GT780DX Upgraded to GTX 980M & i7-2960XM

Sweeeet. Thats perfect.

 

Haven't used Nvidia Inspector in awhile, but it is safe to use to get my vBIOS verison correct? Or is there a different/better method?

I will need to order more Fujipoly pads for the CPU heatsink so that may be a few days out still

I would like to update this post with a list of drivers I will be installing, may have some questions

Thanks

 

Also, I get what you were saying @AdamManMsi about no hybrid Intel graphics being a major advantage - but my question is, doesn't the i7-2960XM have Intel graphics built in and will that interfere?

 

Yes that is correct. That chip does have Intel Graphics, but that motherboard...1st and 2nd generation..do not use it. They are GPU only, as you see there is no Intel Graphics listed under display drivers and it does not even recognize it. Because of that your GPU is straight to screen and you will have smoother Transitions and better frame rates and a much better playability. It should be just about the ultimate laptop that you can build. It'll be the best gamer that you've ever seen once you get that processor in it. The 16-inch version of that laptop that I built for my friend scores over 10,000 on the Final Fantasy 14 Benchmark and a $2,000 brand new Alienware with the 7th gen i7 and all that jazz only scores in the 8000s.

 

And of course I've told you it has the same processor and same video card as yours, it is the exact same machine that you have only it's a 16 in instead of a 17-inch version. It is a MSI GT685dxr

 

You can use Nvidia inspector if you wish, but if the machine came on and is using the card and going up to its full capability of a hundred percent. Then there is no issue or real reason to mess with the V bios.
I normally don't mess with it unless there is a definite problem. If it's not broke don't fix it. That's what that programmer buddy of mine had to pound in my head

 

VBIOS with the boost disable ends up in a smother gameplay, I have mine locked to 1200Mhz for gaming, and then, on light things it idles away at 135Mhz, it might, or might not help, but I noticed a small improvement in smothness during gaming, because the GPU would be hunting the clock up and down a bit(like 50-80Mhz variations) and it ends up causing tiny stutters.

I have a 980m as you have, and TBH, it can everything so far, I dont foam out of my mouth if I can't run something and ULTRA MEGA SUPER DUPER settings, medium settings and ultra on a 17inch display dont make much difference in image quality..

 

@senso thanks, are you referring to Svet's vBIOS?

@AdamManMsi - would do a lot more research before I would touch the vBIOS but I have seen good results with Svet's help in the past. Next up is getting the processor installed

Also, is it safe for me to leave the computer idling while I have it connected to the 180W adapter / .35A fan? Temps are good but I don't want to harm the system or the card. Also don't want to wear out the thermal pads because I'm going to keep them when I go to upgrade the cpu. Doom (new Doom) was running around 60 fps (not a steady 60 fps, but still stable) but in a less demanding game like Stasis I was getting a few micro stutters. I figure that even with the 2760QM I'm pushing the limits of the 180W

 

I'm also thinking that the i7-2960XM will overshadow most of the gains made by flashing a custom vBIOS, I could be wrong though

 

I made a couple mods myself and they kinda worked, but I heard about Svet, so I sent him a donation and got the Vbios and the EC editor, so I could run custom fan curves without having to use the MSI Silent Option program, his VBios works well.

Only BF1 with 64 player server puts the CPU usage at/over 80%, all other games are GPU limited even on FHD resolutions, the usual is 30-50% cpu usage and 99% GPU usage, this is with a i7-4720HQ, your CPU wIll have a similar performance, the VBIOS is not a must, nor it will turn a 980m into a 1070, its just another tweak on an overall optimised laptop to suit my needs.

If you are not pushing the system, 180Watts is enough for everyday usage, if you want to game anything GPU intensive, wait for the new charger.

You might end up being limited by your cooler, its a single fan design, and it can only dissipate so much, even if you throw in a fan that moves a lot more air, the fin area is the same, so it will hit a thermal plateau aka can't dissipate any more.

 

Some very good points. But with this .65 amp fan you should move twice as much air, and I know that they have used those to help with the heat issue on that video card. Yes the tiny shutters you're seeing is because of the processor and more than likely because of throttling due to lack of power. It should all smooth out once you get to new charger. I wouldn't push it too hard for now but i would bet once u have all the parts amd charger the small studders will go away. A lot of that is caused because the 2700 series only has a 6mb cache and the 2900 series will have the 8mb cache which will help tremendously.

