New m18x owner... introduction and question.

Hey all! So, I've been lurking these forums for a few weeks now while I've been in the process of making my decision for my new laptop. I finally settled on an Alienware m18x R2 (3840QM, 16gb 1600 RAM, 512gb SSD, 2x GTX 680m SLI) after many hours of reading and research. The toughest choice really came down to the m18x R2 and the new Alienware 18. I finally decided on the m18x R2 based on looks, overclocking capabilities of the 680m and the Ivy Bridge processor, the features which were deleted on the new 18, as well as the significant discount that Dell is offering on these systems now.

So, I received my new love last night, and so far I have to say I'm thoroughly impressed with what it can do. However, being the tinkerer that I am, I simply won't be happy with stock speeds for long. Although this is my first venture into the world of extreme gaming hardware in a (semi)mobile package, I've been a desktop builder and overclocker for a VERY long time. Example, my current rig is: (i7-980x overclocked to 5.0ghz 24/7, Asus Rampage III Black Edition,12gb 1866mhz Corsair Vengeance RAM, 2x Corsair Force 240gb SSD in RAID-0, 3x eVGA GTX 680 Hydro-Copper in 3-way SLI, 1500 watt Thermaltake Toughpower PSU, 2 custom liquid cooling loops covering the CPU, GPU's, and motherboard chipset, all lovingly fitted into a Corsair Obsidian 800D case). Ya, I'm one of those

Anyway, other than saying hello to all of you fine people who's posts I've been reading tirelessly for weeks, I have a question. The 3840QM was the highest processor option offered on the m18x R2 closeouts, otherwise I would have gotten the Extreme Edition. Currently, you can get ahold of a brand new 3940XM OEM tray processor for $500 to $600. Should I spring for the 3940XM or should I play around with overclocking the 3840QM? Are they fairly overclocking friendly? I'm looking for some insight from the forum and overclocking veterans here (Mr. Fox, Johnksss?). I'm thinking with the 3840QM having the 8mb cache and being the next highest mobile Ivy Bridge behind the 2 Extreme Edition offerings, it may have some potential... any insight you folks could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

 

The 3700-3800 series processors aren't overclock friendly at all, especially if you know what you're doing, and want to tweak everything. They only allow you to up the speed bins for TurboBoost a limited amount, and maybe some power timing tweaks.

Also, I have no idea where you found the 3940XM for $500, but you have to make sure it's not the 3920XM ES, because it's actually just an unfortunate cross-breed between the 3720QM and unlocked multipliers.

Another option, if you wanted to get down and dirty on a dime is to pickup a 2960XM. They are drop-in compatible with the M18x R2, give you the full breadth of overclocking options, and still hold some OC/Performance records over the 3940XMs.

You'll also definitely want to get the unlocked/modded BIOS for even more flexibility!

Another bit of the fun of a laptop is that the video cards seem more... exploitable than their desktop counterparts. The 680m specifically can be completely retuned with a new VBIOS and higher clocks, and become an absolute monster, tearing apart any maxed out game with ease.

It's great fun, and a great community, so welcome and good luck!

 

How long from the time you placed your order to when you received it? I'm curious on the build times of the R2.

 

Hey Hybrys, thanks for the info! That's actually kind of what I was afraid of, but I was looking for exactly that confirmation. I've already started familiarizing myself with running a modded BIOS for the real fun, and I've done extensive reading on tuning those 680m's with a new VBIOS. I can't wait to really dig into this beast, half of the fun for me is just the tweaking process!

As for the price of the 3940XM, they're typically running around $600 on ebay right now for an OEM tray processor, I'd never let myself get conned into buying an engineering sample. I ran across one a few days ago that was going for $500, but I was pretty skeptical myself for that price.

Well, that raises another question then... if I go ahead and start playing around with retuning the 680m's, is the stock 3840QM going to hold up and not bottleneck me for a while, or will I become processor bound pretty quickly? I'm thinking I should just drop the $600 for the 3940XM and get it over with, but I may hold off for a little bit if there's a little breathing room with what I have.

