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

yes, the one they have in the bios already set up. level 3.

 

Dang man... you people have money...

 

Guys I have a major problem. Please help! I wanna overclock my 2960xm into level 3, so I can use the higher clock. Every time I have to use my 6990m CF I use the Load Optimal Bios settings so that the Right Card's Fan turns on. And that has been cool.

But now, I obviously have to change my OC to Lvl 3 but then I can't load optimal settings because it resets the PC! and when I apply the OC Lvl 3 it shuts down my pc so it can star as lvl 3.

My question is: Ok, for emulation i only use my left gpu, I dont need both! I know that but: What happens when I sacrifice not loading optimal settings for the Lvl3 OC? Will my right 6990m get hot even though CF is disabled? Whoever can help, please be 100% sure of the answer as I dont want to fry my GPU like half the people who have purchased this PC in the other thread.

 

No, what we have is our priorities all messed up

 

I agree with Imglidinhere , That's a lot of money

 

That is so true, hehe.

 

Guys can you please show me which settings i need to achieve a 4.0Ghz on the 2960XM, level 3 only gives me 3.6, and since im a noob i think im missing the modification of that bus value underneath, but how do i calculate the multiplication... its currently set to 99.80 mhz

 

Base clock (BCLK) x Mutiplier (core 1,2,3 & 4) = speed of your cpu core.

If you set a BCLK of 100.00 and a multiplier of 40....thats 4.0ghz on that core. You can up the bclk or up the multipliers. One of the guys here uses an everyday OC on his xm using multipliers 40/40/40/40 across all four cores and a bclk 100.00 to get 4ghz.

Have a look back at page 14.

I also suggest a good read of the entire thread too....its worth it if you are playing with OC-ing your pricey xm cpu to make sure you dont blow it up!

 

i have a question for the wise, i just ordered a 2920 and a dual pipe heatsink. in the picture the operator sent me of the heatsink it already had a pad on it. when i install the cpu and the heatsink do i keep this pad or remove it and use the paste alone? or leave the pad on the heatsink and apply the paste between the cpu and the pad on the heatsink?

 

I think the pad you are referring to is actually low quality thermal paste, therefore I would replace with a better quality one and only use that one, just discard the one that came with the cpu

I did a 2960 upgrade on mine and the CPU also came with the pad paste, I did my own pasting job with IC7 by applying a small pea-size drop in the middle of the CPU core and from there I didn't even spread it, I screw the heat sink and it did wonders, my idle temps are 43-46 and using every day clocks of 4.2ghz (100x42) and my temperatures never go over 90-92 and that's with benchmarking software, with games it's always <85. I couldn't even dream of having this OC level with the stock pasting job.

 

Yep, that is exactly what it is, just a thermal pad. I mean, after all, thermal pads are just solidified paste strips.

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk

 

ok just to be clear, the pad did not come with the cpu. it was already on the heatsink it self. the buttom side copper square that actually touches the cpu already had a somewhat hardened, very thin layer, grey in color type a pad. so i should just scrape it off? that way copper it self lays on the processor with paste in between right?

 

Yes, but make sure to scrape/remove it with something that will not scratch/mar the copper itself and then use rubbing alcohol (or similar) to clean the heatsink and the CPU.

 

thats what i figured, thnx for the help all. i do have one more question, its not about overclocking but it has to do with taking it all apart so most here would know much about it. when i take the whole machine apart "to repaste or whateva" i cant completely detach the monitor "like in the youtube videos" because i have two cables going through the whole. the three antenas and there is another thicker cable whith them that plugs into another card right next to the wifi one, it has a wide plug so i cant pull it out through the whole in the motherboard. WHAT is this part? and it is possible to remove the display when you have it?

 

you can pull it through you have to turn it lengthwise its a tight fit but if you removed all you were supposed to it will go through remove all the wifi antennae cables first so you have the most room possible to go through its not a hole if you look closely it is a slot shape....

