[GUIDE] Installing a new CPU in the M17x R3... an illustrated guide

Oh right, thanks, missed the second part! Man I am being Very careful with my bios. I don't want certain things re-occuring..

 

You want an unlocked XM processor? You have $300?

Intel i7 mobile CPU i7 2920xm ES 2.4Ghz | eBay

hahahahahaha...ya

are you on the stock bios now?

 

widezu provided me with an unlocked one! which is risky (for me lol), but something I'd rather have for the future!

Shirley's is an ES, I don't wanna touch an ES at all [just seems risky and a waste of money - I read it was basically a 2820 or 2860 somewhere].. QS minimum like: INTEL i7 2920XM extreme 3.5GHZ 8Mb -- best mobile CPU-- | eBay

laptopmonkey is a great dealer, but not sure why he set that as private and it's about £400 in the UK... Need to patch the holes in my pocket first.

 

but for $300, it may be worth a try. I'm tempted. The only thing holding me back is the wife gave me the green light for a m18x

 

Show us some benches!!! Off to the benchmark thread you head!

 

To be clear CPU is plug and play, yes? Just like on a desktop. Is the GPU the same? Just upgrade one at a time so windows doesn't freak out about all the hardware changes. Is this correct?

 

Yep, CPU is plug and play.

Pretty sure the GPU is as well. You just need to install the correct drivers for the type of GPU you have and you should be good to go.

 

It's the easy plug and play of these laptops that make it so easy for me to waste money on them lol...

 

As I can see, the INDIGO XTREME is the best thermal compound (poor, moderate and good contact) followed by PHOBYA HEGREASE, PROLIMATECH and THERMALRIGHT THERMAL(moderate contact), isn't it?

I am very, very interested on this because I am looking for a SSD and RAM upgrade on Amazon and I would like to buy some thermal compound to replace the DELL stock compound of my AW R3.

 

indigo extreme is only for desktop CPUs...it comes with a laser cut applicator...and cannot be used with mobile chips. So its not thermal paste in the traditional sense.

Your best bet is the phobya hegrease or Prolimatech PK-1. The MX-4 is also good and easily found everywhere

 

Do you mean that INDIGO is in fact a thermal pad??
I found PROLIMATECH PK1 on Amazon, just in time before my order of a RAM upgrade and a SSD HDD

 

Indigo extreme doesn't come in a tube, it is like a cross between a thermal pad and paste. You place it on a desktop CPU, place the cooler over it and let it melt and spread. Impossible for a mobile CPU die.

It comes like this:


And is applied like this:

 

Wow!!!

It sounds like Sci-fi film
Well, Prolimatech PK1 is the best I can find on Amazon.


PS. In the test somebody says that Prolimatech and Thermalright recommend to reapply every year
It's that true?

 

I reapply every month

 

What's the reason? Testing CPU's?

 

just check your temps once a month and see if they are rising. You might not need to reapply if you are happy with your temps

Widezu is a little paranoid lol

 

O.O

Man I wish it was that easy to manipulate my Qosmio...

 

Ease and simplicity of access to key components is one of the blessings of the R3.

 

not great for the wallet though

 

1. Can i permanently keep my 2860 on turbo mode i.e. 3.6Ghz? I oc'ed from bios (bclk) and set it to around 10400. My turbo goes upto 3779Mhz but also goes down to as much as 835Mhz. So are you talking about keeping your cpu clock permanently at 3.79HGhz or just increasing the max possible turbo value?


2. What were your room temps when you did the prime95 test and idled at 73'C even after 15min?
I followed the guide exactly and i hit (and stay at) around 89C within 30sec. I too used pk 1. Still it is an improvement over the 99C i used to hit with stock paste.

 

hi Chaos,

1) I'm talking about keeping your multiplier high (to Intel specs) so your turbo speeds are high forever. unfortunately, we can't adjust the multiplier on a non-extreme CPU so we can't make the turbo any higher. But we can work with what we have and keep the turbo speeds as high as possible (which in effect is an overclock). On my 2820, my turbo speeds will drop like 400-500mhz eventually, so if i can keep that 4-500mhz, in effect, its a 500mhz overclock.

your turbo fluctuates because of lack of power. The way the intel turbo boost works is there is a short interval and a long interval. During the short interval, your tdp is set at 55w. You'll notice your turbo speeds are very high. After say 30-45 seconds (whatever is set in the bios), you'll notice your turbo speeds drop off because the tdp drops to 45w. You can't maintain 3.8ghz when your power has been cut down. It is near impossible to sustain Intel advertised numbers unless you manipulate your tdp

To illustrate this, run PRIME95 8 threaded mixed test and monitor your cores with HWINFO64. You'll notice at first that your speeds are very high...then they start to tail off after the short interval. On a 2860qm, It doesn't matter if you use throttlestop or some other app. Your turbo speeds will drop after the short interval...you'll probably drop from the 3.8ghz range to the low 3ghz range on load

Your temps also play a role in this. Because my ambient temps are very controlled, temps don't really play a roll in my speeds, but you living in India, with very high ambient temps, it will play in the turbo algorithm.

