Finally got my hands on the m17x-r4

Hey guys, new to the forum ( just registrated but been reading in a couple of threads earlier).

So, it was time to change the old crappy school laptop, and found the m17x r4 for a very good price.
Great condition, barley used. (bought it of a spoiled 10 year old who dident even know how to put on the alienFX...)

Speccwise its the i7-3630
12gb ram 1600mhz
7970m
Got an new 840 evo 256 that will go right into it. Read some threads about how i should do it here on the forums.

So, as of now it has the a06 bios. I dont think i have the cd sent with me, only laptop and 240w powersupply.
Of course i will get a fresh install onto it, but in terms of bios, what version do you guys suggest?
also read that i should leave 25-30% unallocated on the ssd.
Any other tips on software i should get? Mostly been using speedfan for cpu/gpu temps but perhaps theres something better?
Is there any known problems i should know about specificly tied to the m17x r4, software/hardware wise?

Thanks in advance, and great forum indeed! Might go for an gpu upgrade later on but il start like this.

/Mantelz

 

Hi there, welcome to the club! Before you change any hardware I'd recommend updating the BIOS to the latest on the dell site. You will want this anyway at some stage since prior to A08 (I think) UEFI boot and the win 8 specific options were not supported.

Right now your GPU options are limited as the increase from a 680m/780m may well not be worth the cost or effort. Forget 8xx cards, a short lived and problematic release. For a 980m you'll need UEFI boot and win 8.x ATM. Win 10 being free is going to change all the 'rules' over the next year or so...

I did read up on that 'slack' requirement a long time ago and come to the conclusion it was an early problem that would be fixed, and only benchmarkers were seeing results. So I ignore it .

Tip: Register the machine at 'my dell downloads' (search from your locale). You now have access to the pre-installed licensed software . If the RAID bios is active (you see a screen with disk info before the bios screen) then leave it on when replacing the drive - especially if you are imaging it using Respawn. Without the AW Win CD you can run into install issues from a vanila win CD with disk drivers. A fairly easy fix that requires the current disk drivers to be put on a USB and used with the install.

Enjoy, oh and try posting in the owners lounge for a more targeted audience? .

 

Hello MickyD, and thanks for the quick reply!
As you say, the upgrade to a 680M or 780m is nothing that i should bother with. Was more thinking about 970/80M but thats further ahead. Will mainly use this laptop when going away somewhere or having a friend over etc.

Yes I saw some tutorial on how to create a respawn image, will probably do that first just to be safe.

I read something about the Optimus interfering with the 7970 aswell, is that fixed with newer drivers or should you still turn it off completely?

Yes you are right, perhaps a mod could move this thread into the r4x owners lounge?

Thanks again!

 

The HD7970m should still be sufficient enough to run most games on high setting with 1080p. Just make sure to user the latest AMD drivers (not the ones from Dell) and run it in dedicated mode when gaming (running it in endure mode will reduce its performance).

 

I can't really comment on enduro/optimus as I've managed to avoid any machine that uses it. neither 17" machines are for use on-the-go so power saving is not a requirement at all for me! I believe the hot-key to switch to the DGpu is best (as Drake says) but it requires a reboot and only stays active for that session, resetting when the machine is restarted. I will stand corrected on that by anyone that uses it .

All I've seen with the 7970 is that it's not the most reliable of cards over time, nowhere near as bad as the NV 580m/675m but they do die so I'd avoid overclocking it too much.

What games do you have in mind for it?

 

I see, the hotkey would be the fn + F7 one I assume?

Is there a way to make disable the HD4000 completely?.
As of now I dont have any thoughts on overclocking it, I have my desktop that i will mostly game on when im home, but being able to actually play the games lets say gta 5 would be good enough for me. Dont really need all that eye candy that comes with very high settings (its just the icing on the cake for me with this laptop).

Will also order some IC diamond 7 and Articlean, for when its time to do the repasting. I highly doubt its ever been opend at all, so perhaps I should blow it out with some compressed air to begin with (while im installing the SSD)?

Thanks for all the answers guys, much appriciated!

 

I believe so with the hotkey, marked ID/GFX if I recall correctly. I'm not on the AW ATM.

To fully disable you'd need an unlocked BIOS as there is a missing option, IDG or something close to that. Also the primary display needs setting to PEG, I believe the R4 bios has this one? You needed to do this with non-standard GPU's in the past but the 9xx cards moved the goalposts and optimus is a requirement to get it to boot easily (using UEFI).

You'll find that most games can be run OK on high or even ultra settings, just keep AA to a minimum acceptable and you'll have some great high quality gaming.

A clean out behind the fans is a definite. I've seen them almost completely clogged and the original owner may not have even thought the fans blasting away all the time was an indicator or an issue, haha.

I repaste the CPU when I start to hear the fan crank up often when just in windows.

