M17x questions

Hi ive been looking around on these forums for a little bit now so i decided to make an account so i could ask a few questions about my M17x.

heres the specs for it
Dual 8800m GTXs
Intel Core 2 Duo X9000 2.8ghz
4GB ram
2x250gb 7200 rpm HDD in raid 0
Vista Ultimate

first i was wondering if these temps where ok or if there to high?
CPU idle 50
CPU 66 max after playing crysis
GPU 1 70 idle
GPU 2 54 idle
GPU 1 92 max after crysis
GPU 2 80 max after crysis
( i dont remember the exact max of the second GPU but i know its close to that.the first one has also gone up to 96 once to)

the only thing that looks a little high to me is the GPU after a play crysis or something similar is this ok?

The other question i had was how often if at all do i need to completly oopen it up and clean all of the dust out? Also i heard you could change the thermal paste on the GPUs to arctic silver 5 to lower the temps but does this void the warranty and how would you do it?
Thanks for the help!

 

Hi welcome to NBR (",)

Firstly congratulations on choosing a very stable m17x. I have the xact same spec and it's very good.

What GPU drivers are you using, If you read my post about the 178.15 Driver Update, These are the latest drivers that seem to allow blu-ray playback other wise use the 179.15 drivers from laptopvideo2go...

Using the latest drivers will go a long way to lowering your temps a little but to be honest they are not really high.

I have not played Crysis but have played Bioshock for 6 hours and never got above 81 DegC on either GPU... 50 is normal for the CPU, 70 seems a little high but again it's Crysis so...

Try the graphics drivers first and then see what you turn up...

OB

 

Thank you! im going to go update my drivers to 179.15 right now since im using the 176.10 beta ones from alienwares website

 

can I install these (179.15) for 8700gt SLI? or should I install the 179.13?

 

i just updated to the 179.13 drivers and now crysis is playing allot worse like only 10-15 fps did i do something wrong?
EDIT: never mind i forgot i had it on very high settings lol. the FPS actually seem like there a little higher now with the new drivers on just the high settings. temps are still about the same GPU gets to around 91 when playing crysis but thats ok right?

 

Zephyer,
i have a M17X with the 2.8cpu and dual 8800m gtx cards. Using the 179.13 drivers. My temps. are similar to yours. But since changing drivers do not go above 90c anymore. i am using a Zalman cooler when game playing.

 

Ive got a similar setup to you guys in my m1730 and ive found the 179.13 from alienware to be the best performing SLI drivers to date for a laptop(especially since it is the 178.13 turned laptop) and im pretty sure it has blue-ray play back. Gave me alot more raw power and even lowered my GPU temps. Seems to really increase the effectiveness of the weird GX2 SLI system in these laptops.


and dont you mean laptopvideo2go.com? tried the name you got there gives me nothing.



Also, did alienware actually release a 179.15 laptop version of the new 178.15?? im looking on laptopvideo2go.com and usually they have that updated quickly, latest they got is 179.13 and 178.15, im going to wait till they get the 179.15 because the way alienware tweaks it gives it an extra boost and like i said above really works better for the GX2 style SLI in the laptops then the stock 178.xx drivers did, cant wait for the 179.15 and INI from LTOPVID2GO

 

sorry i got kinda busy and forgot about this thread that i made.

so my temps are ok right there not to high or anything?

cpu idlea around 50-54 and can go up to 70 after playing something like crysis

the GPU idles at 70 and goes up to 82 on most games but can go up to 92 on crysis

 

thats pretty normal temps. you have, even with 8700m GT I have similar temps. on m15x

 

thanks! i just wanted to make sure since ive never bought a $5.6k computer before and i dont want this one to die from heat or anything like that lol

 

Do we need to update drivers
from the AW site ?

I have my m17 for a month now

alls running fine

All i have done is Update my Windows
I got Vista 64

Thank you

 

update your graphics drivers whenever E-wrecked mods a new one, and get all other updates either from M$ or from the manufacturer's websites, as those files will be more up-to-date than AW's.