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

Should last 11 months just enough till the world is .... changed, haha.

Seriously though, with proper care and maintenance combined with robust cooling, the M18x will last a few solid years for sure.

 

Yeah, I have been wondering about that my self....will be ready just in case it's not a hoax....

 

Johnkss, hope u can help me, I got a 2960xm oem I have stock bios and not planning to install the unlocked bios. I wanna get the most of my cpu but keep it in the safe side when it comes to the temps. Can u help me out and tell me what settings do you reccomend ?
I want stability, hope I can run maybe 4.0 on all cores? I use my laptop for gaming, not crazy on the benching dept here... hehe. Thanks in advance!

 

No way you can run 4.0 ghz on all cores with out the unlocked bios...
What you can do for gaming is run in 4 core / 4 thread mode since most games don't even use more than a dual core. Then you could run the higher frequency with out adding more heat.

 

How would I do that? What settings in the bios would I need to apply?

 

You can use msconfig and set the cpu cores that way.
The right way requires the unlocked bios.

 

I have repasted my CPU and GPU's with MX-4 compound and am curious if these temps are a bit high. The CPU is currently overclocked I have it set at 42/38/37/37 Flex 0 BCLK at 102.17. The GPU's are overclocked to 800/1100. after several hours of gaming in FF XIV my temps on my CPU max at Core 0 - 77c, Core 1 - 82c, Core 2 - 84c, Core 3 - 79c. GPU 0 maxes at 80.5c, GPU 1 maxes at 84.5c.

Now when I run a Wprime 1.55 1024m test it holds at 3674MHz on all 4 cores till about 38% and then it starts to throttle. Temps reach Core 0 - 87c, Core 1 - 95c, Core 2 - 98c, Core 3 - 94c.

The CPU idles at a range between 35-43c. GPU's Idle between 39-49c. Room temps are sitting at 65F and the laptop is sitting on a cooler. Is it normal for these temps to be where they are after a repaste or is something not right? Thanks

 

Anything under 100 should be ok, with the gpu cores being one on top of the other you will get a difference in temp but nothing to worry about.

X9100 will run into the 90's too no problem.

 

Those load temps are slightly higher than I get with stock paste with ambient temp around 22C. The hottest my CPU gets is 91C on any 1 core under 100% load in WPRIME, and that's with Flex set to 15.

My GPUs dont go above 75C @ 0.92V with the clock set to 800MHz with the stock paste.

Your idle temps are around 5-10C cooler than mine though.

 

What are your multipliers set at?

 

Same as yours.

 

First run with a new 2960XM OEM



Level 3, 45x across the board, Bclk 100. VID = 5. I run VID 5 because everything is rock solid except ~1hr into a Prime95 single core stress test the system will BSOD (8 thread runs fine over night). Setting VID to 5, it ran single core all night no problem.

Stock BIOS (A03).

 

Stock A03 bios will not do 45x across the board...

 

45 across the board was for BIOS settings.

It held 4.5 across the board when doing 32M. After Turbo kicked down, it settled in at 3.9 on 1024M.

 

Oops wrong thread.

 

So you agree now, the "6" is better than the "2"

 

Nah, I'm not doing backflips over the 6's yet....

Last few 2920's (From a batch of 3) I had the time to put through the ringer all hit sub 195 1024s and 5.9-6.0 Wprime's on stock. I didn't get a chance to test the last new one which I sold, but I'm sure since it was from the same batch it will hit some solid numbers too versus the early run of terribad 2920's in comparison. Last 2960 I tested needed 15 VID on stock and wouldn't break 196 on 1024s no matter what I did.

I'll need to get a few more under my belt to really say yeah.

But the initial prognosis is good.

I did notice the last few M18x's I opened up have black sockets now for their CPUs versus white before. Another, newer motherboard revision? Or do the 580M models ship with a different MB than the 69XX?

Bclk 102. Stock A03. Held 4.59 for the 32s run.

 

Electrosoft - how's the overclocking coming along?

Do you really have AMD 5730 in your M18x?

 

What puzzles me is that if all you guys have identical laptops, let's say, and you all overclock to the same frequency and try it out on the same games, shouldn't all of you get the exact same temperatures right down to the decimal point?

 

Yeah, I have an OC'd 5730 in there cranking out a massive 4200 Vantage GPU score.

I'm only playing WoW and SWTOR atm so it gets the job done (details reduced on both). I wanted the killer build, nice 18.4" screen, quiet while gaming, good sound, HDMI in and nice backlit keyboard the M18x has.

I'll wait till a 6970m comes along under $200 down the road and put that in there.

 

In theory, yes. However, it's not so in the real world. Too many variable come into play. The hardware is never truly identical and neither are the operating conditions. This applies to all components... CPU, GPU, HDD/SSD, memory, etc.

 

And that's exactly why it is so interesting to bench!

** said a non-bencher, cough, cough...***

 

I cannot wait til I get to bench with you guys!