Enjoy .

 

I see, yeah well perhaps il stick with hotkey for now then, shouldent be that much of an hassle to reboot with the SSD anyways ^^.

So im probably reciving my computer tomorrow (had a friend pick it up in another town for me and sent it with DHL). What he did say tho when he did some tests on it where it was picked up was that the fan did sound a little bit weird. I highly doubt that the kid cleaned it so its defenitly in order then. Do you guys usually do it with compressed air or do you have any other tips for it that might be better?

Will know more once I get it, but really looking forward to it. Was actually about to buy the m11x
from a guy who changed the gpu, put in an SSD and another processor cause it would have been convenient to carry around. But when I saw this one (only out for like 2 hours) I just had to buy it, since I read about the things that you could upgrade earlier on different models. Just love the looks of it aswell, so will be a great addition!

 

Yeah (hotkey), 5~10 seconds after boot screen is not painful, and anyway, apart from loading any utilities a clean start of games always seems a good idea to me.

I've always used cans of compressed air for cleaning, just watch your eyes .

The CPU in my R4 was the highest AW offered at the time (but the 3920 was the most popular upgrade), you may get some benefit from a faster CPU with an AMD card as they use the CPU for physics, but I doubt it would make any huge FPS increase.

I look forward to what you think when it arrives.

Almost forgot, when installing the SSD do NOT swap the drives, just use the spare bay and change the boot order in the BIOS. The RAID bios can get confused and maybe it even has an SSD cache? These are not visible in windows and rely on the RAID bios to work. Moving drives around will break caching.

Good luck for tomorrow .

 

I see, well I think I will be fine with this setup for now, the next step would probably be 970M or something in the likes of that, but its ahead in time tho.

I dont think its has an SSD cache its the regular 500GB 7200 RPM disk. Also, from what i have seen on some videos the "mount" for the SSD should be in the unused bay, right? Also there was some module there in the video I saw, any clue if its needed on the 840 Evo?.

hehe thanks, already got the SSD, tools and the compressed air on the "operation table" ready to go .

 

Once you switch to dedicated mode the HD4000 is disabled until you switch again . The function key for it basicly set's a value in in the bios directly using the dell tool (Alienware On Screen Display Application). That's why you need to reboot in order for it to work (the bios detects it's set on dgpu mode and disabled the igpu). The later bios version offers the option directly in the bios, but it does exactly the same.

And ow GTA V runs like a charm, 50-80 fps on 1080p running mostly high settings. Just don't turn on msaa and set post processing on normal.

 

ah alright, I see! What kind of bios version are you using at the moment?

GTA V running like a charm sounds pretty damn good to me, seems like I found a real gem this laptop (especially for the price!).
So excited to get started with this, thanks for all the great information!

 

Running bios version A05 , quite an old version but it works fine .

 

Yeah, trawling the memory here but the bracket was there on mine along with a part called a 'transposer'. Basically a right angled electrical connector between the SSD and the MB. You may or may not need to use it I can't say for sure.

Another upgrade to consider is a small (64gb), cheap msata ssd to cache the HDD and get SSD speeds from the mechanical drive. A bit of a pig to get to as it's under the keyboard but people I have spoken to that did this were very pleased with the result. If cash is not an issue you can just get a big msata ssd and partition it for caching and storage . This is also an option with your evo, just leave 64gb or 32gb unpartitioned and the Intel IRST software can set it up.

I'll be around tomorrow if you need any advice .

Edit: I'm running whatever is the latest bios but you'll only need that if you go for a 9xx card to give you UEFI boot capability. I just upgrade the bios for kicks, but dell support always update to the latest before starting any troubleshooting (the last time my 675m died )

 

Appears that the store I usually buy cooling paste is out of the IC Diamond 7.

I either wait for it to restock, or grab one of the following:
Artic Cooling MX-2/MX-4
Artic Silver 5
Noctua NT-H1
Zalman super thermal grease STG1
Akasa "5022"


Im guessing they should all be compatible to be removed by the ArtiClean.

Any suggestions?

 

I had good results with Gelid Extreme ( http://www.gelidsolutions.com/products/index.php?lid=1&cid=3&id=42), others have also mentioned this as the best short of Liquid Metal ( http://www.coollaboratory.com/en/products/liquid-ultra/)- which I personally think is a little risky for use on a GPU with close-by components. But results I have seen from users is that it is far superior to any current offerings.

Basically I have found in the past that any good brand thermal paste is fine, you're probably not looking to overvolt it? Artic would be my choice, whichever is more expensive!

 

Yeah I read about IC Diamond and Liquid ultra, they do not have it in stock as of now tho :/.
I will go with the Artic MX4, not gonna overvolt it either so should be enough!

Thanks, gonna pick the kit up now and then (hopefully) the computer will be avalible for pickup at the certain servicepoint .

