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Machine Head - Beautiful Morning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_U0Io4wNAE

Guide - M15x with Nvidia GTX 470m IMPORTANT: The Nvidia 470m is not officially supported by Dell. Upgrading to this card may void your warranty. Some background to this mod: The first guy who tried to put a Nvidia 470m in an Alienware M15x was @iloveb00bs in December 2010, shortly after the card got released. Unfortunately it didn't work as desired, the card worked, but only at 2d clocks. All attempts to bring it to 3d clocks failed, and the card wasn't supported by Nibitor support at this time. Also @widezu69 didn't get it to work a couple of weeks ago, so I didn't think it would be possible. But in the process of trying to upgrade the Asus G73JW of a colleague I got my hands on a Nvidia GTX 470m and since we didn't get it to work in the G73, I thought let's try it again in the M15x... I had to mod the vbios to get it running at 3d clocks. I'm not that experienced with Nvidia cards, so that's probably why it took me a couple of attempts to get it working. First I changed the 2d clocks and voltage (P3 in Nibitor) to 3d values. The result was that the card idled at 3d clocks, but as soon as I opened a 3d application it went downclocked itself to about 73MHz core and got to 2d voltage again... pretty annoying. After some more tests I realized that I had to change the lower 3d clocks and voltage (P7 in Nibitor). This did the trick. Apparently the card only checks P7 and P3 in the VBIOS, the actual 3d clock entries (P15) seem to have no effect at all. The fan control works perfectly. Haven't tested DP/HDMI audio yet, but I'll do this sometime soon. Things to do before exchanging the card: Download the drivers. I used the latest Nvidia beta driver (v275.27) and the modded .inf files from laptopvideo2go. As the card comes from Clevo I guess the Clevo (and resellers) driver will work as well. But I usually prefer the latest driver for performance and stability. Also get GPU-Z for monitoring your video card and verifying it. Make sure you have thermal paste, maybe some new thermal pads as well as something to clean the heatsink (e.g. isoproply alcohol) and some cloths around. I also highly recommend using a grounded ESD-mat and a wristband. Know what you're doing. You need to partially disassemble your machine to get to the GPU. Prepare yourself thoroughly, check out my little GPU exchangement guide and if you need more information also the M15x service manual, as well as the . It can be helpful to write down all the steps in advance when you're doing this for the first time. In case there's still something unclear about the disassembling procedure after checking out all the stuff I just mentioned, just ask. Exchanging the GPU is really pretty easy. Very important: Make all the necessary preparations to flash the modified vbios to the card in order to get it working at 3d clocks: You'll need a DOS bootable USB drive with NVflash on it. If you have already such an USB drive you can skip the next step and simply copy the mod470m.rom file from the attached archive to your stick. If you first need to create such an USB drive open an read the Spoiler: Creating a bootable DOS USB drive (by [MENTION=5]Brian K.[/MENTION] ) Step 3: Download and extract Nvflash, the tool for flashing a Nvidia vbios to the GPU from DOS. Copy the files to the root of your already correctly formatted USB stick. Step 4: Download the modded GTX 470m vbios and put it on your USB drive as well. The upgrading procedure: Uninstall your GPU drivers. Make a power drain (Turn off your M15x, remove the power cord and the battery. Then press and hold down the power button (Alienhead) for about 10-20 sec. Remove your GPU - Here's a little guide with pics in case you need some help. Clean your heatsink, if necessary replace the thermal pads with new ones. Make sure the 470m has a retention bracket on the back of the GPU. If not take the one from your old GPU and put it there. Properly insert your GPU, make sure that it sits properly and that the die is clean. Apply the thermal paste, and attach the heatsink. Then (after reassembling your system), boot, install the drivers and reboot. Make sure the fans are running (otherwise you probably forgot to plug in the fan). Open GPU-Z and verify your card and the clocks. Default 3D clocks are 535/750/1070 MHz (core/memory/shader), you can see them in the "Graphics card" tab of GPU-Z. Make sure PowerPlay is enabled in the Catalyst Control Center. Also make sure Stealth Mode is deactivated. Check your temperatures. Idle temps should be 40-50°C, depending on your ambient temp of course. While gaming or doing something similar GPU-intense the system will run significantly hotter, 60-70°C, maybe a bit higher. >>> Now you need to flash the modded vbios to your GTX 470m in order to get your card working at 3d speeds <<<WARNING: Flashing the vbios of your GPU always involves some risk and can brick your card in case something goes wrong. Make sure you know the exact procedure before doing this. I do not take any responsibility for damaged cards, systems or whatever. -Plug in your properly prepared USB drive -Make sure your system is plugged in (AC adapter and to be safe battery as well) -Reboot -When you see the Alienhead press [F12] to get to the boot menu, choose "Boot from USB" A command prompt will appear. First of all, make a backup of your original 470m vbios! Use the following command: nvflash -b orig470m.rom Before flashing, test whether the file isn't corrupted (errors while copying it to the stick or similar): nvflash -v mod470m.rom The image size must be 64000 bytes and the CRC32 3C8FA599 Now flash the modded vbios: nvflash -5 -6 mod470m.rom Press enter. A couple of warnings will appear, follow the instructions on the screen to confirm the flash procedure. Remember, some Keyboard layouts have the [Z] key at the place where the US layout has the [Y] key. So in case you have such a keyboard you'll need to press [z] instead of [y], otherwise the flashing procedure will get cancelled. Then press [Ctrl][Alt]+[Del] to reboot your system, unplug the USB stick. You can use GPU-Z to verify the flash of the vbios. It should look like this afterwards: Here some first benchmarks, both at stock clocks, PhysX off and the rest in the Nvidia control panel on standard settings, CPU at 3.2GHz. I haven't seen other 470m benchmarks of other systems, but 9k stock vantage seems reasonable. The card is probably pretty overclockable, but I haven't tested this yet. I have yet to find overclocking tool with which I can set the core clock manually, so far I only managed to change the memory and shader clock with Nvidia Inspector. Otherwise I'll have to modify the vbios in order to overclock it (which isn't the best solution as I can't really push the card with this method) However, it seems the card can be overvolted, haven't tested it yet but Nibitor allows me to change the voltage to 0.99V (instead of 0.94V). The only issue so far is that the card runs either at 3d clocks or at 2d clocks. Nothing between this. (As I said, the card only seems to use P7 and P3, if anyone knows a solution to this, let me know). M15x GPU exchangement guide .pdf modded 470m vbios - only for AW M15x.zip

