Alienware M17/OCZ Whitebook. The best way to solve your sound shuttering problem -- Undervolt the CPU, or downclock it.

Now the reviews regarding the Quad Core are more than enough, but not sure if you are the one who wants to overclock the CPU. I spent a little time yesterday reading the Thread 'Quad Problems,' and I tried not to use RMclock in the first place. Guess what, it shuttered even with the latest OCZ BIOS and Realtek R2.25. However, if you opened up the HWMonitor, you saw the shuttering happened when the CPU Temp reached at 99C. Therefore, you know the CPU is definitely overheating!

My results: If you keep the CPU at 2.66GHz(QX9300), it seems that you can run it at 1.2V. Haven't got the Prime95 and 3DMark2006 CPU test done yet, but I will try to do more testing for it later. If you want to overclock a little bit, fine, 2.93GHz at about 1.2375V. Look at it, it's already 0.04V more so you know this CPU will go crazily hot when it reaches 3.06GHz.

My advice to all of you who would like to use RMclock is that you should keep the multiplier in BIOS as integers, so you won't lose any speed/throttle when you use RMClock.

Verdict: Don't be greedy to reach 3.0GHz or up, you will probably get shuttering if you do that, and I believe 1.3125V is the voltage you need to go!

 

your cpu hit 99C?????? i have yet to get mine over 80C and thats at 3.2ghz, i always have HW monitor open as well. I have no stuttering on my computer and i have an SSD.

 

3.2 and 3.2 is fine with the quad as long as imo you make sure you keep proper cooling and do the shim mod

 

you must have applied the paste or some thing wrong

 

I do have proper cooling, but what do you mean by the shim mod?

 

I don't think so, I have reseated it for quite a while, but there are some other people having the problem with sound shuttering, then it seems to be the CPU hitting 99C and it's forced to downclock it..

 

no i mean i have not seen 99c very often.....i know they stutter but thats kinda high

 

Well I re-seated it once more. Same idle temp(45-53C) at 2.93GHz, 1.2375V, and loaded temp(could go up to almost 90C). After I undervolt the CPU, I didn't get any sound shuttering.

I believe that might be it. However, could you tell me what temps you got for your Alienware M17/OCZ Whitebook?

 

with my t9400 @ 3 ghz i dont go over like 64c under full load of orthos

 

How about QX9300? You got a chance to record the temp? I believe dual core is very easy to achieve OC without any temp issues.

 

nope i dont own it but i have not seen any one on here hitting that high regularly

PM Don or Hellcry or Halogod

 

I've had mine at 3.06ghz(QX9300) since a day after I got it, and even under full load, I've never seen it get above 72c . Even after two full hours of burn in.

 

Now I guess I get a little more about this setup. When I ran RMClock, I realized I had to force the CPU to run as 'Mobile' in order to get the good temperatures. Now I am running at 2.93GHz, 1.125V and it seems ok. However, here are two things I want you to take a look at. If you are tested with any CPU Stress tests(Prime95 --279), the CPU is running at about 80C after a few times of fluctuations, but if you look at the RMclock closely, it's actually running at half of the throttle.(50%). Are you guys sure you are running at 100% throttle when it's even stress-tested? When I played games, it's stayed at 80-90C but the throttle is 100%. Interestingly though, the 1st core is running at 90C while the 2nd one is 75C, the 3rd and the 4th being about 60s. I am not sure if that game is fully utilizing the Quad Core.

 

Yes, I am familiar with native software throttling. I throttled the proc through vista, and I tested them running at 100% at high and low bar. Still never gets above 72c. Also I have been unable to clock the frequency up past 3.06ghz. I always use stock voltage.

 

a QX9300 can range anywhere from low 70s max to high 80s max, depending on how well the cooling system is and how well the thermal paste is applied (and the quality of it). The highest of all my cores hits 73c with Noctua NTH1 thermal paste.

 

Now I am trying for the lowest temperature and see how low I can go. I found a problem. When it was hitting at 2.4GHz, 1.05v, the idle temperature was still about 50C. I am using Windows 7. Would you think the OS is the problem to report the temps?

 

Thats always a posibility, but you can use your hand to some degree(no pun intended) to tell if it is unusually hot on the bottom of the notebook. Well I guess that may not work for everyone, it depends on how much hands-on(no pun) time you have with mobile solutions.

 

did you try project freeze or the quad ore problem thread?????
also i have hit some high temps with my qx9300 since it has gotten hotter.
before project freeze
5 mins of cpu test


dmc4 benchmark


some more benchmarks


this is before i did some modifacations. one mod is cuting the bottom out.
sorry i don't have the results of when i was finish. but my temps have dropped drasactically. between 5-15 degree because of airflow. also i don't have a cooler so it would be a even bigger inprovment.

final job






also why are you saying not to pass 2.93 or 2.83. every person i have seen with this cpu has it at 3.06 min. the highest is 3.5. i was at 3.2. the heat doesn't cause stuttering. this was diproved by rob41 with a x9100 @3,5ghz when he hit 90c and recieved nothing. this is also not a software conflict because it was also done in linux.

it is a physical design flaw that was overlook the heatsink was made. because the quad looks like this. sorry it is a picutre of a basd picture



dual core


so as you can see, the diffence between the sizes. when the heatsink is on the quad, it doesn't go all the way on the northbridge, thus stuttering occurs. this is why the copper mod was put in place (after a month of trials and error. we thought of the idea, halogod was the first to apply it and it was sucessful then zfactor also did it and it was sucessful. then i tried and my system ran flawless.)



about undervolting your cpu, i didn't try it to much because of the fact the cpu is already not getting enough volts and at 3.2ghz a slight undervolt bluescreened after 20mins of prime. so i can't help you out on what you should be about but i can help you out.

