M17x-R2 + GTX 580M + SLi

great!! TheWiz will be in contact with you asap!

 

I too have the 285M in SLi, if you need another guy, i'm here.

 

I have sent you a PM katalin, thanks for your offer.

TheWiz

 

Thanks for all of your help guys.

@katalin - I have sent you a new thing to try for me, thanks for your help.

I'll keep you posted guys, thanks to your willingness to support we can continue testing patches.

TheWiz

 

I sent you back my results..

 

yup u need anything just PM away

 

Just a plain stupid question:

qre your guys trying to:

1) make a SLI of 580m work on the R2
2) or just a plain single 580m on the R2?

good luck anuhow

 

@katalin - Please check PM: I need you to rerun the same test with SLI disabled before you start HyperSLI boot.

@tomX we already have sing 580ms working, this is for SLI.

TheWiz

 

@tomX single functions, see here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/7840891-post11.html

LE: @TheWiz: results are sent.

 

Does anyone know any m18x owners who can make a log for us?

 

Yes, wait one minute, he'll contact you.

 

Great, much appreciated.

Mr. Fox won't ahve access to his m18x for another 5 days, any other m18x owners out there?

m18x files acquired, modding goes on

TheWiz

 

Is it possible to add the PSID of the m18x 330w psu to the m17x bios?

 

if we could get 330w power adapter working with m17x......would be heaven for future SLI/CFX upgrades, no need to worry about power constraints as much.

 

It works but requires the m17x psu to get it working because its a ID issue.

 

I believe that many of us would like to have a OEM looking solution. I, for example, cannot affort lo carry with me 2 PSU, i travel a lot, it is not a viable solution for me. Maybe if the AW is used as a full desktop replacement and never moved from the desk, the dual PSU is the way to go.

 

The solution would be to add the PSID of 18x charger to m17x bios. Dells v10 bios was just only a change to the PSID so laptop can charge because it wouldnt reconize the psu. Adding the m18x PSID to m17x bios would be the oem solution this way only the 330w psu can be used.

 

Hi everyone,

We have a new patch that we will be testing today, we believe that this patch has a very high percent chance of making everything work, thanks to the rw-everything dumps and other testing provided by all of you yesterday. As soon as my testers get online we will begin the tests. More or less, the patch will emulate ONLY to the nvidia driver that it is an m18x, emulating the certificate and the laptop's properties, which should force a green flag for SLI when the driver installs.

We will keep you posted.

TheWiz

 

I miss my RGB LED
It's amazing how far the community has taken the R2. With current gen GPU's, 920XM/940XM CPU's and RGB LED, you guys really do have the best all around system.

 

Thanks, I'll definitely keep an eye on this

 

Don't forget 16GB ram and crossfire 6990s

 

Hi DR650SE, my name is Brandon. I purchased a m17x r2 w/ 1920x1200 rgb, CF 5870, 4gb ram, i7 @ 2.66 2.67 (turbo boost to 3.20) for 800.00!! the first thing i did was put alot of games on it to test it out and then i started forum searching for upgrades and saw your SIG. 6990 in CF, 16gb @ 1300 and i had some questions for you. i cant seem to PM you so do you think you could shoot me an email? airborn334@gmail(dot)com. Also, Admins, im sorry if this was the wrong way to contact a member of the site but ive exhausted all other methods and finding a recent post from DR650SE was the next best way to reach said member...

 

if you make 5 solid posts you can start pm'ing

There are guides on doing all the upgrades like 6990 crossfire. Theyre really in depth too so why don't you post in those threads......

 

Can't wait to hear back from thewiz. If this works I will be purchasing 2 580m's. Hopefully someone can add the psid of the 330watt psu. We could do some sick stuff with this computer.

 

Hi airborn,

A lot of your questions might be answered in this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-6990-your-m17x-r2-single-gpu-crossfirex.html

Or you can post additional ones..lots of folks running 6970s and 6990s there who can help out.

Welcome to the forum!

 

Warcry, Sli Is Working!!!!!


UPDATE: We aren't hallucinating, we had SLI come up in the NVIDIA control panel. We are finalizing a procedure now and coordinating with developer. I will have this all up in a new article and thread at bios-mods and will mirror here of course.

 

Amazing scenes!!!
Just WOW~

Great work and Congrats to THE WIZ and his team.
It looks like we have some new benching toys to test LOL!
Cough Cough DR LOL!


Cheers.

 

Here is a teaser while we still sort everything out, live screenshot during the modification work:



We are still working out alot of glitches, as convincing as the screenshot is we still have some work to do to make it work right. We will keep you posted as new information comes available.

TheWiz

 

This is awesome......one more option to upgrade to if desired.

 

Great work guys, keep it up. It truly shows that if a laptop gets enough love, it can't be beaten!

Dell should really take a good hard look at what the M17xR2 has matured into and use it as a base for the R4 or even the M18xR2...

