Picking your processor: advice sought - 3920xm worth paying $900? or at least make it worth paying?

Hahaha! - man, you are like a carbon copy of my "money-saving" self :thumbsup: LOL......I've just been browsing Steam - only really interested when it says 75% off!

 

Nice find Brother Fox, I hope you turn that 3920XM into a legend! Also, I'm glad I'm not the only cheap one here LOL.

 

$600 is a damn fine deal. Good timing there brother Fox !

 

Why note the 3940xm isn't it faster?

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

Performance has more to do with end-user skill and cooling than it does with hardware when you start comparing two XM processors that are so similar. There is hardly any difference in the published specs of the 3920XM and 3940XM, and the latter is faster by only 100Mhz stock. Although my preference would have been the 3940XM, I bought the 3920XM for 40 to 60% less than what I could expect to pay for a 3940XM.

I can already make my antique 2920XM QS run almost as swiftly as most folks can their overclocked 3920XM, so I am looking forward to seeing what kind of wicked performance I can extract from it. I expect the difference between the 3920/3940XM to be similar to the difference between a 2920/2960XM, which is negligible. As Johnksss has a 3940XM on the way, we will soon see some comparisons in the benching thread. I expect John to maintain a slight edge on me with his more advanced overclocking talents and a tiny bit better CPU.

 

Hmm, interesting, is yours OEM? I was lookin on ebay at a few OEM CPUS for around 600... the 3920XM. I want to pull the trigger but I wish what I knew what I;d use it for. Like you I like the best as well lol. Then again....Haswell is coming soon.. not sure if ill keep thisb east or buy another but then again I hear the jump in cpu and gpu performance isnt going to be much, and the hardware we have now will be fine for maxing 2013 titles. I wonder though how it would fair maxing out on an ultra high res like the one on the 30 inch dell u3011. I think it would have met its match then eh?

 

Yes, I ordered an OEM 3920XM. Most of the OEM 3920XM are selling for around $850 to $900 on eBay. The 3920XM QS versions are selling for between $600 and $700.

The one I purchased for $600 was listed for $649.99, which is still a good deal. The seller still has one left... http://www.ebay.com/itm/281046055281?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

 

lost this one! arghhhhhhhh!

Intel Extreme i7 3920XM CPU Only SR0T2 Real CPU Quad Core | eBay

 

Damn that went cheap

 

That was me! lol I got it for $472! I'm ridiculously stoked

edit: Sorry for outbidding you man, I bid on it a couple hours ago and watched the timer come down. Once it hit 3 seconds left I saw that someone outbid me, so I went ahead and bid again at the last second lol.

 

Lol I thought it was. Man that's a steal. Absolutely criminal :thumbsup: Nice Job brother

 

Wow, awesome bid steal! $472 for 4.4 Ghz stable and cool, you lucky dog!

Now you have to pick up a 3 pipe heat sink, but I bet you already knew that. While youre changing the CPU out, be sure to repaste with IC Diamond! 7 C lower temperature over factory TIM! I have it on both my CPU and GPU's.



If youre going to OC, you may be interested in an unlocked BIOS, (I am on unlocked A03, I would stay away from A10) with that I have found the best results:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/712493-i-believe-ive-found-optimum-oc-3920-680-sli.html

Pri Plane 1300
Sec Plane 128
MSR Lock: Off/disable
BDPROCHOT: Off/disable

BIOS OC Level 3
45,45,44,43
Flex Voltage: 8

I also recommend Throttle Stop to switch to less aggressive profiles for web browsing etc.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2090/ThrottleStop_4.00.html

Hwinfo64 Fan Control, most games I just set to a manual 3600 (set to GPU 0), although Skyrim+ENB needs 4200 RPM to keep primary GPU below 74 C, ENB and Ultra very GPU intensive. I dont mind the noise, in NS2 temps dont exceed 80 C CPU and 64 and 57 C primary and secondary GPU respectively. This is with the GPU's moderate overclock +200 core/+400 memory @ 1.0V. I usually never see temps exceed 85 C CPU in any games and applications.

Also don't forget to elevate!
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/586490-ultimate-cooling-mod-end-all-cooling-mods.html

I think I'm running about 20 C cooler than factory CPU, and maybe 10-15 C GPU considering:

Elevated: minus 5-7 C
IC Diamond: minus 5-7 C
Fan Control: minus 5-7 C

Going from 3.7 Ghz to 4.4 Ghz made a dramatic improvement in framerate in Skyrim and Natural Selection 2. You will love the performance gains with the 3920.

