*OFFICIAL* Alienware M18x Benchmark Thread - Part 2

Here benchie, benchie, benchie. Where are the new M18x R2 benchmarks?

C'mon guys... let's see how the GTX 675M SLI compares to the GTX 580M SLI. DumbDumb will be showing us 7970M CF as soon as he can get a driver that works. We need some Vantage and 3DMark11 action.

Spoiler

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I am also interested in seeing the 3920xm flex with the stock BIOS and seeing how it stacks up against the 2960xm.

 

Same here Electrosoft I'd like to see how a locked bios 3920XM does against a unlocked bios 2960XM you can go only as far as watts and amps will allow on the M18x R2 stock bios

 

I will post some M18x R2 benchmarks as soon as mine is delivered.

 

Cool Grimy1 that will be awesome Thanks

 

Here's a Batman: Arkham Asyslum benchmark. All settings maxed out.
CPU 4.5GHz and GPUs run @ stock clocks (see details in screen shot)







Batman Arkam City - same CPU/GPU configs as above

Very High game settings


Extreme game settings (all maxed out in every setting)

 

Nice benchie's Mr. Fox! - Batman AC is a really fun game and it's good to see that it's fully playable (finally in DX11) on our M18x's without any gpu OC.....I get more or less the exact same benchie results for AC/Extreme settings too without gpu OC & Level 3 on the cpu......repped!

 

Nice Mr. Fox! I have both of them games too; will post mine when it gets here! God this is going to be the longest week ever waiting on my M18x! Hopefully Diablo 3 will help with the anxiety of waiting on it.

 

I have attached the standard benchmarking for vantage (no overclocking, dell shipped driver).

Hope this helps...

Edit: Sorry, I did not swapped out yet the IV CPU (3610 model).

 

Hi Juliant. That is a good Vantage benchmark score for stock speeds. Nice job. WEI looks good, too.

So, you have an M18x R2 with 2960XM? And the motherboard is Ivy Bridge? Could you do a favor for us and post a screen shot of Intel RST showing if each drive in the RAID0 and the mSATA drive is running at 6GB/s? Please select each drive one at a time and take a separate screen shot like these below...

 

Do you guys know if the pci e on the M18XR2 is running @16X or 8X when crossfire-sli ?

 

For those that do not know, here is what Speedy is referring to, and you can use GPU-Z to check. While 16x is supported by the video cards in the M18x R1, it seems to be crippled to run at 8x... maybe to save power. Even under load, it stays at 8x when it is capable of 16x and should be ramping up. Hopefully, that has been fixed on the M18x R2.

 

And here is 4.7GHz on CPU and GPU @ 845/1690/1800



Batman Arkham Asylum (all settings maxed out)


Batman Arkham City - Very High Settings


Batman Arkham City - Extreme Settings

 

Nice work again Mr. Fox! - I presume that's with 0.92v vBios, right?

 

Sorry, I could not reply to you Mr. Fox as I am still in the hospital. I already posted earlier info (I will try screenshot later):

1. mSATA is at 3GB/s
2. The 3 connectors work as: First 2 X 6GB/s & the third one at the 3GB/s.

The processor is still IV 3610QM, didn't get a chance yet to swap the 2960XM. As soon as I will get a chance I post screenshots.

By the way, last nigh I tried little bit of overclocking to 700/1500 and the score for the GPU went out to 26xxx. The temps are pretty good. Never exceed 72-73 with stock paste.

I have not overclocked nVidia GPU's so far, I wanted to know what is the safest overclocked level so that I can try it for you guys. Another thing, it shows GPUx8 but again I need to post shortly screenshots for you guys. Latest today evening I should post them...

 

Yes, that's right. Otherwise, the GPUs would be incapable of running at those clock speeds without crashing.

Sorry, I did not realize that you were in the hospital. No rush... it can wait until you are able. Hope your recovery is swift so you can get things back to normal again.

Around the 725/1500 range is the most you can go with stock .87v with the GTX 580. It's not unsafe to go more with stock voltage, only unstable. This might be different on the GTX675M, even though the cards are very similar. I doubt you will have any issues with GPU temps. The GTX 580M running in the M18x never seems to get hot, even under the harshest loads. It is very rare that my GTX 580M cards reach 75°C except in Furmark, and I don't ever use that program any more. The display driver has TDR crashes ( "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered") long before the cards get hot.

 

Sorry Mr. Fox, is not me, my mom had a surgery and have to be with her. Today she will come home and I will have time for this as well... Thank you for your concern

 

Thanks for letting us know the speed of msata I really appreciate that because I need to order an msata drive for mine so your msata SSD is the PM830 right ? that is my last question sorry take your time

 

Yes Speedy, no worries. You may ask any question. The model is samsung mSATA 830. Also I would like to let you guys know that I managed to put 3X9 mm SSD inside. Currently I have 64+240X3.

