The Mighty Clevo P870DM-G "Phoenix" Gets an 8700K and GTX 1080 Upgrade

Well your in luck my sli setup will be two gtx 1070 mxms msi ones hopefully there is not bottleneck. I will modify the heatsinks too and casing if needed.

 

You'll need the 4K screen to give the 1070s a workout. In mine the 4.2 3940XM with CL10 DDR3-1800 is the clear limiter at 1080p/120hz.

 

That's exactly why I'm doing a 4k screen edp mod from the mini displayport, as I said previously on other alienware forums @Khenglish has helped me find the schematic and helped me find the wire to do the mod with.

BOE NV184QUM-N21 This is the LCD, has the 5v power requirement, all I need to do is solder a few wires to disconnected capacitors which I have located, I will need to undersolder each side the capacitors first so that the mini display port cannot function anymore. In this case the signal will go to the screen. LVDS 5V and backlight control aswell as sensor will be soldered to the edp wire to make it all work.

Wish me luck. I spent A LOT of money for this!

 

@bennyg only worry is tripping the 330w ac adapter which is bound to happen. Anyone here know the max wattage a 330w adapter can give out?

 

If memory serves, logic dictates that a Delta 330W PSU can pull up to 355W to the system (380W from the wall) before it power trips off.
If I were human, this would be my answer.
If I were human.

 

I have pushed the single 330w psu up to 425w peak power (from the wall). Expect more normal 412w (80% efficiency). But this won't help a ****y for the Alienware 18. Give a HUGE thanks to Azor and DELL who prefer to cripple everything they touch.

See post above.

 

As I mentioned before, the Alienware 18 is hard limited to 330w, this is not due to the AC adapter.

 

Is there anyway some soldering can fix this issue I will literally solder the charging wires directly to the mb to make the ultimate alienware if possible. There are too many flaws in this system.

 

You most likely will need some sort of shunt type mod resistor setup because this limit comes from the Embedded Controller (not sure if its from the Bios directly, and to be honest that is irrelevant.). You would need a schematic of the mainboard and then a way to make the system think it is using less current than it actually is (the same concept as soldering certain ohm resistors for shunt mods on video cards).

 

You would also need to consider enhancing the VRM capabilities, it was obviously not intended to pull anything more than 330w. Though those with more knowledge of the individual mosfets installed would be able to say more on that.

Reminds me of the volt mods for desktop GPUs on OCN. Fun stuff, once you have a strategy in place.

 

Can someone provide some high res photos of that AW mobo?

At least bypassing the current measurement/direct wiring the MXM sockets would help a lot, on the other side, can the cooling system of the AW handle two 1070 pumping 150Watts plus some 80-100W from the CPU?

 

I can provide some images of the mb and I think the power supply will just about have enough leverage to run everything at stock. Ofc when I do the mod I will undervolt the gpus to overclock the cpu. This will just about give enough leverage taking a total of 350w

 

Progress...... for 4k edp on alienware 18 (LAST POST I PROMISE!!!)


Those are display port lines that can be intercepted, soldering to those pins and connecting to an lcd will result in a display, HOPEFULLY. Ofc I know I have to add backlight control and such from lvds connector.

 

Good luck, just make a thread in the AW section and you can upload your progress as you go.

 

Not the greatest 8700K sample. But, not the worst. I'm getting bored with the DM-G now, LOL.

 

Great score! I hope that I'll come close to it with my 920XM

Ask @Khenglish about the bypass wire he did on his MXM slot (in order to pull more power). I think that this is the way to fool the OCP (OverCurrent Protection). I think it only measures what passes through it (the main power regulator) and not to each individual component. So two wires that go from the power connector to each MXM slot might do the trick.

 

Surely there must be a voltage difference between the mxm and power connector, that seems a bit too easy.

 

No voltage difference. The main MXM power supply is whatever your laptop is fed (19V, 19.5V, 20V). There are auxiliary power inputs however (3.3V, 5V) and they drive other stuff, but again the one you need is the one you have readily available. Whether or not it is safe to do that, again ask @Khenglish. What I know for sure is that I'm planing to do just that, since my laptop has an OCP as well.

