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    AlienWare M14x R2 BIOS A15 [march 2018]

    Discussion in 'Alienware 14 and M14x' started by eclipse05, Sep 16, 2018.

  1. eclipse05

    eclipse05 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi guys,

    There is a new BIOS on DELL's website: https://www.dell.com/support/home/nl/nl/nlbsdt1/product-support/product/alienware-m14x-r2/drivers

    According to description this is a SPECTRE fix. We all know the story about Spectre Meltdown and many are afraid of doing this update because of possible performance slowdown.
    I was afraid too, but I wanted to give it a try anyway. Before flashing a new BIOS I run Passmark Performance Test 9.0 just for comparison - hope this will be a help for you too. If you are about to update your BIOS please share your scores before and after flashing to A15.


    My hardware: AlienWare M14xR2 with 1366x768 TN panel
    CPU: i7-3820QM (Locked to 3.6GHz on all cores via ThrottleStop 6.00)
    RAM: 16GB Hyper X Overclocked to 1866MHz
    GPU: 650m (+135MHz to GPU and 50MHz to memory in Afterburner)
    SSD in drive bay as a system drive (Samsung 850 EVO 500GB)
    HDD in DVD bay (1TB some Seagate)
    M.2 (32GB Kingston just for video editing cashing)
    Win10 Home
    Thermal Grizzly Krayonaut keeps all interior nice and cool even after OC :)

    Passmark 9.0 (only CPU Mark part)
    BEFORE on old BIOS A08
    1st run - 9 401
    2nd run - 9 409
    3rd run - 9 434
    Average 9 414


    AFTER on new BIOS A15
    1st run - 9 429
    2nd run - 9 463
    3rd run - 9 460
    Average 9 450

    In my case it ended up maybe slightly better than before but keep in mind it turned out that I had an older BIOS then I thought I had :D Probably most of you have A11, I was running A08 :O
    If anyone interested my average score for hole Performance test 9.0 is usually around 3680 - 3700.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2018
    eclipse05, Sep 16, 2018
    #1
    Nachomonster64, Papusan and iNcUbUsiMrAn like this.
  2. Mastermind5200

    Mastermind5200 Notebook Virtuoso

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    M.2? How did you manage that?
    Also, why did you lock your CPU, is the heatsink that tiny in this beast?
     
    Mastermind5200, Sep 16, 2018
    #2
  3. eclipse05

    eclipse05 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Last edited: Sep 17, 2018
    eclipse05, Sep 17, 2018
    #3
    Mastermind5200 likes this.
  4. iNcUbUsiMrAn

    iNcUbUsiMrAn Newbie

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    I have the same machine with an i7-3630QM. I would like to know how you overclocked your CPU and Ram. I am a noob in that department. Thanks!

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Alienware m14x r2 i7 3630QM / 16GB DDR3 1600 / Geforce 650 / Win7
    Alienware 17 r4 i7 7820HK / 16GB DDR4 2667 / Geforce 1070 / 2K 120Hz G-Sync / Win10
     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2018
    iNcUbUsiMrAn, Nov 11, 2018
    #4