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At long last, upgrading my Alienware m5790

post #1 of 35
5/4/08 at 4:38pm
Thread Starter 
It's been a while since I've been here, and I've been enjoying the first year of my Alienware. Any of you who actually remember me will recall that I was going to order my system (see signature) and then upgrade in a few months. Money's been tight, and months turned into a year, but with graduation around the bend, I'm going to be upgrading some parts, and I'd like to hear your thoughts. The first thing I'd like to upgrade is my RAM. 1GB just isn't cutting it anymore, so I looked around on newegg for a while and found this. It seems pretty darn good, especially considering the brand and the price, and it seems like it's practically the best RAM my laptop can handle.

Next, I'd like to upgrade my HDD. 80 was never really enough, and although I have a nice external, I'd also like to upgrade from the 5,400 RPM of my current HDD. After a bit of searching I found this. Again, looks pretty nice, and would solve all my problems in that area. One note of concern here would be the formatting/installing my OS, etc. onto it. I've never done anything like that, so I'm a bit nervous to try it on my own, but is it as simple as people say? DO I simply install the part itself and then use the Alienware Respawn disc? Any insight here would be appreciated.

Finally, I'd really like to upgrade the processor as well. 1.66GHz and a 2MB cache were never parts I wanted, so I found this. It's a bit expensive for my liking, but the benefits would be wonderful, as my friend says: "Your computer is only as fast as it's slowest part", so it would be a waste to spend money on the other two upgrades and have my processor slow it down.

On that note, I don't think I'd be upgrading the processor on my own, as it naturally would be way too difficult, and hell, I probably can't even do it if I wanted to. I remember hearing about Alienware's upgrade policy being that they will perform the upgrade for you for one-way-shipping costs and even give you a 10% discount off of the retail price of the part to be upgraded. Does anyone know if this is true? And if so, do they charge for labor hours too? I imagine it might get costly if so.

Thanks for any and all help in advance.
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post #2 of 35
5/4/08 at 5:42pm
Thread Starter 
One more thing.. as I'm now noticing, the processor I linked was a socket P processor. I don't know the difference between the socket M and socket P, but is it just that the FSB for the M is 667 versus the 800 for the socket P? Does this make it incompatible with my machine?
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post #3 of 35
5/4/08 at 7:27pm
Hi Brixton. I remember when you got your 5790. Sounds like it's been working well for you.

Upgrading the RAM and the HD should not be a problem for you. I just did it (yesterday, in fact), in my MacBook Pro ( http://www.notebookforums.com/newpos...ead216232.html ), and I believe the HD replacement is a little more difficult in that process.

Regarding the RAM, I'm not sure your system will recognize all 4GB, but, that said - you should get an improvement for a very low cost.

I haven't checked AW's site, but they may have a how-to on replacing the Hard Drive.

Similarly, I'm not sure that processor will work in you notebook. Best to check with Alienware - it wouldn't hurt to call them and ask about all your intended upgrades.

Hopefully, someone who has upgraded their 5790 will post here and give you some pointers based on their actual experience.

Nice to see you drop in!
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post #4 of 35
5/4/08 at 8:35pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I was going to get in touch with them about the upgrades once I get a little closer to buying them. Right now I'm still checking out all my options.

I'm thinking my processor would need to be a socket M, which is a bit of a disappointment, seeing how for the same money I'd get a 2.0GHz with a 2MB cache, versus the socket P that was a 2.5GHz with a 6MB cache. Anyone know why it's more expensive for a lesser processor? Am I missing something?
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post #5 of 35
5/4/08 at 9:23pm
I don't own an m5790, but, I don't that CPU that you want to buy will work on for that motherboard. It's a Penryn processor and I think it only works on the Santa Rosa Platform and up.

Maybe Steve can help you out here. He owns an m5790.
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post #6 of 35
5/6/08 at 8:10am
I upgraded the following m5790 components


All of the upgrades listed below are easy- and with the exception of reinstalling windows (which taked approx. 20 min.) take only a few minutes. As simple as removing a few screws, sliding something out of a slot, and sliding something in, and reinserting screws. The m5790 has full driver support for 64-bit Vista.

The motherboard will only support a front side bus of 667 Mhz (i.e., C2D T7600 Merom 667Mhz)

XP Pro (x86)-Vista Ultimate (x64)
(No tv tuner)-Express card digital tv tuner
DVD-RW drive to BD-RE blu-ray optical drive
2GB pc5300 667Mhz ram- 4GB pc5300 667Mhz ram
100GB 7200 RPM hard drive- (2) 100GB 7200rpm (200GB raid 0)
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post #7 of 35
5/6/08 at 9:07am
Brixton, for $8 more you can buy a new 250GB 7200 RPM drive just by calling AW Customer Support and telling them you want to purchase it and request the 10% discount. I purchased one for my m5550 from them a few days ago. Total was $172 and change shipped. Not bad at all for a drive that has that much space and speed.
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post #8 of 35
5/6/08 at 10:12am
you can get a 320gig hard drive from alienware if you want more space for 180 bucks...that is with the 10% percent discount for upgrades...
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post #9 of 35
5/6/08 at 10:31am
Problem is the current 320GB is a 5400 RPM drive. There will be a 320GB 7200 offered, but not just yet.
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post #10 of 35
5/6/08 at 7:09pm
Thread Starter 
Can you simply buy the part from them and have them ship it to you, or do you have to send in the laptop to have them upgrade it for you? Also, do you have to upgrade it with them on the phone walking you through the steps or can you simply do it yourself and maintain the warranty?
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post #11 of 35
5/6/08 at 8:39pm
With most upgrades, AW will ship you the part. You can install it yourself, and if you have any issues you can call them for assistance.