 

New scores.
https://valid.x86.fr/3ynpju


53x http://hwbot.org/submission/3877535_papusan_wprime___32m_core_i7_8700k_2sec_734ms?recalculate=true


50x http://hwbot.org/submission/3877536...re_i7_8700k_1min_26sec_711ms?recalculate=true

51x in Wprime 1024M will probably be too much for the small DM-G cpu heatsink.
BGABook,TurdBook,JokeBook,... A dear UGLY child is known by many names!!

 

You should delid your cpu it might make temps a bit better, maybe don't use a razor though, I delidded my 6700k with a razor scratched the pcb and you could see the copper underneath on one section. Miraculously it survived and worked fine as well as the temps being MUCH LOWER!

 

And what shows that I haven't? Maybe re-read the thread title. We talk about +150w power consumption which you probably know will be converted into heat. All this heat has to be removed with the smaller and older DM-G cpu heatsink who was designed for the 4 core Skylake. Of course the processor is delidded. In the same way as I prefer for all my processors.

For the records... This below is i7-8700k running 5GHz in Cinebench R15 in a desktop. And you can find my Cinebench run with 5.1GHz in post #527


If you haven't the facts or didn't bear to read the whole thread, maybe ask before you come with your conclusions or just read the whole thread.

 

It takes some guts to delid a £320 processor, good to know you did it though and yes I didn't read the thread in its entirety which I will do lol.

 

Almost all of us do this. I don't even bother checking temps before a delid any more because it is a waste of time and thermal paste. I do it as soon as I take the CPU out of the box. My first several delids were done with a razor blade. That takes guts, especially the first time. Then I bought a RockitCool delid tool. With the delid tool there is essentially no risk involved. I have delidded 4790K (1), 6700K (3), 7700K (3), 8700K (4) and 7940X (1). All of them run 15-20°C cooler after delid, so doing it requires no thought or debate. At least in my case, choosing to delid is a no-brainer and a given... like brushing my teeth, taking a shower and combing my hair every morning. Skipping those things ruins my day.

 

I can add in some useful info for you as well. Never forget what normally will happen with higher and higher temp... The power consumption rises with temperature (because of I2R losses). Higher wattage/power consumption = More heat. A never ending evil circle if you are at border in temperature land and which can only be solved with better cooling/or cooling intended for the processors. Better cooling can help you to lower voltage and as a nice results this will lower the Power consumption and heat. Or higher overclock

 

I have pretty much lost track of how many CPU's i have delidded by now. I actually delidded a friends 8700k yesterday with a razor blade. He was sweating bullets, and im doing my thing all casual.

The delid tool however is just so convenient and easy to use. However, i still do not suggest people use 3D Printed ones, to save a few dollars.

Its funny to see @Papusan complain about heat haha!

 

Yep reminds me of when I delidded my 6700k to be honest I thought I would mess it up and took the ihs off with the razor quickly but confidently. The PCB was damaged badly on one side. I thought it wouldn't work so I was like 'it's worth a try' and somehow I saw the 'style notebook' bios screen come up on my p771dm-g and I was amazed. I have only been doing this for less than a year, was 18 when I started 'laptop mods' but started micro soldering at 16, replacing iphone power ic's, charging ports etc...

I know more about phones than laptops but I have a genuine interest in this stuff which is why I do what I do!

Edit: Alienware 18 + GTX 1070 SUCESS post coming in 30 minutes @sicily428 a heads up!

 

It is done: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/successful-alienware-18-msi-gtx-1070-mxm.818900/

 

I checked the 8086k was worth keeping before i put it in the tool

 

https://twitter.com/VideoCardz/stat...ault#version=48537a333e429dcb726ce9cdcc57a44f

get some stickers

 

Last benchmarks before my summer vacations to Canary Islands

http://hwbot.org/submission/3879631...5_core_i7_8700k_18.53_points?recalculate=true


52x http://hwbot.org/submission/3879625_papusan_cinebench___r15_core_i7_8700k_1708_cb?recalculate=true



BGABook,TurdBook,JokeBook,

 

There are some people out there on eBay that will delid for you for a rather reasonable price. They even offer the choice of liquid metal to be used, and will even use your custom IHS if you have one.

