*Official* Alienware M18xR1/R2 CPU Overclocking Thread - Learn How and Share Tips Here

Nice runs now if you improve cooling you can run at just about 4.6ghz and may need from the 10flex you mentioned to 14flex as another member stated for 4.6ghz but eventually you may not have enough amps to go higher while on the stock bios.

 

Yeah, definitely a cooling issue now. Added a Bclk run @ 103 which improved 1024 a smidge, and improved Cinebench.

 

I'm still @Flex 0 and stock BCLK. Will push further when we get the new HS

 

what new heatsink? do dell sell upgraded heatsinks?

 

lol, you do understand I beat your scores by LOWERING flex and keeping bclk @ stock, right (Pic #2)? The third pic is just with Bclk which jacked my Cinebench/overall scores up even more, but the best run was @ a lower flex.

Of course using a modded headsink null and voids the comparisons (um, unless you wan to send me one....you know, to keep things, 'fair'. )

I can definitely see using the modded bios to really kick single and dual threaded performance up, as with bclk increased, I was holding 4.6ghz+ no problem.

 

No Dell doesn't sell anything like that, but we are working on some modifications

There's no comparison to begin with. I've tested 2 2920's in the same system and under the same conditions and got 3.7Ghz max on all cores. The only 2960 I have at my disposal managed to hold 4-3.9Ghz under the same conditions. In addition, I've seen a few posts from other 2920's owners here (with no experience in benching, same as me) claiming 3.7Ghz max stable 4 core speed. I've also seen someone who managed to get 4.6Ghz on all cores with a 2920 at stock BIOS. So what can we say based on that?

Now, your tests have improved since you started pushing it as did mine when I managed to bump the 4core speed to 4.1Ghz, but I had to reduce the room temp to 74-75f and this already voids my benches since all my previous tests were done @ 77-80f. Of course I could engage into benching campaign just for fun and use the "it's the result/score what matters, not how it was achieved" motto. But no, with all fairness, my chip can only do 39-40-45-45. To get higher, I have to start tweaking, lowering the room temp, using a cooler pad, AC, DICE, tweaking the OS, u name it.


As for the HS, there's nothing to send yet and even when it's ready, it will be tested in our lab vs a dozen dual and single piped HS's under exact same conditions on several machines before we decide if it's worth the trouble. If we manage to get an extra 0.3-0.5ghz stable bump and keep the temp under 85C at all times, it will get a green light.

on a side note, you still need to beat my 32m run and even your BCLK OC' didn't do the trick from what I see

 

you guys are funny...we beat the both of you on stock bios and no mods...lol and my room is about 100F at any given time.

 

You are in a different realm.

 

haha

actually just sitting here watching who is going to top who.
seems to be a neck and neck situation going on here...

 

lol, yeah it's all for fun. Aiki cracks me up and always offers awesome outside the box mods that are fun to follow. He knows he's a beaten man.

It would be no different if he were local. We'd just have both systems in my, "warzone," and arguing over beers and shots.

 

And yeah, Johnksss and co take it to another level. My objective is always 24/7 day to day optimal OC's. You guys take it to the, "hehe, hope this doesn't blow up..." level.

 

the minute you move your laptop some where else...those 24/7 over clocks go out the window...lol

 

True. As much as I'd love to claim my clocks are stable 24/7... there's no miracle.

 

This is fun lol ha ha ... anyway they dont go out the window if you start with worst case temps first and base the entire 24/7 on that... which I will do after i've seen this thing going to blow up lol ha ha you guys are funny... but our testing shows many new infos about chip capability and is quite ground breaking the easy part is the 24/7... run best stress tests with stock fan control no rear elevation on a desk best of wood or a materiel that doesn't cool good so no glass or metal surface and check you 1thread speeds and temps up all the way to 8threads... while in a extra warm environment to simulate the hottest of summer days and also the worst case ventilation scenarios... Aiki from my work I know we can set outrageous short limits and turbo boost to light speed lol and just drop back within stable ranges with the short limit. Those who are avoiding the unlocked bios are not losing out completely but lets just say if I bought a supercar I want the manual 6 speeds transmission not the Automatic I can pull a 4.8 8thread peak under short limit and drop back to 4.5 he he just needs enough amps and a small bump in watts... if its an ultra light load 8thread (under the levels wprime 32m does) I can peak at 5ghz as long as the time limit is set lower than the default of like 28secs... that means if I set long limit low enough I could call my clocks 24/7 stable lol. Thats all it takes guys we can set a time liimit and how much watts short term and long term... use it guys Intel didn't add the feature to ignore its adaptability... its for automatic load/temp based overclocking so I make sure to use it to its best potential. I'm not going to work on my 24/7 just yet anyway I'm still finding its limits... they have not been found yet... there's bound to be more that step up with new findings... just to clarify i'm not saying 4.5-4.65 is 24/7 capable in 8thread... but all it takes is some testing to find out the most you can handle on your given cooling.

