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    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by fishnbanjo, Mar 3, 2010.

  1. fishnbanjo

    fishnbanjo Notebook Consultant

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    Picked up a lightly used M17x in Black. After a bit of reading here I came to find nothing like my CPU exists and I did an Intel CPU Identify on it and it comes back telling me it's not a production CPU but an engineering sample. Here is the CPU-Z info on it
    banjo
     

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    fishnbanjo, Mar 3, 2010
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  2. DR650SE

    DR650SE The Whiskey Barracuda

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    What did the seller tell you it had in it? It definately looks like an ES chip. Did you get a great price on it? If so that might be why, but if you havn't had any issues with it then all is good. Unless you were decieved.
     
    DR650SE, Mar 3, 2010
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  3. SaosinEngaged

    SaosinEngaged Notebook Evangelist

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    Yeah wow that's strange. I'd definitely run a bunch of CPU tests and make sure the machine is running up to your standards.
     
    SaosinEngaged, Mar 3, 2010
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  4. Mandrake

    Mandrake Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    Are the multipliers unlocked in the bios?
     
    Mandrake, Mar 3, 2010
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  5. DR650SE

    DR650SE The Whiskey Barracuda

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    Mandrake brings up a good point. If the multipliers are unliocked, you may have ended up with a better deal the bargained for, provided the seller did not tell you it was a QX9300. That way you have much more flexibility overclocking.
     
    DR650SE, Mar 3, 2010
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  6. fishnbanjo

    fishnbanjo Notebook Consultant

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    It was sold as a normal Q9100 2.26 GHz M17x with WUXGA screen, a 320 Gb HDD in slot 0 and 128 Gb SSD in slot 1, DVD/RW, Windows 7 64 Home Premium (which I upgraded to Professional 64) 4 Gb RAM, twin 280M GTX and the 9400, came with all the original Alienware packaging , manual w/disks, black cloth sleeve, ball cap and mouse pad and all of the plastic was still in its packing. The Alienware report and DELL info on the Service Tag shows it started life as a P8600 with 2 Gb RAM, Vista 64 Home, DVD/RW and the 320 Gb HDD. It runs slick as can be with no issues and yes the BIOS allows me to unlock and change the overclock settings, just playing with it in NST now.
     
    fishnbanjo, Mar 3, 2010
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  7. fishnbanjo

    fishnbanjo Notebook Consultant

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    Set the GPU's to 650/1000/1650 and the BIOS overclock of CPU to 1200 on the FSB and it's rock solid for over 12 hrs with good temps. HWiNFO32 report included. I was very surprised when the HWiNFO32 Benchmark shows it beat the i7-820QM CPU.

     

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    fishnbanjo, Mar 4, 2010
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  8. DR650SE

    DR650SE The Whiskey Barracuda

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    Nice, looks like you got a great chip. Now you can work up from there and see where it looses stability. Keep pushing it! Just monitor the temps
     
    DR650SE, Mar 4, 2010
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  9. fishnbanjo

    fishnbanjo Notebook Consultant

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    I'm not much of a gamer but can't stop tweaking even after retiring as an IM/IT Specialist and UNIX Systems Administrator. I'm more into needing a speedy and stable platform for running Adobe Lightroom 64 bit and Nikon NX2 Photo Apps for processing photos and this rig is gonna do the job I use my desktop with the 37" HD Screen to see the final product though :p
     
    fishnbanjo, Mar 4, 2010
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