4930mx is running higher frequency and cooler than the original 4700/4710mq so that's a plus. Last official GPU supported by Dell is the 980m which is much better than the 880m Awesome video!
Last official is the 980m SLI. But you can get a single 1060 or a 1070 in there. A 1060 fits without issues but you need to modify the heatsink to fit a 1070.
@@InfectedChris Alienware 18 and the M18x R1/R2 are still my favorite "old school" Alienware laptops. It was a somber day when I sold off my last one with a 4930mx and 970m in it to upgrade.
@@lagoleer Yeah. And Dell screwed everyone with the Area 51m by not supporting upgrades even though it had a socketed CPU and MXM GPU. You were stuck with Intel 9th gen so the most you can get in there was a 9900k and a GTX 2080 Super. Dell didn't release the DGF cards to anyone else like how MXM was available. I have a M18x R2 which I went from a 3720qm and 680m SLI to a 3940xm with 980m SLI and a AW18 which already has a 4930mx but I upgraded the GPU's from 780m SLI to a single 1070.
It's really sad how many of these new machines don't even have replaceable storage. I am really concerned about the future of modularity and upgradeability especially with the succes of the M1.
@@JimmyZeng I think low end laptops like the ones used for Chromebooks has it, which can at times also be sold as Windows laptop. Perhaps also various ARM based laptops (which ironically enough is what the Apple is as well, lol).
Dawid Does Tech Stuff : the GTX 880M 8 GB is impressive considering that it was launched in 2014 based on the Kepler GTX 700 series architecture from 2013 and it had a rich amount of 8 GB VRAM which in uncharacteristic for Nvidia to give to us consumers....though that 122 Watt TDP is worrying since it's a discrete GPU but a mobile GPU nontheless.
In 2021, I remember playing GTA 5 and BF 5 in 1080p comfortably in low/medium settings. at least 60fps consistent. Mostly just played MMO's (WoW, ff14), Esports titles, steam indy games, and emulators. Everything still ran buttery smooth.
Yea in one scenario half of your GPU's are not going to do anything (back when SLI was usable in games) And in the other you clearly have not seen the desperation and savage no mobo out IO shield mounting of desperation. I like to see someone try and get that SLI bridge in that laptop in place without taking apart the laptop and it still works after the fact. I have see enough IO shield war crimes. Metal scissors is not the right way to go about it. OR WORSE!
The SLI scaling on GTA V didn't seem to be working properly with the new GPUs. If you look at the usage it seems perfectly split and only using around 50% of each card where as with the old GPUs it was using 60-95% usage on each GPU. SLI was non-existent on BFV and CP77 on both but I assume that's just because SLI was dead by the time those games came out.
Can it be that the gpu's are only getting 75watts? Not the 120 they should have? That seems to me the most obvious reason the performance is not up to scratch. But it is just my guess...
Actually if you are tech savvy it is easy to fix SLI scaling in most games if not all at a rate of 98% scaling when you edit the driver settings like AFR, and other specific profiles for independent games...
@@the.littlest.toaster pretty cool. The M18x had excellent cooling, which you'd expect in such a huge 'laptop'. I then upgraded it to a single GTX 1070 and it even handled that perfectly fine with the stock fan/heatsink. Stayed in the mid to high 70deg range under load.
Sisyphs = dude in green myths that got stuck pushing the boulder up the hill in tartarus just to have it roll back down over and over for all eternity. Modern sisyphean task is fixing a laptop, and every time you put it back together there's a different part you forgot to put back in. So, you spend an eternity tearing it down and rebuilding it.
Should've got one of the Iris Pro-equipped CPUs with the 128MB eDRAM; iirc it works the same as on the 5775c, the extra cache helps out in games a lot just like it does on the modern X3D Ryzens even if it's dog slow by comparison. Also, Adlink makes an RTX A4500 MXM card that is essentially just a 16GB 3070 on a power diet that might be worth a look. If you still wanted to make use of the multi-gpu part then your best bet is probably 1080's though SLI in [current year] is going to be a joke no matter what, but as another commenter said this all depends if the support after the 980M is just "unofficial" or if it literally doesn't work at all. 2024 edit: there's a site called X-Vision that sells up to 3080M MXM cards now, as well as AMD options like the RX 6600, which would be far easier to source.
last offical support for this machine was an 980m, anything newer and you have to mod the bios to get it to POST And also, the slot only able to get ~95w of power to the card, so newer MxM card will have problem with power draw and will brick and shut the whole laptop down
@@mcslender2965 It's so incredibly niche that it basically isn't. The modern ampere quadro cards are basically for datacenters only where they're used like SXM cards without the proprietary connector (which is why they're not sold retail as far as I can tell) or cost associated with A/H100 tier chips. and the other stuff is just Clevo and that one Arc A370M. All are so low volume that the price tag is really stupid everywhere you can find them.
Why? You're not actually doing anything special, and quite frankly it's a massive ripoff. For the price of the upgrade, you could practically just buy a newer refurb model from a competitor. Except, then you get a full warranty, and you can sell or keep an entire second laptop. It's a cool idea, but dumb as hell when you realize the price of the motherboard/cpu
@@rustler08 honestly i think the reason as to why framework laptops are so expensive is because literally no one else is doing what they're doing so if you wanna buy a laptop with actual upgradability outside of ram and SSD you HAVE to get a framework or get one of these janky alienwares that still support MXM gpu's and whatnot
I love how only one gpu is doing any work in game if you notice one gpu is pinned and the other is doing basically nothing at like 13% so he's using windows 10 with directx 12 which hates and says no to sli working at all
The bsod at 1:03 isn't a bad windows install, its the sata configuration mode in the bios. It can either be set to achi or raid on, depends on the device but usually swapping the mode will fix the blue screen.
i3 2nd gen is probably socketed, so you can upgrade it to i7. Ram should be upgradable too. If you have mini pcie slot on the motherboard or expresscard slot then you can connect external GPU
Sadly, those "modern" games you tested aren't optimized to use SLI. You have to use old games that had SLI in mind when developed. The 2nd GPU is essentially useless.
