Potential upgrades for Alienware M17x R4?

[Lessinor 10]

Hey I am new here. I have had an Alienware M17x R4 for a while and I keep deciding to upgrade it instead of buying a new laptop. Mostly because it would be prohibitively expensive to buy a new one with comparable performance, expecially the more I upgrade it. I am quite inept when it comes to a lot of the tech stuff on this website, so bear that in mind if I make myself sound like an idiot.

Currently running;

OS: Windows 10-64bit Pro

CPU: Intel Core i7-3840QM CPU @ 2.80GHz, 2801 Mhz 4 Core

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 8GB VRAM

-353.17 Modified Driver, in PEG mode with A11 unlocked BIOS

RAM: 32GB of some Samsung RAM, not sure exactly what kind

Wireless Adapter: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7620

Storage: Two 1TB HDDs in Raid0, and one 64GB SSD (that I believe is mSATA and used to be a cache)

So what could I upgrade with what I currently have? The main thing I have thought is possibly replacing the 64GB SSD with a Samsung 850 EVO mSATA 1TB SSD. Transfer my OS to the new SSD and just use the 2TB Raid for mass storage. Would that work? What other upgrades could I do?

Thanks.

[ShatteredX 15]

CPU: Upgrade to i7-3940XM. $400 on ebay for a 5% performance increase. Might be fun if you enjoy overclocking though.

PSU: Upgrade to 330W? Probably only if you're seriously overclocking your 980M.

You've got the A11 unlocked bios so you're one step ahead of me in that arena

[spacetauren 13]

Hi Lessinor,

I just did a quite same thing some days ago.

You have a mSATA small SSD with OS running on it I bet. You can replace it with the Samsung EVO mSata for sure - a 512 Gb seems ok for me but if you want the biggest engine why not. You have to know that to reach the mSata SSD you will have to go quite deep in disassembling your R4 computer - see here a thread where it is explained with video and pictures how to to it.

I choosed myself to go with a SATA EVO of 500 Gb because I thought that I can get more performance throught the SATA III port of the R4 than through the mSATA one. For sure choosing that strategy let you with only one bay for a remaining HD.

Hope it helps -

[spacetauren 13]

Hi Lessinor,

I just did a quite same thing some days ago.

You have a mSATA small SSD with OS running on it I bet. You can replace it with the Samsung EVO mSata for sure - a 512 Gb seems ok for me but if you want the biggest engine why not. You have to know that to reach the mSata SSD you will have to go quite deep in disassembling your R4 computer - see here a thread where it is explained with video and pictures how to to it.

I choosed myself to go with a SATA EVO of 500 Gb because I thought that I can get more performance throught the SATA III port of the R4 than through the mSATA one. For sure choosing that strategy let you with only one bay for a remaining HD.

[spacetauren 13]

Hi Lessinor

Changing the mSATA is a job that need quite a lot of disassembling - see here. I chose myself to use a SATA SSD (same type) in 500Gb because I expect more performance from SATA III port of the R4 than of the mSATA one. For sure you will lost one HDD bay however.

Hope it helps