 

Now, could the unlocked bios help in some way when I'm already hitting the temp ceiling with the stock one?

 

Unless you can go sub flex (undervolt), I can't see it helping with temps. For me, I can see the advantage of the unlocked BIOS being single and dual threaded programs, since I can push Bclk to 103 and still run 4.6 rock solid, but the system suffers instabilities elsewhere at 103+ bclk (confirmed by setting CPU to level 1 and still suffering data integrity issues/errors). I would use it just to set single and dual to ~50 and seeing where it caps.

4-8 threads suffer the heat issues and still won't hit 45, but peak at 4-4.3ghz for 4 threads and 3.7-4.0 for 8.

This is for everyday use.

 

means your bclk is unstable...not the multiplier over clock. you need to drop that bclk. drop everything..including the level 1 2 or 3 over clock. and start from scratch.

meaning..all your doing is unlocking the over clocking section only.
set ram to 1333 regardless of it being 1600/1866 or 2133.

then the only thing you move is the multiplier nothing else.
start at 37x across the board.

run wprime 155 1024 / turbo stop, but have it set to off..your only monitoring...not changing.
and see what happens. if it holds...you go up to the next and so on till it drops. the reason why some can't hold higher for longer is because you have to raise the amps. amps are far more important than turbo flex voltage. that is like an offset of sorts. you need about 103 to 107. if you can keep temps in line...then you should be able to move up a few more notches and gain far better scores. right now...as much as i would like to say your running efficiently...your not. your stressing more by trying to max a situation that really isn't needed. some chips fair but most don't. they give pitifully looking results, basically defeating the whole purpose

for all sakes and purposes...you can set 45 across the board and leave it...if the conditions are right...it will run faster that day...if they are not...it wont.

and im pretty sure none of those over clocks will pass prime 95 over no long periods of time. it will drop to like 32 or maybe even 25.

but hey...that's just me rambling on...carry on.

 

That's what I did earlier. I set the CPU back to stock settings and lowered the memory settings to give it ample room to compensate for the bclk overclock to rule it out to verify bclk stability (Basically same approach I used years ago with i7-920 OC'ing) which showed above ~103 data integrity is compromised on one of the subsystems not the CPU or memory.

So the only way to eeek more single and dual clock is to use the modded BIOS to push the multi past 45 and I'd actually prefer that versus the minor bump to bclk. 4-8 thread suffers from heat issues even with lower flex (VID) and I won't be seeing 4.5ghz across all 8 threads without heating the house up, so the modded bios really won't help for day to day use, but only for benchmarking and single and dual threaded uses.

 

kind of why you can't claim i7-2920xm @ 4.5 ghz. it has to run that on all cores and not just 1 or 2.

you best bet is to run the unlocked menu bios and only raise the primary plane by maybe 3 amps. that wont cause you to jump any higher in heat than you are now. but it should give you just enough to get where you want to go.

sorry, but there is no way around it. you dont have enough amps in play to run higher. or even changing the temp threshold will give you better numbers.

with these simple little things....dont see you numbers getting better in the long run.

but i will test it out when i get my machine and see what is what. stock bios and 100F room temp test.

 

Thanks for the tips John. Now from the pic you can see that my cooling can't hold it @ 4.5ghz on a 1024 run, it dropped to 3.8 around 50%. Still, no flex, no BCLK, no dice, just the elevated back and maxed fans. And, I already can see a huge need of that improved HS, it's is still in the prototyping stage but hopefully by the end of October we'll have a few test samples.

 

now these numbers look far more closer to right.

also. if i we're you...i would do the gpu heat sinks as well...the only thing you have to do is make it completely copper. no need to change design. you'll make money off that as well..i know i would buy two right away!!


side note:
i was looking at that triple heat pipe heat sink and it looks to have about the same mass as the dual heat pipe setup...but that is just a speculation guess. with out being able to weigh them both out....no definite answer there.

 

Yes, if we succeed with the CPU HS, the rest will be easy. Sure, they will be copper. Now, you said something about amps, what's the min value required to keep it @4.5ghz, I know many said something about 900. What does this value represent?

 

start reading from here... i hope it's in the right place.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...8x-2920xm-cpu-overclocking-discussion-15.html

 

There's nothing about amps in that section, in fact, that's where I started testing the ES. All I wanna know is how not to play it safe with the amps.