The Dell Precision M4800 and M6800 are also infamous for being the last laptops to have all these upgradability, and they are also laptop DIY modders dream laptops, and now you can get them much cheaper than ever
Indeed you are correct, and the somewhat lacking community (compared to ThinkPads) are still finding ways of expanding these systems. The M6800 can now have 10, yes TEN, storage options onboard the laptop itself through the use of adapter boards and obviously sacrificing some other components. And that's before you use the USB and eSATA ports!
I've heard that you need to hack the BIOS to actually upgrade the graphics boards past what's on the spec sheet. Is that true? (And obviously the most powerful boards you'd be able to get would be the highest-spec one that the M6800 shipped with because no one was making custom third-party boards.)
I think the best value GPU in those are probably Pascal MXMs. There's a bit of vBios flash involved, but it does work rather well. Alternatively, there's also some AMD MXMs out there that apparently worked, but it's rather uncommon unless it's the 7970m/8970m/m290x. It does give the benefit of consuming less power while havinf much more GPU power to one's disposition. The other unused MXM slot can even be repurpose for an NVME slot after purchasing the appropriate adapter. It's a fun little unit to dig into! Nice to see you give a hand into this :).
i always love to see old content brought back to life, even if it's "not worth" the money it's a shame there are so few laptops that can change parts out like this, make a monster david a monster
I don't know why the manufacturers gave up at amazing upgradeable gaming laptops... The possibility to upgrade laptops CPUs and GPUs, not only RAM and HDD/SSD was extraordinary.
I used to have that same laptop. It had a 3rd gen i7 and dual gtx765m in SLI. I only just finally sold it last year. It was a great machine that got many years of heavy use. Best laptop I've ever owned, I kinda miss it.
Had an old Dell XPS laptop which was very similar to this and I was upgrading it and using it until only a few months ago. Sucked the power through it though....was sorry to see it go. Thanks for the video, Dawid 🙂
step one design your own bad ass laptops made with steel cases so they last longer and are more durable and then magically you will get more sales because you'll be competing with apple then by making super durable laptops that only last longer then non apple laptops and have more power then those sissy girl apple laptops💪💪 step two give Dawid a free laptop so your laptops are on his channel beating out those sissy girl laptops with higher gaming framrates
I have a couple generations newer Alienware that came with an i7-6700HQ and a GTX 1070. It served as my daily driver PC for a few years. My daughter is using it for a game server right now. It has run very well. Let's be honest, there is not a whole lot of difference between the 4th and the 6th gen core laptop CPUs, other than die size. I have personally seen benchmark numbers where the 4700 outperformed the 6700. The same also applies to the 4930mx, which Dawid replaced the 4700 with, vs the 6700. Both of the older CPUs can boost to a higher clock speed than the newer 6700. This was during the height of the Intel complacency era, especially on the mobile/laptop side of things. If the 1070 will fit in the laptop, it should give it quite a boost to the graphics and gameplay.
The problem with the 2080 isn't that it is "too much" but rather pretty damn rare in the right format for this machine never mind the eye watering cost but at least those mxm versions come with 16gb of vram for the quadro version. They are more compatible than the Pascal generation from what people have tested thus far.
Lol, power limit throttling the entire time, neither of the GPUs were not even getting close to their max power rating, so simply adding a beefier GPU in there isn't the end all and be all, you also need to consider your power brick
Dawid Does Tech Stuff is like “Top Gear” for computers. The format, the jokes, the music and the close all remind me of my favorite automotive show. Love your stuff keep up the good work.
Even though the parts components are outdated in terms of newer demanding game titles. One will still in fact be capable of playing newer demanding titles these days thanks to cloud gaming
I wish gaming laptops would go back to the thicker cases, because modern gaming laptops suck with how much they overheat, and with how powerful modern components are, thinner laptops are just no longer viable.
You should have defiantly replaced those old thermal pads, for the thermal paste replacement I'd recommend PTM7950 (industrial PCM) which whilst pricey for the cost of the surface coverage but the reality is that's got a great thermal conductivity, is rated for a long time and actually gets better with age (also lasts a lot better than traditional thermal pads/liquids). That's why companies like Lenovo are switching over to it in their high end devices...
This is proper laptop upgrading. I hope that framework with their 16 inch model can bring something approaching this kind of upgradeability back to the market
maybe the laptop not getting enough juice thats whay it crashes ? thats the one drawback though , upgradability at a cost ..though i have a similar laptop (more like a dtr) that uses a desktop proc ,which is not too bad , but the gpu 😅
CPU/GPU upgradeable laptops is something I have craved for decades. Yes, decades. When Nvidia went with the MXM design and some laptop brands made some units with socketed CPUs, I got excited. Then the expense, per generation, was insane. It was better over all to buy a new laptop. But seriously, re-pad that too. Most of all, keep your sense of humor. It keeps me coming back. You have put fun back into tech channels.
You are doing gods work Anna, I believe I asked you in the last video to tell your husband to make a video and upgrade as much as possible this monstrosity of the laptop and here we go we have a video, tell Dawid he has the best wife :D
The 880m's were known to run really hot. My 2nd Alienware 18 had the dual 880m's and I was very lucky to have 2 good cards that didn't throttle like crazy like a lot of other people did. My 3rd one with the 4940 and dual 980m's was a beast and I wish I still had it. It was my favorite computer of any form factor ever and modding it and tricking games that didn't support sli into using sli was fantastic. The AW18 was the last true Alienware laptop. After this they stopped pushing boundaries and became more run of the mill like the rest of the market.
I got one of those laptops for free a few years ago, someone listed it as not working and free to collect. I recognised the fault and went with a friend to pick it up, on the drive home I explained to him how to fix it and by the time I was home I had a fully working alienware M17 R3 :)
As one of the OG owners of this beast (the 765m version), godspeed "brick." It was my daily driver 2013 - 2018. We went well beyond Jupiter, and back again, together.
