Looking for advice on buying an X9100

I have the 7915u and I was thinking about upgrading the cpu to the x9100 for cpu-intensive lab work I do at home. Where did you guys buy the x9100 from? I usually buy stuff off of ebay but since I'm worried about choosing a underperforming processor since I don't know what to look for when purchasing this. I was told earlier that I should try to avoid ES since they are late revisions (which is otherwise good) but not final product.
I found these online. Would you recommend these? The first link says its an OEM. The second link is a ES E0 (?). The third link is a retail cpu. If you could find a better link, that would be awesome too


Intel Core 2 Extreme Dual Core X9100 SLB48 3.06GHz 6M - eBay (item 150464563620 end time Aug-05-10 14:10:45 PDT)

New Intel CORE2 X9100 QHBQ Super low Temp! - eBay (item 250657950647 end time Jul-28-10 04:46:32 PDT)

New Intel CORE2 X9100 SLB48 OEM! - eBay (item 260630497093 end time Aug-03-10 14:15:23 PDT)

 

E0 stepping is what you want. From what I hear C0 stepping
has almost double the temperature of E0.
My x9100 E0 idles around 26-29C. I bought mine from shirleyfu on ebay (2nd link you posted). I'm still using the thermal paste she sent me with the chip until my ICD7 arrives.

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Gateway P-7805u x9100 (E0) @ 3.06ghz |Geforce 9800M GTS 1GB| 1920x1200 | Intel X25-M 80GB G2 SSD | Zalman ZM-NC2000 (facing backwards) | Win7 Ultimate x64 | Bios 9c.17.00

 

right now my cpu is idling at 27c and i also have the E0 x9100 which incidentally i also bought from shirleyfu on ebay (ur 2nd link)
i can undervolt to 1.137v and remain stable with a 3.06ghz speed. and can overclock to 3.6ghz and remain stable with 1.3v (although i havent tested it lower then that)

 

Most E0 stepping CPUs run cooler than C0 stepping. SLB48 is the C0 stepping.

I don't typically recommend an ES processor since all of the ones being sold on ebay are stolen property from Intel. There's a reason the seller has hidden the serial number.

Having said that, the one you are looking at on ebay is the same stepping as the retail E0. With the help of ThrottleStop you should have no problem getting 3.6 GHz to 3.8 GHz out of one of these if you get lucky.

 

Okay, thanks for the responses. Based on your experiences, I went ahead and ordered my x9100 from the 2nd link.
By the way, does anyone know where I can find the files to update my bios on my p-7915u? I've been having alot of trouble finding the files to upgrade the bios. Right now, I'm running the Phoenix bios version 79.07.00.

 

I'm flattered you're posting in my thread since your throttlestop program is the reason why I opted to go for the x9100 in the first place

Anyone?

 

ugh, everytime i look at one of these X9100 threads, i ask myself what the hell is wrong with my own.

My E0 X9100 idles at 50C (and it's one of those ES ones that i got from shirleyfu too) on SLFM 6x on 1.050v.....that's simply not right!

I swear it's my heatsink but there's nothing wrong with it at first glance and i have no idea how to test it out otherwise. ICD7 has been applied to both CPU & chipset (chipset also has a 0.9 copper shim on it too). Idle temps have always been in mid 50Cs pre/after copper shim mod too.

 

Yeah Moto... something is certainly wrong with your CPU. It has always ran way to hot

 

You could get a current meter (like Killawatt) to measure the energy that your CPU is using to determine whether the problem is from the heatsink or the CPU.

 

Yeah, I saw the troubles you were having with your cpu on another thread. The best thing is to double check it is not actually your x9100 by looking at the current it draws and comparing that to what it is supposed to use. This is probably your best bet, especially if your heatsink seems okay at first glance.

On the other hand, you could always buy a new heatsink if you're convinced that is the problem. GATEWAY P-7805U CPU HEATSINK MODULE 60.4I202.001 - eBay (item 290443950253 end time Aug-09-10 12:57:10 PDT)

I'm guessing no one knows where to find the bios updates for the 7915u?

 

The temperature sensors that Intel uses on their CPUs are junk. Intel designed these to trigger thermal throttling and thermal shutdown and for that purpose they are more than adequate. They are not great at reporting accurate core temperatures, especially at idle. We're not talking about a degree or two of error but 10C or 15C or more. Intel doesn't have the guts to say.

You can have two CPUs at the exact same 40C. One might have a sensor that reports 10C too low so it will show 30C and another CPU might have a sensor that reports too high and it will report 50C. There can be a huge difference in reported temperature so it's definitely not a good idea to be comparing your CPU to your friend's CPU. Even at the calibration point there can still be 10C of error in these sensors. If your CPU runs fine then don't lose any sleep over its reported core temperature. It's just a number.

