Aw m18x R2 Dual 980m SLI upgrade!!

All new AW 17 will have BGA Garbage.

 

OMG! R.I.P. AW I'm just a little man from Hungary but i think it was the worst way... Me and some ~10 friend use all AW but we all hate BGA sytems!

 

Alienware is slaughtered brand now .. Ruined by the butcher Dellienware

 

lol, I think every laptop going forward will have BGA except maybe clevo going for desktop socketed CPU. too bad those socketed CPU will have ty tim, gotta wait for something like devil canyon lol with good ol soldered tim 4790k and OC like crazy

 

The future is desktop socketed CPU for gaming laptops. Bga garbage processors for tablets and mini pc's

 

exactly, although these major gaming laptop maker will still continue to make huge profit off of majority of people, little do they know swapping cpu/mobo = swapping entire laptop internal LOL. i ain't supporting that crap for sure, if clevo is the way to go I will go for them, heck even throw away looks for ultimate power.

ultimate power Rugged portable computer systems for military & industrial environments, built in speaker/subwoofer and wifi capable with battery packs in the machine, only 3x 21.5" wide screen. time to go HEAVY mobile

 

The thicker and bigger the more powerful cooling has a gaming laptop. An all too thin but large laptop = poor cooling = soldered hardware. A thin laptop can not have a desktop processor.

 

The new clevos do have the 4790k as an option.

 

that cpu is a beast.. i just started overclocking mine, and i believe that for once in my life, i've got a golden sample at the moment it is stable at 4.6Ghz with just 1.2V! and i mean 10 hour Aida64 exteme FPU stress test stable. Tonight i'm going to shot for 4.8Ghz, during the week end, will be the 5Ghz target (wish me luck!).

Now imagine this kind of CPU on a gaming laptop...(heavy breathing..)


Edit: For the records.. Achieved 4.8Ghz stable (10h Aida extreme FPU test) @1.243V (i believe this will be my 24/7 setup). Going to shot for 5 Ghz this week end

 

I got the i7-4790K CPU as well. I love that CPU. Great for gaming, brah.

 

which module is that, i totally forgot too lazy to look into lol. which clevo lappy comes with 4790k?

 

The Clevo P770ZM, aka the Sager NP9772 aka the Origin EON17-X Pro. The only down side is single GPU. If they were to release a slight larger SLI model it would be pretty amazing.

 

yea with 4.6 ghz we have to go for almost 1.4v on CPU to make it stable, thats the best part about desktop CPU, more matured and easily cooled due to heatspreader.

 

If those machines were SLI id be extremely temped to dig in. 1 x mobile gpu isn't enough.
I really hope a x99 clevo is on the cards too.

 

x99 chipset is known to suck on storage performance and pcie performance, unsure as to why compared to z87 and old x79 it should out perform them. intel may have given up on those thinking average SSD performance is good enough. right now if clevo throws out a z97 with 4790k and dual SLI graphics + dual PSU it'll be win.

 

Can i use the AW18 (not M18xR2) with single GTX980m?

 

Of course

 

It needs to be runnable on single PSU though. Or it defeats the purpose of being a "laptop". Mr. Fox and I and many others may be perfectly happy with bulky, cool, powerful, god-like machines and be willing to deal with the carrying around woes, but insisting on dual PSUs for any laptop ever is just... no. Especially if they're the size of the current 330W bricks we have from Clevo. I don't mind if I can't OC (or OC heavily) on single PSU. That's kind of the case here; I'm EXTREMELY amazed I managed a 1058/6000 SLI 780M + 3.8GHz 4800MQ firestrike AND unigine Valley run without running out of power, but they're not stable in say... extended Black Ops 2 gaming sessions with unlocked FPS. Which I totally understand. But at stock, they work fine. I can take them around on stock forever. I'm fine if when I wanna OC I gotta bring two bricks.

 

I want a laptop that uses a 1kW AC adapter that is the size of an ATX PSU. I don't mind huge, but I do mind single GPU. I don't play that. I'll go back to desktops and just blow off the idea of high performance laptops before I will compromise on single GPU. If it is small enough to fit in a big backpack, then it's small enough and portable enough to make me happy. It's a lot easier than carrying around a full tower chassis, monitor and keyboard. I have other laptops with single GPU and I essentially have no interest in using them. Every time I use one I am constantly aware of the fact of its inferiority, even when integrated graphics would be adequate for the task I am engaged with.

 

msi's PSU is 350w, why is dual psu a bad thing? OC is awesome i love cranking up the CPU power to max if cooling allows it. although I don't OC GPU much and usually leave it at stock, with two GPU in SLI/crossfire and a CPU that runs over 4.5ghz will exhaust a 330w PSU easily.

