M17x R2 7970m CrossfireX Ultimate Installation and Tweaking Guide

Thx for that, I'd gotten the different PSU scenarios mixed up .

I can run'em, but my cards won't OC well at all. Nospheratu's score seems plausible, since I get 13k at stock speeds on the GPU's. Assuming uniform scaling with increasing core clock, 850 to 950 should show around ~14.2k.

I think I figured out my CPU troubles. Increased TDP to 80W and TDC also to 80A (I usually keep it at 62-70) and physics score is starting to look decent again. Temps won't allow me to really push it right now though.

Bro, I gotta say your mobo is sounding suspicious to me. Don't worry about how the CPU is reported. QS/ES keep being reported all over the place no matter what components/programs you use.

 

Ill go back to original CPU first to check if all memory is reported.
Dont wanna do it before i have to due to GPU change.
We'll see how it goes.

 

I will gladly do it for you, very soon, i am only held back a bit because i do not have a proper screwdriver (TORX T8) to disassemble the PSUs. This morning i also visited our big hardware shop to find that they only have T10 as a smallest bit. Which is very unfortunate for me. Yolo. So i ordered T8 from amazon, but i am a not very patient person, so i will probably attempt to remove the screws by using my nails/clarks

Also

Flingin's reaction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_S5cXbXe-4

 

The torx screw isn't tight at all, what you can try is place a bit of rubber band over the screw and then use a normal phillips head star screwdriver over the rubber band and turn anti-clockwise to open. Actually anything you can get to grip the screw will work as it requires very little force to turn. Well at least mines was very loose... but then again it might have gotten loose since I was hammering the PSU for a couple of days before sangemaru told me there were screws underneath

 

That's what she said

 

OK, so, everybody was like, disassemble the PSU and get ID chip from it, then we do a guide on HOW TO swap ID Chips, BUT, nobody gave any hints on how to dissemble the PSU, which turns out to be more painful than the ID chip desoldering/swapping.

Just Yolo on that PSU Assembly design, multiple layers of F&^$&*"%

 

Yea, that's always the hidden cookie I never spoil about PSU Croissant.

 

Lol yea There isn't a guide anywhere!

Part of the reason I want to post one up soon.

 

Desoldering the Shielding as well, to get to the other side of PCB, Croissant YOLO Sangemaru

 

now you got me into thinking... why are my gpu scores so low? :-( maybe the test bios i have into them? does a bios affect performance? (not by the speeds it sets , by othr means)

maybe its my engeeniring sample card? iuse it in the second slot , maybe its performance is low and hinders the whole crossfire system.

can you please run a 3dmark bench with crossfire disabled ? so i can check only my clevo cards speed( that i have on the main slot)
950gpu 1150 mem 24x multies

 

What are your scores in the first place? I couldn't find them. Still, it's not much difference. Consider you had similar gpu score to nospheratu when you guys were OC'ing a while back.

 

and here is nospheratus
AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-950 Processor,Alienware

12970 gpu score vs 14379!!! thats a huge difference!!!

at least i have a better cpu score
6981 vs 6754

By the way, you have realised that our gpu scores are at the same range as a titan and a 780gtx yes?

 

That seems like stock clock performance. Could be due to the different vram you have.

 

If I remember correctly both your cards were Dell's. Did both of them have the AMD logo on it?

I'll run it as soon as I get a chance, this PSU adapter mod is still carrying on...

 

can you please run a 3d mark 11 with crossfire disabled ? i wanna see the single cards performance. 24 multies 950gpu 1150 mem , can you please ??

 

my second card is the black pcbus engineering sample! dont you remember? that it had the test bios in it with 1.1V as standard and gpu 725 mem 1000

 

Yeah I do, the black PCB engineering sample you received first was a Dell and then a blue PCB which also was a Dell.

PSU adapter mod is done It ended up much uglier than it looked in my head though And not to mention a pain in the @$$ to make. If it connection inside ever breaks I might end up in an asylum

 

its not ugly. its great work!!

 

Pm sent. 10 char

 

Thanks AlienHack. I'm not happy about the joins on the casing so I sanded it and now there's tiny lines everywhere, but it does the job so I guess its okay

I didn't know where to upload the image so here it is...



Be careful with the legs... I had to resolder about 4 times cos I broke my legs off... lol not my legs

I'll put up a complete guide tonight if you don't mind waiting.