Also, many of these sensors get stuck and won't report a temperature less than 50C even if you move to the Arctic. Intel's terminology for this is the sensor has become saturated. I prefer the term, junk.

 

I finally got the guts to buy my x9100 after a couple of months of researching. I bought the second one from Shirlley (until now very regardful seller) the E0. I hope it is a good buy and that I can manage a good stable 3.3 OC with throttle stop (just need to learn how to use on the gateway). Let’s post our experiences.

 

oh youll easily get 3.3ghz i upped my voltage to 1.3v (stock i believe is something like 1.28v) and got 3.6ghz stable (note it can probably be stable at a lower voltage but i just didnt care to test since i dont need over 3ghz yet)

 

But do I need volt mod to get the 3.3? Can I use Throttle Stop for volt mod on gateway? Or just the multiplier?

 

ThrottleStop can be used to increase the FID (multiplier) and the VID (voltage). No need to get your hands dirty anymore doing a volt mod. When you right click on ThrottleStop you will be able to select a menu that immediately unlocks your CPU. After that it's open season. You can increase the VID voltage up to 1.500 volts but I don't recommend taking it that high.

These CPUs run great at about 3.6 GHz without needing much extra voltage at all. Use as much as you need to be Prime stable. When you get your new CPU just send me a PM if you have any questions. I know you are going to be very happy with the results.

Edit: Anyone that hasn't bought yet might be interested in one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/INTEL-CORE-QUAD...3319?cmd=ViewItem&pt=CPUs&hash=item20b1fba847

That's a great price for an Extreme Quad with an adjustable multiplier. It's an E0 stepping which is the same as retail so it's probably identical to a QX9300 after a multiplier adjustment.

 

The Quads dont work in the gateways for some reason we have never really been able to figure out. Only the 7808 (and like 1 more model) actually supported the quad core and so few users had them that we couldnt get enough "time" with the users to figure out what was different.

 

Can't wait to get them.
tnx

 

This explains why one core of my P8400 is always 5C lower than the other one. At least the sensors seem to be consistent in their inaccuracies.

 

probably explains this mystery for my own setup....one core @ 86C and the other @ -20C (TSZ0 92C)

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/5341/screenmqf.jpg

 

That quad looks nice. Too bad my laptop won't take it :|

 

By the way, in case anyone was wondering, I contacted Gateway support and found out that the P-7915u currently doesn't have any BIOS updates available.

 

It's not worth it. Games nowadays are optimized for dual core processing. Only a minute percentage of applications and games take advantage of a quad core processor.

Edit: Out of ALL these x9100 upgrade threads, not one person has had the common sense to post fps differences in games. It's all just discussion about multipliers and other theoretical rubbish instead of real life application.

Has anyone found out the fps differences when playing Crysis, Bad Company 2 and other CPU intensive games at a fixed resolution before and after upgrading?

 

You wouldn't even have to test it before and after upgrading. It could just be tested with a multiplier at 8.5x (making it essentially a P8400) and then with the multiplier at w/e it goes up to safely.

 

My thoughts exactly. im not dropping $300 on a cpu upgrade for maybe 5fps increase...

 

Most games will realize little to no gain in FPS. If the game is presetly being limited to say 20-30 FPS it most likely is the graphics card limiting you. This is where you really should care about FP increases.

looking at the FFXIV benchmark thread there is a person there with a X9100 getting 2513 score where my P9600 gets 2493. Agreed not the same machine but it shows the CPU is not too much of a factor.

In 3DMark of course you score higher but that is because of a higher CPU score mainly. To a gamer this is no big deal in actual game play. Now of course as with anything YMMV.

Most games though do not press even the stock P8400 so if games is all you care about it is probably not the best investment. You probably are better off with a SSD as primary drive for fast boot and load times IMHO.

 

I might pop in my t5550 this week and record some benchmarks comparing it to my x9000.

 

your P9600 is much faster then my P7350. Typically the GPU does the heavy lifting but I have to think i would see at least a 20% improvement in framerate which could be a big difference in the quality of gaming. could also be pretty minor, sometimes COD MW2 drops below 30fps and it irritates me.

 

I'm thinking upgrade to x9100. I read that's ok with the 7805, but mine's is a 7801u.

Is there any diference? Can be upgraded?

My main goal is to get some important FPS in Flight Simulator X, as I heard it's a BIG CPU eater, more than GPU. Does anybody know if it's true?