 

It will be fun, Tes96! Looking forward to having you join us.

 

I defiantely wouldn't mind benching. Havn't done it in forever! lol.

 

Excuse me, is there an unclocked A05 BIOS?

 

Here you go.

[unlocked] M18x BIOS versions

 

So I received my M18x yesterday and the first thing I wanted to do was bring it to the factory overclocked settings as I did not select or pay for this when I ordered. When I went in to the BIOS and looked at the setting that were posted as the factory overclock option, to my suprise it was identical to them. Could this be they just kind of hooked me up or am I missing something?

 

Looks like you got a free overclock They just set it to level 3 in the bios takes about 5 seconds to do lol. I don't know why they even try to charge $ for this silly dell

 

I think all in all I got quite the hookup from Dell on this order. They rushed my order (2 days from ordered to shipped), gave me free overnight shipping, and a free overclock. I guess they must really like me

 

Congrats... and what's not to like? After all, you're awesome, aren't you? Otherwise, you would not be an Alienware 18x owner. 2 days... wow, that's very fast shipping.

 

The only problem I have had with it is the light in the left grille going out every once in a while. I guess it is time to start trashing Alienware like all the others who like to highlight all the bad pieces of their dealings and forget all the good points. . And just to confirm Mr. Fox, I am indeed pretty awesome

 

Just got my M18x. Nice machine. Anyway I got the overclocked 2960xm and I am not sure how to tell if it is actually overclocked (newb at overclocking). I have CPU-Z running and the highest core speed I have seen is only 3700mhz. Shouldnt it be 4000? Thanks for the help.

 

4 ghz on one core maybe.... You would have to do more to get all the cores that way.

 

am i right in thinking that i can just flash back to stock ao5 dell bios from unlocked ao5 bios no probs?

 

yup, should be no problem.

 

It's the exact same process. So yes, with no problems at all.

 

Same process and actually the same BIOS. The unlocked A05 is the official Dell A05 BIOS with hidden menus un-hidden. It's good that those menus are hidden for the average user. Dell Support would be flooded with calls from noobs with issues if they had left everything visible from the factory. There are many settings that are accessible that should not be messed with on the unlocked A05.

 

thanks for that guys

 

So I ran 3dmark Vantage to see where I'm at stock, looks like 24600 ish, which guessing is decent. I check with hwinfo64 and cpu temp was around 90, seems high.

I did some digging in the bios and found the extreme overclocking profiles, thought I would try the third most extreme. Vantage score really didnt go up much but one of the cpu temps hit 97, seems very high. Possible paste issue or are temps that high?

Wow, after looking at how to get the cpu heat sink off, thats an all day event. They don't make this thing simple, thats for sure.

 

Everything is not really a paste issue, but more of a room temp issue...

 

Thats a good possibility, messing with it in my cube farm at work, so air circulation is not so great. thinking about either adding blu-ray drive or a third hard drive bay, so if I go to that point of breaking down the machine, I might repaste or I might just leave it alone....

 

Hard call there....
But allot easier if you are breaking it down for something else. then of course you have the option to re paste.

I only re pasted my gpus because i was swapping them out. Still on stock paste for cpu though.

 

And what are the temperatures running for the cpu? At what clock speed?

during vantage at stock speeds, cpu is 90/92

 

My temps are not going to be the same as yours.
You need to be below 90C and your fine.

 

Besides pasting, can to change the cpu fan speed?

 

You probably could if you can find the right fan.
But i would start by dropping that flex from 25 to like 0. That should give you a major temp drop.

 

Unless under full 8thread load more than one core is more than 10c away from each other it doesn't usually warrant a repaste. unless all cores are overheating at low speeds and low turbo flex/ turbo over-voltage then your fine there are some products better than Dell's Thermal Transfer Material but getting the same even mounting and amount of paste to yield better temps is hard to get the same results each time even for veterans (thats not me im not veteran to re-pasting). The benefits to some for changing the paste to another performance brand can sometimes be very small gains... But that's what benching can improve from less heat always yields higher potential. These cpus must wick away so much heat as quick as possible all through the heatsink and die contact points and through the thermal paste as a medium. Dell has made it know it uses a high performance material not similar to pastes that shows little temp degradation over a long period of time. I can say its different for everyone. Test your temps under load similar to what others have shown at same situations room temp or cooling enhancements (ac..etc) if you have temps higher than others in the comparison then perhaps you should repaste it. So like John said it probably is a cooling issues room temp is high try using ac or whatever is available if going for a high bench. i had good and bad paste jobs stock from factory over 3 setups so just see where you are at. Its not worth the trouble if temps are already good. Just my humble opinion.

 

Where is the flex option changed at? in the bios?

Surfing through the bios, I found (with overclocking enabled) "non-turbo flex support", when enabled, has "flex ratio override" at a default of 27

 

yes, it's there in the bios. start with 0 flex.