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

Nice Dan congrats should turn out fine now.

 

Hi Dan,

Dont expect to get temps like these other users who are located in europe / usa etc where currently is it very cool winter.

You are in Australia and its suppose to be summer hot / humidity.

Not saying by doing a repaste you wont get better temps , infact, yes you will at least knock 10/15 from stock paste.

Good luck

btw hi all,

 

Cheers mate but i live in Tasmania the little island under Australia nice and cool here

 

hi barcode good to see ya yeah Dan had some hot cores that are finally about even i think he is very happy about getting that solved funny thing is im on stock paste getting temps nearly like i did after repasting with ICD... its luck of draw... Dell paste isnt crap but it seems 50/50 if you get a good or bad paste job... I blame factory paster over the paste itself

 

With only a repaste (No matter what paste used) knocking 10/15 off the temps is an unreasonable expectation - just saying......

 

Maybe idling and over a really bad existing paste job but most likely only 1-2c under load. If talking Fahrenheit perhaps those temps are accurate. Either way stock paste is hit or miss.

 

Do you guy think I should replace motherboard when do repaste again and fit new heat sink with the thermal pad this time? I do get the SSD 3gb sata bug when in port0 just don't want to end up with a lemon refurbished motherboard.

 

Hard to say im getting mine replaced anyday and it from a damaged memory dimm and its because it was a refurb and they dont test them thoroughly. If i could avoid i would but i have to. Go for it if its easy enough to you...

 

Received the parts today and the new CPU heatsink still doesn't have the thermal pad on the red section in the photo. It would connect to the caps/reg underneath it. Are we talking about the same spot as even on original heatsink after repaste my temps are now getting hotter again.

 

What the heck? Somebody needs to pull their head out.

Don't install it that way, brother Dan. They need to send you the pad that belongs on it before you open your M18x again.

 

Arhhhhh DELL!!!! what are you doing to me i must be the unluckiest customer ever!

Emailed my rep with picture and asked him to send one. Old parts have to be back in 6days so hopefully he can extend time until i get thermal pad.

I think i will also change the motherboard as mine has been running without one from day 1

 

Thats not right Dan. What are they thinking.... I wonder how many systems are using no thermal pad there?

Those voltage regulators get very hot. I believe they should have had additional copper in the direction of the voltage regulators as its not wicked away as fast as the cores heat... :|

 

Brother Dan, I think it will all work out fine in the end, but it's just frustrating to have to experience that sort of incompetence. It's way too frequent.

Once you find out what the Dell part number is for that pad, please post it here. I will ask DELLChrisM to add it to the part list in the Dell Community and will add it to our own copy here at NBR.

 

No probs Fox! i know dell always pulls through i'm just itching to get benching..

 

You have old parts with pads on them...Just use that for the time being... From your desktop stuff.

 

I do have some from my m17xR2 Cpu repaste days will they be the correct thickness? maybe 0.9?? Server in sign has been replaced and sold with a 4bay NAS now.

 

Im sure they'll fit its quite a gap thick enough paste wont bake out i did on my last no problems.

 

so use some AS5 paste with thermal pads? they are 0.9mm so not thick enough to close the gap as far as i can tell

 

Just use pads. Almost anything will work for that part.

 

I used paste no pad at all ICD stayed exactly same as first day but hardened a little after 6months
But you can see what others say.
If you have pad just use that like John said

 

Can i sandwich two pads together to make it a little thicker? wouldn't paste be a little hard to clean off in that area if you needed to repaste?

 

not sure i never repasted that time for a few months after it was ICD and it was hardened by then and popped off in pretty much whole chunks which really was easy to remove. I cant speak for any paste but ICD.

Yes the two pads is no prob it needs to not make heatsink sit wrong is all

 

What ever you have on hand dan will work better than nothing. Just dont warp the heat sink is all.

 

yup cool thanks bro. will fit all parts after work with the OEM Cpu paste as see how it turns out. Will put up some pics of the install if get a chance tonight

 

sweet btw you have oem paste on hand?

i got free fans for both gpus when i got my 580m's the tech left the originals which worked fine and gave me the new ones ive set aside for if i ever need em gonna game with fans max i have fans if one died

 

Good. Glad to see we now have a plan.

