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

that pot you see on one of my benches..started out as an nda..well..actually....they all did...

 

That pot looks scary, lol.

 

it was an all in one prototype...

allowing one to run either water/dry ice or ln2. without having to take the board apart to do it.

 

I believe what you are talking about is true if the following is atleast this was my take on it for the few months i've been tinkering... I hit 1.5v and it can't go beyond that in monitoring software except in hwinfo... it wont report beyond 1.52 but it will report how much overclock voltage you have added and I've posted 99flex is equal to +0.387~ volts and 1 flex is equal to about ~+0.0038 volts. 25flex is + .098volts. The extra volts helped in that super pi I posted... whats your latest super-pi John?






it will show the 1.5v as early as the 30's in flex... I think no software can report over 1.52V on a 2920/60XM or the sensor reporting it from the cpu isnt meant to read over 1.5v... but upto the 99flex does add the volts and hwinfo reports the +turbo over voltage as shown in those screenshots. in overclocking values unseen over 1.5v has helped when voltage was an issue for me in an overclock.

 

7.5 in superpi. havent messed with that very seriously yet, since this chip wont do 5 ghz.

but what it will do is:
benchable at 4833 mhz solid.
32.3k vantage
10.9k physics 3dmark11
9.2k 3dmark06
5.141 wprime 32 and 159.7 1024


i really need to get around to going higher than it's proposed max..just to see if it can.

 

Very nice John did a repaste on my cpu and a pressure test on my cpu die and it was uneven so it warranted a repaste.. I had to use more ICD 24 than is normally recommended since about 25% of the heatsink and die are flush. My temps improved some and I should be able to do a 4.8 1024m at room temps. Still no ac but I'll be all the more ready when I do have it. On the 32m I am trying to work back up since my 4.9 I posted was correctly deemed by you as nit running that speed constant... So far for 32m I am 4.88 stable so far... Shotting for 4.9 something and a hope to get to about 5.1 secs on 32m. Since the repaste I can reach higher speeds for longer. John I am surprised you haven't had that chip over 5ghz yet... Your ES did that with ease right? I think with my repaste I can inch up a few MHz in superpi... Maybe attempt a 5.09ghz run... 3Dmark 11 physics for me was so far 10200 almost.. And about 30,700 in vantage cpu... I haven't pushed them more yet but plan to. Congrats on those scores thus far... id love to try out the 580m's in Sli... Beastly and can overvolt...

 

yes, these are some fun cards..just like the 6990M's we're some fun cards to bench.

and this is why i say what i say...
[email protected] ghz

 

Hey John. I dont think you know of my issues... On stock paste I got okay temps... 4Months ago I pasted with ICD24... But it was my first time and I think it was getting worse temps now... Because of my fault... I didn't do a good paste job the first time.

WP_000209-1.jpg picture by marcwwaters86 - Photobucket

That's a pic of the pressure test on my cpu and you can see there is plenty of space the paste needs to take up...

I know no one needs to repaste to get better temps. My temps at same settings did improve so I know for me I needed to fix my bad paste job... I hadn't had much experience in it till this year. The repaste was worth it for me as temps are better than last time and better than stock paste... I just meant the first time around I used way too little of a pea sized amount of paste the first time around.

Yes I won't be doing anything ground breaking without staying cool.

Yes John I was trying to say the same thing you just repeated... My runs in 4.9 for 32m were not running right... I am working on the same ranges as you right now is all I was attempting to say.

I know you said its a 48x chip and I mean to say with more tinkering you may see more than that... Seems there's more power in your 2960 to still be tapped into.

you quoted me on 4.9 GHz and I said it wasn't running the 4.9ghz I said its like you said... I was agreeing and pointing out how your point was confirmed silly.

It wasn't a gob of paste lol like I made it seem just more than I thought I would need. I already know when it comes to paste to little is not enough, too much will raise temps just like not enough... So you have to get it right in between and since manufacturer methods are not perfect... Heatsinks and cpu dies can be slightly uneven so we need the paste to transfer heat from those gaps... Paste shouldn't gob over edges of die... If it does its way too much.

Hopefully you see my situation was not the norm for most people. Very nice run at 4.87... 5.076 secs is amazing... Btw the score will be higher or lower than that at same frequency depending on baseclock and ram speeds derived etc... But yes 5secs even should be 4.9ghz based on your findings... Very cool you got the most extreme scores i have seen and nice beating the Clevo. I'll let ya know where i get...

For those who don't know the more red in that pic the more pressure there was in those spots...

At room temps recent before this last repaste I tested a run on wprime 1024 at 4.5ghz solid... And was over heating by the end... Now at room temps same thing survives at a lower temp and have about 100 or more MHz available in new headroom thermally. So I'm sure on cooler air I'll be able to withstand temps a little longer...