I was happy enough to receive an old HP Elitebook from my dad who used it for his business a decade ago, its been sitting in his closet since 2015. After tearing into it I found that nearly EVERYTHING can be upgraded including the CPU, and the amount of IO this thing has is bonkers. I'm talking USB 2.0 and 3.0, Firewire, eSATA, ExpressCard, VGA HDMI and DP, Phone line jack, gigabit ethernet port, and a Smart Card reader. It's even got a docking port on the bottom that has support for a SECOND BATTERY! You can upgrade the Battery, storage, RAM, CPU, and the WIFI card (which supports 802.11n and Bluetooth natively). I have never held such a modular laptop in my hands before, and it makes me giddy to think that this one is mine 😎
Actual workshop here. I had a very similar model one of those come into the workshop with two dead GPU's (fail stress tests). The customer did not want to fork out the $$$ for new (or used) GPU's and didn't really game much anyhow. Amazingly the thing worked with just onboard video. So now there is one of those monster Alienware units out there with Intel graphics only.
I have one of these, runs perfectly to this day. Probably even better than my modern laptop (AW M17). This was the last fully upgradeable laptop out there AFAIK, and its why I haven't gotten rid of it. I just remember my friend with a desktop GTX 980, was surprised when my laptop would perform better than his desktop xD. I pretty much maxed it out except for the GPUs. but you can easily get a single 1080 running in it. Nowadays everything is fully soldered on the mobo even wifi cards(which are notorious to going bad), and you dont get to do stuff like this.
Back when gaming laptops were actually trying to give you desktop power by using almost desktop parts! It is crazy seeing the parts in this thing after working on modern laptops!
I have replaced the 4k screen on this laptop, it is perfect, the screen model is NV184QUM-N21. It requires cracking the bios and expanding a new edp circuit.
I agree with you. I have replaced the 4k screen on this laptop, it is perfect, the screen model is NV184QUM-N21. It requires cracking the bios and expanding a new edp circuit.
I think that Dell made a failed device like this Alienware device. For heaven's sake, I could not find parts or a battery for it. In the end, I decided to break it and take out the processor and RAM and install it on the Dell Latitude device. I also kept the original adapter. The used device that I bought, the Alienware M15x, was a failed device no matter what they did to it. More than an update and beautification, the ex58 remains better than it in all aspects and details, despite stopping support. This board bears all the new things from the new generation and fulfills all the requirements you want, as well as supports UPGRADING which you want. We printed together. Edit only bios Also the other device I have is the third Old Intel Core 2 processor Android works very well and does not need to be upgraded. The SSD is sufficient for the purpose and some light modifications work as well as the RAM and more. The name is Alienware, the status of garbage. Sorry guys for saying that, but honestly, it is a failed device in all its versions. It is a failure. As for Dell, there is no disagreement. They have better devices than this damned device
LOL i can't believe how difficult it was to tear that machine down. I had the predecessor to that model (M17x R4) and had just 2 screws to remove from the bottom panel and it exposed (almost) everything worth changing. When the stock AMD 7970 GPU died, i was able to source and install a GTX 980. That gave it another 3-4 years worth of life.
Who remembers when laptop CPUs came on a funky daughterboard MXM type deal?..I still use my Pentium II laptop with a BSEL mod to a whopping 333Mhz to this day!
I bought one of these because of the last video. The positives: 1)Upgradability and serviceability. The negatives: 2)Don't buy it from a sketchy seller. I went down the rabbit hole trying to get it running correctly as a laptop. Actually I'm still here. Works great as a desktop since I can't figure out why the laptop keyboard (on my 3rd one) isn't functioning and the screen is all messed up. Still, I'll get it running correctly sooner or later. It's almost like a desktop with the upgradability and serviceability. I'd gladly give up thin laptops and go with thicker ones like this Alienware 18 if I could replace and add parts to them. Like hard drives. Never seen a laptop with 11tb worth of space before until now. 😁 Maybe in the future upgrade the 880's to 980's and max the CPU out to a i7-4930mx.
These laptop videos, man. I feel like Dawid has invented a new genre of horror, the tech horror genre. The only thing scarier than taking apart a laptop, replacing components, putting it back together and realizing you forgot something is opening up a laptop and realizing that you can't replace anything, lol.
The difference between 880M SLI and a single 965M is just insane. On my 15 R2 i can play Cyberpunk 2077 at the highest settings, 900P with FSR on balanced and still get double the framerate of the 880M's on low 1080P. Sadly, the R2 doesn't use swappable graphics cards, because they had the Graphics Amplifier gimmick that came with it.
You'll need to keep this laptop in a trough of dry ice to keep it cool now ! 😲 You might want to isolate that long bridge flex cable with Kapton tape to stop it from melting !
This brings back memories of jacking the i7 2630qm out of my grandmas toshiba satelite laptop and replacing it with the i3 2310m that came in my m17x r2. I was a very devious kid, but for real whos idea was it to put that i3 in those laptops
I have a Toshiba from 2011 I decided to finally upgrade. It had a Pentium B950, 4gb of ram and a 500gb HDD. I bought a new keyboard for $15, new battery for $15, 16gb of ram for $30, a 240gb SSD for $30 multiple years ago, and the cheapest quad core I could find. The i7-2630QM for $35. Not half bad imo
ofc its a suggestion.. according to dell its fine to run components at over 100degrees, and they always design their laptops in a way that they run hot enough to cook an egg if you get hungry
Well, on one hand, now I know it is possible to upgrade certain old laptops. On the other hand, it's totally not worth it and expensive. But at least now we know! Thanks to Dawid, he's the best.
My neighbor was going to give me this laptop but his wife threw it out before he could give it to me. I'm still heart broken. It's such a fantastic design. The fact you can just swap out GPUs on a laptop is amazing.
I almost spent $300 to upgrade my 5800x to a 5800x3d yesterday, then some quick research and found I'd maybe get 3-5% with my 3080 10GB so decided to keep my $300. Dawid doing videos like this prove I was smart by not overpaying for a miniscule performance boost.