 

Erm.....isnt that "Grey stuff" Dell's TIM thats been pre-applied............if your gonna repaste it with something else, fine but one of the things that came to light on the AMD conference call recently was that Dell actually use high quality TIM that will last alot longer / not need replacing as often as other TIM's

 

how does it compare to ICD24? ICD24 doesn't suffer from bakeout. or worse I've seen crumbly cracking stock paste too

 

Not sure, all I can say is that I've never suffered from high cpu temps with my system and its stock factory applied TIM. I would confirm with a Dell tech that it is indeed, factory applied TIM before removing it unless he wants to use something like IC24........I know that Louis and Bill were actually saying that their TIM was good stuff and would last a long time and was not cheap rubbish like alot of people thought......

 

me either on stock paste.... but i had much better temps with a change to ICD. I had same experience with the factory tim too it did very well actually. I wanted to push for a much higher overclock than the stock tim would allow. For most people it would be fine.

 

True. I think IC24 or any other will provide lower temps but would require replacing more often that a good factory application. Sounds like he doesnt really wanna be doing this every 3-6mths which was why I mentioned it.....he's probably scraped it all off by now anyway lol.....

For that guy, here is a complete teardown of the m18x on Youtube....courtesy of those guys over at HIDevolution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhURMyavgks

It also shows the repasting process for both cpu and gpu so it should help him out.

 

lol true probably already put something else on. Yeah i noticed though no drop in cooling performance over almost 5-6months... on my gpus.... didn't do the cpu well enough first time so that needed to be redone...

 

At over 5ghz, you need some good stuff to keep that sucker cool lolol.....

 

Hey guys,
I recently bought an i7-2920xm ES off ebay that I'm having an issue. I can't seem to get the turbo boost to work on all 4 cores. It's stuck at a max of 2.4ghz during prime 95 and benchmarks. I've updated the chipset drivers and Intel Engine Management but no change... Any ideas?

 

you should have left it. it seems to be more along the lines of how you tighten the heat sink in place. my oem dell stuff was just as good as my ic diamond.( could have been luck of the draw though)

yep. that would be it. the same exact stuff that's on the gpu's as well and you see how cool these 580's are... (weird though)

don't know about this one..unless they can tell us what other systems have had it on it. then we could gage how far or close to the truth it would be...in terms of cracking.

i can concur as well. temps were actually damn good. (really surprised!)

lucky you...got the same exact speeds on both.

make sure you have turbo enabled in the bios

 

Well that's also part of the problem. I don't see any options for the cpu in my bios. I requested a bios update from the provider I purchased it from but I don't know if it will give me any advanced cpu options. Should the option automatically pop up in any HM67 chipset?

 

just get the unlocked a03 bios from here ... google search unlocked a03 bios m18x Notebook review ... should be able to find it

 

I don't think that would work with my P180HM... At least I'm pretty certain it won't.

 

Oh crap didn't realize your model sorry dude ,,,, yea not a good idea

 

then use xtu to move the flex voltage up to like 5 or 10. reboot and see how that fairs.

take note of what your max voltage is before the reboot. then note the change afterwards.

 

It won't let me change any settings. You're talking about Intel XTU for Windows right? Because all settings are locked.

 

if they are locked. it means your bios hasn't unlocked over clocking.

 

indeed you guys were right, the pad/paste on the dual pipe heatsink was long rubbed of by the time i say your comments lol. Installed the new cpu and pasted the proc/gpus with arctic silver 5, so far so good.

Hey RESIDUALVOLTAGE I ended up getting my monitor of thnx, but im still wondering what is that second wire? the two wires comming off the monitor on the left side, one of them consists of the three antenas "whire, grey, black" and the other wire goes to what part?

 

they go to the three wire hookup wireless card. if yours only has 2 then you only use two wires. and the card is marked with what colors to use.

 

hey, its exactly like John said. But if you got a 60ghz internal WIHD transmitter it is run to same location so for me I have 3 WiFi antenaes and a giant cable for the WIHD which has a larger rectangular connector in gold looking metal.