here is one http://www.break.com/index/webcam-hottie-privacy-fail-2036359?utm_source=scribol&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=scribol

Went ahead and ordered this cd (autographed) along with t-shirt because nobody commands authority like the guy wearing a KMFDM t-shirt. YouTube - ‪KMFDM - Rebels In Kontrol‬‏ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z0Do-CBnVk&feature=mh_lolz&list=LLv7ojE-nqJAU

The M11x R1 is still a great machine and it still can be pushed to it's limit and damn cheap, just put an ssd in there and your good to go with it! Wish i had two R2's, i would have a lot of usage for them both one on the go and the other for home lolz. Michael when is your M18X coming? Keep the R3 dude.

Official M11x-R1 owner's lounge. Driver list coming soon.

So, since I run out of ideas to get the 470m working in the Asus G73JW, I put it in my 470m. The first who tried to get this card working in the M15x was @iloveb00bs, the card worked, but only didn't go to 3d clocks, it just stayed at 2d mode... I experience the same issue, so I modified the vbios and changed the 2d clocks to 3d clock, same with the voltage. The result... the card goes to 3d clocks, yes... but as soon as there's load on the card, e.g. when I open a game, the voltage goes back to 2d mode, as well as the clocks. You can see this behaviour in this screenshot of GPU-Z and HWinfo32: Any ideas? Btw: The fan control works... lol And it seems I can't use overclocking tools to set the clocks.

thinking of getting a 485m for the r3 to test out myself. seen it worked already but still would like to see if i can get 3d working on it.

Great app! I just added to the sticky thread for Alienware Customizations. I'm linking back to the opening post of this thread so please keep the opening post updated with your changes.

More pics

This could be a speculation thread. I know it's too early, but this may be an open discussion. My main purpose is only to share an editorial on its features, specs, and whatever. It could be a possible GPU for the M14x R2. NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560M

Yeah, you're absolutely right, I'm pretty sure it will sell as good as the 460m (which has been/still is a very successful card when you take a look at the models and sales). But it's still disappointing to see that it works for them with only refreshing old cards instead of really pushing the performance across the whole prdouct line. Since it's a GTX card the manufacturers can sell it as high-end gaming GPU (which is true, but it's the weakest of the high-end Nvidia cards...) Manufacturer won't step up to better cards because they're more expensive, and still Nvidia is easily able to sell cards like the 560m they don't feel need to really improve the performance (unless AMD cards are going to be a lot better).

Michael I seen that before, if you click through the link they send you in your e-mail you will see that, if you go through the front of dell and click on check order status you will get a slight different page. Try it.

Pretty funny if you ask me...

If it flops in sales then they might think twice about that. The issue is laptop manufacturers are signing on and they will be in a ton of laptops and the mojority of them won't offer any other card but that which just promotes that same thing to happen.

By MSSE you mean: "Multiple Self-Healing Squamous Epithelioma"?

Mw86, they all use the same database for virus scanning, some just have more (redundant) features than others. Just go with the cheapest one. -Ash

Something like a 570m, 580m or 585m or "higher" will be interesting... but only if it's not just a refresh of the 4xx series like it seems to be with the 560m. Why even bothering to release something like this Nvidia? Same cores, higher clocks... haven't read a lot about the card yet, but it almost seems that it's simply a higher binned 460m. Same memory interface but higher clocks... what's the point? I don't expect it to perform considerably better than a 460m.

The Wiz's mod was nice... but it takes a lot to develop a modified bios from a locked one and there hasn't even been word of a second revision.. so it may be awhile before you see anything at all if there even will be.