I've actually got lots of experience with mxm cards, I have a great many of them that I've pulled put of various HP, dell, and clever notebooks. I've got a quadro p4000 running in a dell precision m6700 that also got a 120hz screen swap and 16gb of ram. The mod to the driver to make it works is surprisingly easy and it runs even today's games great.
Thank you for your sacrifice. I would do a lot of this stuff out of sheer curiosity if I had the money... Which would then make me broke again because I wouldn't be savvy enough to monetize it.
10:54 One of those cards is definitely on the way out unfortunately. That’s one of the risks when buying overpriced used laptop components on eBay but you’re lucky they worked at all and that you got a decent result! As another viewer pointed out, it’d be really cool to see the 2080 MXM! This beefcake laptop deserves that kind of power jammed in it
You know, this is something I would love to see more brands do, not just lenovo and alienware. For instance I would love to see Acer come out with a predator helios 300 that has dual gpu slots and a cpu socket for latest generations of intel and amd cpus. The serviceability and upgradeability for me far outweighs the "need" for slim and lightweight laptops.
![[TH] 2024 PMGC League | Survival Stage วันที่ 1 | PUBG MOBILE Global Championship](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FVFT-PFwU80/mqdefault.jpg)
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
I think we deserve to see 2080 upgraded version too
Probably putting two 2080 can make it work like a modern pc even better 💀
It can’t run them sadly…
Should be fine with a single. You can use the other slot for nvme card and skip the sli
@@MyStuffWasNotAvailableDawid can make it work i believe in him
@@lucidnonsense942 It doesn’t fit.
4930mx is running higher frequency and cooler than the original 4700/4710mq so that's a plus.
Last official GPU supported by Dell is the 980m which is much better than the 880m
Awesome video!
Last official is the 980m SLI. But you can get a single 1060 or a 1070 in there. A 1060 fits without issues but you need to modify the heatsink to fit a 1070.
I had a 980m!
@@InfectedChris Alienware 18 and the M18x R1/R2 are still my favorite "old school" Alienware laptops. It was a somber day when I sold off my last one with a 4930mx and 970m in it to upgrade.
Yes, this! Let's all watch the video's commercials a hundred times so Dawid can afford it. :-)
@@lagoleer Yeah. And Dell screwed everyone with the Area 51m by not supporting upgrades even though it had a socketed CPU and MXM GPU. You were stuck with Intel 9th gen so the most you can get in there was a 9900k and a GTX 2080 Super. Dell didn't release the DGF cards to anyone else like how MXM was available.
I have a M18x R2 which I went from a 3720qm and 680m SLI to a 3940xm with 980m SLI and a AW18 which already has a 4930mx but I upgraded the GPU's from 780m SLI to a single 1070.
It's really sad how many of these new machines don't even have replaceable storage. I am really concerned about the future of modularity and upgradeability especially with the succes of the M1.
@@lucidnonsense942 only problem is price, I would love one but will never afford one.
@@dakota48 perhaps get one used
Are you talking about macs? I haven't seen any Windows laptop with soldered storage, especially gaming laptops, they even come with two m.2 slots.
@@JimmyZeng I think low end laptops like the ones used for Chromebooks has it, which can at times also be sold as Windows laptop.
Perhaps also various ARM based laptops (which ironically enough is what the Apple is as well, lol).
@@AndersHass but like, even if you could upgrade a chromebook, is it worth it?
Dawid Does Tech Stuff : the GTX 880M 8 GB is impressive considering that it was launched in 2014 based on the Kepler GTX 700 series architecture from 2013 and it had a rich amount of 8 GB VRAM which in uncharacteristic for Nvidia to give to us consumers....though that 122 Watt TDP is worrying since it's a discrete GPU but a mobile GPU nontheless.
That TDP isn't as bad as most would think as I've been daily using an 130w RX580 mxm for the past year and a half without issue.
confuses me how they managed 8gb of vram in the 880m but not the 980ti
@@MA-jz4yc It's called Nvidia anti-consumer tactic or Nvidias product EOL control :).
I've had this laptop from 2014 to 2021 when it finally died. Had it on i7 4700MQ, GTX 760 SLI, and 24GB RAM. Never upgraded it, never needed to
How many newer games could it play?
In 2021, I remember playing GTA 5 and BF 5 in 1080p comfortably in low/medium settings. at least 60fps consistent. Mostly just played MMO's (WoW, ff14), Esports titles, steam indy games, and emulators. Everything still ran buttery smooth.
@@anthonyzheng7274 Damn thats many years it lasted!. Personally me i dont buy more newer expensive gaming laptops as i have converted to cloud gaming
yea old tech lasts for a long time. new stuff now are all made to fail so you'd keep buying replacements
@@anthonyzheng7274 I definitely agree with that thing you said with old tech vs newer tech longevity. It is the same kinda with cars
Forgetting the SLI bridge has the same spirit as forgetting the IO shield in a super complicated PC build
Yea in one scenario half of your GPU's are not going to do anything (back when SLI was usable in games) And in the other you clearly have not seen the desperation and savage no mobo out IO shield mounting of desperation. I like to see someone try and get that SLI bridge in that laptop in place without taking apart the laptop and it still works after the fact.
I have see enough IO shield war crimes. Metal scissors is not the right way to go about it. OR WORSE!
Gotta be the dumbest feeling (forgetting the IO shield).
not even close mate trust me i have both a complicated pc and an alienware m14x
It's not like you can play games that need SLI anyway
@@TheDiner50Just so you know they're called tin snips, "The more you know" 😅😂😂😂
The SLI scaling on GTA V didn't seem to be working properly with the new GPUs. If you look at the usage it seems perfectly split and only using around 50% of each card where as with the old GPUs it was using 60-95% usage on each GPU. SLI was non-existent on BFV and CP77 on both but I assume that's just because SLI was dead by the time those games came out.
