rewben

maybe it's really the time to move on :/ i wished for two things in new aw series. a pcie 3.0 x4 m.2 slot, and usb 3.1 support, then the rest should be at least the same. none of those were included, plus cpu/gpu soldered, and ram slots reduced. the new m.2 slots are all sata-based. it's just sad.

hi domycatlol, in addition to the above, there are 2 more things that you need: a triple-pipe gpu heat sink, and a 330W adapter. the triple-pipe gpu heat sink is good to have a decent temperature of 75+ c under load. you can use the same heat sink for 780m/880m or even 980m later. a 330W adapter is optional but it can deliver more power to the machine, and it's less stress to the adapter itself. (this is especially good when you started to put more hardware parts to the machine)

maybe it's a bit confusing now, because we all tested with different models. i tested the w7.uefi on aw18. with legacy mode on it's fine. without it, it booted fine but the boot screen never went away. my best guess was that there are apparent differences in the bios of these models that caused the different outcomes. i couldn't test it in my m17xr4 now because it's running 880m (modded bios and vbios applied).

oh. i missed that sorry. i tested it just now. yes w7 sp1 in aw18 uefi (stock bios) can run only with legacy load on. with legacy off, it booted to the desktop, but the boot screen never go away. i could type in my password blindly and went in the desktop, and then press alt+f4 to shut the machine down.

w7 will install in uefi mode. a) format your usb stick with FAT32; extract all the contents from windows 7 iso into the formatted usb stick; c) if you have a working windows 7 64bit, find C:\Windows\Boot\EFI\bootmgfw.efi; if not, use 7-zip to open the install.wim in x:\sources\ (select > right click > open archive). then in the 7-zip explorer, browse to folder '1\Windows\Boot\EFI\'. extract the file bootmgfw.efi. d) now in you usb stick, create a 'boot' folder in the 'efi' folder (i.e. x:\efi\boot) if it's missing. in that efi folder you should see the 'microsoft' folder also. e) put the bootmgfw.efi inside the newly created 'boot' folder and rename it as bootx64.efi (x:\efi\boot\bootx64.efi) also make sure the disk is a gpt disk. good luck.

i have found the thread about this at nbr. sorry if i was totally wrong. i have read about the mod here previously. edit: yes, i was wrong. the 330W adapter for my 18 work well with m17x r4.

you need to modify the m18x adapter before it can be used for m17x. for 780m, 240W is fine. 240W.

yes, i am waiting for the news also. geforce.com has published the new gpu driver for 980m specifically. it must be just around the corner.

what did you do? i followed j95's post here. it worked for me.

if the up-coming dell bios allows the upgrade, then there should be no issue. - - - Updated - - - afaik the gpu is soldered on the mobo for aw14. the better bet is to get aw17. however, it's better to double check if 980m is supported or not first. if it's not we will need modded bios. previously i tried to put a 880m in my r4. the results were unstable, so i switched back to 680m. for r4 i guess the better upgrade is 780m. (well, as of now)

it depends on which gpu you're after. imo i don't think you need an unlocked bios if you are upgrading with a dell gpu (gtx 780m/880m), but you might need one if you go beyond that (e.g. 980m). additionally, you also need a more powerful AC adapter (240W).

i guess aw17 is better with 780m. perhaps with enough rants they will push a new bios update with the right fan profiles.