 

ummm..that whole section is about amps...lol
primary plane
800
900
that's all amp talk...lol

i can't tell you exactly because im not on a m18x machine at the moment.
in there sam gives the the formula on how to tell what number primary plane corresponds too.

so 800 is about 107 amps or so.

i think it's something like 7.6 divided by the plane (800) gives you what amps it is.

 

Amps = value/8

So, 1040 set in bios for primary plane = 1040/8 = 130a.

 

Awesome, thanks.
Interesting, I'm able to keep 4.5Ghz (till the heat builds up) with Long 75 and Short 95...

 

well good...means your getting closer to the number in your sig!.

 

Lol, you are evil! It does run at 4.5 across the board...... for 1 min...

 

not sure if that's a good thing or not..

 

Make sure if you guys are touching the BCLK even in BIOS you are using this fix - http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu.../568525-setfsb-game-timing-problem-g60jx.html

Otherwise you will experience stutter in most games.

 

no one is using setfsb here...

 

hence why I emphasized "even in BIOS" please understand what I am saying. It does help anytime you touch the BCLK regardless of how, this has been tested. This fix will not help with when solely touching multipliers but will help in timing dependent apps such as almost all games when touching BCLK.

 

sorry, but i have yet to even hear one person mention this with an m18x. do you have links for this? meaning m18x users or even m17xr3 users. thanks.

 

Refering to the lock baseclock command you guys are talking about*

I've tested with it on and off and utilizing Unclewebb's Wintimer app I have stabilization of the number to 1 in wintimer... You want 1 with this fix enabled but I noticed then I see varied numbers in throttle stop and cpuz etc for baseclock. I noticed no more stability in cpu related benches... and one game with this enabled so its your call but I recall Unclewebb stating you didn't need this for SandyBridge.
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Aikimox your actually in the right direction like John said and also if you do these same things on your 2920's you should see similar results as much as knowing no chip will handle exactly the same but if they handle within 3%+/- with the same settings and conditions you were in for those runs then the 2960 is the 2920 at overclock ranges 8thread speaking atleast
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Aikimox if you take what you are doing now hone it in and account for hot days etc.. You and anyone else would like and benefit from the unlocked bios and editing the bios and flashing method for these reasons so could be more I forget to mention but each will help systems and can't be done on stock bios... while still being useful for any overclock because the features help with even 24/7 overclock settings... So with it you can enable c7 core state and adjust autodemotion and disable core states, enable or disable hyperthreading, change how many cores are on for the system at boot, enable disable lpm on hard drives, use watt adjustments in windows with throttle stop by using disable MSR lock, using over 80 watts in long watt limit (can set to 99 in bios or if using the Mar lock off its readjustable one in windows), you can set amperage which will help ignore limits to allow you max turbo multipliers to be maintained longer, the Throttle temp you hit of 85 can be set over that... I hear up to 95-100c is good but I have set it to 120c... Which comes to the fact with this bios and editing bios you can set the temp the system shuts off... Stock is 100c I have set 120c which is unlocked bios limit and throttle temp unlocked bios menu limitation is 90C so if we edit and reflash bios I've set it as high as the 120c I mentioned others like speedy use 95-98 throttle temp, the 100+shutdown temp is not highly accurate and will trip easy when its temps that are critical are related to 8thread loads and not nearly as sensitive on the opposite of the spectrum single thread as related to 100+c shutdown temps as it uses a different sensor method for 100+ temp reading inside the chip, flex or voltage can instead of 25 flex be set as high as 99flex, you can adjust passive cooling throttle formula this is what chip uses to determine speed drops when passive cooling is set for may battery use if you use it... If its set to active cooling in windows it isn't using passive cooling methods (dropping cpu speed instead of raising fan speed)(high performance power plan defaults at active cooling), 46-51 multipliers are available too (51x will limit you to low baseclock I needed under stock baseclock so 50x is more accessible than 51x)(high speeds will need more voltage in an exponential type of growth is... Adding more and more MHz will require more flex to keep stable creating more heat than there already is and lowering the average quad core operating speeds you can get)
Might be more but I can't think of any right now
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Aikimox use long limit to be your 24/7 wattage to keep temps in check and utilize short limit plus the time limit being adjustable to set a peak for short periods of time before dropping to 24/7 clocks set in long limit... You can use 56 seconds max in stock bios and 128 seconds can be edited and flashed as a max in seconds of short time limit... If you set a lot of time you will need to set lower speeds to be peaked for that amount of time before dropping and vice versa if the time limit is lower you can set even higher peaks because it will drop speed to your 24/7 clocks faster but for everyday use you would see faster handling on short loads on the cpu. If you keep time, short watt, long watt just high/low enough it will allow more use of turbo boost and you can limit it enough to keep the temps where you as an individual feel comfortable on your system.

