PJko66

upgradeyourlaptop are already offering upgrade kits for some Alienware models (M17, M18, 17 and 18), not sure if they will manage to upgrade older revisions... My R3 with 880m is probably maxed out :-P

I decided to re-paste my R3 after 3 years of use - I realized, that I cant play games on flat surface without getting marginal temps on GPU after 30+ minutes of playing. Had to put laptop on a stand. (dust was not the issue). I checked CPU temp before re-pasting and it was not overheating, but 2 of the cores got significantly higher temps during the test. So I decided to re-paste CPU as well. After re-pasting all 4 cores were getting almost identical temps (only 1 degree difference). Not sure about 5 months in your case... if possible, I would recommend contacting Dell first - really fast next-day service. Mainly because if it shows that CPU or GPU (or fans or whatever) is faulty, they will replace it without a word. When they find out you were "experimenting" with it, they might have a problem with it (although Alienwares are allowed to be manipulated as stated in manual, but re-pasting is not one of the mentioned operations ).

If anyone would be interested, the same thing can be done in M17x R3. Only instead of 2 drives, you end up with 3 :-P My current configuration is 128GB SSD, 2x 750GB HDD in RAID 0 and external BD-ROM. Just need ICY BOX AC642.

I have a Alienware M17x R3 for 3 years now. Very happy owner, I love the idea of a laptop, that can be upgraded.

However...

I would consider eurocom now, because, at least in Europe, you get better support (Dell has great support in service, but not in upgrading, community and so on) even with upgrades.

I changed my GPU from ATI to nVidia and it was a pain to get it running. It was bought from eurocom, but they did not want to support me here in Europe - had to contact only online support in Canada (from where I bought the GPU... support via e-mail kinda sucks..).

To sum up:

- I have been considering also a third option to go back to desktop

- if the GPU could not have been upgraded I would definitely do so

- main reason: with 5+ kilograms, most of the time it is a desktop... so really consider if you will be attending many gaming events where you take your laptop with you

Cheers

Alienware M17x R3 here... with its 5 kilograms... so my prefered option is to leave it on the top of the desk ))

But seriously:

- it came with a nice sleeve (logo and everything)

- after few days of searching I found a bag that can carry a 17.3 laptop and does not look completely black and boring...

- I prefer to put it in the sleeve, then bag and pointing it with rear down

- I had traveled in car (many many km's), train and bus - so far nothing got damaged broken etc. (except for my shoulder sometimes )

- tried to carry in both sleep mode and switched off - no problems with wake-up, even after 8 hour journey in a car

I saw a few drivers for 3D displays on eurocom sites. They should contain modded inf. for R4 3D. Let me know if you need them (they will most likely not be the latest drivers) and I will try to find th link.

Alienware M17x R3

Intel Core i7-2720QM, 2,20 GHz (3,4 GHz in turbo)

Corsair Vengeance 16GB KIT DDR3 1600MHz

2x 750GB HDD in RAID 0

1x 128GB SSD Intel

nVidia GTX 880M 8GB

Creative SOUND BLASTER X-Fi HD - external sound card

Logitech z906 5.1

Logitech G35 headset

Logitech G502 Proteus Core

Alienware TactX Enhanced Gaming Keyboard

47" LED Full HD Samsung TV as monitor :P

Windows score 7,5 (everything is 7,9 - processor is 7,5)

Its a beast