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

You have to play on forced fans to avoid those temps, don't think a better cooler will help.

 

I agree with Aki...

Are you using the unlocked A03 BIOS?

What's your Flex VID set to?

 

gottu say without forced fans with my 2920 @4.3 ghz and without forced fans I don't hit that high.

I was going off the charts with temps ... so i reseated and reseated my cpu ... then reinstalled windows on ssd and flashed to a04 then back to unlocked a03 and temps are now pretty awesome. Even after a couple hours gaming. mid-high 80s is all I am hitting.

THats with 0 Flex of course.

should also note that my fans DO go crazy high, but I am not forcing them to do so

 

mid-high 80s is when the fans go max and the CPU throttles down, so no miracles there. now, if you lift the thermal threshold for CPU throttling to say 100C and run Prime95, things will get messy.

 

Xeneize thanks for your guide 😃 flashed the unlocked bios and started with multi x40 80long 99short pri=900 vid flex=0 also raises thermal throttle to max of 90c. On Wprime155 32sec test multis held at x40 @ all cores with temps of 80c. Vantage score =25327 CPU=26427. Will now try raising multis a little but need to do a repaste of CPU when I get a chance.

 

Very nice! Your CPU scores look very good at 40x!, while pasting is going to help, you may not needed, very curious to see what scores you get at 42x (that's what I have for my everyday use) and even 44x, 45x!

Happy OC, it is really fun!

 

So I am kind of new to the overclocking thing and I was wondering if there is any advice out there. I try and change the bus speed after I switched to lvl 3 overclock and even the slightest change makes it freeze :-/ any suggestions?

 

Basically the threads has a ton of suggestion. I wrote a good starting point on Post # 739

 

I will update tonight on 42,44,45. what pri are you running with 42x and 0-flex?

 

0 flex/900 pri

 

^^ Same here.

 

Any Guru's able to help a newbie?

My clocks came factory set at 680/900.



Am I safe simply using Sapphire to up the clocks for BF3 or do I need to go through A03 modded and tweak

I believe I should be getting 830/1100 easily? What would you guys suggest?

Finally, why is the voltage at 0%?

Thanks in advance

 

The bios has nothing to do with your gpu over clocking... However..Temps will.
Try a little at a time and see what happens.
The voltage monitor does not work.

And of course...This is not the right thread for this question...

 

Here is an "official" Alienware document that might be helpful to folks that are new to XM CPU overclocking.

ALIENWARE M18X OVERCLOCKING SETTINGS FOR INTEL CORE I7 2920XM CPU | Dell

I found this going through links posted by DELLChrisM http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/631584-more-alienware-level-3-engineering-docs-posted.html

 

TY MrFox, am I safe following this as a test given I have the 2970? My plan is to max out the settings and check 3DVantage scores.

I have created a restore point just in case

 

Someone with an XM CPU will need to answer on my behalf because I don't have an XM CPU and cannot speak from experience. I think that given the document was published by Alienware it should be a safe starting point.

 

Overclocking these Sandy Bridge CPU's is safe as it is due to the built in throttling, if we add that the BIOS has even more safe checks (such as shutdown) I would say that you are pretty safe unless something goes terribly wrong.... Some people here have unlocked the BIOS and OC as high 5.0Ghz, pretty insane.

I myself have an unlocked BIOS and had almost no issues when pushing the CPU to it's limit aside from BSOD and shutdowns

If you are not confortable in what you are doing stick to the Level1-Level 3 predefined OC.

 

Will i7-3920xm work as a drop in replacement?
Core i7-3920XM Is Intel?s Fastest Mobile Ivy Bridge CPU to Arrive in 2012 - Softpedia
Ausblick auf Intels Ivy Bridge: Modelle & Taktraten | 3DCenter.org

 

So I am using intel's extreme overclocking utility and I was wondering if anyone else has been able to use the autotune feature on it successfully. I try to have it autotune my M18x but after a while it produces an error and reverts back to stock voltages and clocks :-/ so far I have managed to get my multiplier to 46 and running 4.6Ghz but that was manually done.

 

Won't work as it cannot actually modify the Flex and Pri Plane numbers, those have to be done manually from the actual BIOS.

 

We have a leader board now so get to posting when time permits you too buddy.

 

Hi Guys,

I need a little help overclocking my m18x as i'm stumped. I recently got a base model m18x and today I installed 16Gb of 1600Mhz corsair vengeance and a 2960XM with the copper dual heatpipe which i found on ebay.

As i Understand when you purchase a 2960XM from dell they can pre-overclock to 4Ghz. I believe that 4Ghz is the maximum turbo boost frequency but I'm unsure to the speed it runs at running all cores?

At the moment due to the summer heat, I'd like to get my machine running to this 4ghz dell oc spec.

I've found the new Bios Menu, enabled Extreme Edition options and tried loading the L1, L2 and L3 overclocks but when I try running a single thread of Intel Burn test CPUID shows that the CPU is peaking at 3.4Ghz so obviously something is not working correctly.

Also, why does the Bus default to 99.8Mhz instead of 100? Is that normal?
and are the 6990M's meant to run at PCIE8x?

Thanks

 

This will allow you to run 45x on the unlocked bios
45x on all cores
10 flex
1000 power plane
80W
80W
56 Turbo time

 

Johnksss, have you tried this setting with Prime95 torture test? how did it go bro?