 

i mean the OEM paste already on the new sink if no good will use AS5 but need to really get some better paste like ICD

 

I was an ICD fan for a good while, but a few days ago I repasted with Tuniq TX-4 and that seems to have evened out the core temps and lowered them a tad compared to ICD. I think I'm going to stick with Tuniq TX-4 going forward. You might want to give it a try, Brother Dan. I'm still running the factory TIM on the 580M cards and they are always running so cool there is no reason to mess with them.

 

Dan heres the crazy part my latest benches... are OEM paste :0
Like John said though even then there seems to still be room for improvements with a repaste...

Tuniq sounds good too nice numbers on ICD and Tuniq i say get tuniq and ICD paste cpu and gpu core with tuniq and vram and other stuff with the thick ICD
Win win

 

Alright motherboard out and about put new board in which is a newer revision H2 board old is G2.

So far everything is installed and working 100% just running diagnostics now.

Put some 0.5mm EK thermal pad on the regulators. It was snug but fits Now let's see those CPU temps

 

I'm lost as to how some of you get such high overclocks stable. I was at a hotel last night. Looked over at the window and saw the huge ac unit under, and I couldn't resist. With my cpu @ 42/42/42/42 gpu @725 I managed to get 29k vantage, which @ stock I'm usually around 24k. That's a big jump but having read through this thread a few times, I've seen a few people say they have 40/40/40/40 running stable on a desk. I can run this for games, although i haven't tried any long gaming session with it, but benching is another matter. Vantage causes a thermal shutdown for me almost instantly @ cpu1 test. Even running with my rooms ac unit on high, with the notebook fans on high, directly over the ac unit, my cpu was peaking around 95 on all 4 cores. I can't even imagine trying 45+.

@40/40/40/40 using 0flex temps under any cpu load still easily reach 95+.

 

A repaste might help... but were are really going all out to cool these some of us even have vantage runs with cpu at 4.8ghz... But some have repasted and some of us are really making use of these AC... its not easy and an average AC may not get you as cool as you want. Being where you got in Vantage is still good. Just try some testing like Dan above to see if your cores are hotter than normal.

 

I have repasted twice using mx4, the last time about 2 weeks ago.

Just now ran vantage @ stock bios oc #1 multiplies, my cpu max temps were
core0:84
core1:95
core2:95
core3:90
package:97

 

mhb112, what sort of environment are you in? Those temps are too hot, but they may be as good as you're going to get depending on the ambient temperatures the M18x is working in. If you don't have access to an AC unit to supply cold air, try elevating the back of the laptop or using a notebook cooler if you are not already doing so. Even then, if the air the M18x is breathing is already warm, it's going to be a real limitation to overclocking and competitive benchmarking.

Having said that, 3DMark11 and Vantage CPU load tests really push the system. You may be able to run 44x or 45x without any problem with overheating in normal gaming conditions. As an example, I can hit temps like yours while overclocked and benching, but playing Crysis 2, Black Ops, MW2, etc my CPU stays under 90°C. That's sort of irrelevant because there is no need to overclock the CPU or GPU for stellar performance in most games. Skyrim seems to be the only one that gobbles up everything you can shovel at it.

 

The temps I posted earlier where inside my house @ about 68f.

The back of the laptop is slightly elevated. I found some rubber feet that are about an inch tall, black, that fit on the back end nicely. It's also sitting on a flat, glass desk, plenty of room in the back.

I just took the notebook apart and repasted the gpu using mx4, again (had to take it apart to change out the lcd anyhow, dead pixels).

Ran vantage again just now, same settings as before.

core0: 88
core1: 90
core2: 89
core3: 87
package 91

More even temps but still slightly high, although like you said in games I won't see those temps (in most cases).

 

There's nothing wrong with those new temps. That's a big improvement. Hitting a peak of 91°C in Vantage while overclocked is fine and nothing I would be concerned about.