 

More afterthoughts....

I use medical swabs for cleaning. Cheap and convenient, from any chemist store (Injection site swabs)

 

Yes got loads of those at home so will use the same !

I have it infront of me now, how i love the looks of it! And its in such a good condition, checked service tag and it was actually sent out 2012-12-30 lol.
Running unigune heaven 4.0 with full 8x AA, quality ultra, tessellation on extreme, for about 30 mins in now. GPU is on 70-71 celcius and Cores around 60-63 on the I7.

Should I mix it up with some other program aswell?

 

Yeah, the last of the breed for looks! I remember being in hospital using mine and three doctors came over at different times to ask about it!

You have picked exactly the same benchmark and settings I always use for stress testing. If the temp stabilizes after around 15/30 mins then you are good. It does not push the CPU so you'd want something like 3D Mark to push that at the same time, but honestly I wouldn't bother. I use it when I upgrade hardware but for new drivers it's Heaven 4 and a suite of games that have benchmarks (Batman AO, Tomb Raider, Hitman Absolution, Thief, F1 2012, Metro LL, and Bioshock Infinite).

With a clean-out and repaste I recon you'll see mid to high 60's c GPU at stock...

Enjoy your GoT evening

 

Okay so a little update, after cleaning it out from dust, repasting with the mx4 im now at 62-64c after unigine heaven for 25 mins. CPU got repasted aswell and is now around 53.
Also put in the SSD, so will make the reinstall now.

 

That's some fine temp improvements! Hope the install goes well .

 

Sorry if i am late to the party
- kudos on the R4, great Rig, still running faithfully, word of caution the sound car is a bit dicey, but upgrade it use the M$ catalog drivers, seems to work best
-AS far as battery goes, with min. brightness i can eke out +4 hours easy of battery life with IGP engaged ... love the hardware button, BIGGEST reason to not go for 3D
-Yes Fn- F7
-Running GTA 5 using the 15-4 beta's, dedicated GPU mode (aka 7970M is primary...only reason there is still some trouble using the 15-4's and GTA5's executable ..despite the fact watchdogs, BF3/ BF4/ SC etc. all run in enduro mode with the same drivers). GTA 5 runs at full HD 600+mb over the GPU memory limit..i dont see any slow downs
- i don't run in RAID mode, i have populated all drive slots as 2 dedicated drives one each for 7 pro and 8.1 (a SSD and msata- which runs SATA2 but it runs 8.1 so i don't really care) and the 1tb 840 evo is defined to storage duties (aka games), heck i even have an old crucial plugged into the esata port (Dell's esata optical external kit)
the truly negative thing about this thing is the weight and the fact i cant get 6-7 hours on IGP mode ...we can dream cant we

 

Of course your not to0 late .
I havent had all the time I wanted to get everything fixed this weekend, but as you can see the repasting, and SSD is all done.

Kudos to @MickyD1234 & @_Drake_ For helping me on some other issues I ran into while doing it all.

I still have some issues with the installation of the GPU drivers for the 7970, but I got some tips from drake on this so will see if I got time to try it today after work. As its not recognized in Device manager fully (only VGA Adapter) and boots into a black screen after pressing FN + F7 (but it still boots to windows, and to be able to boot back up i just do the FN+F7 again).
Also there is 15.5 Beta drivers out now aswell, anyone of you tried those yet?

//Mantelz

 

wait, wait, he can use 980M in his windows 7 by using Optimus. There is also the 970M GTX as well. Course, you can use windows 8/8.1 and get retardiculous performance.

 

Thanks, that makes perfect sense but I've only seen failures trying that. Maybe they gave up too easily and just upgraded to win 8.x?

Would you still need UEFI and compatibility mode active?

 

I would say start with the drivers available at dell, and the upgrade ontop of those.
Silly question, but did you install the drivers in a sequence, incl. Intel ME etc.

 

Well, I had some problems with switching to the 7970 using FN+F7 as described earlier. After some troubleshooting with @_Drake_ we found out that there might have been dirt in the mxm card slot or it wasent reseated properly. Anyways it works now and gave me a score of 7003 on 3dmark 11.
Max GPU temp was 64 and max CPU was 69.
I also use the 15.4.1 beta drivers.

/Mantelz

 

Seems to be quite a common problem. I've see a few fixes (and for me as well) just cleaning the edge connector and re-seating . Good to hear all is well now!

 

Yes, all is well except that I dident have the time to play anything yet , but I will most likely try some dishonored tonight!

 

Haha, so easy to lose sight of the end-game (You see what I did there?).

You should be able to max that game out. Open GL games are so much more efficient (IMO) than direct-X, but don't port to consoles as well.

Rage is another OGL game that runs very fast on earlier hardware.

Have a fun evening .