For example, in FSX I'm getting 7 fps in a city with photoreal scenary and payware addon aircraft (ATR 500). All setting in ultra high, except traffic and wheater, low.

Is it worth to upgrade to a X9100 E0 in P7801u?

Thanks in advance folks.

 

All the P-78s are essentially the same except for some obscure models, notably the P-7808 which supports Core 2 Quads. The X9100 would be a great upgrade if your game is bottle-necked by your current CPU. To test whether the FPS is CPU dependant or not, I would try underclocking the CPU and see what happens to the FPS then I would underclock the GPU (bring CPU back to full clock) to see what that does to FPS.

 

Thanks a lot for your reply and advise.

I'll do that.

Cheers

 

By reading the posts above, I decided to upgrade to x9100 (E0, from shirley), and I`m very pleased with that.

For those who asked how many frame rates it increases, I can report 10 to 15fps increase in fsx, as I first posted in this thread.

Doesn`t look much at first, but if you take into account that for me it wasnt playable before, in the settings that I wanted to play and now, although not perfect yet, it`s nice and very playable.

Thank to all of you for the informations, specially to Unclewebb, for throtlestop and ultimantedestruction, for all the good advise.

 

Some of us did Using prehistoric processor but the ends were the same..

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...9300-crysis-vista-benchmarks.html#post2989752

 

Very good thread.

One thing about how many dolars per frame for an upgrade issue, one have to take into account that, if you can and if you'll be pleased, go for it and upgrade.

We all work hard for do what we like and be happy.

 

Hey Guys,
i seem's to live near "shirleyfu"'s store ...if her adress is Correct in Shenzhen, china ....I think i am goona go to her store personally ....sure to get bargain on prices ...... tell you guys about the prices i get there .....Ill send my Chinese friend to bargain for X9000.

Post the results

Bye

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gateway-emachines/504306-t5550-vs-x9000-game-benchmarks.html

 

Oh sure, slap an old CPU around will ya..

OT

If you still have Crysis, could you run the internal bechmark with stock GPU clocks? I would love to see how the x9000 whoops up on the T9300

 

I don't have Crysis . Is there a benchmark tool for warhead?

 

Yes it's called FBWH BenchTool. I forget what Crysis benchmark did, but with FBWH BenchTool it preloads everything and the game speed is based on frame rate: very weird. Also the first trial always comes out slightly worse than all the trials after that.

 

NP, it probably would be pretty much the same frame rate as the game is pretty much GPU limited.

Video encoding or or a CPU limited game should show what the X9100 is all about, like your benches..

 

will e435 work on the 7805u ?

New Intel CORE2 e8435 SLAQD OEM! similar to x9100! - eBay (item 260679297060 end time Nov-16-10 05:07:03 PST)

Shirley says it has the same features as the x9100 but cheaper and has a higher thermal power design.

Both of them can use the same chipset, PM45 or GM45. E0 on both of them.

 

Define higher TDP? I would want something that uses same or less power unless you upgrade power brick and V+ rails can safely carry the extra current/heat on the mother board.

 

from wiki:
E8345 uses 55w
X9100 uses 45w



I assume the lower w, the battery lasts longer ? but this is a desktop replacement so it doesn't matter. probably more heat will be produced in the e8345. looks like im heading for the x9100.

any other pros or cons between these two ? i mostly see x9100 being used for the 78xx series.

 

nvm. after doing research, the x9100 QHBQ is way better.

 

x9100 ok here is the catch The guys in china says that this X9100 s#@t no ne buys in China where the stocks are But still they are heavy priced Bocz they say these are in Great demand in USA so they sell them at EBAY. and most of the stocks are controlled from one Seller only who is jacking up the price so ......So keep trying till u get the good price .....

 

Many thanks to your description! I understand this part.

 

Weird what you say about E0 running cooler than C0. My X9100 is C0 stepping and I get 28 degrees idle, and about 50 degrees at full load. Overclocked to 3.3Ghz, undervolted to 1.175V. But then not every system is the same is it.

 

turns out my heatsink was bad. Sourced a replacement from the US and i'm now happily idling in the 25C-28C range just like other E0 X9100 users.

@ThePantryMaster: surprised (and somewhat envious) that you're stable at 3.3GHz on 1.175v! Not to mention idling at 28C with a C0 X9100...talk about rubbing salt in my wounds

 

So that new HS worked out for you, glad to hear it...................

Edit, what is the ambient that you guys are only getting to 28c or 82.4f, that seems real low...........

 

ambient RT right now in my room is 20C.

 

About the best idle I see is 33c when ambient gets to 20c. My house is a bit warmer than that though usually. I run well within specs so I'm happy........