I used to have a M17x R4, with a GTX 680m 1080p screen 512 gb SSD, loved that machine so much was my pride and joy, was still like new when I sold it as I hardly used it over my desktop, i remember the buyer from ebay messaged me how pleased he was.
I have a 2005 Alienware Area 51M laptop with a DESKTOP Pentium 4 & GeForce FX Go5700, and a 2014 Alienware 17 with a i7 4700MQ & gtx 880m. They are solid and still work besides the battery now.
I don't tinker with laptops, just weird desktops - but, damn, this is more my jam - especially coming from iMac upgrades and weird Linux boxes... Alienware used to make some cool stuff, and - vintage wise - some of it is the best we got... and well, sometimes, the cheesiest. MXM video card upgrades are a thing, especially if you go down the workstation rabbit hole. Beware heatsink modifications... I feel like my soldering should be at least, um, real, before I ever attempt modifying copper... Just sayin' But, hot damn, is that not a fun playground of retrocomputer?
Hello mate :) I don't mind having a poke in a laptop, especially if this much upgradability is on offer :) I have few more - hopefully some good videos coming up. Yeah, I would not go as far as to add extra heat pipe haha!
Great video! I have an Alienware m14x r1. I upgraded it to 16Gb of ram and a 500GB SSD. It has an i7 2670QM and an Nvidia 555m graphics card in it. I was able to install Windows 11 on it and it runs fantastic! These old Alienware laptops have fantastic build quality and for everything but gaming now, my laptop from 2012 works perfectly fine! I encourage anyone who has one to push its limits and if someone who doesn't have one finds a good deal on one to get and enjoy it!
had a m17xr4 with i7 3920mx overclocked to 4.0GHz, upgraded 980m 8gb from a hd 7970m 2gb, 16gb ram, both cpu and gpu cooled by thermal grizzly conductonaut liquid metal and it was awesome
never had an alienware laptop but i do have a 2014 or 15 asus rog laptop that i bought off my boss for $50. has an i7 4720QM nvidia 960m with 2gb ddr5 video memory and 12gb ram.....cleaned it up and runs great.
What a cool video, thank you for uploading. I was really surprised by how little difference there was spec-wise between the 260m and 280m, but still a very nice upgrade! I personally would have loved GTAIV being benchmarked but oh well. Looking forward to more videos!
Hello mate, glad you liked it! Yeah, me too! There is not much in it, is there! Upgrades defo helped with "smoothness" of games, but one perhaps expected more. Never mind - next time I touch one of these, we are going SLI! And I will add GTA4! :)
Hello mate! I believe anything before 900 series is okay in this one - I like the idea, might perhaps do in future videos, for now I'm playing it safe :)
I have an m15x that I'm about to upgrade and this video was super helpful to see what you had uograded. I'm curious why you didn't replace the ram - based on the research I've done you can put 16gb in and it will work. Right now my m15x is getting BSOD after running for about 10 mins, I am hoping the upgraded ram will improve this if anything... it currently has 2x2gb sticks and will replace those with 2x8gb sticks. Fingers crossed...
Hi, thank you for this video. I own a AW M15x. Unfortunately the cd drive no longer inserts a CD. There is no CD or DVD inside. The cd drive is recognized by windows, drivers seem to be up to date. Could this be due to an outdated bios version or is it rather a mechanical defect? is it possible to change the cd drive? What do you think.
I had an older Alienware Area-51 m15x it had 320gb 7200rpm hhd instead of the industry standard 5200rpm hhds , I wonder if yours is also 7200rpm ? I use mine in a USB3 enclosure as a portable hhd it is still preforming well in it's new role.
They were lying even more about their mobile GPUs back then. 280M is nowhere close to even GTX 260 on desktop and it would be more accurate to call it a GTS 250. I remember when I got my first and only gaming laptop with a Radeon 9700 thinking it was actually like a desktop 9700 but it was actually a 9600pro.
i still have my m17xr2 with two 5870m (the crossfire only works in a few games) and yhea it can get very loud and hot. i power up him sometimes just to see if it's still works
Yes such an upgrade can be done. my laptop has these specs: i7-920/16gb ram/gtx970m/ssd 1tb. Everything is working fine. You can try gtx980m as well, but it is much hotter and needs lower frequencies
Hello mate, yes, temps were okay I considered overclocking, but since BIOS does not allow for any multiplier/FSB adjustment, I was not happy to do it over SW :)
I used to have a M17x R4, with a GTX 680m 1080p screen 512 gb SSD, loved that machine so much was my pride and joy, was still like new when I sold it as I hardly used it over my desktop, i remember the buyer from ebay messaged me how pleased he was.
Hello mate, Thanks for sharing, I've got one of those lined up for testing, can't wait :) Did you replace it with something newer ?
I have a 2005 Alienware Area 51M laptop with a DESKTOP Pentium 4 & GeForce FX Go5700, and a 2014 Alienware 17 with a i7 4700MQ & gtx 880m. They are solid and still work besides the battery now.
Wow! I hope to get my hands on one of those in future :) Thanks for sharing
Good save! I enjoy using these older Alienware laptops to period appropriate games. There's just a certain charm to it.
I don't tinker with laptops, just weird desktops - but, damn, this is more my jam - especially coming from iMac upgrades and weird Linux boxes...
Alienware used to make some cool stuff, and - vintage wise - some of it is the best we got... and well, sometimes, the cheesiest.
MXM video card upgrades are a thing, especially if you go down the workstation rabbit hole.
Beware heatsink modifications... I feel like my soldering should be at least, um, real, before I ever attempt modifying copper... Just sayin'
But, hot damn, is that not a fun playground of retrocomputer?