 

Wait until September! Intel will release an 8-core that will hopefully still be compatible with Z370 chipset (and by extension, compatible with your DM-G).

 

If they are compatible I will buy one for my desktop and use my excellent 8700K sample from the desktop in the P870DM-G. I am not planning to spend any more money on laptops at this time. The P870DM-G upgrades demonstrated in this thread will most likely be my last hurrah in laptop-land. I've pretty much lost interest in laptops because all of them are either a hopeless cause (BGA filth) or they require too many firmware and hardware mods to make them into something awesome. Literally every laptop made today is either engineered poorly, firmware crippled, broken and/or otherwise screwed up off the shelf. Some are all of those things. I am tired of rewarding OEM/ODM incompetence by funding more of the same bull crap.

 

@Mr. Fox Sadly this is true, due to the trend of slimmer laptops everything has become bga. Everything was good until nvidia threw out the mxm spec and started designing different shaped cards. Now companies are axing off mxm slots in their laptops or making their own style of cards.

The two alienware 18's I bought will be one of the LAST laptops I will probably use and mod. Unless I buy a clevo p870dm-g.

Even the new MSI whitebook is a decent upgradable machine but it costs a lot and sadly there aren't many laptops around like that. Clevo laptops have become significantly thicker making them look more like briefcases than laptops.

The idea was to make a laptop with decent thickness around 35-45mm which is fully upgradable and doesn't overheat. That would be a laptop I would buy!

 

Are you sure Clevos are getting thicker?



Compare the P870 to the old "breifcase"



The P870 isn't too bad for thickness imo, its not noticably different to my Alienware M17X R2. except it doesn't weigh quite as much.

 

I was talking about the p750dm or the p770dm that is actually slim compared to the p870dm.

 

I absolutely despise thin and light laptops. That is, in part, why most of them are garbage. The P870XX family is the closest thing to a perfect laptop that money can buy. It's definitely not perfect, but is very good as long as it has @Prema firmware. Without it, it's a crippled throttle pig. But, the specs, size and weight are ideal in my opinion. Build quality is also excellent.

 

I don't like too thin or size zero lappies. I'm old school kind of a guy, so I'm used to thicker laptop(s) eventhough I'm quite young.
Thin is okay if it performs alright when you're traveling abroad. I don't like iPad since using a laptop is far easier and comfortable rather than using a crippled system.
Prema BIOS is recommended these days and its essential as human basic needs example, food, water, house and clothing.

 

I wanted a *portable* gaming beast, this is the reason why I bought a Dell precision 7710 with a 6920hq processor and upgraded the gpu to a gtx 1070. I needed something that is formal as well as upgradable as well as thin and something that can fit in my bag and not make me look like a nerd lol.

This is why I like the slightly thinner laptop category. What I despise is BGA gpu's, as long as the laptop is mxm upgradable and I buy the best processor available and overclock it extremely I'm fine with that for a few years. Because realistically why do you need the power of a 8700k in a laptop when you have a desktop capable of the same thing?
Also the precision offers 6 hours of battery life on average which a clevo cannot even reach and believe it or not the processor is not throttled at ALL on battery unless the laptop reaches 7% and that's with a overclock, what laptop can handle that? A slightly slower BGA processor is worth it in my opinion as long as the gpu is UPGRADABLE!
Also the BEST OF ALL is that it doesn't even touch throttling temperatures, Dell truly made an amazing laptop which is questionable for in the alienware category.

Everyone has their own requirement it seems.

Edit: Me buying the 2 alienware 18's for £600 made business sense I will make more money of the lappies by modding them and then selling them. Otherwise I will never keep an alienware 18. That is the REAL briefcase LOL.