So...download Intel Extreme Tuning Utility 2.1, set your MAX TURBO TDP to 57w. It will only use 55w, but you have to set it to 57w (perhaps due to some vdroop). Then run your test again with PRIME95 + HWINFO64. However, keep an eye on your temps as it will have bearing on how high you will be able to sustain your turbo. If you have trouble using XTU and setting the max turbo tdp, let me know. Of course, because this is overclocking, you have to take responsibility for your actions as NBR or I will not take responsibility (this is the usual disclaimer)...so keep an eye on your temps!

If you want a lower turbo speed, lower the tdp to say 52w, but you have to play with this. Judge this based on your temps

2) My ambient temps are a stable 24c (about 75F) in my house all year round.

 

I have increased the tdp from my bios to 99w in one option and 57w in another option. That is all I can do right? Should i still try with XTU?.

And ya, i have observed during prime95 tests that my speeds fluctuate between 830mhz to 3779mhz!!

 

Are you on the A08 unlocked bios?

i would would still get XTU 2.1 ... I prefer to use that tool because its easier and bios overclocking of tdp didn't work for me. You should not see huge fluctuations in CPU speeds once the settings are employed. Check your temps cause they may have something to do with it.

2 things...enable overclocking in your bios, then set the TDP in XTU. I don't think its currently working right for you

 

In BIOS the 45 - 28 - 56 had been changed to 99-56-99 (or whatever the max possible value was). The Bclk was set to 10479 instead of 9980.

You have changed the settings only in xtu and not in bios??

I will set it high in XTU too and let you know the differences once my laptop is up and running. Btw, why does xtu show your (and mine too) memory as 1067Mhz? We are running 1333Mhz.

Also, have you tried to optimize memory settings in xtu by manipulating tCL, tRCD, tRP etc??

 

i've left my bios settings stock (except for enabling overclocking and overriding turbo speeds)...i've done everything else in XTU only

I haven't tried manipulating my memory (too much hassle for little to no gain)

and i dont' know why its reporting my ram as 1067, but other tests show my ram is right on target for 1333mhz

 

Thanks dude. I'll follow your lead and change settings only in xtu.

 

Would this void warranty if I upgrade the cpu?

Would I have to put the old one back since I'd rather sell the old cpu than send it back to dell to get fixed and they say they can't cause of a different cpu.

 

Keep it in case you have to return your system.

 

I'm going to re-paste the CPU in my M17x R4 w/Arctic Silver 5 since that's what I have available in my house currently (also have the Arctic cleaning solution) in an effort to try to alleviate the issue (not sure if it's a real issue or if I'm just being neurotic/paranoid) that I've listed here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-gpu-fan-going-crazy-after-fresh-install.html

I've gone over SlickDude80's thread here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...alling-new-cpu-m17x-r3-illustrated-guide.html

And I've been building desktops since I was 13 (my latest was an AMD Phenom II X4) so I'm quite comfortable w/applying thermal compounds, cleaning and making sure they're applied correctly.

My question is: Is the 3-dot method good for any kind of thermal compound?

Is/should there be a break-in/settling period?

 

I do think AS5 has a burn-in period. That all depends on the compound you use. I would go grab a tube of better stuff if I were you, though. May as well do it right if you're going to get in there.

I'm not too familiar with 3-dot, but I will let you know, these laptop CPUs are quite small compared to their desktop brothers.

 

Would love to have SlickDude80 chime in!

It's bothering me enough that I want to do it tonight, I don't want to wait for shipping on another compound. But if Newegg has PK-1 for free shipping I might just do that then.

 

Hey Cyanide, Some people prefer the line method for rectangular shapes.

For me, i prefer the 3 dots cause it gives be better control over how much paste goes on, and what coverage i get. For square shapes like my GPU, i just put some in the middle and let the heatsink spread it out.