Probably sli overhead from the game or drivers or a CPU bottleneck in GTA 5.
Can it be that the gpu's are only getting 75watts? Not the 120 they should have? That seems to me the most obvious reason the performance is not up to scratch. But it is just my guess...
@@richardheumann1887 MXM does 150 watt max, it’s not the 75 you get from a pcie slot
Actually if you are tech savvy it is easy to fix SLI scaling in most games if not all at a rate of 98% scaling when you edit the driver settings like AFR, and other specific profiles for independent games...
I love Dawid’s baseless optimism. Really giving it his all out here on the computer webs.
“Baseless optimism” sounds like a bit like a back handed compliment. 😂
@@DawidDoesTechStuff It might be. 😀 Still enjoy the videos you make.
765m to 880m ... holy crap that would have been an expensive upgrade back in the day 😀
Back in 2013 I had the M18x R2 with dual GTX 675M's and I upgraded to dual 780M's, which was the best mobile card at the time. It cost me $1500AUD
@@mbrooker79 yeah that sounds about right. Cool that it was upgradable though 😁
Damn dual 780m's in a laptop how was
Were the thermals?
@@the.littlest.toaster pretty cool. The M18x had excellent cooling, which you'd expect in such a huge 'laptop'. I then upgraded it to a single GTX 1070 and it even handled that perfectly fine with the stock fan/heatsink. Stayed in the mid to high 70deg range under load.
@@mbrooker79 damn that's good temps did it have a i7?
Sisyphs = dude in green myths that got stuck pushing the boulder up the hill in tartarus just to have it roll back down over and over for all eternity. Modern sisyphean task is fixing a laptop, and every time you put it back together there's a different part you forgot to put back in. So, you spend an eternity tearing it down and rebuilding it.
Should've got one of the Iris Pro-equipped CPUs with the 128MB eDRAM; iirc it works the same as on the 5775c, the extra cache helps out in games a lot just like it does on the modern X3D Ryzens even if it's dog slow by comparison. Also, Adlink makes an RTX A4500 MXM card that is essentially just a 16GB 3070 on a power diet that might be worth a look. If you still wanted to make use of the multi-gpu part then your best bet is probably 1080's though SLI in [current year] is going to be a joke no matter what, but as another commenter said this all depends if the support after the 980M is just "unofficial" or if it literally doesn't work at all.
2024 edit: there's a site called X-Vision that sells up to 3080M MXM cards now, as well as AMD options like the RX 6600, which would be far easier to source.
last offical support for this machine was an 980m, anything newer and you have to mod the bios to get it to POST
And also, the slot only able to get ~95w of power to the card, so newer MxM card will have problem with power draw and will brick and shut the whole laptop down
I'm surprised that mxm is still supported after so long despite the Nvidia announcement about not supporting it after Pascal
@@YuukiHotaruu That's unfortunate, and dawid failed to google for the non-malware 3060m driver so I'm not exactly hopeful for a bios mod lol
@@mcslender2965 It's so incredibly niche that it basically isn't. The modern ampere quadro cards are basically for datacenters only where they're used like SXM cards without the proprietary connector (which is why they're not sold retail as far as I can tell) or cost associated with A/H100 tier chips. and the other stuff is just Clevo and that one Arc A370M. All are so low volume that the price tag is really stupid everywhere you can find them.
There are no Socket G3 Iris Pro processors, they're all BGA-1364. That option doesn't exist.
I Love The Good Old Laptops They Are So Easy To Upgrade
And also very very very expensive, only very high end laptop get mxm graphics cards, and only Alienware does cpu shenanigans every once in a while
gaming laptops are still huge and heavy with shit battery life. Not all of them of course. But the huge ones should have such upgradability.
framework 16 will bring back that availability to newer laptops
@@kirillivanov9638 7840HS 4nm AMD and 4nm 4080m laptop is a good performance machine that can last 2x than intel ones if OEM want them to last so.
@Blue efficiency
Can't wait for him to do this on a framework laptop 16
itll be so easy to do
I want their new prototype laptop.
Three minute video lol
Why? You're not actually doing anything special, and quite frankly it's a massive ripoff. For the price of the upgrade, you could practically just buy a newer refurb model from a competitor. Except, then you get a full warranty, and you can sell or keep an entire second laptop.
It's a cool idea, but dumb as hell when you realize the price of the motherboard/cpu
@@rustler08 honestly i think the reason as to why framework laptops are so expensive is because literally no one else is doing what they're doing so if you wanna buy a laptop with actual upgradability outside of ram and SSD you HAVE to get a framework or get one of these janky alienwares that still support MXM gpu's and whatnot
One thing I've always wondered is why Nvidia's mobile cards of this period (and Maxwell) had so much more VRAM than their desktop equivalents.
I love how only one gpu is doing any work in game if you notice one gpu is pinned and the other is doing basically nothing at like 13% so he's using windows 10 with directx 12 which hates and says no to sli working at all
The bsod at 1:03 isn't a bad windows install, its the sata configuration mode in the bios. It can either be set to achi or raid on, depends on the device but usually swapping the mode will fix the blue screen.
Meanwhile Me gaming with a laptop that is 11 years old and it has i3 2310m and 6gb ram with 500gb hdd and intel hd 3000💀
Which games are you playing?
same
@@raaga1994not much 😂 fr tho I feel his pain
i3 2nd gen is probably socketed, so you can upgrade it to i7. Ram should be upgradable too. If you have mini pcie slot on the motherboard or expresscard slot then you can connect external GPU
@@balmashev93 VRM and cooling may not support it
Sadly, those "modern" games you tested aren't optimized to use SLI. You have to use old games that had SLI in mind when developed. The 2nd GPU is essentially useless.
The Dell Precision M4800 and M6800 are also infamous for being the last laptops to have all these upgradability, and they are also laptop DIY modders dream laptops, and now you can get them much cheaper than ever
the dell precision m4800 up to how many gb of graphics could you upgrade it?