 

I have same requirements as well. For university I got a gaming laptop w/ optimus for longer battery runtimes. But, Precision was very very expensive here. And upgrades even costs more.

 

Once you buy a precision, preferably a 7710 or 7720 you will love it. I had the same issue with it costing a lot, it cost me around 1.5k and I worked my a** off to get it last year. It is WELL worth the money though. The build quality, the sound quality, the screen, literally everything is perfect. It's thin but HEAVY due to the 3 heatpipes it has to cool the gpu and cpu down.
The equivalent is a Lenovo p71 or hp zbook but unfortunately they both whitelist gpus in the bios so that is a no go for me.

Your pretty much the same age as me so you would understand how people would be like if you brought in a 'state of the art' gaming laptop with full rgb into a lecture hall.

 

@Mr. Fox you even mention the Clevo throttles without a bios mod. The precision does not at ALL. There will soon be a time where at least the gpu or cpu in a laptop will become bga I hope it's neither but if I were to choose it would be the latter. I'm sure by then you would have moved to pc too. I just hope it never comes to it though...

 

There is actually hardly any difference in the size and weight between the Alienware 18, M18x or the 17-inch Clevo monsterbooks I have had the pleasure of owning. I'd go as far as to say the difference in size and weight is totally irrelevant.

Here is a comparison... From top to bottom, and in the order of greatest to least greatest beasts that I have ever owned... P870XX is the clear winner, followed closely by the P570WM. (What the P570WM lacked in aesthetics, it more than made up for in the beautifulness of brute force.)

 

i got a couple of 20" laptop that can't be made to stack up to one another as it'll damage the ones below it. you got good collection sir, those are vintage stuff, from just 5 yrs ago LOL

 

do you actually still own all of them as of today?

Sent from my Xiaomi Mi Max 2 (Oxygen) using Tapatalk

 

Nope. After seeing the Viking perma-broken with a power-handling limit less than it needed for the CPU and 780M SLI to sustain a nice overclock, and then seeing their follow-up was worthless BGA garbage, I wrote them off as trash-peddlers and got rid of everything with the Alienware name. The 18, M18xR2, M18xR1 and my closet full of spare parts. No regrets... Never looked back after jumping to Clevo and hooking up with Brother @Prema. I still have a black Alienware baseball cap as a souvenier and melancholy reminder of the once great company they used to be. The brand is totally dead to me now.

 

The Viking and Ranger truly were there last decent Alienware notebooks in my opinion, with how easy the Ranger is to upgrade, and the way they physically look, is truly stunning. TBH BGA isn't that a big a deal for me, I just don't like that its non-upgradeable, I like to be able to upgrade. And they look truly horrid

 

THIS.... http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/new-to-17-r1.820045/#post-10753289

 

You must mean the last decent Alienware notebooks, as anything in Clevo P7 or P8 product lines totally destroys anything they have ever released in a notebook.

BGA is a big deal to me for a few reasons. Being locked out of upgrades is only a small part of why BGA sucks. Item #3 in the list is the underlying reason and the inability to upgrade is merely a consequence of of #3.

1. It is an inescapable matter of fact that BGA CPUs are inferior, poorly binned and less powerful (they put them in turdbooks because people that buy them have lower standards)
2. Guarantees you have disposable junkbooks, cannot be properly serviced - super crazy stupid expensive motherboard includes an inferior CPU (and, where applicable, a GPU)
3. Selfish, despicable, greedy and dishonest shysters that do not care about the products they build and sell, or the silly people that buy them, are the drivers behind it

 

@Mr. Fox not all bga processors are BADLY binned my 6920hq reaches its max overclock of 4ghz on an undervolt which doesn't power limit throttle, current limit throttle or thermal throttle on sustained loads for hours... it performs better than the alienware 18 in this regard too because it doesn't throttle the frequency down after 20 seconds or well ever.

Edit: I partially agree on point 2 though because these machines are CRAZY expensive but the performance you receive is truly outstanding.