John I'll try to dig out a pic of original stock Tim before my repaste... It wasn't crazy cracking but dried out more than it should have.... Then again for first month or two I had system I did expose it to high temps while finding the XM's ranges so for most they probably wouldn't see the degradation I did. Lol actually my first icd paste did worse than stock after awhile. This second one matches or is slightly better than stock temps I had... But I need to go back in and balance screw pressure to get it just right. Thanks for that advice awhile back I am going to be doing that. I noticed Shaden had similar issues of one side of heatsink slightly higher on die than the other... Thanks again going to adjust those real soon. When I have time I'll post original repaste pic of stock paste... Its not quite as bad as I described but definitely degraded... And truly I don't know if anyone would be heating their CPUs up as much as I had while testing. I was helping cooling but there ranges I was at the temps were still high.

 

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sounds good.

side note:
where you been at anyways?

 

i didnt know my absence was noticed. I had a bit of life taking up my time. got my gaming gpu clocks so i think its time i get back into the benches. BF3 and Skyrim took a little of that time too lol. Texture packs and add ons can really push these systems on full graphics... i'm in process of a 4.9 3-4core overclock and 5.0 for 1-2 active core. but set with the same watts and amps i found worked for 4.4 @ 0flex... still finding the right flex then i'll post my findings... will work for gaming but not gonna compete against a 8thread load vs 0flex.... and i already know not everyone can transpose ones overclock to another cpu... they all handle different. 85c in gaming over 1day and about 20 hours of gameplay on cpu at 0flex 44x @100mhz c-states off... and for the 4.9-5.0 ill leave cstates on so there can be transitional states... except i'm not liking what i read about c3,c6 states.. i have to leave c3 or cpu wont change multi per active core. So for now i am trying C7,C6 disabled so there is less sleeping of cores. I read forgot the values but almost 4x time required resuming from c6 than c3... thats in thousand of nanoseconds but added up to a noticeable amount since nanoseconds are years in cpu time this is all for gaming 24/7 use like the 4.4ghz i had been using. so far using similar amps and watts temps are higher but not as high as i thought... hoping its low enough to utilize all the time... for an example to clarify in the ranges i already was running i only run IBT at about 3.5-3.7ghz max in very high mode and wprime i am trying to stick close to the 4.4ghz i was already running on the first overclock. All other apps if not as high a load as wprime 8thread... would be 4.4+ mostly all in 5ghz range... this will actually benefit some games as I didn't thiink it would have before but reading a nice article comparing core usage in games... majority utilize and benefit most from fast dual or single cores... and only most recent games and games ahead of its time GTA 4 really draw from 4-8thread... but like i was saying im pushing to keep all same speeds from 4thread + and faster for 4thread and lower... im seeing less heat over 1-2 cores from adding voltage than per say 4-8thread is... from the raise in volt so far

 

K newb Q .... can u explain what c states are so i can play with them ?

 

Lol its what tells individual cores to sleep and is in the bios menu where you set primary plane... Go check it out if you select disable on the main state option all turn to disabled and whatever you had set as 4 core turbo runs constant unless amp or watts max were not high enough then the CPU drops according to load. It adds a lot more heat though. That's why I'm trying to play with the minimum needed in states to allow the active core turbo function to work otherwise if all c states are disabled if you set different value for 1,2 active cores it will only run at what you had set for 4active cores. In windows it helps to use throttle stop and uncheck states if you did want to run at you 4core turbo all time no drops to 800mhz when idle in other words. At 0flex 44 runs like a dream and cool with states off... For me though I'm trying to go higher now but it still is one fast 24/7 overclock with states disabled at 4.4ghz... And 0flex. Have fun with it... It can help or hinder scores though since in some ways between bench scenes the CPU gets to cool with states on.

 

Moving the thread here DanXbix.

If you want to get the best out of your CPU when OC, and comfortable doing so, either wait for A05 unlocked or try out A03 (what I use) it will give you a ton of more control over the CPU.


By the way, I'm no pro by any means, I thought I knew OC until I joined this community and I really learned a few things, tons of very savvy people here will help you.

