By
handale30
I added this post in the another forum a few months ago but felt like it could also help someone here, enjoy... So ive owned quite a few Alienware laptops but out of all of them my favorite has always been the great m17x R4. I love its aggressive looks, its lines and grills remind me of lamborgini design, the 1 glass sheet screen, the media keys looked futuristic and its laser etched name plate added a touch of personalization and attention to detail that they used to have.
So considering it still has powerful specs for modern standards, i7 processors, 32gb ram, 2ssd and 1msata slots, 120hz 3D display, mxm slot, sd card reader, I couldn't help but to sell my 2 current laptops (15 R1 980m, 4k, 15 R3 1060) and purchase a pristine example of this machine with all its original packaging to upgrade it up to todays specs.
The Original Specs of this particular system were:
* Intel i7 3820qm 2.7ghz / 3.7ghz
* Nvidia GTX680m 2gb
* 8gb DDR3 RAM 1600mhz CL11
* 250gb Samsung 840pro SSD
* 1tb Seagate Momentum HDD
* 17" 1080p 120hz 3D display
Desired Upgrades:
* Intel i7 3940mx 3.0ghz / 3.9ghz
* Nvidia GTX 1070 8gb
* 32gb DDR3 Ram 1600 CL10 Corsair
* 1tb Samsung 860 EVO SSD
* Liquid Metal and better thermal pads
2019 Specs:
* Intel i7 3940mx 3.0ghz / 3.9ghz
* Zotac GTX 1070mxm 8gb
* 32gb DDR3 Ram 1866 CL9 Corsair Vengeance
* 1tb Samsung 860 Evo SSD
* 256gb Samsung 840 Pro SSD
* Liquid Metal and Fujipoly 17w/mk thermal pads
* 17.3" 1080p 120hz 3D display
I already purchased the GTX 1070 mxm, 32gb RAM and the 1tb SSD.
The GTX1070 is installed and working at its full power. I applied Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut liquid metal thermal compound to both CPU and GPU and Fujipoly ultra extreme 17.0 W/mK thermal pads with my modified GPU heatsink and new X-bracket. CPU is overclocked from OEM BIOS to stage1 4.1ghz 3.9ghz 4cores. No chasis or board was cut or damaged during this process as I wanted to keep its integrity and no throttle issues what so ever. As I already had the 120hz edp screen, it was an easier job to do and thanks to @Striker123 and to @D4ddy for their threads as they made me have the guts to go through the project and to Rick for selling me this perfect example of a computer.
Alienware m17x r4 1070 mxm
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/msi-gtx-1070-mxm-successfully-working-on-alienware-m17x-r4-another-socket-victory-against-bga-crap.803637/
Alienware m17 Ranger 1070 mxm
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-17-r5-gtx-1070-mxm-3-1b.800137/
Here are some before and after benchmarks so you can see this baby flying
let me know what you think about these numbers...
I will be uploading more pictures soon as it only lets me upload 5. If you guys have any questions id be glad to help out.
current issues:
- the GPU fan does not automatically work so I have to use HWinfo to manually build the fan table but HWinfo sucks balls at this and doesn't start them automatically either, also with HWinfo I take control of both CPU and GPU fans at the same time and sometimes I just want my CPU fan to be spinning. so if someone has a fix for this man that would be great!