M17 Quad Install and Benching -- Screenies Included

Hey Guys

Right you all (well regulars will know) that i recently brought a Qx9300 from Shirley on eBay, an ES sample

Well it finally arrived, what a rollercoaster

Ok i thought after reading recent conversations on here i would go straight to the copper mod to save time and hopefully prevent the problems with the stuttering issues

Ok well removed the p8600 from AW and it was COVERED in grease i mean i could have used it to do my hair, eeek. Well popped that out and cleaned up the heatsink. All cleaned up.

Now i fitted the sheet of copper on the NB, using thermal paste both sides, fitted the Qx9300 and fitted the heatsink back into place, nice tight fit.

Booted into Vista and the CPU fan was going up and down up and down and the cores were idling at stock around 65 which i thought was hot. so i ran 3dmark and i scored 9000

temps were around 90 full load so something was wrong, took all apart and reseated everything, rebooted same thing

ok so i thought i was simply using too much AS5 so i skimmed and put the minimal amount on, and the temps came down abit so it looked like i was over ambitious with the AS5

Ok running 3dmark again and it bummed out after the cpu test with the quad stuttering, the language in the room was not fit for repeating.

So i took it all apart and cleaned it up again and removed the copper from the NB and replaced it all and wholla idle temps down to 50 degrees (its 28degrees ambient here)

So i think the copper must have either A) not been needed or B) was slightly too thick

So my stock speed with the p8600 was just over 11k new stock speed



So now was time for clocking :wink:

First clock at 2.9ghz



ok temps under load were about 88 degrees

then i thought lets go more



ok temps really getting high now, idle about 58 but under load after 2 3dmarks they were 92

But im a man of steel and i didnt want to let my friends here down

So i went for 12 multi -- BSOD ARGH ARGH ARGH

ok back to 11.5 and i tweaked with setfsb a little and got this



Load cores now hitting 95 thats enough for me, the tech specs for em say safe to 100 but i wont push it i know the temp throttle is 100 degrees but heh

Well i will now wait for the As5 to burn in and go from there

I hope this has been informative for some people who are thinking about getting the ES Qx9300 E0 stepping

They Rule

Thanks all

Pete

 

Superb score my man.. Awesome!! Thanks for sharing..

 

you are saposed to copper mod the NB not the cpu .....

 

it was on the nb

i might have editted my post wrong

 

o ok ... the copper is probably too thick then

Great job and wish you the best with the CPU

 

Exactly...lol. Copper modding the NB prevents the stuttering which is due to the NB getting too hot.

edit: nvm just saw your post above

 

look just above

 

awesome score

congrats

what a ride that must've been

 

Can you run vantage and post some screenies?

 

yeh sure i'll d/load it

 

Nice! .

Thanks Pmanuk!

 

nice lets break 16,500 shall we?

 

i'll try, doing more benchies now

anything over 3.2 and bsod atm

 

question what's your resoultion at?

 

Did you overclock the 3870's aswell?

 

yeh i have clocked the 3870's but i dont seem to be able to get much out of them with pure clocks i have upped the pci in setfsb to 105 and that has given me a nice boost

i have tried so many different settings to try and get above 3.2 ghz but i get bsod at every turn

i think i have hit my barrier

 

ARGH!!!

 

I haven't overclocked any of my FSB settings, but it looks like you're getting slightly lower than the Q(X)9200. Also, my temps at the highest throughout everything maxed out at 84 or 85. I haven't tried to get it to 3.2 yet. I think 3.06 is probably around my limit.

What drivers are you running? That'd explain the score difference.

Also, did you apply the February hotfix to 3Dmark? http://www.futuremark.com/download/hotfix_feb08/

Since I did that, mine video reports as just ATI 3870, not 3870X2

 

Also, what's it do when it stutters? I haven't had any issue.

 

Those are good scores. Did you OC the GPU at all?

 

lower? what scores u getting

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=394049

 

appears i am getting higher then you and i am running at a higher resolution as well

here is the vantage score



still cant quite break 16500

whats the record on here?

 

Thanks for the vantage test Pmanuk!

For comparison here are the scores of the M17x x9100 @ 3.3ghz and GTX 280M SLI


edit; how much do the QX9300 and X9100 differ? And which is supposed to be better?

 

Your scores are lower except when you overclocked the FSB (Which I haven't done).

What resolution are you running at?

Mine defaults to 1280X720

 

1280x1024 standard res for benching if u ran at that im willing to bet id b higher

 

I CAN'T run at that. My screen won't do it.


I could hook up to my TV when I get a spare chance, but I'm not sure how that'd affect the score being it's also having to convert and output the signal through the HDMI port.

Run it at 1280X720 and tell me what you get, and run a Vantage at Entry level (instead of Performance..should be like 1024X768). I'll run mine when I get home.


And I really don't care who/what scores higher. For what I do on my computer, I'd have gotten by with a single 3870 and my old P8400.

 

And what drivers are you using?

 

EDIT above, I meant 1280X720. I'd been typing 1024X720.

 

heya, im using modded 9.6's

im just happy i got a quad stable at 3.2 and a 16.5k score

 

Do the 9.6's allow you to overclock? I thought anything past 8.10 the clocks wouldn't hold on the ATI's.

I'm just using E-Wrecked's 8.12's. I had pretty good luck with them for gaming, etc, so I just stuck with them.

And since I don't run a cooler or anything, I just left mine at 2.93.

 

this allows you to overclock the GPU with newer drivers.

http://redirectingat.com/?id=525X832&url=http%3A//www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1383/GPUTool_Community_Technology_Preview_1.html

Although I did not get an appreciable difference in performance when overclocked, so maybe they are just making GPU-Z show higher when not? Not my field of expertise.

 

Hey man, nice post!

+props