m as they are only 90 and It will be a good improvement in terms of framerate. I appreciate your wise words though.