Imaging having mSATA 256GB SSD + 512GB SSD X 3

 

Has anyone seen if there is an order on which ones are SATA III and which one is SATA II, like the 1st and 2nd or 1st and 3rd (for SATAIII)?

So you got 3x9.5mm drives in there? (been searching around, seems they're all either 7mm or 9.5mm)

 

Yeah, I am talking about 9.5mm SSD. It's a bit tide but it works. By default you can have 1+2 as 9.5mm and the 3rd one 7mm. As per the speed, the 1st and the 2nd one work at SATA III and the thrid one in line is at SATA II.

Unfortunately I cannot post screenshots at the moment, but I promise later today you will have them.

 

It numbers them in the manual, so as long as we are matching whats in the manual, it's good, no need for a screen shot. I was hoping either to get three 9.5mm or just raid two 750 hd's with a 256 msata.

 

Thanks +rep now I can order an SSD for mine

 

That's awesome, Juliant. Did you have to force or modify anything to get three 9.5mm drives into the caddy?

Question: does the interposer combine all three drives into one cable connection? Is there still one SATA header on the motherboard, or two? I find myself wondering if the new interposer and HDD caddy will work with the M18x R1. It would be cool if M18x R1 owners could buy the caddy and interposer and upgrade their setup to the same as the R2 (minus the mSATA, of course).

I hope your mom's recovery is swift and complete.

I don't remember which thread it was, but I saw another person post earlier than they were able to fit three 9.5mm drives into the caddy, but it was a tight fit. With regular HDD, temperatures might become an issue if they are jammed together, but three 9.5mm SSD should not present any thermal issues. Perhaps Alienware is not presenting three 9.5mm drives as a configuration option because of the potential for thermal issues using mechanical HDDs is such a cramped space without good ventilation. The heat from 2 mechanical HDDs in the M18x R1 is sometimes apparent in the left side of the palm rest. From the last teleconference with Alienware (M17x R3 Throttling) we know that "skin temps" is a critical spec for Dell and they will not compromise that spec in the name of performance.

 

Hi again guys.

From what I have noticed, I have a feeling is the hdd caddy which is modified. I am sure if you get it with the cable you may be able to use it in the R1 as well. Not to long ago I had the R1 with me and the space inside it looks about the same. It is a bit tide on top (it will be a bit difficult to screw it in) and when you push the cover there is a bit of disconfort. However, it does work. You guys are very smart and I am sure you will figure it out.

When I will swap the CPU, I will take pictures of:

1. the area
2. the caddy
3. the cable

So that it will help you guys (If there is some part number mentioned on it, I will make sure the picture takes that as well though you guys already have the part number).

If there is anything else, please do not hesitate to ask me (Especially that I am opening the system). I will try to take as many pictures as possible, save them in a zip file and upload the link over here.

Regards

I've attached this earlier, I do not know why it did not show up.

GPU-Z screenshot + benchmark 700/1500

"Question: does the interposer combine all three drives into one cable connection? Is there still one SATA header on the motherboard, or two? I find myself wondering if the new interposer and HDD caddy will work with the M18x R1. It would be cool if M18x R1 owners could buy the caddy and interposer and upgrade their setup to the same as the R2 (minus the mSATA, of course)."

Yes, the interposer combines all three drives into one cable connection. Also there is only one header on the motherboard. I doubt there may be a bios mod required for this. Pictures will come up today. I just wanted to know if you guys need any other pictures before I open and close everything back.

Thank you Speedy for the rep. I had the R1 with the Sandisk Extreme 6GB/s (for the operating system) and now is on the mSATA. Truly, no difference in performance / speed. Worth getting the mSATA drive at any time.

 

been a while since in been here. had to catch up a bit....

 

We missed you, man. Where you been hiding, Brother John?

GOOD NEWS!

I just discovered that RST v11 is out for desktop boards. I just installed this on the M18x and it seems to be fine. This was only minutes ago, so I am going to see if RAID0 TRIM support works.

File name: STOR_Win7_XP_11.1.0.1006.exe

EDIT: looking good...

 

thanks brother fox! been a bit busy with the desktop stuff. trying to get my benching numbers up some.

what command did you run?

edit:

 

Wow - great find Mr. Fox!

Did you install over the top of your old RST Drivers or did you uninstall the old ones first? - about time we got some TRIM action for raided SSD's!!!!!!

 

how do you invoke that on raid...im in raid now, but not sure what to do next...

 

You mean check that TRIM is active?

1. Using the Start Menu Search Box, Search CMD;

2. Right click the Cmd Program and select Run as Administrator;

3. In the command line type “fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify” (without quotes, obviously)

If DisableDeleteNotify=0 TRIM is Enabled.
If DisableDeleteNotify=1 TRIM is Disabled.