AS5 has a huge break-in period (200 hrs i believe) temps will improve 2-3 degrees over that time

I believe that AS5 is a good place to start. I've used that on my laptop a few times. PK-1 will shave a few more degrees off. If you can find a cheap tube of OCZ Freeze, i've found it gives excellent temps...but if you already have AS5, just use that

Another VERY important thing to do that will shave another 5-7c off your temps is to raise the back of your laptop. This is critical as it allows your fan intakes to suck in air unobstructed. i use the bottlecap mod lol...you will also see in the forums the "book" mod and the "Dice" mod lol

 

Thanks!

Will do that tonight and report back.

Would also love to hear your thoughts about this http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-gpu-fan-going-crazy-after-fresh-install.html

Oh and if I do end up re-pasting my GPU (was just going to do CPU) do I need to buy new pads?

 

I've been raising up my laptop with my wallet lol, but when I got the laptop fresh w/no upgrades (installed by myself) on the OEM Windows/software what have you, I never noticed the fan getting this loud or spinning up and down so frequently with it sitting flat.

 

I read your other thread. I would definitely repaste the GPU too. You don't need new pads. I just reused the stock ones. Just be careful pulling off the heatsink so you don't destroy the pads. You can use my 7970m install guide as a reference. If you do need pads, you can get them at FrozenCPU

but its very important to raise the back up as I stated in the above post...so please do that if you aren't

 

You're the best, thanks!

Sorry, one last question, should I take the GPU heatsink off while it's still warm or let it fully cool down first in order to preserve the stock pads?

 

interesting question...i'd let it cool down first. You will burn your hand if you try to touch the heatsink while its hot

 

I've taken apart some desktop video cards in my day and I found that some liked to be cooled down and some like to be warm in order to preserve the pads/stickyness

EDIT:
I cleaned and re-pasted my CPU and GPU.

And WOW the stuff that was on there from the factory was SO THICK, it's no wonder my fans were freaking out.

Some of the screws were loose as well, just, amazed that a laptop of this caliber can come from a factory like that.

Applied Arctic Silver 5 to my CPU and GPU and a *HUGE* difference.

Fans barely kick on now, ran Prime95 for about 30 mins and just played Diablo 3 for 30 mins. Couldn't hear the fans at all.

Unreal.

For everyone with a new M17x R4, I highly recommend double-checking your thermal compounds and re-pasting.

 

Glad to see that fixed your fan problems. +rep to slick once again (when I can)

 

hello

Install I7 2960Xm OEM My M17X R3 Problem shuts down

No problem I7 2630Qm

Tempé I7 2960Xm 95° Load Full Stock

Repast IC7 Diamon 7 cara

 

Riri, you're probably spiking to 100c. Your laptop will shutdown at 100c. Is your CPU stock? no overclock?

 

Hello

Yes No Overclok CPU

Option bios

 

you replaced the thermal paste and everything on the processor right?

 

I plan on upgrading my 2760QM to either a 2920XM or a 2960XM (if I hear back from the seller soon) hopefully this week. My question is, do I need to upgrade my heat sink for the XM CPU? I'm sure I'm going to OC it, but I don't think I'll be keeping it at 4GHz though. Do the 2 & 3 pipe heat sinks from the M18X fit in the M17X R3?

 

The M18x CPU heatsinks don't fit the M17x R3.

 

That's good to know. I'll just use the heat sink that came with my 2760QM. It's dual pipe, so it should be ok if I don't OC much. Do they make triple piped heat sinks for the R3?

 

They don't make a triple heat pipe sink for the R3. From my experiences with a 2920m in the R3, even stock, the temps creep up. So be prepared to paste and repaste

 

No-one knows why they creep up though, but it's only noticeable when on 100% load 8 threads, e.g. rendering. Gaming temps remain cool for me.

 

I'll take the chances. As I stated, I wont be doing much OCing on it anyways, and probably wont be rendering much. Now I just need to find one for a reasonable price. I guess when you tell a seller "yes I want it, but I have a couple questions", they end up just selling it to someone who doesn't have questions. O'well, my search continues.

 

that's because current games don't run your CPU 100% with 8 threads so you just don't have the same utilization rates. Even now...2012, most games are still single threaded. Some game engines may run 2-3 threads, like the far cry 2 dunia engine ran seperate threads for physics and AI...but the utlization on those threads was generally low...so it was still primarily a single threaded engine.

As time goes forward, multi-threaded games and the efficiency of thread usage will continue to get better, but even modern games like diablo 3 which can utilize 4 cores, suffers from poor multithreaded coding. Many have reported that the game is a lot smoother if you set cpu affinity to 2 cores instead of the default "all"

Do you keep it at 4ghz all the time? Or just for benching?

oh no, did you just miss out on a deal?