 

You should jump on this deal! Intel Core SR0T2 i7 3920XM Extreme 3rd Gen CPU Up 3 8GHz 8M Cache 100 Test | eBay Only 3 days left and it's still at $415. You might be able to get a better deal than I did

Thanks guys, I'm excited to finally join you XM owners Can't wait to start benchmarking!

 

Thanks for all the tips man, I really appreciate the help! I already have a triple pipe on my 3740QM so I'm good there. I do need to flash an unlocked BIOS again though (I had it unlocked but I got a mobo swap recently so it's the stock AO8 now.) Would you recommend the unlocked AO8 or AO9 then? Since I'm already on AO8, it'll be kind of hard to get to AO3. I'd rather not have to do the USB recovery method since I've got the new fpt/prr files saved on a thumb drive and ready to go.

With Throttlestop, what Turbo Ratio Limits do you use for web browsing/light use? Setting up a less aggressive profile for light use is a great idea.

Thanks again for all your help! I'll be sure to update you guys once I've got it installed and setup correctly. Oh, and +rep once I can. It appears I've given too much out lately

 

I think A08 is ok, same with A09, but A10 has some new features that Windows 7 users aren't particularly fond of, ask Mr. Fox to clarify.

I have 4 profiles set up, one at 45,45,44,43, turbo active and BDPROCHOT disabled. The others are less aggressive with my least aggressive set as low as possible, (31x), power saver, turbo disabled. It "idles" nicely at 700 Mhz and still plays HD video no problem, same with web browsing. I also use hotkeys, not to difficult to set up. Battery life is around 2 hrs, with TS, least aggressive profile, viewing video and web browsing.

Will provide pics to clarify when I can.

I really like MSI Afterburner for switching between OC profiles on the fly, also with hotkeys.

No worries about the rep!

 

Sounds good, I'll probably stick with AO8 unlocked then. I love the ability to use hotkeys with TS and Afterburner, it's especially helpful in benchmarking. I've also got the Afterburner app on my phone, so I can monitor and oc when running benchmarks.

I really appreciate the help brother vulcan!

 

With TS I go 46,44,43,42...I think I need some Diamond paste if I want to go higher 24/7. I'm on the Dell TIM.
You guys are lucky with the 680m's - you can OC the living day lights out of them. MSI profiles are awesome but 7970m's don't seem like their clocks being changed too many time in a sessions so I stick with a very mild Vbios OC

 

I'm planning on using the Dell TIM as well, but so far Vulcan has recommended IC diamond and TheBlackIdentity has recommended Antec F7, so I may be swayed into trying a diamond TIM. I've had a great experience with Dell TIM so far though, so I'm not sure... doesn't Brother Fox still use Dell TIM on his 4.8ghz 3920xm?

I called Dell tech support a few minutes ago and they're sending me a some extra thermal paste and a new palm rest (the last tech to work on my notebook broke some tabs.) I'm planning on swapping the palm rest and processor at the same time

 

I was happy to go with the Dell TIM since its meant to have good durability. I don't really want to do tear downs every 4-6 months if I can get away with it.
I can easily get 4.2 Ghz and sit through benchmarks all day long (4 cores) on the stock auto fan setup with some overhead for warmer days ahead. Going higher will require a custom fan profile me thinks or perhaps some IC diamond paste.
I'm keen to see how you go with your new toy FWD

 

Heres a snapshot of my temps after playing NS2 for about 5 hours straight:

Manual Fan Control at 3600 RPM

Ambient temp ~65 F.

4.4 Ghz, +200 core/+400 memory

NS2 all settings maxed at 1920x1080, avg. 50 FPS, mostly vsync limited 60 but near endgame drops to mid 40's.

 

Lol I hate you! [joking]

I was not in front of the PC the last 2 mins of the auction! would have been a fight to the death! hahaha!

Good luck on yours !

I'll watch your auction as well as many others now I believe

 

He's a lucky man. Good luck to you too !

 

lol thanks bro, I hope you find one soon. I see the one I posted on the last page is still at $415, so I bet you could still win that one!

Let us know how your search goes good luck!

 

Fairwheel, I forgot to add some info pertaining to my OC set-up, I also have the short current window/time limit set to 56, double the original 28 and long limit set to 0/disable, and wattage is set to a maximum 99 both short and long. These are the settings recommended by Mr. Fox, one of the most knowledgeable on this forum, and I haven't had any issues with temps or stability. Only issue that I have seen thus far is that I got a black screen a few minutes into playing natural selection 2 on battery power alone. This is what I believe the more conservative figures in the factory BIOS are for, i believe the black screen/shut down was due to power starvation. As long as youre plugged while gaming youre ok! No problems web browsing and viewing video/audio media, pdf's or any other light load activity whatsoever on battery.