Indeed you are correct, and the somewhat lacking community (compared to ThinkPads) are still finding ways of expanding these systems. The M6800 can now have 10, yes TEN, storage options onboard the laptop itself through the use of adapter boards and obviously sacrificing some other components. And that's before you use the USB and eSATA ports!
I've heard that you need to hack the BIOS to actually upgrade the graphics boards past what's on the spec sheet. Is that true? (And obviously the most powerful boards you'd be able to get would be the highest-spec one that the M6800 shipped with because no one was making custom third-party boards.)
I think the best value GPU in those are probably Pascal MXMs. There's a bit of vBios flash involved, but it does work rather well. Alternatively, there's also some AMD MXMs out there that apparently worked, but it's rather uncommon unless it's the 7970m/8970m/m290x. It does give the benefit of consuming less power while havinf much more GPU power to one's disposition. The other unused MXM slot can even be repurpose for an NVME slot after purchasing the appropriate adapter.
It's a fun little unit to dig into! Nice to see you give a hand into this :).
7970m is a high failure rate part like next to Firepro M8900 levels of fail but the later versions of the card fair better and often have 4gb of vram.
i always love to see old content brought back to life, even if it's "not worth" the money
it's a shame there are so few laptops that can change parts out like this, make a monster david
a monster
Oh the pain of forgetting the SLI bridge, I felt that!
Alienware and Razor are two brand names I stay far away from. Iv recently added Asus to this list for how they handled the 7800X3D situation
i always find it fun to upgrade something to the factory limits!
I don't know why the manufacturers gave up at amazing upgradeable gaming laptops... The possibility to upgrade laptops CPUs and GPUs, not only RAM and HDD/SSD was extraordinary.
No kidding man, I had a ROG G751J laptop that thing was a absolute beast with a 970. I ended up trading for a equal desktop.
Capitalism. Why sell upgrades, when you can force consumers to just buy a whole new laptop?
You get a weird norbook, after 4 years you need it to be 3 % faster ?
Never upgrade them please, not worth it.
This laptop is insane. Shame they don’t make ones like this anymore
Upgradable laptops is a waste, we all know that.
Just get newer model when it's old !
What Gaming Laptop u use now ? Not only now ?
I used to have that same laptop. It had a 3rd gen i7 and dual gtx765m in SLI. I only just finally sold it last year. It was a great machine that got many years of heavy use. Best laptop I've ever owned, I kinda miss it.
Do the 765m "SLI" in the Lenovo Y510p perform anywhere near the ones in this Alienate system?
I have a top end 2014 alienware 18. Talk about two upgradable gpus in one laptop.
Edit:
Specs are
2x gtx 880m sli
i7 4940mx
32gb ram
1tb hd
500gb ssd
Same here, except I have purchased my machine about a year ago for little over $200
Had an old Dell XPS laptop which was very similar to this and I was upgrading it and using it until only a few months ago. Sucked the power through it though....was sorry to see it go. Thanks for the video, Dawid 🙂
step one design your own bad ass laptops made with steel cases so they last longer and are more durable and then magically you will get more sales because you'll be competing with apple then by making super durable laptops that only last longer then non apple laptops and have more power then those sissy girl apple laptops💪💪
step two give Dawid a free laptop so your laptops are on his channel beating out those sissy girl laptops with higher gaming framrates
Forgetting the SLI bridge cable made me laugh much more that it should of haha. Love these videos
Suffering is often funny. 😂
@@DawidDoesTechStuff 🤣🤣
Would love to see how far you can get in terms of GPU upgrade. A 2080 might be too much but I can see sth like a 1070 or 1080 works in this Alienware
I have a couple generations newer Alienware that came with an i7-6700HQ and a GTX 1070. It served as my daily driver PC for a few years. My daughter is using it for a game server right now. It has run very well. Let's be honest, there is not a whole lot of difference between the 4th and the 6th gen core laptop CPUs, other than die size. I have personally seen benchmark numbers where the 4700 outperformed the 6700. The same also applies to the 4930mx, which Dawid replaced the 4700 with, vs the 6700. Both of the older CPUs can boost to a higher clock speed than the newer 6700. This was during the height of the Intel complacency era, especially on the mobile/laptop side of things. If the 1070 will fit in the laptop, it should give it quite a boost to the graphics and gameplay.
The problem with the 2080 isn't that it is "too much" but rather pretty damn rare in the right format for this machine never mind the eye watering cost but at least those mxm versions come with 16gb of vram for the quadro version. They are more compatible than the Pascal generation from what people have tested thus far.
Lol, power limit throttling the entire time, neither of the GPUs were not even getting close to their max power rating, so simply adding a beefier GPU in there isn't the end all and be all, you also need to consider your power brick
Dawid Does Tech Stuff is like “Top Gear” for computers. The format, the jokes, the music and the close all remind me of my favorite automotive show. Love your stuff keep up the good work.
Thank you! That’s a huge compliment. Glad you enjoy the videos. 😃
You should 100% try the 2080, i feel like that would be really cool to see. -edit 1 2080, not sli, just to see the difference :)
Happy to see the MXM GPU and CPU upgrade suggestions put into play!
Try using external gpu with this would be a nice experiment if possible
Even though the parts components are outdated in terms of newer demanding game titles. One will still in fact be capable of playing newer demanding titles these days thanks to cloud gaming
This actually got me wondering if my 2014 Alienware laptop was upgradable, until I heard the eye-watering cost to upgrade yours. 🤑
I wish gaming laptops would go back to the thicker cases, because modern gaming laptops suck with how much they overheat, and with how powerful modern components are, thinner laptops are just no longer viable.
It's cool to see the whole process but probably it's better value to buy a more modern one 😅
You should have defiantly replaced those old thermal pads, for the thermal paste replacement I'd recommend PTM7950 (industrial PCM) which whilst pricey for the cost of the surface coverage but the reality is that's got a great thermal conductivity, is rated for a long time and actually gets better with age (also lasts a lot better than traditional thermal pads/liquids). That's why companies like Lenovo are switching over to it in their high end devices...
