M11X Noob.... couple of questions for the experts...

Hi Guys,

Just taken delivery of my new m11x-r2 (i5 with 4gb ram)...very happy with so far. Just got few questions for you experts...

1) I read somewhere that when overclocked to 166mhz in the bios the laptop fails to start up or is unstable but mine is fine at 166 and i've not had a problem in hours of use. Is this normal or should i expect to see problems eventually?

2) I'm currently playing my way through DOW2 and when i do the performance test in the graphics options it averages 20fps with all the settings on Ultra, would you say this is playable? and is there any way of getting the framerate up a bit by tweaking other things on the machine? (safely? haha)

3) What .exe do i have to add to the nvidia whitelist to get windows desktop/aero etc to use the Geforce card? I want to see what windows experience score the machine can really achieve.

Oh and anything else that it would helpful to know as a new user would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance. Scott.

 

1) every m11x is different for some reason and it works for some but not others.

2) i don't think 20fps is playable personally but if you find that it does bog your gaming experience down then it's crap.

3) me think it would be explorer.exe but not sure.

I should really buy one some time!

 

I have the same configuration as you and can get stable past 160mhz so congrats, you seem to have a great one.

Also review the thread about supercharging your m11x, it is about a program called throttle stop. It will add significant performance. Here -> http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/524257-how-supercharge-m11x-core-i5-i7-um-cpus.html

Lastly update your drivers. I personally have been using the 266.44 drivers, there is a thread with the download option and instructions. Here -> http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...odded-drivers-r2-possible-punkbuster-fix.html

P.S do yourself a favor and brush up on some of the old threads that are on this forum(look for things like R2 in the title, as it will relate to your model) because it will answer alot of your unasked questions.

 

Just because you can boot to 166 doesn't mean it's stable. You'll need to stress the system to determine stability. Personally I don't bother - if it boots and doesn't crash during gameplay, that's stable enough for me. But if you really wanted to test stability, you should do some CPU stress testing with WPrime (and others).

Also, make sure you run Throttlestop while you're OCing. Otherwise you'll discover that your overall system performance in fact decreases with the 166mhz OC, because of Dell's poor thermal tolerance design (the CPU will downclock more often, resulting in slower performance, despite the OC).

I can't stress enough the importance of installing throttlestop.

DOW2 with all ultra settings brings very modern systems to its knees. I have it running with a mixture of high/ultra settings and get anywhere from 20-70fps (with an average of about 30-35). Set everything to high and run the internal benchmark, then slowly creep the settings back up one at a time until you find a good balance for yourself.

 

you could leave it running something like wprime for 24 hours and see if it does freeze at 166mhz.

 

It played the game for about 4hours and didnt have any problems so thats enough for me but i guess i could do some stress tests.

So this throttlestop... is it safe? Are there any side affects or draw backs to it??

Is there any point to me getting the 266.44 drivers, i'm currently on 260.99?

oh and how do i display the frame rate in the top corner during gameplay??

 

Yes throttlestop is safe. Install it...If you have any issues or questions ask them in the thread I posted in my previous reply.

The 266.44 driver is a hybrid that allows you to play games with punkbuster, online(Battlefield BadCompany 2). If you arent having any issues with version 260.99 then you dont need to update.

The FPS app is called Fraps.

 

Yes it's safe. Only drawback is your battery is likely to drain quicker. The drawbacks of not using it are far far worse though (ie/not overclocked your CPU will perform better than overclocked if you don't use throttlestop - that's a big drawback IMO)

Not unless you play BFBC2. Otherwise stick to 260.99 and wait for the next WHQL release.

You can use Fraps, or MSI afterburner, or EVGA precision, or sometimes using in-game commands (ie/CTRL+R in wow, "showfps" command in most games with console modes, etc).

 

cool, i'll have a look into throttlestop then. I take it you use it in conjunction with bios overclocking, or do you use it instead of that?

 

In conjuction.

 

Thanks, i've posted in the throttlestop thread now

oh and by the way explorer.exe in the whitelist doesnt activate the geforce card for aero desktop... i tried must be another .exe