 

thanks.
just check your heat sink how i explained up top.


again, this is benching. use what you have at your disposal before you cause more damage than you care to admit.
this is very serious advice!!

 

Okay cool. I see binning is a real issue even in mobile for that I am happy I have the chip that I have... It seems very flexible. Thanks I'll go up from 4.6ghz... Very true about the heatsink... I would need to tighten down the one side more that shows less contact in that pic but they are all as at their lowest and if I raise the tight side to get a better angle... It won't be tight enough on that end anymore. The side with less contact is the one closest to the heatsink fins... So if laptop is open facing you normally its the top right side of chip so it may have to do with how the heatsink lays down and its pipes coming off the side do you know what I am trying to describe? It seems if that fin and pipe section is skewed in a downward direction it could cause that direction to rise on the chip section of the heatsink. I dont know what the issue was... But the surfaces of the chip and heatsink can do with it. I'll have to see its best position while adjusting it open and on prime.

 

looking at what you wrote....you only need to add a spacer (just like the 4 plastic ones you see i your picture)or two to get the desired results your looking for...

 

1. go to store
2. purchase tape, wet/dry sandpaper, beer
3. tape sandpaper to glass table
4. drink beer
5. lap cpu, stopping several times for beer breaks
6. wake up in a pool of your own vomit only to realize that in your drunken stupor, you managed to get a perfectly flat mirror-finish on that cpu somehow

 

Lmfao drunken lapping sounds dirty lol. Great ideas guys...

 

My warranty expires on Sunday

I have some stuff leftover from lapping my old Q6600 and Q9550 back in the day. I might just lap the 2960 and post some before/after results.

 

Nice... Go for it would be interesting to see it on the new chip.

 

your a better man than me nick!...all my years over clocking and still have not lapped a cpu or gpu yet. ill leave that to you lapping champs!

side note:
the 2960 just came out...you dint buy a warranty with it?? or the 2920xm warranty is whats running out...which carried over to 2960xm??

 

My warranty for the entire laptop expires on Oct 23. I purchased my original laptop back in '09 and I just can't afford to extend the warranty again at this time. I'm unaware of any other parts being under warranty after the 2 year warranty that I purchased expires.

 

wasnt even taking into account your other laptop. i forgot about that one.

 

Sorry for the noob question but it says that my 2080XM goes to "turbo mode" at 3.5GHZ. Is that a stock feature or just factory clocked?

 

2080xm? what is that?

 

sorry meant to say 2920XM

 

yes, that's built in the chip.

 

Ah ok which means there's room for some overclocking.

I've pasted on IC7 on both the CPU/GPU, and will have the CM STORM laptop cooler placed underneath. Idle temps without the storm is around 34-41, degrees, sound won't bother me since i'm using QPAD 1339 headphones so I guess I can use 3/4 - full RPM on the cooler, bringing it down a few degrees more.

The question I have is are there any good softare I can use to change to x/y/z + voltage settings on the CPU? (+ if it's easy to use).

I can't seem to find any CPU settings in the BIOS.

Using Clevo P170HMx

 

I have a 2760qm, is it worth getting a 2920xm ES or should I wait?

 

you may need to look in the clevo section for this answer..because i have no clue..

it would have been better going from a 2630 to a 2920xm es, but in your case...it's still worth it. you have pretty much total control over the cpu. you do not have the same option now. and over clocking the bclk can show signs of improvement on the 2760 as well...

and what would you be waiting on?

 

2960xm price to come down or es

 

that i dont have an answer to...because...well....i didn't wait. i got a base config and slapped in all my parts when it got here.

 

I have the 2760 right now should I pull the trigger on a 2920xm ES for $300? Is that a good deal?

 

ronk ... I upgraded from a 2630 to a 2920es ... have seen a nice increase in performance in some games ... honestly I like the upgrade over all.

I was one of the biggest advocates that you didn't need any more than the 2630 ... for quite some time.


But i have noticed some serious gains in performance from the 2920 ... not saying its world changing ... but in BF3, SC2, Civ 5 ... they are certainly there ... 300 future proofs for quite a while I would suggest ... but ... maybe you don't need it now and can wait for Ivy ? ... your call. 300 isn't much

If it comes with the dual pipe HS and copper radiator .. I would go for it though

 

OK, you twisted my arm I just bought it!

 

his wont come with a copper heat sink. it will be just the cpu.....unless he gets the whole setup from a forum member...

 

Ordered it from dell

 

cool!
because if you thought it was coming with your cpu from ebay..that would have been all bad..