 

now that's what i thought i heard.

 

Yea everything is fine if your wintimer is 1, but those who are touching the BCLK should check their wintimer to be sure.

 

Yeah, I think I'm going to have to step up to the modded BIOS too. Just too much goodness in there to ignore. I'll follow Johnksss links/tips and see what pans out. (AKA fun times incoming)

Seriously interested in the modded heatsink too. Sounds like good stuff Aiki.

 

yeah, the new heat sink sounds promising...still trying to grab this elusive 3 pipe heat sink form dell...

 

Aiki said the thinner pipes were recommended by engineer so sounds cool and I'm sure many will buy them...

 

there's a 3pipe from Dell? Is it bigger than the 4quad pipe? I think engineer told Aiki the smaller pipes but having more pipes will be best

 

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Sent with some review units, but production level units had the dual pipe we've all grown to know and love.

 

Wow that's awesome me want ha ha... so how different Aikimox will that 3 pipe look and be from the quad pipe?

 

Hi this is my first gaming rig so I don't want to really screw up.
IF anyone can give me their EXACT Bios settings in detail that what be great. I've never done overclocking before on a CPU (or anything in fact), so looking at various peoples setting would give me some good insight.

Any help would be great, thanks

HERE are my m18x specs.

 

See John thats how I see it... if I am claiming 24/7 overclock I test in INtel Burn and Prime 95 and in Prime its for hours. Now Short limit can be failry high but no matter what if you want a fully stable system test in those two apps and set the long limit to a low enough value you don't overheat in the 8thread load of those apps. So its real funny people claim anything long term in the 4ghz range... its not gonna happen and its just funny... not reffering to apps that dont push as hard so sure you can see higher ghz in like wprime etc. and even higher while the cpu is in its short limit... but one day the system could crash if your not basing your most long term settings on Prime95 and Intel Burn.. and thats why John said that and I agree and have always do it that way. With average cooling of these systems I have found 3.2ghz - 3.6ghz the most one might get on long term limits if tested in prime95 or Intel Burn and if its in Intel Burn unless you set 8thread Very High Stress (uses 4096mb of your ram) then you really arent testing anything because those settings will really show you how much your cpu will slow down under a reall 100% 8thread load... 3.2-3.4ghz is actually a good range. No one can compare short watts and long watts on a system to one another unless the amps are the same... every 1 amp raise will dramatically change what your operating speeds will be at the same given watts.
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Aikimox not one person got the unlocked bios to help with temps... there's nothing other than turning off hyperthreading or setting less than 4 active processors at boot in the unlocked bios that would help with that. I have listed the reasons to get the unlocked bios for anyone even if on non-xm or not planning to overclock any higher than you already have... I wont list again but example is C7 core states to save power and keep the chip cooler in a time of being idle. There are sooo many options in the unlocked bios that every person out there could benefit from something.. I think John was trying to say the same thing. Unlocked bios doesn't equal higher overclock... the user setting specific settings does and also cooling is up to everyone to improve themselves. Unless your worried about warranty there no reason for anyone to not get the unlocked bios. If just flashing the unlocked bios file I have never had a bad flash.... stay plugged in and there is no risk... we can always flash the original bios back...

 

Just read through this thread from beggining

also this one http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/605380-m18x-a03-bios-modification-infos.html

and this one http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...iental-has-been-unlocked-modded-a03-bios.html

 

What if I bump the Priplane but lower the Long and Short PWR and set Flex to 0? Thus, I can get slightly lower temps and yet keep the CPU running at higher clocks Like I said before, my goal is not to hit the roof but to get the highest stable 24/7 clocks at optimal temps. Right now it's 40-40-45-45. If I go 45-45-45-45 the temps rise to 90C and throttling kicks in

 

best to just play with primary plane and no flex...but only move it little by little.
then you can use flex to fine tune.

 

Exactly. Like John said go in single digits and test. I used 41/42/43/44 @ 0 flex on the locked bios for months and it ran very cool... 99 watts long 80 short stock amps 101.4 baseclock giving about 4.15ghz quad - 4.45ghz single... it stayed cool or you could just bump your overclock you have now to 41/42/45/45 and lower your watts and if you get the unlocked bios raise the primary plane and lower the watts as needed bumping the primary plane up only if you need more to maintain your clocks. Wprime 8thread load is less than prime95 or Intel Burn 8Thread.. so being safe by a thread is okay in those if you ran the test for quite awhile since in your everyday activities you wouldn't see that kind of heat or load on your cpu..

 

yep. just jump on in aiki....