Edit: I have just tried it with Prime95. It didn't make it beyond 3.5GHz at all core at all.

Edit: My bad, I forgot the bug that reset all PWR value anytime I go back to the CPU performance setting in the unlocked BIOS. However, I could not even finish a Wprime run with above setting (BSoD occured at 38%). I'm now going back with my previous 42x setting although it couldn't past prime95 either. Btw, is there anyone successfully went through a prime95 run at any setting other than stock?

 

1: Just because you make it through prime 95 does not mean your cpu stable.
2: Just because you make it through linx does not make you cpu stable either.
3: That goes for any benchmarks. They are guide lines...

For starters, prime95 takes far more amps and watts to run, so what's stable for say linx or vantage cpu or benchtech cpu may or may not be stable for prime95

And looking at what you posted.... you didn't even get close. why you ask?
Heat, turbo timer kicked in because your temps are too hot. System reset it self.
This bsod has an error code, what might that be? That code is pretty important in telling the user what to add to make it stable.

So Ill take a bit of time to check against yours and i will let you know.

1: ok, so test one lasted all of .1 second
2: 100C on 2 threads at 15 flex / 115 watts
3: 99C on 2 threads at 15 flex / 110 watts

And here it is running at 45x, but yeah...i dont see you pulling this of with prime95
45x a/c chilled.
Heck, i dont even think a 2600k can do better than 42X on stock cooler.

Spoiler

 

Previously posted this in the wrong thread:

On a side note, an update:

Finally the heatsink project is starting to move again, I will be getting new samples in less than two weeks. There's still some work to do on the radiators but 3x10mm pipes is what we are aiming for and a lot of copper Stay tuned...

 

Oh yeah?
What's up on a review unit???

 

Getting there but slowly. Fortnax is not going to provide any financing for this project...

 

Looking forward to your heatsink I hope it gets produced soon.

 

a/c power isn't good enough you need higher watts

 

???

Please explain this as it has me at a loss.....

 

That makes two of us

 

I guess the sucker is nuclear

And needs 1.21 jiggawatts

 

Hummm, with 4 post...it's hard to figure. I think he is getting the a/c unit mixed up with the psu. And the amps with the watt's needed to drive a certain speed.

 

You are both onto something here, lol

 

Volts * Amps = Watts

What he means is that the PSU is not able to hold a stable voltage when under that load level, so the voltage droops.

Remember that the Voltage setting in the BIOS doesn't necessarily represent reality.

It's probably the integrated power supply circuit on the motherboard rather than the power brick. Extreme overclocking has always required a physical voltage droop mod on every system I have ever pushed to its limit.

If you guys are really serious about pushing these processors as hard as is possible, you're going to need to find a way to measure the supply voltage accurately. Then stabilize it using capacitors to filter out the drops in voltage under load.

It's really no different to a giant capacitor fitted to a big car audio system to filter out the voltage droop when the bass hits.

 

What power supply? I have pushed this thing up to 400 watts so it can't be this one. He aint even breaking 250W. No where near a max anything but heat. He was trying to run prim95 which takes a different approach. When you bench only cpu then you have all the power you need to do any test. Since the gpu's aren't sucking up 100W's each.

No, his error is in the bios...

 

Do you mean 250W at the power brick, or at the VCORE supply, John?

 

that's the draw from the brick.

Short version of the story...It's not the power adapter. it's rated at 330 rms not max. So plenty of power.
But as we know...make the wrong settings in the bios and your chip does more harm than good.

 

i7-3920XM Benchmarked here:

Intel's Fastest 22nm Mobile Ivy Bridge Chip "Core i7-3920XM" Tested

Gives you an early stock clocks idea of what the 3920XM can do.

 

That wprime looks like it was ran at about 2.4 ghz

 

Thought so.

330WRMS @ 19.5V (Supply Voltage) = 16A

330WRMS @ 1.2V (VCORE approx) = 275A

275A would fry the chip and/or overload the motherboard's power supply WELL before overloading the PSU, even when you factor in the current draw of the rest of the system. lol. Unless you happen to have your workstation inside the LHC core at Cern of course

 

The entire 330W is not going to the CPU.....probably only about 100W is so around 80-90A which the circuitry IS designed to handle

 

330W CPU would definately be a massive beast if one could handle and make use of that lol

wPrime 32M in 13 Sec?? Hows that impressive?

 

I think even in the extreme desktop benching with LN2 they are not getting that high haha

Maybe up to 300W with the 1366 parts but that is as high as I could imagine

 

You are over thinking this one..
The stock amps are at 97, which should have given you a good idea..

Max of about 125 to 130 Tops.

Yeah, that's what I say. I think they are trying to be a bit misleading... To keep the real numbers under wraps....

 

Yea he was running at such a low Multiplier ...

 

A stock cpu clock should net him at least a 10.0 or better..

3dmark06 is ran at the right speed. 3.7 ghz

 

I'm new to this, but am considering getting the M18x, but have also looked at Malibal's and Clevo's 18.4 inch models. The Dell site indicates that the M18x is overclocked. Does overclocking diminish the lifespan of the laptop. I need this to last as long as possible. Thanks.

 

Welcome to NBR Forum. Good choice on considering the M18x. It's the best dual-GPU gaming laptop you can buy. It's unmatched in price, build quality, appearance and performance. Those other brands will cost as much or more money and have less to offer. Dell also offers much better advanced warranty options that none of its competitors can come even close to matching.

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