A08 Bios questions?

Ive been looking around and reading, and everyone seems to say the A08 bios is the best for the M17x R3. I have a few questions, what advantages are their to the A08 bios? And should i go with the unlocked or locked version? Advantages/disadvantages of the unlocked? Where can i get the A08 bios?


Thanks,
Howard

 

Only difference between the A08 bios and the A09 bios is the SATA speeds. Dell limited A09 to SATA II because of issues with one of the Hard Drive slots flipping between SATA III and SATA II randomly. In plain english, this means that if you have a SATA III SSD it will be bottlenecked on the A09 bios. If you just have a platter drive this isn't really an issue as standard drives aren't nearly as fast. The modded version has a lot of different options for overclocking and modifications to different settings. I would only recommend the modded bios if you know what you are doing. A08 stock bios can be found here: Alienware M17xR3 A08 BIOS

 

I'm running the modded A08 BIOS because I am having issues with Optimus. HWiNFO64 and 3DMark were not recognizing (or using) my gtx 580m.

 

he has the 3d screen though so its not an issue for him.

 

Thanks for slapping that in my face, lol.

 

I tried to be a bit nicer than that

 

hahaha yep no issues here (sorry). Ive also managed to overclock the GPU and boost my 3dmark11 score from ~p2400 to ~p4000, not too shabby. Once i get ahold of a 2960XM i hope to break the 5k mark. Just a thought, the 2960XM would work with the A08 bios right?

 

yup should work fine and then you just xtu to overclock. why not go for the 2920 though because its basically the same chip with just lower stock clocks. they both overclock the same from what i hear.

 

I have a new M17x on order for delivery in 2 weeks. I assume it will come with A09 and I did order it with a 256G SSD. Is it worthwhile risk to backflash to A08 or will I be so blown away with SSD performance after living with a machine with a 5400 drive that I won't notice? In other words, how much of a practical difference do you notice?

 

The only person who managed 5k with one card was an M18x user (Johnksss)... He had a mutated card that went up to 890 on the core..

 

To be honest mate even the the sata 2 performance you will be blown away,
I have flashed back to 08 and back to 09 with no issues you make the choice mate when you get it have a play, just don't panic your drive by over benching as it will then throttle while it fixes all the damage

 

^^^ ya and just to add to this, Wayne, its more than just flashing back to the A08 bios, you also have to move the SSD to slot1, which is the harddrive caddy in the middle of the laptop. Dell typically installs the SSD into Slot 0, but it is well documented that Slot 0 often down clocks to SATA2. However, Slot 1 seems to hold at SATA3.

So what does dell do? come out with bios A09 that fixes this by downlocking everything to SATA2 lol...fabulous.

But like brave758, you will be blown away even at SATA2...especially if you are coming from an old laptop with a 5400 drive

 

Sounds like a play, would save me a few hundred as well lol.

Now thats just going to make me want to do it even more.

 

@hc2995, currently the highest 3DMark 11 record holder for the M17x R3 is The Revelator with I think over 4900 points. johnksss had a very good sample but he is also using a M18x so he doesn't count I have the record for 3DMark Vantage of over 20,000 so you can aim for that as well let's show the world what this system can do!

 

Thanks! I'm not really enchanted with opening up the machine first thing, I'll live with SATA 2 for a while

 

Haha, time to start playing with the big boys. After i get some funds figured out ill start the major over clocking. Quick question. Is the .92V vbios safe to use for normal benchmarking? (wont be using furmark.)

 

If you don't use it for extended periods of time and sparingly. Basically, let your system cool down between benchmark runs etc. You should be fine. Definitely no Furmark!