If this version of RST has TRIM for SSD's, you should get back a "0" like Brother Fox's screenie....don't think there is anything else needed as it should be automatically enabled.

 

In the screen capture you posted, I executed a query, then a command, then the same query again.

Yes, installed it right over the top of the old.

You can invoke the command to enable TRIM by typing fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0 from an administrator command prompt.

From what I can tell, based on the query returning a zero, Windows is definitely passing TRIM commands to the system. What I cannot determine is whether or not the RAID0 array is actually performing TRIM. I'm not sure how to test that to know for certain. For example, my HDD obviously is not (and cannot) use TRIM even though Windows is allowing it.

I am looking on the web for a utility that can tell me if a RAID0 array is performing TRIM not that this new version is installed.

 

mine returned 0 as well...

hummmm.... this is interesting or i never checked before...

 

Not sure if this helps with actually checking TRIM function but quoted from this Microsoft article:

 

hummm, that didn't work on my raid

 

I was thinking of using somethin like that to see - I was initially thinking of CrystalDiskInfo but it doesnt support raided SSD's.....good to see that you have a check in the box for TRIM....I'm thinking that the fact its checked is sufficient that the command is gettin executed, right? - I mean the fsutil command shows that TRIM is being passed to the drives and your screenie shows that TRIM is supported on your RAID.....job done? - I hope so!!

 

yeah me too.

 

Just to add to the fun......

If I remember correctly, RST 11.5 was supposed to provide TRIM for raided SSD's. There is a beta version of it on Station Drivers (versus the Alpha that seemed to be listed forever) if you guys want to give it a shot also. I installed it yesterday, and so far so good.

intel drivers pour Raid/Sata/Ata/Ahci

 

how can you tell they are working though?

 

Are any of you guys with R1's upgrading? or going to wait for m18xR3

 

I think your HD Tune Pro software shows it is working on your system. HD Tune Pro shows no information whatsoever on my SSD array. Not sure why that is. Neither does the Intel Toolbox. Very strange.

I am not planning to upgrade to the R2. It has a few extra features that I really like a lot, but nothing that I see that would justify spending over $4,500 for an M18x equal or better than what I have right now. I may upgrade the GPUs at some point this year.

 

Really wondering if the three drive caddy will work in a R1. In the Intel Raid manager you can see a spare connection.

 

Yes, I wonder the same thing. That would be a nice thing if it would work. The mSATA is sort of a "meh" thing to me, but I would like being able to put all three of my drives in one caddy and put the BD-RE drive back into the chassis.

I still have like 16 months of warranty left on my M18x. So far, knock wood, this has been an awesome machine. When the warranty runs out will be near perfect timing for my next Alienware laptop purchase. The GTX 580M has been so trouble free and this M18x performs so well that I just don't feel any sense of urgency to change anything just yet.

That version did not do so well for me, Keith. I reinstalled the 11.1.0.1006 desktop version. Testing the 11.5 beta from the French web site I got a BSOD twice that referred to iastor.sys and the funny thing is my RAID array and HDD showed up as being "removable" hardware in the Safely Eject Hardware system tray app, LOL.

The good thing about the desktop version working fine with the M18x and the 11.5 beta that you linked us to is that all indications are we should be seeing this released by Intel soon, as previously rumored.

 

not upgrading just yet. but would surely consider upgrading gpus though.

brother fox, which version are you using?

 

HD Tune Pro 5.0 trial version. As you can see, my HDD info is there, but on the SSD RAID0 array... nada.



I find myself wondering if I need to do another OS install. Not sure what the blank line above the C: drive is with 2MB alignment. Never saw that before and it is not a partition that I can see in Windows Disk Management Utility. System restore keeps disabling itself, too. When I go to turn it back on again, there is a second C: drive labeled "Missing" and I have to delete it to re-enable System Restore. After a few days it is disabled again and the mysterious extra C: drive labeled missing reappears. This has been going on ever since I installed these Agility 3 SSD drives in RAID0. The read/write speed is a little lower than I expected, too. Not terrible, mind you, just not as good as I think they should be.

 

wonder if that version works for this...because i tried 5.0 and it doesnt work either

 

Well, it's odd that HD Tune 4.6 works and 5.0 does not. At least I don't feel so bad now, knowing that 5.0 also does not work for you.

With respect to the issue with System Restore and the extra C: drive, I found this fix, but I am not sure why the problem keeps returning.

I may try running sfc /scannow and see if that helps.

 

Thanks for the heads up. While a system image restore is only a click away for me, better to be safe than sorry. Lol.

 

Well, that was a waste of time on my part. SFC found nothing wrong, and HD Tune 4.6 Pro didn't identify my SSD array same as v5.0.



The forum sure has been buggy for the past week or two. I am constantly having issues with access timeouts and haven't been able to upload any thumbnails for a good while now. Are you guys seeing these upload errors, too?

 

your alignment is way different than mine.