 

I placed the order on the 1st of this month. They quoted me an estimated delivery date of the 20th, but you can imagine the joy when I refreshed the page for the 10,000th time on the 8th and it said it had been shipped So, 11 days from order to my door, I was pretty pleased with that.

 

Oh, I actually have one more question... after work today, I plan on tearing it down and repasting the GPU's/CPU, I simply won't feel comfortable with the Dell factory goop on there even at stock speeds. On hand, I have Arctic Silver 5, Arctic Silver Ceramique 2, Arctic Silver Alumina, and Tuniq TX-2, as well as plenty of Arcticlean paste remover.

Any preference as to which one works best on these m18x's? Is there something better than what I have on hand right now?

 

Glad you're having fun looking it all up, but it's even more fun to tear into it!

Yeah, at $500, I wouldn't go for it. It's TOO low. We should start to see sub $600 soon, but I'm not sure. Again, have you thought about the 2960XM? It is still a force to be reckoned with, usually OCs higher, and holds a lot of the current wPrime records on the forums, including Johnksss's 5.2ghz behemoth. And if you can get one for ~$400, you're laughing.

You probably won't bottleneck on the processor, unless you play something really unoptimized and CPU intensive (Dark Souls and Planetside 2 come to mind.) Make sure that you at least do what little overclocking you can (Use XTU to raise each turbo bin to their 400mhz higher limit).

There's no clear winner; just use the one you prefer best. I used AS5 for a 6 degree lowering on my old M17x R3. I'd be interested in how the TX-2 performs, though.

The Dell goop is actually surprisingly good. You can find the odd model with perfect application that runs only 1-2 degrees hotter than a well applied aftermarket paste.

 

I suggest you keep them stock until you notice temp issues. No reason to fix what's not broken. I've found that the original paste job on my M17X R3 was done really well.

As to which is best, that's a debate that will have multiple different answers. Article Silver 5 seems to have a pretty good rep on these forums.

 

If you really know what you're doing, you'll still see moderate gains from changing out the paste. The reason we see a lot of people come out with the same or higher temps is due to applying too much paste.

Also, AS5 has a great rep because it was the only good product on the market for a long time. It's now been surpassed by the likes of IC7 and AS MX-4, but still remains as a good go-to for cheap, easy to apply, and effective paste.

Edit:

Apparently the best paste around is now this guy: (Apparently the 1g version is a fake, but the 3.5g is the real deal)
http://www.amazon.com/Phobya-HeGrease-Extreme-High-Permormance-Compound/dp/B0067M0ZAU/

.8 degree drop compared to MX-4, 1.2 degree drop compared to AS5.

 

AS5 will get the job done - its decent. I'd like to add that I never saw temps drop more after it cured.
I recently tried IC7... ooo la la

 

+1 on people using too much paste. With TIM, most people don't realize that the secret is "less is more."

The thermals right now are quite good, but even having said that, I simply don't trust factory paste (not necessarily the application, but the quality of the compound used) and will re-do the job to my own standards before I start messing with overclocking.

Also, Hybrys, I do like the idea of picking up a 2960XM. The sweet spot seems to be around $400 right now which really is a killer deal and something I had not considered before you mentioned it. Hmmm... decisions, decisions!

 

I honestly would probably go with a 2960XM, I hear they cool better than the 3940XM. My 3940XM has a hard time staying under 100c under 100% load even when the laptop is on a notepal 3. Also, it is not uncommon to find 3940xm's for just over 500 on eBay, the prices of them are coming down, and I would stay away from any that where either right at 500 or below.

 

How about getting a 3920xm? A lot cheaper than 3940xm and basically it's the same cpu.

 

Welcome and congrats on the new beast. Judging from your desktop, an Extreme CPU upgrade is a definite must-have for you. The 3820QM won't keep you happy for long if you crave performance. Sandy Bridge Extreme does overclock a little easier, but the Ivy Bridge Extreme is more efficient and generally achieves a slightly better benchmark score at a lower clock speed. Having benched the daylights out of both extensively, I say go for the Ivy Bridge Extreme.