Let me know if you need help finding all of the above in BIOS, I believe they are under Power and thermal management options. Also, dont forget to set the overclock setting to "level 3" before making the various changes.

 

Thanks vulcan, I really appreciate all the help! I'm hoping the CPU will arrive later today, and I'll definitely let you know if I run into any issues while getting everything set up

 

... nothing good these days.. i guess i missed the 1er semester 2013 auction for that chip!

 

I ended up getting a QS version for around $450, works great.

 

Watching this auction

Intel Extreme i7 3920XM CPU Only SR0T2 Real CPU Quad Core | eBay

Same seller, hope it will sell the same

 

Got it!

Intel Extreme i7 3920XM CPU Only SR0T2 Real CPU Quad Core | eBay

520 $ for New

failwheeldrive how did your CPU fare? all satisfied?

 

I find this thread to be rhetorical at best.
The very fact that the OP is asking whether or not the price can be justified for purchase is exactly why it shouldn't.
He seems very informed about laptops and hardware in general from the content of his first post so it's not based under complete lack of knowledge about parts.

Like many on this thread I don't see the value for money at all.
For the price of that upgrade you could get a desktop that would eat the M18x alive.

Save the cash - You won't see a difference over the second best offering.

EDIT: Just noticed how old this thread is. Good to see that the price has dropped to about half in a year.

 

I just checked a on ebay and the i7 3940xm OEM is now down to $728. Slowly but surely we are seeing the Ivy cpu's going down.

 

Cool, but gonna hold out for 4930MX now

 

That's the reason they have gone down ^-^.

 

Well you'll need a new motherboard or an R3 variant as the 4xxx series is a new socket...but you probably already knew that.

 

True, I don't think the new CPU's will be compatible with the old models but we will soon find out.

 

New socket, so no dice.

 

Just like Sandy to Ivy. Shame on you, Intel!

 

I thought the problem was that OEM refuse to give new bios to let ivy work on sandy mobile.

 

I think that's the case as ivy's worked in the z77 and z68 chipset boards

 

My bad. Still, it blows big time that each cpu refresh, there is a drawback to prevent owners upgrading. Be it Intel changing sockets or OEM's not providing bios support, it's pretty sneaky and underhanded ! Grrrrr LOL

 

Gotta get dat money!

 

Yep just business. Dell need to sell you a new machine to make a profit. Providing you with a free BIOS update that enables you to purchase a new CPU and prolong the life of your machine just isn't good business sense.

 

It would be nice for Dell to allow a bios update for Sandybridge machines to take Ivy cpu's once Haswell hits....that wouldn't steal that much thunder from new machine sales as Dell won't be selling Ivy any longer. Still, I doubt they would be that accommodating......

 

We don't know if that's possible in the first place, given no precedent whatsoever in the mobile sphere.. Sure would be great if it is

 

I'm on my second Extreme CPU and, unless Intel stops making them, I probably will not ever purchase another high performance laptop with less than an Extreme CPU. If I were to find a screaming deal on something without an Extreme CPU, then I would upgrade the processor later. The XM CPU is considerably faster, more powerful, much more capable and flexible than a lesser CPU. Not everyone wants or needs the extra power and flexibility. Spending extra for a component that one never plans to enjoy or exploit to its fullest would be a waste of money.

I haven't found a desktop fixture for $900 (price of an XM CPU) that will outperform my M18x. It generally does take a desktop with about $900 worth of GPU (alone) to rival the performance of my M18x. I have many leaderboard benchmark records that prove that it takes a very potent (and expensive) desktop to outgun my completely portable M18x with an Extreme CPU. Many a "high performance" desktop has had it's tush shredded by an M18x. But, if you don't enjoy that sort of stuff, then it probably doesn't matter a lot in the grand scheme of things.

 

I agree. And now with as m17x-r4 , 3940xm and 32GB ram with 3x SSD and a980M GTX I still kick a desktop's . Comparable in price too, for the performance. If you factor in the fact I have a built in UPS (battery, haha) a mouse, a 1080p 3d screen @120hz and a gaming keyboard with macro's, and flashy lights for a command center. I think my laptop costs LESS then a desktop and PERFORMS better.

 

Haha wow.. talk about raising a thread from the dead

 

The 3920xm and 3940xm are worth every penny, if your not a nubby, and know how to use them. Every Extreme CPU is worth it.