Get A03 Unlocked for complete info: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...iental-has-been-unlocked-modded-a03-bios.html

Download the following:
Wprime Benchmark v1.55 (or latest)
ThrottleStop

With A03 you will notice you have a wide range of unlocked options, can be overwhelming at first but the key things to focus on are:

Both Advanced menu options and the Power menu option.

Under the first Advanced option (from the left), select Performance Options Menu, and this is where you select the actual multiplayers I recommend you don't change power limits or Flex VID from here, you can change them from the umlocked options of the BIOS

Under the Second Advanced menu option you'll find a couple of useful items:

Thermal Configuaration
(here's where you can increase the throttling/shutdown, not much leadway but better than the default 85c)
Performance Option Menu
Here's where you can increase the Flex VID override, basically the turbo voltage.

Under Power Menu option
You'll find the Advanced CPU Control, from here (all the way at the bottom) you can increase/decrease your power/current options, this is where you find the much neede Pri Plane

Now here are my recommendations for you to start:


* I would start with 40-42x Multi
* Leave Bus Clock alone (for now, this is very sensitive and can be umpredictable)
* Max your Long/Short duration PWR (they are pretty safe numbers even at max)
* Leave Flex VID at 0
* Pri Plane at 900

As you increase your multi you may have to increase the VID and Pri Plane, as a reference I was able to do 45x with 10 VID and 900 pri, but every chip is different, you may be able to do it with less or perhaps a bit more. I have tested up to 1700 Pri Plane without any issues aside from high temperatures.

Configure your WPrime for 8 threads and run a short/long test while you monitor your Throttlestop (keep an eye on the temps, if it gets too high it will shutdown the laptop, but don't be scared), what you are looking at is for all 8 cores to reach and maintain the desire multiplaier. So for example if you are running 44x, you should see all 8 cores at 44x
* if it does not reach the desired multi, then you need to increrase VID and/or Pri Plane
* If it reaches and then drops, it's probably due to temperature, you can also check the max temps on Throttlestop, in this case you need wither less VID and/or less Pri Plane and most likely better cooling.

Temperature is the key here, is your #1 enemy, without a good thermal pasting jon you will hit the limiting factor rather quickly, and even with the best pasting job you still need to make sure you have proper cooling/low ambient teps (just go to a cool room).

The bottom line is that OC the M18x is a perfect balance between power/cooling and stability, you need to try and find the sweet spot.

I'm sure anyone here can add/correct any of my statements here, but this should get you started and feel free to ask any questions you have.
Also try and get to know Johnksss, he can sure help you a ton more than I can

 

Thanks xeneize complete awesomeness! So I assume unlocked a03 has nvidia cards capability (someone here said a04 added nvidia gpus) will give all your suggestions a try. May need to repaste at some stage just don't want to open it yet as its to new lol and working perfectly unlike my m17xR2

 

No problem Bud

Not sure what you mean by Nvidia capable.... the system has been Nvidia capable since A01 I think.... Really all this unlocked version does is just that, Unlock all the features that Dell blocks (or most of them) that allows total control of your CPU OC.... it is bar none an awesome BIOS for anyone with an XM CPU that wants to OC.

I would stay away from A04/A05 as it affects latency on Nvidia 580's....

My 2 c.

 

On that note, does anyone have Dell A03 backed up for sharing?

 

Yeah cool I used the unlocked bios for my m17xR2. Will jump on it later today! Wife wants house things done grrr m18x = more important!!! Lol

 

We better keep the wives happy if we want to have a chance of getting an M18x R2

 

Yes... they have a direct line to Mrs. Santa Claus and we don't want them sharing any intel with her.

 

Mine actually bought me my r1 ... and my 1866 HyperX as well ...

I had to buy the ssd though, god she is horrible to me...

 

you guys are lucky! my Girlfriend thinks is a waste of money ! lol, She says why pay 4-5k on a laptop if you can get one for 400 bucks? lol

 

Listen to her....she's on to something.

 

So, how is the CPU OC coming along, bro?

 

Wife & 2yr old ended up consuming my day. Will be taking it to work tomorrow will keep you posted however played cod blackops for about a hour and CPU @ 4.1ghz temps hit 97c on two cores. Getting a new cooler tomorrow