TurbodTalon
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About TurbodTalon
- Birthday 03/04/1981
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Incoming Clevo 680M (4GB) for AW M18x-R1
TurbodTalon replied to Brian's topic in Alienware M18x / AW 18
I didn't want to start an entirely new thread for this, but I have a few questions. I had a 7970 fail, as you might have seen in the other thread, so I'm looking at a 4GB 680M from an MSI notebook. Does MSI have their own cards too, or is would it be a Clevo card? Does HDMI-In work? Does the laptop still not see the Intel graphics?- 62 replies
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Clevo 7970M & M18XR1 compatibility
TurbodTalon replied to dblshotty's topic in Alienware M18x / AW 18
The Clevo 7970M has failed. Started up a game in Steam and the GPU froze. Had to do a hard reboot, upon which the LCD backlight comes on and the laptop just sits there like that. I tried to do a blind VBIOS flash to no avail. I've had other GPUs go bad, but usually there's an audible 'beep' code that accompanies it. I tried an external monitor, also with no results. I ended up slapping my secondary Dell 7970M back into the primary slot. Everything works fine now. Either way, the card is going back and I'm getting a refund. I've wanted to try a pair of 680Ms, so that's what I'll do next. Thanks for all of the helpful information. -
Clevo 7970M & M18XR1 compatibility
TurbodTalon replied to dblshotty's topic in Alienware M18x / AW 18
I wasn't aware of all of that information about the Clevo cards. I'll tell you that I was extremely disappointed when I set the heat sink on the card and it was wobbling like a seesaw. The guys at Upgradeyourlaptop are not blameless either, IMO. I specified that I had an Alienware laptop, and that I would be using the card for the secondary slot, and the guy said it was 100% compatible. He then proceeded to tell me he wasn't sending any of the other items in the kit I had already paid for, since they were Clevo parts. I told him to refund part of my payment, because those parts could be sold to recoup some of the cost of the card. He refused to refund any of the payment, and just sent the whole Clevo kit. If I wouldn't have been willing to butcher my heat sink with a Dremel tool, I would have had to send the card back and deal with that headache. Anyhow, woe is me. Thank you for explaining all of that. It makes things much more clear regarding why the two cards are different. -
GTX 675m SLI vs Radeon 6990m Crossfire?
TurbodTalon replied to kid_maximus's topic in Alienware M18x / AW 18
I would also suggest to go with the 675M SLI. I never had a problem with my 6990M CF setup. Used and abused it. It just seems like Nvidia has a hardier card and better driver support. -
Clevo 7970M & M18XR1 compatibility
TurbodTalon replied to dblshotty's topic in Alienware M18x / AW 18
I just installed a 7970M in my M18x-R1 from the eBay seller Upgradeyourlaptop. There is a difference between the Dell and Clevo HM card, so beware. I'm not familiar with what the components are on the card, but the four components (circled in picture) are FLUSH with the adjacent grey components on the Clevo card I got from Upgradeyourlaptop. The card absolutely will NOT work as the secondary card in an Alienware M18xR1. The taller circled components dig right into the heat pipes on the 100 watt AMD secondary heatsinks. I had to install the Clevo card as the primary and use my Dremel tool to cut away a bit of the primary heat sink. The Clevo card with the taller components in that region will work with a modified primary heat sink. M18xR1 owners are better off getting Dell cards for both primary and secondary.