 

Ok so here are my photos of my PSU,

where ID chip suposed to be

i can't find any chip on the other side, the place for IC 133 is empty as you can see, and on the other side i can only see this chip which i think is ID one but marked IC134

same photo of that chip area but with different angle view

So my chip is accually the same as on 330W PSU - DS2501, and i do not have to play with it like iamsolidstate did with SOT-23 package, is that right ?

 

It's the same chip, but with different information wrote in. You still have to switch it from one PSU to the other and perform the rest of the trace cutting / grounding. Although you could also give Nospheratu's option a very definite heads up.

 

The solder side photo is here:



The topside you see the IC134 quite clearly.

 

Yes, so i decided to brake the pins instead of desoldering which is a pain even with wicks. Here is the chip


I also do not understand why we are opening our 330W psus and mess inside them as we can do what @Nospheratu done and it will work the same way.

 

From the three pins here, which is the Data pin? That chip seems much easier to work with than the SOT-23 package.

 

Data Pin is the middle one , GND is also marked on the picture there
http://utilitybee.blogspot.com/2011/06/replacement-of-proprietary-dell-supply.html

 

I decided on the adapter method cos I didnt want to do the mod over again in the rare case the 330W died. With this adapter we can just plug out the faulty PSU and plug in the new one. We can also use any PSU with it and it will be recognised by the BIOS as the 240W.

Downside of the adaper is the connection to the ID chip is fragile as its just floating around in the "enclosure" so care needs to be taken when handling it. If you are able to secure it properly using epoxy or another hard resin then this is a non issue. That would also make it permanent so you have to make sure its working before you seal the chip in.

Another negative is its much more work and involves extra components such as the extra connector, enclosure (if you dont want to mod the ferrite choke) and PSU socket.

 

Yup, that is what i will do, your way.

I have to wait for those R2 Power Jacks to arrive from China, as to the CHIP, well, what you could do, is to get some sylicone and sylicone gun, and then fill your enclousure with it, so every bit inside will be perma-freezed - this is what i will do.

I suppose any kind of filling-glue material would be good.

You could first add some on to the chip itself, and around the pins, wait for it to dry, and then fill the whole enclousure. That would Seal The deal

 

I actually bought a tube of black silicone for that exact purpose I didnt use it as I was afraid I would fill the enclosure and then plug the adapter in to find its not working

I actually broke the ID chip connections about 4 times trying to make this adapter. It would have been easier to just use a dedicated enclosure than to mod the ferrite choke and I wouldnt have had these problems but I wanted it to look inconspicuous.

 

If u plan on soldering it onto the board, you can solder it opposite side. Remember to turn chip if u do since it will be mirrored.

Since its 3 pins its no biggie.

 

so for me tounderstand clearly (as there is no clear guide yet with pics and all)
we take a 240w psu, disasemble it, take out the chip
and we do what nospheratu did so we donthave to open the 330w psu too.

that is a lot simpler than opening the 330w and soldering on it the 240w chip.

 

sorry double post

 

Its simpler but a bit more work. I don't think I'll be able to complete the guide tonight. I'm busy with some other stuff atm. I still need to take a few more photo's and label them with diagrams as well for the guide.

 

no problem. take your time

 

This thread is a 4-5 man discussion

Everybody else got New 17, let's make them Jelly

 

Most of the people doesnt write but read everyday.
Me too im waiting that you bro´s complete the 330watt-mod so that i can jump on the 7970m cross-train.
I wish i could be of any help but i dont have much knowledge about psu´s.
I think many people feel that way too. But i appreciate the effort.
I would glady donate the guys who made that hole thing possible.
I love my r2 and want to keep it longer.
We have the perfect machine man RGB-LED and 7970m cross^^
no one can .uck with us

By the way you guys tested 3d mark 2011 but no games.
How about testing for example crysis 3 oc(with 330 watt 1000mhz) against stock?

 

The by far biggets advantage, its reusable even if the PSU dies. Takes a bit more time than updating the board, but after that your sorted most likely forever.

Still waiting on my new GPU, a bit over a week since paying.
Bought it from upgrademonkey, they dont send to china it says, but this one was sent from china, oddly enough. The add claimed it would be shipped from UK. Whatever it takes.

 

The 330W mod has been completed for a while now. It's been what, a full month for me? I think Trome and NiveQ also have theirs up (not 100% sure here).
Jump in and cross it up bro
Crysis 3 very high preset fxaa enabled at default clocks for me averages 55fps (i have a CPU bottleneck in it).