Order a brand new 3-pipe Extreme CPU heat sink (it will have the Dell TIM pre-applied) and you'll get better cooling than aftermarket paste. That's what I am running now (had a spare 3-pipe) and the temps are better than anything achievable with aftermarket paste. That was also my experience the first time I installed a new 3-pipe with the Dell TIM in place. I use IC Diamond when I need to re-paste and it does the best job, plus it is more durable than other aftermarket thermal pastes. The factory TIM is a superior product, but sometimes the installation process negates any of the benefits the product offers. (Same rationale as people not re-pasting the right way and getting a poor result. The end result is a reflection of the person doing the job as much as it is the product.)

Grab an unlocked sBIOS and vBIOS firmware from Brother svl7 and get the party started. Looking forward to seeing you in the benchmarking thread. Again, welcome to the community.

True... if the price difference is substantial at the time of purchase, the 3920XM is the better buy. The difference between them is almost indiscernible.

 

Thanks for all of the replies, everyone. I think I've gotten just the answers I was looking for. I'll more than likely end up grabbing a 3940XM, the price difference between that and the 3920XM is not enough to justify going for anything but the top dog. They're getting about $600 average on eBay right now, so I think I'll be taking the plunge soon.

THIS is accurate, yes. Also, is there a way to order the 3-pipe cooler through Dell? I can't seem to find any except on eBay. And yes, once I've gotten the party started. I'm sure you'll be seeing some of my efforts in the benchmark thread.

 

Yes, definitely order it through Dell rather than eBay. Send a PM to Alienware-L_Porras and he can most likely start the process for you. Provide him with your service tag number, contact info, etc.

Part # 0MXJ5 CPU Heat Sink, XM CPU (3 pipes)

 

Congratulations on your new system!

I would suggest going with a 3940XM or 3920XM as well. If you're willing to try bidding on eBay auctions, you will probably be able to get one in the $500 - $600 range. That seems to be the current going rate, from my experience. My system was originally configured with a 3820QM, and it is nice that you can get a little bit of an overclock out of it. However, it is hardly comparable to that of an unlocked processor. Judging from the information you provided, you'll want that XM performance.

I prefer the Dell TIM, personally. I haven't applied aftermarket paste to this system, but I have on a a couple M17x's that I had. It seems that the Dell TIM is of good quality, but the application from the factory has the potential to be less than stellar.

 

Ok, pulled the trigger this morning. 3920xm for $549 from an eBay seller in New Jersey with 1200+ 100% positive feedback, OEM tray unit, not a qualification or engineering sample. Now all I've got to do is get the ball rolling on that 3-pipe Dell factory cooler and I'm in business! This new m18x is about to dance...

 

Sweet! I love it when a plan comes together. Welcome to the A-Team.
Good buy on the CPU as well. Congrats.

 

I'm getting for an XM upgrade of my own and picked up a 3pipe heat sink from eBay, but unfortunately its not a new unit. What kind of difference in temperatures can I expect since I will have to apply TIM myself?

 

Fantastic! Keep us posted on your overclocking endeavors. I'm sure we all love to hear how fast people can get these monsters.

@Ultima, none! As long as you apply a good product, and apply it well.

 

Under normal use conditions, hardly any at all. Not worth caring about. Under severe overclocking conditions, the stock Dell TIM is usually 3° to 5°C cooler than aftermarket paste based on my experience with the last two brand new 3-pipe heat sinks. That can mean the difference between thermal throttling or shutdown when you're chasing numbers.

 

Now I'm gonna have to order a couple more 330 power bricks from Amazon and make me a dual PSU. God I love projects!

 

That's the spirit!

Sent from my Galaxy Note II

 

I see you end up with a 3920XM cpu, that's great man. I thought you were going to buy the 3940 XM cpu for sure.

 

Considering the $50 to $100 difference, it didn't make a whole lot of sense. I found a seller I was comfortable with and a solid price and went for it... I'm sure I won't regret it. Now, just can't wait to get my hands on it