Just call customer service, not tech support, and ask for the upgrade pricing for existing customers.

I think the only upgrade AW will ask you to send in the system is for a cpu change, but I'm not sure they offer that anymore with the 5790. They won't ship a cpu for you to install, but everything else they will. If you want to upgrade the cpu, just get one somewhere like Newegg.com, zipzoonfly.com, tigerdirect.com etc...

You should also check in the "my hive" section of AW's website. There might be a newer bios than you have that will support 4G of memory.
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post #12 of 35
5/6/08 at 11:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brixton Gunner View Post
Can you simply buy the part from them and have them ship it to you, or do you have to send in the laptop to have them upgrade it for you? Also, do you have to upgrade it with them on the phone walking you through the steps or can you simply do it yourself and maintain the warranty?
That's exactly what i did in the case of the hard drive i mentioned above. I received it and installed it myself today! No need to send it to them for a new hard drive. You do not have to call them to install the hard drive for fear of voiding your warranty. However, you can call them if you need help installing it. The same goes for memory replacement. Remember that if you replace the hard drive or memory and you did not buy it from Alienware it will NOT void your warranty on your system - they just won't fix/replace the parts you didn't buy from them - stands to reason.

In the case of swapping out a graphics card or CPU it is *TOTALLY* different. I would call TS or CS to find out what you need to do if you want to keep your warranty good if you want to replace those.
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post #13 of 35
5/7/08 at 12:55am
Thread Starter 
That's very good news. I was planning to do the RAM/HDD upgrades first anyways, see how much faster my computer runs, and then get the processor upgrade or possibly wait for prices to drop.
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post #14 of 35
5/10/08 at 12:57pm
Thread Starter 
Okay, I should be ordering my upgrades a bit earlier than I thought, and just a bit more clarification is needed. My question is this: Is it worth the fact that my RAM and HDD will not be under warranty when I order them myself from newegg? Or should I order them from AW, potentially costing more, but having those parts be insured? One last thing... where do I find what parts AW has to offer for upgrades and how much they cost?
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post #15 of 35
5/10/08 at 3:40pm
you will have to call alienware and talk to a CS rep to get prices and what they offer for upgrades... make sure u ask about the 10% discount for alienware users... this will help with prices and sometimes make it cheaper than newegg.com...
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post #16 of 35
5/10/08 at 7:43pm
Definitely compare prices between AW and other companies. In regards to warranty on the parts you buy from someone else, they usually come with a manufacturer's warranty.

In regards to buying parts from AW, the warranty on that part normally ends when your laptop warranty ends. There may be exceptions. Ask AW Customer Support.
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post #17 of 35
5/10/08 at 11:32pm
I just got through w/upgrading the cpu on my m5550i, from a 2 GHz T2500 Core 1 Duo to a 2.33 T7600 Core 2 Duo. I had to do a BIOS Upgrade also for the T7600 to work, as well as allow 4 gb of memory to be installed.

The only problem was w/the GPU Thermal Pad. There's a gap there, so regular thermal compound won't work. The old pad was no good to be used again, and finding a replacement was problem, but I found one, made by Akasa. It took two (2) 0.30 mm thick pads. I've got to find a better one. The OEM's appeared to work better. I wonder if Alienware sells them?

I called Alienware for a pricing on the T7600, and they still wanted well over $700 for it. I instead bought a used one off of ebay for $305.

As for 10% discounts for existing Alienware customers, I've never heard of that before, and I have asked Alienware. Does that include purchasing a new laptop?

The i5550/57xx have Socket M's, so the fastest that is commercially available for them is the T7600. There was a special 2.66 GHz T7600G offered as an option for a short period of time. You might fine a used one on ebay. As for the T9300, it is a Socket P.

.
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post #18 of 35
5/10/08 at 11:44pm
no not for new laptops but for upgrading your computer through them you get a 10% discount on like hard drives ram and things like that... they dont like giving it but you have to keep on them...I have recieved it many times while buying parts which made it cheaper than newegg.com...
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post #19 of 35
5/10/08 at 11:44pm
double post...
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post #20 of 35
5/11/08 at 6:40pm
Thread Starter 
If anyone was interested, I just went ahead and ordered the RAM and HDD upgrades, and they should be getting in this week. If anyone is interested in some pics/etc of the upgrade in progress, let me know. Thanks a lot for your help, everyone.
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