 

You should be fine to leave the system idling, and use it for common everyday usage.

 

Thank you, at most I ran some quick games to see what it could do - Doom, Deus Ex, Alien Isolation - but none of them for more than 10 minutes max - there was not any noticeable stuttering and temps never went higher than 76 degrees. I'm going to hold off on doing anything more than basic web browsing until I install the CPU. And my 4K monitor got picked up by the card, so its running in 4K with HDR as an option (although it looks washed out in Windows 10 which I had read about)

 

Sounds awesome. I look forward to seeing the results of the final build.

 

Just to confirm, the height of all of the pads on the CPU heatsink should be...? (Ordering additional Fujipoly pads)

Thanks

 

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=181716.0

Should be 1mm. I was wrong. I said .5mm before but thats wrong. According to msi ypu need 1mm on all cpu pads. 1mm on memory on gpu and .5mm on processing chips on gpu. Look at this thread. It shows it all

 

Yeah, I followed the hand drawn sketch in that post to a T, but that meant I stacked the .5mm. Ran out of that and only had 1.5mm remaining, so I used that for the very top chips. All of the VRAM chips have .5mm, the taller large grey squares have doubled-up .5mm as do the row between them. Basically the only time I used 1.5mm was at the "top" of the card to cover those three chips. All of this is with 17W/mK pads.

The PK-3 was very, very thick, but I spread it to cover the whole GPU.

For the arm, which needs .5mm according to that post, I didn't have enough so I just left what was on there which looked clean and was the factory pad from what I could tell...

So when I remove the CPU heatsink I should replace whatever is in there with 1mm - the CPU portion of that post is kind of vague and the ruler seems like a guide the way he took the pictures

 

Is it normal to have to apply a little bit of additional pressure to get the heatsink screws to "bite"? I figured that with my row of 1.5mm pads it might prevent the heatsink from sitting in place. All of the screw holes aligned perfectly and once I gripped the first screw slightly, I of course went diagonally to the other one, but I had to put some force on it to get it to grip the threads.

When I open it up I will replace the 1.5mm pads with 1mm - but with temps like these I am nervous to change anything!

 

Yes 1mm pads is the key. Because that will give you the proper distance on the CPU and help maintain the proper thickness of thermal paste. I usually put 1mm on there and I have no issues.

 

The CPU heat pads are not nearly as important as the graphics card. That's what really matters the most I usually also take a half millimeter and go on the outside Square around the GPU processor die, that way it creates an actual seal around the processor die and there's no chance of any paste coming out. And it helps with Cooling. There's the Center Square which is the processor die and then the outer square, like a picture frame.

 

It's idling at 36 currently, can that get lower? If I put a .5mm barrier around the GPU, should I then switch to Coolaboratory Ultra (liquid metal)? I already have it on hand...would I do GPU and CPU with liquid metal?

Re: the GPU heatsink my question was is it usually necessary to apply some force to get the screws the mate with the threads?

.65A fan and 230W charger are arriving today

 

I would use no liquid metal. Paste only. I had a friend who put liquid metal and thought it was awesome until it got hot and ran all over the inside of his machine and shorted out the motherboard. It is highly conductive. The reason that you're having to put a little pressure on the heatsink for the GPU is normal. Just make sure that you have the right half millimeter and 1 millimeter pads in the correct places. The screws are spring loaded so you have to compress the spring in order to get the screw to bite

 

Ok, well right now I defintiely don't have it correct - there is a 1.5mm strip along the top row and that is where I met the most resistance when mounting the heatsink, it worked but it was tight

 

You have to create a border around the CPU die otherwise there is a chance of that happening.

 

With what though - foam? pads? nail polish?

 

People use various materials for that, nail polish is one( multi layer ), some kind of thick pad with adhesive for another or stacking super (either 88+ or 33+ i cant remember atm) electronic tape.

