Alienware is a well-known brand in the gaming laptop market, and with each new CPU or GPU update, the company outfits its laptops accordingly. Today, we’re taking apart the Alienware 15 R3, which features the new Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ and NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 with 8GB GDDR5, 16GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD and an FHD display.
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1. Removing the bottom cover
Alienware 15 did put a lot of efforts on heat radiation. It’s using an all-metal body to ensure excellent heat dissipation. The backplane also distributed a lot of air vent.
Remove all screws securing the bottom cover to the laptop.
Pry up the bottom cover with a crowbar. Be careful, do not remove the light bar.
Under the bottom cover, you can get access to the RAM, SSD and hard drive. We also find two spare M.2 2242 SSD slots on the left of the laptop.
Before touching any hardware, the good idea is to disconnect the battery connector from the motherboard.
2. Removing the RAM
Separate the clips and the RAM will pop up.
The Alienware 15 R3 comes with two Samsung 8GB DDR4 2667MHz RAMs. The model is M471AK43BB1-CTD.
3. Removing the M.2 SSD
Remove one screw and take the SSD out of its slot.
Toshiba 256GB NVMe SSD, Dell P/N: 08D5HT.
4. Removing the hard drive
Remove three screws and disconnect the SATA cable from the motherboard. You can remove the hard drive module.
The laptop comes with an HGST 1TB 7200RPM hard drive, Dell P/N: 0J30643.
5. Removing the wireless Wi-Fi card
Remove one screw securing the wireless card.
Disconnect two antenna cables. You can remove the wireless card.
Killer 1535 802.11ac 2×2 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1
6. SSD upgrade option
Here’re two 2242 M.2 slots, which you can add extra M.2 SSD.
7. Removing the back baffle
Remove the screw securing the back baffle.
To remove the back baffle, you need to release four buckles close to the cooling fan module.
8. Removing the middle frame
Remove all screws securing the middle frame.
Pry up it with a pick and remove it.
7. Removing the battery
Remove all screws securing the battery and take it out of its bay.
The Alienware 15 R3 comes with an 11.4V, 99Wh Li-ion battery, Dell P/N: 9NJM1.
Under the battery, you can get access to the touchpad.
9. Removing the motherboard
Remove all screws securing the motherboard and disconnect all cables connected to the motherboard.
You can remove the motherboard from the chassis.
10. Removing the heat sink and cooling fan module
The cooling fan comes from Taiwan SUNON.
Red: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card with 8G GDDR5 video memory
Yellow: Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ (Quad-Core, 6MB Cache, up to 3.5GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
Green: South Bridge
The back of the motherboard
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card and Micron 8GB GDDR5 video memory, the model of video memory is 6GA47 D91CB.
Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ (Quad-Core, 6MB Cache, up to 3.5GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
South Bridge
ENE KB90220 IO chip
Source: pconline
Can the CPU and the GPU be removed and upgraded?
The CPU and GPU are soldering on the motherboard, so you cannot upgraded it.
do you have to unscrew the motherboard to lose the heatsink for repasting GPU and CPU?
No, you can remove the whole unit after you take the second cover off.
I noticed it says “GPU 2 on my motherboard and it’s empty. Does this mean I can install another mobile 1070 GPU? Thanks.