This is proper laptop upgrading. I hope that framework with their 16 inch model can bring something approaching this kind of upgradeability back to the market
The finger in the opening lives rent free in my mind constantly. Is it ever going to touch that mirrored surface???
maybe the laptop not getting enough juice thats whay it crashes ? thats the one drawback though , upgradability at a cost ..though i have a similar laptop (more like a dtr) that uses a desktop proc ,which is not too bad , but the gpu 😅
CPU/GPU upgradeable laptops is something I have craved for decades. Yes, decades. When Nvidia went with the MXM design and some laptop brands made some units with socketed CPUs, I got excited. Then the expense, per generation, was insane. It was better over all to buy a new laptop.
But seriously, re-pad that too.
Most of all, keep your sense of humor. It keeps me coming back. You have put fun back into tech channels.
Eyy good job.
He did have me biting my finger nails when he was working on those GPU cards and my finger nails were ALREADY very short beforehand. OUTCH!! 😵😂
@@arthurmann578 same!! Especially when he had to redo it for the SLI.
@@AnnaDoes Lol! Glad he decided NOT to show that then! 😂
You are doing gods work Anna, I believe I asked you in the last video to tell your husband to make a video and upgrade as much as possible this monstrosity of the laptop and here we go we have a video, tell Dawid he has the best wife :D
@@kigasdj2 aww I’ll definitely tell him 😎
3:11 really giving me skylander vibes
something about those cyberpunk scores at the end doesnt seem right 🤔
The 880m's were known to run really hot. My 2nd Alienware 18 had the dual 880m's and I was very lucky to have 2 good cards that didn't throttle like crazy like a lot of other people did. My 3rd one with the 4940 and dual 980m's was a beast and I wish I still had it. It was my favorite computer of any form factor ever and modding it and tricking games that didn't support sli into using sli was fantastic. The AW18 was the last true Alienware laptop. After this they stopped pushing boundaries and became more run of the mill like the rest of the market.
Skididi bom bom bom
I got one of those laptops for free a few years ago, someone listed it as not working and free to collect. I recognised the fault and went with a friend to pick it up, on the drive home I explained to him how to fix it and by the time I was home I had a fully working alienware M17 R3 :)
First
I was first, I commented and refreshed the page, mine was the only one.
Lol it literally says 5m ago on mine and 4 on yours...
@@blackcobra123 yours says 8 min, mine says 8 min.
@@EpicCheeseball fight fight fight fight fight
I was FIRST. I typed my comment in invisible ink though.
Dawid, I’d like to hire you as my financial advisor. Teach me the power of buying everything I see on the internet and not be broke 😅
As one of the OG owners of this beast (the 765m version), godspeed "brick." It was my daily driver 2013 - 2018. We went well beyond Jupiter, and back again, together.
I was happy enough to receive an old HP Elitebook from my dad who used it for his business a decade ago, its been sitting in his closet since 2015. After tearing into it I found that nearly EVERYTHING can be upgraded including the CPU, and the amount of IO this thing has is bonkers. I'm talking USB 2.0 and 3.0, Firewire, eSATA, ExpressCard, VGA HDMI and DP, Phone line jack, gigabit ethernet port, and a Smart Card reader. It's even got a docking port on the bottom that has support for a SECOND BATTERY! You can upgrade the Battery, storage, RAM, CPU, and the WIFI card (which supports 802.11n and Bluetooth natively). I have never held such a modular laptop in my hands before, and it makes me giddy to think that this one is mine 😎
i hope frame works can get to the point where stuff like this is affordable. this is awesome.
Actual workshop here. I had a very similar model one of those come into the workshop with two dead GPU's (fail stress tests). The customer did not want to fork out the $$$ for new (or used) GPU's and didn't really game much anyhow. Amazingly the thing worked with just onboard video. So now there is one of those monster Alienware units out there with Intel graphics only.
I have one of these, runs perfectly to this day. Probably even better than my modern laptop (AW M17). This was the last fully upgradeable laptop out there AFAIK, and its why I haven't gotten rid of it. I just remember my friend with a desktop GTX 980, was surprised when my laptop would perform better than his desktop xD. I pretty much maxed it out except for the GPUs. but you can easily get a single 1080 running in it.
Nowadays everything is fully soldered on the mobo even wifi cards(which are notorious to going bad), and you dont get to do stuff like this.
Back when gaming laptops were actually trying to give you desktop power by using almost desktop parts! It is crazy seeing the parts in this thing after working on modern laptops!
I have replaced the 4k screen on this laptop, it is perfect, the screen model is NV184QUM-N21. It requires cracking the bios and expanding a new edp circuit.
The thing with old laptops are their trash screens. Should definitely consider replacing that screen before anything.
I agree with you. I have replaced the 4k screen on this laptop, it is perfect, the screen model is NV184QUM-N21. It requires cracking the bios and expanding a new edp circuit.
I KNEW HE WOULD FORGET THE SLI BRIDGE!!
Btw 900-1000 series cards would almost certainly work!
I think that Dell made a failed device like this Alienware device. For heaven's sake, I could not find parts or a battery for it. In the end, I decided to break it and take out the processor and RAM and install it on the Dell Latitude device. I also kept the original adapter. The used device that I bought, the Alienware M15x, was a failed device no matter what they did to it. More than an update and beautification, the ex58 remains better than it in all aspects and details, despite stopping support. This board bears all the new things from the new generation and fulfills all the requirements you want, as well as supports UPGRADING which you want. We printed together. Edit only bios
Also the other device I have is the third
Old Intel Core 2 processor
Android works very well and does not need to be upgraded. The SSD is sufficient for the purpose and some light modifications work as well as the RAM and more.
The name is Alienware, the status of garbage. Sorry guys for saying that, but honestly, it is a failed device in all its versions. It is a failure.