 

Thanks for that...the big question is, although there is a lot of pressure between the die/heatsink already, when I flip the laptop to work inside of it, it seems that is where it could leak if the material has thinned out

Overall sounds like too high a risk for this project - if I can learn more and take the right precautions it might be considered

 

IF you cant overclock to begin with and dont throttle then dont worry about it.

I need it for my machine.

 

That's very true. The processor will overclock itself when necessary. The turbo button will not work. At least it didn't on the 16-inch machine. But when push hard the turbo would come on automatically and it would run when necessary and then shut itself back off.

 

Once you get to 230 watt charger you should not see any problem with throttling issues.

 

What do you have buddy? We have MSI's. I have two 16-inch machines and 2 17inch machines.

 

Just my Ranger in the sig.

Its got problems that I cant really work on until I am working again, there's also the m4600 but thats just my plex media server.

I had a y510p SLI that I killed with liquid metal, I didnt do the proper precautions at all and applied waaaaaaaaaaaay too much LM.

 

Good to know. That's what I was warning this guy about liquid metal. Not really a good idea

 

Installing CPU - locking mechanism doesn't seem to go fully in the locked position - normal?

 

When unlocked it goes to about to a "4 o'clock" position and hits the nub - I get that

But to be locked should it stop at roughly "8 o'clock"?

 

Not sure if I need to turn harder to lock it all the way in, I'm meeting resistance at about 8'o'clock, so the line will be diagonal when locked if that makes sense

 

Its not a good idea to use the entire vial on 1 application with no tape or nail polish, no. Otherwise its fine. Your premise is misleading, its something you should do your homework before trying, just like this project the OP is undertaking at the moment.

 

@AdamManMsi - when you've worked on these does the CPU flat-head screwdriver lock go all the way or does it match the "nub" leaving the line that is where you put the flathead screwdriver at a diagonal?

 

Mine does not look like in this pic:



It is right now at a diagonal and if I twist it any further to match the pic I am worried it is going to break, please help

 

Seemed stuck, but got it

 

It may have been something in the socket. It should turn a full 180 degrees from the locked to the unlocked position. I would make sure that it didn't bend any of the pins on the processor, normally I only meet resistance like that when one of the pins is misaligned.

 

Did you get it to post. There's no reason that it shouldn't work because you had that 2760 in there and the 2960 is in the same family and it should work just fine. Just curious if you got it to post with the upgraded processor as well as your video card. I would definitely wait until you get all the proper thermal pads and get it pads and pasted properly before you start using it very much

 

Not sure why it resisted but with a little extra torque locked in place. POSTed first time.

A 980M + i7-2960XM in an MS-1761 with a .65A fan, PK-3 Prolimatech paste, Fujipoly 17W/mK pads, 230W adapter is idling at 36 degrees GPU and 38 degrees CPU - WOW

Thank you guys for your help, going to run some games and put regular updates here

The only thing not exactly to spec is the height of a few of the thermal pads, plus factory pads had to be re-used for the whole CPU heatsink

But it POSTed right away, no issues, I respread the paste on the GPU and used PK-3 for the CPU

Not running on a solid state yet, but there will be a Samsung EVO 860 Pro for the OS drive and RAM will be fully upgraded to best available (12800, 32GB) very soon..

 

..and just for good measure upgraded my screen to the 90% gamut AU Optronics glossy screen (not yet calibrated)

 

System info and device manager still think it's a 2760QM, but CPU-Z shows correct info

Can I test games before doing a clean install or bad idea before having correct drivers?

 

Going to do clean install, which drivers are essential and in what order?

 

After research seems that it's only an outdated registry entry, but that performance will not be affected. Once I put together a plan for driver installation and get familiar with what I need to install I will clean install the OS

..about to launch Doom (2016)

 

Doom runs great, but there is noticeable frame dropping every few seconds

Temps are all at good levels

Going to do clean OS install now for testing and will re-do it again once I have learned the correct drivers to install

 

yes, will need your advice

 

..oh this thing is awesome, gameplay is smooth with no stuttering since the OS reinstall - I'm just using Win 10 drivers found via Windows update + Nvidia latest official driver

Doom can't hold 60 FPS consistently...but it nearly can which is very impressive...maybe with further tweaking I can get it there

..getting some sleep now, will update tomorrow