 

Will the R2 require Dell or Clevo 580Ms? My main concern is powerdraw and the limited power of the R2 board. I wonder what the average undervolted power draw on a 580M will be

Posting on the forum is the best way to reach me. I don't get much time off so email is hit and miss. There are plenty of people here who can answer questions as well as I don't have all the answers. We're all open and here to help so just ask away. Nice price BTW.

 

The 580m's can be undervolted to 0.85v.

 

If it can handle 6990m's, then I don't see why it can't handle dual GTX 580m's.

You might be more limited on your cpu/gpu overclocking when compared to the 6990ms, but everything at stock should be fine.

 

So pretty excited about this. Bit before I decide between 580m sli or 6990m cfx what is the increase in performance? Overclockability.? So I'm not the best at editing bios but I know a little bit and I might be able to add the psid of the 330 Watt psu to the bios. Mymain concern is that if I mess up I would have to buy a new board. Is there a safe guard option ?

 

The 580M is slightly faster than the 6990M and has better overclockability because it can be overvolted. But from my tests, the 580M sucks more power than a 6990M in stock form. I think the R2 can handle two 580Ms, but for its full potential, the original 240w PSU definitely won't cut it. I'd like to get my hands on that 330w PSU and try what other's did with combining the two PSUs...

 

I think as far as R2 is concerned, 580M is vedry immature, but 6990M may win this bout due to the power demands of the 580M. We'll see.

 

ANNOUNCEMENT: SLI IS FULLY WORKING ON ALIENWARE M17x-R2 WITH TWO GTX 580Ms.

 

Nice! Are there still fan issues? Clevo cards or Dell cards? Lets are some stock benchmarks!

 

I can't wait to get home from work...

 

WOW

I can't wait to see what you can finally do with dual 580M's in the R2

Cheers.

 

Hmm, may think about doing a WTT: 6990+$$ for 580M crossfire

 

This is absolutely epic! Haha.

Now I'm really wondering why Dell chose to produce the M18x. . . .

If you know where to buy your parts, you can get a M17x R2 with Dual GTX 580m's and a i7 920xm (when OC'd with throttlestop is better than a i7 2860qm) for a few hundred less than a M18x with the same configuration.

Plus you get the added benefit of potentially adding a 16:10 RGB screen.

If Dell didn't want people upgrading their laptops, then they could have done what Asus has done and completely foiled our dreams of adding to the R2's lifespan - so clearly that's not their angle.

The only appeal I can see for the M18x at this point is it being 18" - which is something I like - but I doubt few people other than me would find that a plus.

+rep

 

I just want to see some test results as far as benches, power consumption, and know if there are fan issues. If there are still fan issues that's a deal breaker for me. Also want to know how Dell 580m differs from the clevo as far as compatibility.

 

This is great 580m's with SLI!!!! I was saving for some 6990's but I think I may go this route if it all pans out. Man I can't wait for the tech info on this (temps, power, ect).

@aarpcard: Yeah I agree with that, 18" is the only selling point for me...that and the 330watt PSU.

 

This is great news guys. FYI, I know you guys are using the newest M18x vbios with 4 p-states, I have the older Dell 580m vbioses with 3 p-states. Depending on if and how the cards throttle, the older vbios may help.

Also the GTX 580m's can be undervolted and still hold a decent overclock, about 700 core. If you want I can ask the developers of nibitor over at mvktech for some custom roms

 

Thanks to The Wiz and Our developer of Hyper SLI who through hard work and dedication helped in solving the case of the GTX 580m SLI in the m17x R2. Once we get done with all of our closing tests we will get a guide out to you guys on how to get this done!!!!!

 

There will still be a fan issue because this is a software-based solution and not a BIOS edit. I'd love to explore how the BIOS reads the fan tables on the graphic cards though...

Now I'm going home to run some tests, provided that Chris is online and has a patch waiting for me

 

Also other Great news guys i found a much simpler way to get the 330w psu working on r2 with no other psu's but doing this method wont charge your laptop (might not also let you change brightness). Turns out all you gotta do is Ground the ID cable (i just connected to one of black wires 330w psu has) this keeps the psu at max output.

 

Here it is guys! Hope you enjoy the article. It contains the how to, the history, and the impressive benchmark.

Success: NVIDIA GTX 580M SLI on Alienware M17x-R2 Laptop

For additional support I will monitor this forum and

Bios Mods -The Best BIOS Update and Modification Source

If you are interested in supporting the project:
Bios Mods -The Best BIOS Update and Modification Source - BIOS-Mods Donations

I will ask Uche to start a new thread perhaps, or have ichime update the first post with all the information.

A HUGE thanks to Anatolymik, it would've simply been impossible without his vast knowledge in driver development and operating systems.

Cheers,
TheWiz

 

Great news! Congratz on the hard work for all you guys!

Now benchmarking!