 

I agree Mr Fox
So new motherboard in gotta head out cant tinker now. Ill try my hyperx 16gb when im home again and tech installed bluetooth connector wrong have to later tear it back down to palm rests. Not hard but annoying i have to again... so since ill be in there should i replace my vram pads with my paste ICD? Did it on 6970m and vram went from 90c to 76c max if it will do that again ill do that to these 580m
Son of a (((#&(# dell had no pad on my cpu regulators too like yours Dan. Lucky i had a spare sponge from a gpu and had tech put it in place why dell what you trying to pull here?
So motherboard replacement is in fact a refurbished one as i had seen... so i will have to make sure all ports work... So far everything but the bluetooth is fine all drivers reloaded all is working but he must of not connected bluetooth right since it isnt even showing on device manager. Driver says turn on wireless button to enable bluetooth... I did so it must be not connected right.

 

Strange how things work out.

Same cpu bio settings. Just did a fresh OS install swapping harddrives. Installed vantage, new run.

core0: 74
core1: 81
core2: 80
core3: 74
package: 82

Again, max temps. I'm not sure why they are so low now, but I'm not complaining :O

 

My last pasting job must have been bad. Last night running vantage with cpu @ 40/40/40/40 0flex the first cpu test would cause a thermal shutdown instantly.

Ran it just now, same settings:

core0: 86
core1: 90
core2: 92
core3: 86
Package: 93

Notebook is sitting on the same desk, ambient temps haven't changed much, if at all.

I can live with those temps.

 

sweet glad it worked out now seems those are great temps now then

 

Her is a couple of photos etc from my repair process







There is now EK Thermal pad for the back of the CPU heatsink maybe Dell are cutting cost by not putting on factory??? After install my temps seem ok see last photo which has been run at 42x 0-flex 1000pri 99w Sata3/6gb port0 problem has been fix and i now have my Vertex3 SSD in port0 without drops to 3gb/s. The DPC problem however seem to be there and will not go away!

 

EXCELLENT! Glad you got it sorted, bro! Two things fixed the same day is pretty hard to beat. +1 rep.

 

Brother Dan how do you have icc and pci clocks displayed in hwinfo i havent seen that on mine and would like to enable it

Guys i mentioned my replacement board is a refurbished.... I noticed the mount for the cpu is white instead of dark is this a bad sign? It seems fine gonna test ram slots and sata ports later and i guess Bluetooth

 

@MrFox Thanks mate so far all working apart from DPC stuff
@residualvoltage it was just like that in the latest Hwmonitor v3.93-1530
one thing i did wrong was was upgrade bios to A05 on the new board without putting in my service tag not sure how i can fix that?

 

Mine is white also. I think that is an older one like what they installed when mine was at the depot. Mine came back from the depot with BIOS A00 and the GTX 580M cards wouldn't even work until I flashed A03 or newer. It performed horribly with A00.

Hey, bro. Check the DPC thread. I have posted a temporary fix for testing. I think I have a solid workaround until NVIDIA gets its act together.

 

Have a look at the Revision on the board my old one was F2 which had a black CPU socket and new one H2 also has the same with A04 bios on it. With the bluetooth problem make sure the wire on both ends is pushed in. There is a slot that the little board sits in too which is raised of the motherboard but i'm sure you know this

 

thanks Dan maybe the latest version shows me those too ill try it out.

The tech mentioned if you dont input tag upon first chance... He said he has to use some utility to program the service tag perhaps thats what you need now Dan.

Brother Fox thank you.. Since yours is running fine even if its older motherboard maybe it will run just fine as yours has

 

yeah im sure the tech didnt get the ends in evenly is all like you said.

Okay how do i find the motherboard revision number?

I forgot to chec,k what bios it has yet ill check that too before loading unlocked ao5.

 

FYI, that's a production date, not a revision number. According to Alienware Engineering, there haven't been any hardware revisions (at least as of November 2011).

Look at update #2 on the opening post of this thread for how to find the tag Brother Dan is referring to.

 

i thought so okay does this date code matter thought this tag?

Edit:
Okay ill check rev #