 

sorry if this has been asked before, but i tried searching w/ no luck.....

but what and how are the 2 versions of 2960xm offered thru alienware's website different other than what is stated on their website (3.7ghz vs 4.0ghz, etc.)?

is it more hardware or software?
or more of one being locked and other unlocked?
etc?

thanks.

 

Same hardware just bios setting. No need to buy the overclocked version, it's easy to do yourself.

 

I'm A bit confused about the overclocked 2960xm from the factory. Does It have anything special? I mean like extra cooling tubes or fans? I gathered from the 69 pages that I can OC in the bios, but anything else special about the OC version from the factory?

 

nope......

 

It's actually worse than that. As you probably noticed from many other posts in this thread, the factory overclock is often not applied (as was the case with my own). Sadly, it's easier to flip on the level 3 overclock (which, as I understand it, is all that Dell does) than it is to fight with them about the fact that this wasn't done at the factory.

 

Thanks for clearing it up.

I'm beginning to get tired of being taken advantage of. Can you say Theft by Taking? Time for the wife to write a letter. O I forgot, they can always send a tech out that has never see an Alienware before. Gees I give up.

 

I know that if i had paid whatever it is to have it factory OC'd (like $70usd right?) I would be mad that it wasnt done. In the same breath, it was very underhand of Dell IMHO to charge for this when its so easy to go into bios and select level 3. The words "rip" and "off" spring to mind.....

 

Hello jonksss,
I ordered a laptop with i7-2960XM. I need to proceed to quick financial calculations.
You succeeded to overclocked yr i7-2960XM @4.833 GHz. Congratulations.
ORIGIN PC propose to customers already pre-overclocked i7-2960XM computer @4.1-4.8 GHz http://originpc.com/shop/pc/configurePrd.asp?idproduct=650
The normal setting being 2.7GHz-3.7GHz, that mean you pushed the turbo boost from 3.7 GHz to 4.833 GHz ?
Where did you get information to overclock it ?
Have you done long and intensive work with it, was it very stable and without heat excess ? Did you add any extra cooling ?
Any special care ?
thks for yr comments

 

My two questions:

What is the minimal voltage of the 2960xm (idle)?

What thermal compound (paste) is recommended for overclocking a 2960xm?

 

Nope, this OC' level is not good for long and intensive work, only for benching with extra cooling required. If you just set it to 4.8ghz it will perform worse than @ stock clocks, overheat and constantly throttle down.

Any good paste will do as long as it's applied properly.

 

Thany you for your answer. To my expierience there are significant differences of n degrees Celsius between a "good" paste (e.g. AS5) and those newer liquid metal based compounds.

Those have about 800% better thermal conductivity with copper heatsinks.

What good paste are you using exactly to overclock?

 

I'm using ICD-24 but tried AS5/MX3/4/TX-4/OCZ Freeze. There's no big difference between those with the ICD giving about 1-2c edge at max load. Haven't tried liquid metals yet. Regardless, you won't see a 10C difference in real life cuz there are many other bottlenecks in the stock HS....

 

Thank you again for your answer. ICD-24 looks like a very good paste too.




http://www.coollaboratory.com/en/news/

 

aiki summed things up pretty well.
and they are lying to you. they can not configure a factory machine with factory bios to run 4.8 ghz on all 8 threads. they can't even get past 45x.

 

Hey guys, I was wondering if it would be worth it for me to upgrade to the 2920XM ES from the 2720 for ~$300, ignoring the cost of a new heatsink assembly. Or would it be more worth it to wait for a 2960XM ES, or even possibly ivy bridge, if it turns out to be compatible? Is there any news on a 2960XM ES? I mainly play SC2, and from what I have read there would be significant fps gains. Thank you!

 

Its not compatible with ivy bridge the motherboard is the issue there. John is right the origin PC is 4.1 quad to 4.8 single thread. John and I really have had 4.8 - 4.9 quad in 8thread load. It takes extreme cooling and the unlocked bios to raise the amp and watt max limit... Since standard setting on any mfg comp will never get you to those ranges. If anyone wants extreme they need to use unlocked bios... Stock bios limit is 80 watts after 56seconds max @ a 97amp max... Its not capable of high speed over 8threads... You could set speed as high as it can go and its just going to drop after 56seconds. 4.8 Like John is possible with enhanced cooling it's up to you guys to set it to be within safe temps... Using watts and amps just right you can program chip to drop when you know it would start to get too hot. Hwinfo helps control fans which helps by setting aggressive fan speeds.

Btw the ES is well worth its cost. Price per performance is cheaper than the oem's.

 

sorry being so lazy but im getting my 2920xm 16gb 1600mhz 6970m x2 m18x this weekend, can somebody link me the correct page of a fine everyday use oc for this laptop? there so many pages stock paste