 

I have mine, but not very usefull for my single GPU atm.

 

@lastshady I've tested a few games with the CPU and or the GPU's overclocked and what I've noticed is that this configuration is able to handle almost any game at 60fps v-sync at stock GPU clocks. There are occasional drops but nothing significant.

The exceptions come in at certain areas in the games which I believe to be poorly optimised as I tested those scenes with both the CPU overclocked and then the GPU's overclocked and then both and none of these settings affected the framerate. I tested this with Crysis 3 and TR.

I had quite a good 240W PSU and I completed Crysis 3 at stock settings on High Graphic Detail with an average power draw of around 270W. With the 330W and the same settings the power draw is exactly the same so effectively theres no difference with the 330W. The real benefits for me come from having a cooler running PSU and the ability to unleash some of the XM's power.

I was only able to break the 300W power draw barrier by clocking the GPU's to 1000Mhz which was just for number chasing. I would not currently subject my cards to that level of unecessary stress for extended gaming sessions considering the excellent performance while running stock clocks.

That said, I'm not ruling out the possibility of overclocking to those levels in the future when the cards start showing their age. It's nice to know we have that option.

 

Where do you measure your power?
On the inlet or outlet?

 

At the wall socket. I'm using a Kill-a-watt to measure. I'm assuming these PSU's are very high efficiency with the figures I'm reading.

 

As far as I know, they are designed to be as efficient as possible. Since they lack active cooling, they can't afford to dissipate too much heat, which is why efficiency should definitely be above 80% (more likely in the 90+ range).

 

i did made an psu mod. only it was for my old m15x.
which made me use an 240w adapter with a 150w modbox.
im still not sure if i would make it for my m17x.
currently got my new 7970m and its working well for now.
but still an issue with the ethernet controller and PM55 Express Chipset LPC Interface Controller - 3B03.
and all my sound is gone.
maybe a fresh winstall will do the trick

 

Yea, sounds like you need fresh install and/or chipset driver reinstallation.
For m17x with 7970m crossfire, the 330W mod is a good thing to have (just use the old 240W chip).

 

Thank you guys.
But im helpless... can´t do the mod myself man someone has to do it for me.
I would jump on that train if someone could do the mod for me.
I would gladly help im in something he needs or just donate the effort.

Im asking for games because im comparing the results with the 7970 desktop card from my bro^^
How about tomb raider bench with 1080, tress fx and everything on highest?

 

59fps average in benchmark I finished the game with 60fps average at max settings, and in very rare areas with really wide distance drawing may drop into 45's.
Regarding the mod, finding any electronics repair shop (for old TV's, components, etc.) can do this for you at a modest price. You must have some in your area for sure. Just provide the instructions from imsolidstate.com so the people know what you want to have done.
I suppose if you can't get it done with a company near you, you could send the PSU's to one of us to get it done, but you realize this means a ton of wasted time and money spent on shipping.

 

You could always find a computer/electronic repair shop and point them to imsolidstates website. Any technician worth his salt will be able to do the mod for you for a small fee.

Here's the bench as requested. Tomb Raider, 1080P, Ultimate graphic settings (TressFX is on, actually everything is maxed out with the Ultimate setting). I turned of V-Sync as well since you'd only see 60FPS for Max and Average FPS if it was on. GPU's are stock at 850/1200 with 0.975V. CPU is running 24x on all cores with a TDP/TDC of 90/82.

The minimum FPS has always been glitchy, you can judge by the average FPS to realise that its absolutely smooth.

 

All the heat from the PSU is effect lost for heating. Higher load often makes the PSU warmer. (not on all PSU's though)
Compare it towards a smaller lightbulb. Bigger surface = lower temp around surface for same effect.
10% on apx 240W . AKA apx 264W in = 90% effectivity. Mine is not cooler than a big 24 W bulb.

 

If i sended my psu to one of you guys what would shippment cost? I live in Germany.
Ok i will check if i can find such a shop if not .... i will request help from you guys i want that 330 watt so badly

thank you man woow that result is nice ^^..
He´s not available at the moment as soon as he gets here ill let him run the tomb bench with same settings.

I understand that ocíng for 7970m-cross is not really necessary but i want to know the difference between stock settings and 1000 mhz in games.
So could you please do the same run with 1000mhz chip 1400memory-clock?