 

No, im afraid it wouldn't. At least not for the M18x line. They can run the psu up to 440 watts before the psu shuts off. More than enough for over clocking the cpu and leaving gpu's stock

And until that MSI 350W psu is put to the test. No one knows it's max shut off point, but we do know however for the M18x line.

 

4.6 ghz was fine for me with "hungry" 780m SLI provided they weren't OCed.

 

I could over clock both and still run on single psu. I just could not go over board with it though.

 

There is something seriously flawed about the HWinfo fan control method.

You can only pick 3 speeds: 0, 1700 or 3300RPM (GPU have slightly different 3 RPM speeds).
0 is obviously to no help.
1700 RPM is doing something but not fast enough to cool my CPU nor my GPUs.
3300 RPM is good enough, but too powerful, and makes the notebook way noisy.
I need something in the middle: Something thats powerful enough yet isnt a leaf blower like 3300RPM.

I tried making a temperature/fan speed table. It does its job but since you only have 3 speeds, the 1700RPM is no good, and it will hit the 3300RPM eventually. Fan will just go 1 second, temperature will fall down 1 Celsius, climb up again within seconds, and the fan goes on full speed again.
So you get ramping up and down with the fans.

So you have 2 choice:
Either always use 3300RPM and have a leaf blower.
Or use the fan table which makes the fans cycle up and down and up and down etc etc

I sincerely hope there is a fix to this or some settings I`ve missed because I can`t have it like this

 

You can do it by temp, but you would need to spread them.
90/80/70 3300
60/50/40 1700

Not really sure if that's even do able though.

 

Thats exactly the settings I made with the fan tables. Except 40C was 0RPM and 50C was 1700.
The GPUs can do 1700RPM fine and the temperature goes slowly upwards on Unigine heaven til it hits 70C and then the fan goes 3300RPM which cools it quickly to 69C and then it goes up to 70C and the fan cycles up to double the speed again.
The temps goes from 69C to 70C for the rest of the test, with the fans going up and down

I may need to undervolt the GPUs to see if they can then be cooled with 1700RPM.
Then its a matter of cooling that 4940MX. Which quickly goes up to 70C where I have my 3700RPM limit. I could perhaps reduce multipliers from 40x to 37x and see if that helps with temps but I dont think 1700RPM will be enough to stop it from reaching that 70C/3700RPM limit anyway even with 3700MHz max clock.

I think the only fix for this was if I could manually change to whatever RPM I wanted between 0 and 3700RPM, a middle ground

 

You know you can stagger the multipliers and also run in balanced mode. That will help quite allot to keep temps in check. Can't really see why one would need to run 4c/8t on google chrome or watching a youtube video.
As to gaming... It will only use what it needs unless you force it to use more. Which is like running redline for no reason other than it can. And every time you move the computer and the room temp changes so will your cpu and gpu temp. So what might work at night is not guaranteed to work during the day. You have 105C on gpu and 100C on cpu.
So 70 to 80 is actually fine. Although others are in the 60's during gaming. Also depends on area and time of day.

But you are right, you are right smack dab in the middle of the road. A bunch of noise or possible over heating because the fans didn't come on soon enough. Or they didn't run high enough. You also have to watch out for hwinfo flat out cutting all the fans off.(Due to it fighting with the bios) Be careful of that one.


I think they locked that variable fan speed out after watching us manipulate it in the M18X....Personal opinion only.

 

This is the exact same issue I have Cloud! I was wanting extra fan RPM speeds to choose from however the 18 has some weird fan tables which don't seem to allow it. Or something like that.
How are your 970Ms going? Are the GPU fans working automatically or do they have the same issues like the 980Ms?

Thanks.

 

That is also something Ive encountered. HWInfo not controlling the second GPU although the fan table settings I made with 1700RPM for the temp it was above was clearly active. I had to quit and launch HWInfo a couple of times until it worked.
Another issue I have is that along with the 2 GPUs, I also have to make a fan setting for the CPU with either 0, 1700 or 3700RPM. I tried setting the CPU fan at System default and let it control the CPU fan, but that resulted in my notebook shutting down from thermal overheat of the CPU because HWinfo will only let the CPU fan run with your own settings if the program is active
Which means either leaf blower or fan cycling for the CPU too.

I read about M18x R2s fan controls with HWInfo. They seem a ton better than AW18 because with EC support you can pick whatever fan speed you want and that setting will work for all 2 GPUs plus CPU which makes them run equal speed.
I tried enabling EC with HWInfo as well and I get the same settings as you M18xR2 owners do, but the table I make only affects the CPU fan. Both GPU fans will not run. :/

I have the same problem with my 970Ms as you guys do with 980Ms. Only my CPU and my left GPU fan is controlled by the system automatically. Those are cooled properly without too much noise because the system can vary the speeds all the way from 0 to 3700 RPM.
But the right GPU without any fan active will quickly go up towards 90s in a simple benchmark so I have to use HWInfo.