Hello mate :) I don't mind having a poke in a laptop, especially if this much upgradability is on offer :) I have few more - hopefully some good videos coming up. Yeah, I would not go as far as to add extra heat pipe haha!
Great video! I have an Alienware m14x r1. I upgraded it to 16Gb of ram and a 500GB SSD. It has an i7 2670QM and an Nvidia 555m graphics card in it. I was able to install Windows 11 on it and it runs fantastic! These old Alienware laptops have fantastic build quality and for everything but gaming now, my laptop from 2012 works perfectly fine! I encourage anyone who has one to push its limits and if someone who doesn't have one finds a good deal on one to get and enjoy it!
had a m17xr4 with i7 3920mx overclocked to 4.0GHz, upgraded 980m 8gb from a hd 7970m 2gb, 16gb ram, both cpu and gpu cooled by thermal grizzly conductonaut liquid metal and it was awesome
I have an Alienware M17 R2. Bought it for $25 and it needs a lil care but im looking forward to pimping it out!!!
WHAT! For $25 that's a STEAL! Well done
never had an alienware laptop but i do have a 2014 or 15 asus rog laptop that i bought off my boss for $50. has an i7 4720QM nvidia 960m with 2gb ddr5 video memory and 12gb ram.....cleaned it up and runs great.
Hello mate, Thanks for sharing :) $50 is amazing deal for a gaming laptop :)
They dont make them like they use to. ugh Love this content!
Thank you! Well, the amount of metal/alloys used has defo been reduced but portability is welcomed...right? I hope to test newer models in future :)
What a cool video, thank you for uploading. I was really surprised by how little difference there was spec-wise between the 260m and 280m, but still a very nice upgrade! I personally would have loved GTAIV being benchmarked but oh well. Looking forward to more videos!
Hello mate, glad you liked it! Yeah, me too! There is not much in it, is there! Upgrades defo helped with "smoothness" of games, but one perhaps expected more. Never mind - next time I touch one of these, we are going SLI! And I will add GTA4! :)
You can install up to 760M if I'm not wrong, you just need to modifiy coff with a hammer, the heatsink for it to have appropiate contact
Hello mate! I believe anything before 900 series is okay in this one - I like the idea, might perhaps do in future videos, for now I'm playing it safe :)
i just got one on ebay that had a 680m :D
The 970M is often the common choice of upgrade for this model while sometimes people go for the Quadro M4000M or M5000M.
old laptops were a tank 13 pounds is insane 🤯
Hello mate - agreed! But, all that weight resulted in one SOLID body, there is no flexing, well, other than your back when you carry it around hah!
M15X my favorite models and i am use now
I have an m15x that I'm about to upgrade and this video was super helpful to see what you had uograded. I'm curious why you didn't replace the ram - based on the research I've done you can put 16gb in and it will work. Right now my m15x is getting BSOD after running for about 10 mins, I am hoping the upgraded ram will improve this if anything... it currently has 2x2gb sticks and will replace those with 2x8gb sticks. Fingers crossed...
I watch this video on my m15x:) and use everyday, new ssd, cpu and for me i'ts ok.
Hello mate, what spec is yours ? :)
Such a nice video !
Thank for the great content
Thank you - I'm glad you like the video :) More to come!
Hi, thank you for this video. I own a AW M15x. Unfortunately the cd drive no longer inserts a CD. There is no CD or DVD inside. The cd drive is recognized by windows, drivers seem to be up to date. Could this be due to an outdated bios version or is it rather a mechanical defect? is it possible to change the cd drive? What do you think.
I ended up just using a usb optical drive with mine, for the minimal times I use CDs, it was a quick and cheap fix!
Wow. I have a decent gaming laptop now, and only upgradeable parts are the ssd and 16gigs of soldered ram with an empty ram slot up to 32 gigs.
I had an older Alienware Area-51 m15x it had 320gb 7200rpm hhd instead of the industry standard 5200rpm hhds , I wonder if yours is also 7200rpm ? I use mine in a USB3 enclosure as a portable hhd it is still preforming well in it's new role.
Hello mate! Thanks for sharing :) No, my m15X came with 5400RPM drive, I'd love to test one of those 51's someday :)
They were lying even more about their mobile GPUs back then. 280M is nowhere close to even GTX 260 on desktop and it would be more accurate to call it a GTS 250. I remember when I got my first and only gaming laptop with a Radeon 9700 thinking it was actually like a desktop 9700 but it was actually a 9600pro.
Hello mate :) Yeah...CUDA core count won't lie, I was expecting bit more going to GTX280M!
i still have my m17xr2 with two 5870m (the crossfire only works in a few games) and yhea it can get very loud and hot.
i power up him sometimes just to see if it's still works
Google tells me that this laptop can be upgraded to a 970M video card.
Yes such an upgrade can be done. my laptop has these specs: i7-920/16gb ram/gtx970m/ssd 1tb. Everything is working fine. You can try gtx980m as well, but it is much hotter and needs lower frequencies
can u upload a video of installing windows xp in this machine ? And also alienware command center working on it
Nice vid bud!
Why not overclock 920xm it has unlocked multiplier ?? You have temp headroom
Hello mate, yes, temps were okay I considered overclocking, but since BIOS does not allow for any multiplier/FSB adjustment, I was not happy to do it over SW :)
@@nexus_tech just use ThrottleStop.
I own same model, but battery is dead..... where can I buy it ? buy link please....
i thought that cd said "alien porn".....
😝😝😝
Right ? Me too! haha!
GT 710 2gb vs HD 630
I will, one day :)
@@nexus_tech thank you very much :))