 

One question about the mod. Does the original Alienware M17 bottom cover contain such ventilation layouts yet? I know Alienware M15x has good bottom cover to maximize the air flow, but not sure about the M17.

 

it has the same bottom cover so if you were to mod it will be at the same spot.

 

the m17 CPU vent is poorly placed to say the least

 

Heya Guys and Gals,
I have been having sound issues while playing games with my m17 since i got it and alienware has been no help. I have been playing around with everything and think i found something that works! Been playing WoW, Warcraft 3 with no issues recently.
There is a new BIOS update u can DL but it didnt fix my issues. However I did disable catalysyt AI in the ATI command center and the game ran GREAT! If u disable catalyst AI trees and even your hair will be translucent. U can also change the slider from "standard" to "advanced" which also makes the game run perfectly fine. I get NO sound lag with itunes, firefox, norton all running in the background. Also with advanced your head and the trees arent see through haha =P
Nefficus-
(Hope this workls for some of you like it did me)
Oh btw I am not claiming I am the first to do this I accidently found it while playing around with the control center.

 

that is a temp fix because of the voltage issue that also plagues this manchine however you should still stutter. use hwmontier and watch your temps when you get to 43-46 you should start and then 65-??? you should lso start. tbe stutter also happens when your fans start to spin up.

 

Doesn't disabling Catalyst AI in the CCC disable your second vid card?

 

yeah it does.

 

for some reason I get stuttering in the witcher enhanced.

It doesnt matter if it has the settings on high or low, same in ccc. I can change it from high performance, to performance and it still stutters in certain places.

I installed 9.6 drivers and I havent even tried to oc the cpu yet. I have b13 bios also

So is there a real solution to this sound stuttering and basic lagg in games?

Oh yeah, I forget to mention that it stutters like a million times right when I first begin playing a game.

 

only one game. if so then you need an older driver.

 

haha yeah, but it is the enhanced version.

Oh well, I think it must be the driver because wth...I can run prototype at all max settings and have no stuttering even though I running 50mph and blowing up things in the path.

I would of thought that newer drivers would have everything from the old driver mashed into it?

 

off topic
how is prototype. i heard it's soooooooooooooooooooooo good. i am thinking about buying it.

 

haha yeah man, I couldnt stop playing it last night. I couldnt stop killing everything.

Pretty much a game where if you love to mess everything up in GTA, this is the game for you. I could never beat gta because I always love to see how many cops I could get on me.

Now, compared to GTA...you cannot get any car and drive it around. but you can pick it up and run up to the top of the building and throw it Lol.

theres only a few things you can drive. I have only got to the all terrain vehicle.

but anyways, it is fun as hell.

 

i'm going to check out ssome videos of it.

 

I think it would be cool if there was some kind of online mode.

In the game you have these little quests to do. They are like little games you can play. Some have you kill as many peopleor zombies in the certain time. Some have you run as fast as u can to checkpoints, then theres a gliding game where fly onto this target.

all of which have 3 medals you can earn. It said something about beating all of them on gold and then being able to do them on platinum, but I havent got to that point, even though I beat them all on gold ;x

its so addicting lol

 

i just saw the 5 min demo on gamespot.com. o like it. i want it even more. can you max it out mno problems.

 

I have a P9500 here and I also have that sound shuttering issues in my games / circumstances, it does seem to be when the system is under considerable stress tough. Im also buying a Soundblaster PCMIA tomorrow for different reasons but i'll let you guys know if its solved by that it could be the onboard chip that has some issues.

Also , just by OCing my two card to 708mhz and 900mhz clock i gained 3000 in 3dmarks06

from 11000 to 14000 and the heat is very tolerable with no alterations to the stock vents.

 

yeah, i have no problem maxing out the game on 1920x2000. it doesnt stutter or anything and im a little surprised because its a very fast moving game.

oh and IT IS AWESOME!!!

 

What did u use to oc them?

 

I used AMD GPU clock tool, i was interested in the flash bios thing to get Ati overdrive to work .. but that seems way too risky / not working.

Also did you end up getting that notebook cooler? And how was the difference in temps? I run a little too close to max temps to my liking.

 

Back from the grave...
Darkpreacher had sound shuttering in games with his dual core on an M17, and was going to try out a Soundblaster PCMCIA (hopefully he meant ExpressCard) external chip to alleviate using the onboard chip, but never posted back results.

I just received my Soundblaster Notebook X-Fi (ExpressCard) in the mail today, so I'm going to test it out over the next couple days, and see if it helps my stuttering at all. I most definately will post back my results however.

The intesting point here is that the ExpressCard Architecture uses a mesh of PCI-E and USB interfaces. USB interfaces run off the southbridge, so that being said, this may actually alleviate some of the work that the northbridge is actually doing and instead push it to the Southbridge. Only time will tell.

Marvie

 

Game lag
Shuttering sound

& Big lags if i try to record my game with Fraps

 

No it doesn't

 

niceee! i completely agree!

 

Have we pinpointed the stuttering issue?

I have even tried to remove the bottom cover with the laptop cooler blowing on it.

Only if i lower the settings in game, (Left for dead, fully cranked settings) down to lower res. and so on... then its playable.

I want to do the copper mod, but just dont wanna order copper online.

Any local stores have this?

 

Any Lowes, or Tractor Supply Company should carry copper, though I cant vouch for its quality.