As for Dell, there is no disagreement. They have better devices than this damned device
Thank you so much Dawid for doing a follow up video on this laptop🥰
LOL i can't believe how difficult it was to tear that machine down. I had the predecessor to that model (M17x R4) and had just 2 screws to remove from the bottom panel and it exposed (almost) everything worth changing. When the stock AMD 7970 GPU died, i was able to source and install a GTX 980. That gave it another 3-4 years worth of life.
honestly, for how old this thing is, this thing packs quite a punch, I wouldn't mind using this as a main computer at all
Who remembers when laptop CPUs came on a funky daughterboard MXM type deal?..I still use my Pentium II laptop with a BSEL mod to a whopping 333Mhz to this day!
I bought one of these because of the last video. The positives: 1)Upgradability and serviceability. The negatives: 2)Don't buy it from a sketchy seller. I went down the rabbit hole trying to get it running correctly as a laptop. Actually I'm still here. Works great as a desktop since I can't figure out why the laptop keyboard (on my 3rd one) isn't functioning and the screen is all messed up. Still, I'll get it running correctly sooner or later. It's almost like a desktop with the upgradability and serviceability. I'd gladly give up thin laptops and go with thicker ones like this Alienware 18 if I could replace and add parts to them. Like hard drives. Never seen a laptop with 11tb worth of space before until now. 😁 Maybe in the future upgrade the 880's to 980's and max the CPU out to a i7-4930mx.
These laptop videos, man. I feel like Dawid has invented a new genre of horror, the tech horror genre. The only thing scarier than taking apart a laptop, replacing components, putting it back together and realizing you forgot something is opening up a laptop and realizing that you can't replace anything, lol.
Your alienware videos have all been entertaining, I'd like to see more videos on old alienwares. Great video
I did this to my Qosmio X870 laptop. Upgraded from a 670M to a 970M. Still runs decent today.
ok I lost it over the whole "show dolphins" statemen, that was a beautiful analogy my friend!
The difference between 880M SLI and a single 965M is just insane.
On my 15 R2 i can play Cyberpunk 2077 at the highest settings, 900P with FSR on balanced and still get double the framerate of the 880M's on low 1080P.
Sadly, the R2 doesn't use swappable graphics cards, because they had the Graphics Amplifier gimmick that came with it.
I would love to see an old 2006 era alienware laptop case be stuffed with latest gen shit. I always adored those cases.
You'll need to keep this laptop in a trough of dry ice to keep it cool now ! 😲
You might want to isolate that long bridge flex cable with Kapton tape to stop it from melting !
YOOOOOOO its a GTX 800 series in the wild, actually quite rare, only exists on the laptop platform. thank you for this one !!
5:11 That's a lotta screwing.
Wow 🤩 a Dawid Alienware upgrade video and a caught hacker …… made my day 🥰💪🤩👍
Dawid I think you have upped you game for past couple of months you content keeps getting interesting which I love
4:00 Good news, an 880M throttled to 75W is going to be a heck of alot faster in most titles, especially modern, than a 770M overclocked to 150w
“This may potentially not go very well.” Sums up this entire channel in one sentence.
This brings back memories of jacking the i7 2630qm out of my grandmas toshiba satelite laptop and replacing it with the i3 2310m that came in my m17x r2. I was a very devious kid, but for real whos idea was it to put that i3 in those laptops
The SLI male connector looks corroded on one of the boards. 3:53 Put some vinegar on it.
I have a Toshiba from 2011 I decided to finally upgrade. It had a Pentium B950, 4gb of ram and a 500gb HDD. I bought a new keyboard for $15, new battery for $15, 16gb of ram for $30, a 240gb SSD for $30 multiple years ago, and the cheapest quad core I could find. The i7-2630QM for $35. Not half bad imo
ofc its a suggestion.. according to dell its fine to run components at over 100degrees, and they always design their laptops in a way that they run hot enough to cook an egg if you get hungry
Jeeze at 10:50 you dropped the ball with the FPS stats Jarred.
That "ops" at 6:30 got me every time 😂
IIRC the 800 series were notorious for their power and heating problems that they simply skipped the 800 series on desktop.
Well, on one hand, now I know it is possible to upgrade certain old laptops. On the other hand, it's totally not worth it and expensive. But at least now we know! Thanks to Dawid, he's the best.
You really did well putting all that back together.......
Dude I am just about to upgrade mine, same model and make, could not have been a better video on youtube!
My neighbor was going to give me this laptop but his wife threw it out before he could give it to me. I'm still heart broken. It's such a fantastic design. The fact you can just swap out GPUs on a laptop is amazing.
The elevator rock music during the tear down really fits this video.
I almost spent $300 to upgrade my 5800x to a 5800x3d yesterday, then some quick research and found I'd maybe get 3-5% with my 3080 10GB so decided to keep my $300. Dawid doing videos like this prove I was smart by not overpaying for a miniscule performance boost.
I've actually got lots of experience with mxm cards, I have a great many of them that I've pulled put of various HP, dell, and clever notebooks. I've got a quadro p4000 running in a dell precision m6700 that also got a 120hz screen swap and 16gb of ram. The mod to the driver to make it works is surprisingly easy and it runs even today's games great.
Thank you for your sacrifice. I would do a lot of this stuff out of sheer curiosity if I had the money... Which would then make me broke again because I wouldn't be savvy enough to monetize it.
This was actually my first laptop in 2013, It was my heart and souls back then.
oh yeah! Nice that you did that upgrades :)
10:54 One of those cards is definitely on the way out unfortunately. That’s one of the risks when buying overpriced used laptop components on eBay but you’re lucky they worked at all and that you got a decent result!
As another viewer pointed out, it’d be really cool to see the 2080 MXM! This beefcake laptop deserves that kind of power jammed in it
The subtitles are not auto generated and yet the music subtitles are just [applause]
You know, this is something I would love to see more brands do, not just lenovo and alienware. For instance I would love to see Acer come out with a predator helios 300 that has dual gpu slots and a cpu socket for latest generations of intel and amd cpus. The serviceability and upgradeability for me far outweighs the "need" for slim and lightweight laptops.