 

Yup that is exactly right Cloud, I too also have to have the CPU fan controlled by HWINFO to make the right GPU fan work.
So yes very quiet and fine at 1700/1800RPM or very loud leaf blower 3500/3700RPM.

 

You could make a fan mod for the two gpu fans. Meaning. Running them both off the master. You would need to splice the fan wires together. You can get two more fans for this project so you keep your warranty in tact or just mod the ones in the machine. Technically this should work. Speculation of course.

 

Worth a shot John! I actually just bought a set of fans like 2hrs ago. So I might be willing to give this a go with some assistance of course. :thumbsup:

 

I think we can do that.

 

I would love to have the desktop cpu Clevo. The thing that sucks is the battery life which I need and like about my m18xr2.

 

Yep, but that has always been Clevos motto. Suck the life out of a battery quick and take all day to charge it back up.

 

I reduced 4940MX multipliers within BIOS from 40x/39x/38x/38x to 37x/36x/35x/35x and now my CPU can run 1700RPM without any problems. I didnt notice any FPS loss either so that speed is good enough for 970M SLI.
So thats solved.

I need to figure out what to do with the GPUs. I`m thinking undervolting there. Thats the only possible option for me since the HWInfo fan control method is poor for AW18 and I dont want to sacrifice any performance (ie underclocking).

 

I'm thinking of going for the old eon 15s with 980m and 4930xm. The battery is supposed to be like 6hours on it

 

The 980M cards are too goofy on my M18xR2. I can hardly wait to get a P570WM to use them in. It's a real shame they don't work right in the M18xR2 in SLI except for the days they are temporarily magically healed. I really do regret spending money on this upgrade. I basically gained nothing over 780M SLI other than problems.

Here is a video showing a mild example of how retarded they behave on better days. What's really puzzling is one works fine, but two act totally spastic.

<iframe width='1280' height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xo-zNhcmxVI?rel=0" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

 

Yep, it's not worth the trouble if they're gonna behave like that - a really poor gaming experience with all the hitching.

 

Yeh that really sucks Fox about how the clock speeds just seem to go up and down like a yo yo
I've been reading around as well atm that when in SLi a lot of people are noticing large min and max ranges for FPS especially when gaming. Not too sure if this is an indication that the clocks are downclocking during the min or something else. I've noticed it too during games sometimes. Some games of course just don't benefit from SLi but thats another pain and issue
I sure hope this does get fixed by a new Nvidia GPU driver soon.

 

Guys, please bear with me for the OT, but i really really have to share this with you! Just booted in windows @5Ghz with only 1.248V... now i'm going to test for stability but this thing is crazy is too much fun!

 

Nice! :thumbsup:

Also on a side note I'm thinking of resurrecting the old Alienware M17x R3. Its just been used as a web browser home cinema PC atm with no dedicated GPU. I haven't seen anyone test/try the new Maxwell GPUs in a R3 yet so I'm thinking of doing it.

In the past the R3 has been able to rock the GTX 675MX and GTX 780M with no issues at all. I did also try the GTX 770M however could never manage to get it to boot.
Now I already have my 980Ms in the 18 but am too lazy to dismantle and then transplant it into the M17x R3.
So I am currently negotiating terms $$$ in getting a GTX 970M for testing.
Worst case if it doesn't pan out I will be on selling it here in the NBR marketplace. So keep your eyes peeled for a good deal haha

 

That could be very interesting, I'll keep my eyes peeled on that one! (if you create a new thread for it, post a link in this thread so people like me can be sure to find it!)

 

Sure thing will do Robbo99999 :thumbsup:
Your convo with Brother Fox in the Ti forums actually inspired me.

I really enjoy testing GPUs in different machines haha!
I also just find it simply amazing and Awesome that the Alienware M15x still is able to run these new Nvidia Maxwell GPUs no problem haha. As if they were made to support them natively. Just blown away!

 

That M15x is truly amazing - fantastic value for anyone who bought one, stuck with it, upgraded the GPU's! If I remember rightly, it also looks pretty good too!

(& Kudos to Mr Fox for his testing of single 980M in M18xR1 - to check for likely compatibility with M17xR3).

 

Makes me want to find a m15x at a steal

 

I kind of wish I still had my amazing Alienware M17x R2
Good times with that beauty of a machine!

Now where is Nvidia with a new GPU driver release!

 

Yeah the old Alienware m15x is going to live a longer life than the new AW 15 .

 

I finally caught the R2 when it wasn't in a "I am a throttling mess" mood and pulled off one decent 3DMark11 run. The next attempt (about 3 minutes later) it magically decided that one was just too fast and I needed a lesson in humility, LOL. It has been throttling like crazy ever since then.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2

 

Lol "a lesson in humility". Yeah what a tease huh!

How on earth did you get 11k CPU score in windows 8 is what I want to know.