Nice! Hope it's everything you're hoping for

Too late, it's only for the 17x and the 18x via Nvidia GTX 560M laptops via engadget

Basically, make a list of all the ports that you and your family use. Find everything. Then, block everything else and unblock as needed. AVG link scanner will be useful. Personally, I don't actually use an antivirus any more. I know the actions an antivirus will take to remove a virus, and can do it manually just as good (and take up no system resources doing it). I dont go to porn sites or warez sites and run fanboi's list in adblock and dont open EXE's/etc in emails. Simply doing that has meant I have not had a virus in the last 6+ years. -Ash

If Alienware removed the optic drive and put in extra heat sync and cooling in that area then maybe it could handle the 560m. (lower clock?) Thanks for the heads up! StevenX

Nice job, but you made me go look on ebay! Some of them are really cheap....

Yeah Mcaffee has been doing it for years, mainly to small startup sites they can prey on. Ignore them, they dont matter. They wont remove you from the list until you give them money, no matter how hard you beg. Panda historically has used a lot of resources for its heuristic scanning, as it is very powerful and very thorough - hence the "uninstall" comment. Panda is like the godzilla of AV. No where near as much as norton mind you, but still noticeable. Panda cloud AV is much lighter in resources, but I dont think it hooks in as deep as Panda non-cloud (speculation, could be wrong). Stay away from software firewalls. You have a DSL or cable modem - thus, you have a hardware firewall already, and it works for your whole home. Log into it and tweak it to your heart's content. -Ash

I seriously doubt this would be going into the m14x; it is probably too thermally intensive for the m14x heatsink. The 555gt is at least 30-40% below the 560m (since it is supposed to be 10% better than the 460m)

The mcaffee thing is a well known scam used to make you buy a "license" to be put on their "whitelist". All they are doing is trying to scam you out of their cash. To be perfectly honest, the kind of people that use mcaffee should be coming to TI anyway. You wont get off their block list unless you give them their "licensing fee". Not sure why this is even legal, but whatever. America Fuck yeah. Norman is just another Norton competitor designed to fool old people into thinking they are buying Norton. It is given to PC stores to bundle with PC's which shortly afterwards begins it's scarware routine "WARNING YOUR PC ISNT PROTECTED RENEW YOUR LICENSE" garbage like all in-box AV's do. The detection rate for Norman is laughable. Most of their time and effort is spent on marketing and UI. MSSE is a great suite, and Panda is the highest detection rate of live threats bar none. The best part of Panda is its heuristic engine which is the highest detection rate and the lowest false positive number. In our real world use, we could not find a machine we couldnt fix with panda, no matter how far gone. But yeah, Norman is just another consumer con. -Ash

This sounds awesome and looks amazing, keep up the progress that silver looks ten times better than the one i have! Keep up the good work maybe some of us can pay you to do that mod? Would you be willing to do so? It's better sometimes to do that than buy a newer machine, the R2 will become like the M1730 refusing to die.

I just finished a 2-2.5 hour gaming session of League of Legends, had high performance battery profile selected. Max cpu temp was 78c , but when I checked inbetween games in would be at around 69c-73ish c. Guessing those numbers aren't too bad. One thing of notice was that the game was running off the intel graphics and not the GT555m although I have it set to run on the GT555m in the nVidia control panel... Anyway, just wanted to post some of the temperatures I was getting! On idle and surfing the web it stays around 50c on the first core and 45c-48c on the other 3 cores. -- Enfore

Nice its looking sexy so far. Pearly white sexy!

The Youngest Professional Guitarist in the world! check these out guys.

That looks awesome! If it was me I'd just polish it up and use it like that.

Another consideration about jumping from 5870 CF to a whole new system is the fact that most games "should" play (from what people tell me) until the next consoles arrive. When new consoles arrive, it won't matter if it's 5870 CF or 485 SLI as consoles arrive and compete with the best of desktop performance. Sure the videocards in the desktops may have more "raw" power but the visual difference is negligible. When I got my 360, COD2 and Tomb Raider looked damn near identical to my Alienware FX 55 CPU, and dual 6800 ULTRAs. Therefore how can video cards in a Laptop from 2011 compete with the best of what desktops offer in 2013. This was a major consideration for jumping on a $2000.00 R2 from the outlet with maxed specs (920xm, CF 5870, RGB). It should play the games I want to play at good settings for a few years which nets a good ROI for me. The reality is that PC gaming is becoming consolized. I attribute most of this to the majority of gamers going online VIA live and PSN. Now PC developers can target a bigger audience, spend less time optimizing codes to work on a variety of platforms and just rush average games and patch the updates....while milking the console players "points" for new outfits. It's kinda sad because I reflect back to 2003-2005 and vividly remember my jaw hitting the floor with Far Cry, HL2, Doom3, Oblivion and FEAR. There was just NOTHING CLOSE to what was offered on consoles. Now PC gamers are left with going to beyond3d to count pixels and brag about resolution and AA differences. However I do agree that the 6970 should have been what the 5870 was. It reminds me when I bought the m15x R1 the day it was released and it toppled SLI 8700 GTs. That system ran strong for 3 years and I jumped on the R2 as my 8800GTX died. At the end of the day, these philosophical ponderings are considered "good problems" to be facing IMO. Just to be in a position to afford a gaming laptop in a depressed economy makes me appreciate how far I have come in this world.