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Question About Upgrading The M14X


Zion

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Hi, Im New To The Forum And To Start Off My Question Is What Parts Are Upgradable Through Alienware? Im Curious To Know Because I Had The Laptop About A Week And I Think I Should've Gone Higher With The Specs. Here They Are.

My Specs:

*i5 Intel Core Processor 2410m 2.3ghz {2.9ghz}

*4GB Of DDR3

*1.5GB Nvidia GT 555m

*500GB 7200 RPM HDD

*Screen Resolution: 1366X768

What I Really Want To Upgrade Is The Intel Core From A i5 To An i7 Of 2.0ghz, The RAM To 4GB To 8GB, The Nvidia Video Card To A 3.0GB Instead Of 1.5 And The Screen To A 1600X900. So Im Just Asking Anybody Here First Before Calling Dell To See If It's Possible To Upgrade To These Specs? That Way I Dont Have To Buy A Whole New Laptop From Them, If So What Would The Price Range Be? Also This Is My First Time Upgrading A PC So Yea. Thanks!

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The CPU, RAM, Hard Drive, and screen are all user replaceable (screen just being a bit harder). The GPU is soldered onto the motherboard so replacing it isnt really an option. Upgrading to 3gb is definitely not worth it for afterwards (considering itd probably cost 300$ and alot of time and effort).

Dell would do those things for you, but the parts would cost 2x the price or so. But if youve only had it a week Dell has a 21 day return policy. Id recommend just upgrading the CPU and RAM yourself, and possibly the screen. If not, returning it would be cheaper.

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Hi and welcome to T|I!

The RAM and harddisk is very easy to upgrade and there's no need to get it done by Dell. The CPU can be upgrade by yourself as well, but it's a bit more difficult and may void your warranty. Dell will do it but probably charge quite a bit.

The GPU is soldered directly to the motherboard, so this would require to replace it... To be honest, the difference between the 1.5GB and 3GB version isn't that big and you won't notice it in the most common situations.

The screen can be upgrade as well (by Dell) but it's not cheap.

If your system is only a week old, the easiest thing would be to simply return it and order a new one with the upgraded specs. And it will probably be cheaper than buying all the upgrades from Dell.

My advice is to get only the minimum amount of RAM from Dell and upgrade it yourself, it's cheaper and better.

Edit: Lol, Gears was faster.

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LOL @ Gears and svl7, way to say the good stuff before everyone else -__-''

Anyways, there are some tutorials here about how to take apart your m14x and that is how you would exchange the parts. I would recommend switching to the i7 even though it will prob be costly, but it will make your computer a lot more future-proof. The 900p screen would be a difficult decision though. Maybe if you can, compare your screen to someone who has a 14'' 900p screen and see if you really like it.

and more about the 3gb card, the only real difference we have seen is its ability to store more texture data, and add that usually only 2gb is used (crysis and the witcher 2 are the only ones i've heard so far). In real life applicable use i don't think you'll see much use of it when you look at performance to cost ratio. However, if you are fine with spending the money on it, go straight ahead.

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Thanks Alot For The Help Guys! I Appreciated It. But Doing it Myself Tho I Dont Think I Will Do That While On Warranty. So Ima Just Let Dell Do It, I Know Some Of It Is Simple From What I Seen And About Returning It, Well It Took Me A Month To Get It So Waiting For A Another One Will Kill Me lol I Mean I Can Wait But I Need A Laptop To Get Around. Thanks Again! I'll Keep All This Info In Mind.

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Eh, Id still highly reccomend against Dell doing it as A. Theyd probably have to take the M14x for the CPU. B. Its going to cost you alot of dough. Returning it would be the best option if you really cant do it yourself.

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True But Ima Still Let Them Do It Either Way. Once I Find Out The Whole Cost. Can't Afford The Wait To Return It And Still Wait To Get A Whole New One For Now. Just For Other Reasons But Idk Yet, Even Tho I Got A Desktop PC To Back Me Up. Thats Pretty Much It. But Thanks Though.

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