M860ETU/NP8662 and QX9300 Quad Processor-AOK!

Finally got my M860ETU!

I ordered barebone from RJTech so I had to install everything except for the WLAN.

1 - Super easy. Took 15 minutes to put the CPU, heatsink(huge!), HD, and RAM.

2 - Windows 7 Install - Another 15-20 minutes, including drivers (what a joke, just click update driver and point to CD).

Total install probably took 45 minutes (too excited to keep track of time).

Benchmarks:

3Dmark:



Vantage:



Someone else will need to pick up the baton and run a "true" stress testing. OEM QX9300 currently available on ebay for $500. Perhaps a new thread, a simple step-by-step procedure to keep the results as objective and accurate as possible.

So far, I'm very pleased with the laptop-

 

wow it's hot.

 

Small price to pay-

Hopefully, on the next couple generation of processors, quads can be manufactured for 35W (or maybe 25W).

 

Still good, only 7X °C. Try to run 2 Orthos in 9 Priority, or just run prime95, it can load all 4 cores.

 

Congrats, k9hydr4. Those idle temps are a little on the warm side. Like kaltmond said, run two instances of Orthos and set the cpu affinity for each instance to two cores each. Your temps at full load should plateau in the 80's after 20 minutes, if it can last that long.

The ultimate stress/stability test is to run Orthos and Furmark in parallel for 20 minutes to really find the true limits of a machine. The test will turn the power brick into an effective foot warmer after a few minutes.

 

Yeah well he did put a Quad xtreme 9300 in a 8662 though lol, good job .. Are you using the 260m? or were you planning on going all out and putting a 280m in there as well lol

 

*sigh* It's either quad core now or wait whenever Intel gets around to manufacturing cooler quads.

 

k9hydr4. I just saw your pic of your temps while running Prime95. All four cores are running at 1.6Ghz in CPU-Z.

I agree. I was in the same boat you were in when making that decision. It was either get the quad now or wait until Intel releases the mobile i7.

 

No Plans for a 280M. If and when Clevo releases a notebook with the next gen nVidia card(can't remember the name), I'll probably just sell the M860ETU and get the one that comes native with the super duper laptop---

Like I said, the high temp concerns are overrated-- I say that because it's the nature of gaming laptops with high end video cards. If I wanted a cooler laptop (well I had the Toshiba for that), I'd get a netbook.

I guess we'll see in a few months how the QX9300 will fare in the 15 inch chassis-

 

Oh. Thanks- Too excited to look at the nitty gritty. I'll update later this week.

I thinking around 75-77 C (judging from the orthos figures earlier). If that scares the person who might be thinking of putting one in the M860ETU, then he should not do it.

As for me, I'll enjoy this laptop, warts and all-

Can't wait to install UT3--

 

Congratz with an awsome laptop.

Post some benchmarks when you have the time, like 3dmark and vantage =)

 

nice... and yeah the qx9300 is a space heater lol

 

Lol than what is the I7 desktop in the sager 9280? A small sun...

 

probably will be... the qx9300 in the ocz i have heats up the whole room under central air.. im like whew when i walk out of there... my desktop with a e8500 overclocked to 4.5 on air doesnt even reach those temps..

 

See my Avater.

 

My god that's a huge die. That thing's like the deck of a damn aircraft carrier. Anyone care to land a plane on that blacktop?

 

Hi guys,

I suppose that you dont know what I am going to tell you.
I asked Eurocom about QX9300 CPU option couple months ago.
Eurocom was the only reseller offering this solution in M86TU.

I have been told that CPU heatsink has been modded tu support
QX9300 CPU. (probably fits better to four CPU cores or something).
I guess buy from Eurocom and you have the beast in 15'' small factor
running as cool as possible....

 

k9hydr4, can you post a photo of your heatsink so we can know if it´s the same like normal? thank~~~

 

It is true that the M860TU's massive one-piece heatsink was revised. However, the CPU side of the heatsink is unchanged. The change was to the GPU side to accomodate the wider memory chips on the new GTX 260M. The heatsink can't "fit" the CPU dies any better than it can now. It's just a flat plate of copper pressured against two black acryllic dies with thermal paste sandwiched in between.

Eurocom is pulling your leg, my friend.

 

That's correct--

By the way, can someone tell me where to find the tell tale sign of MT860TU vs. M860ETU deisgnation? So far eveyrthing on the laptop says M860TU- Or is it just a motherboard version?

Thanks!

 

This is good news. I have a 8662 coming today. I'm hoping the Q9100 is sweet spot temp wise in between the Q9000 and QX9300. I'll have to see how it pans out. If not, no big deal to me..

 

I ordered mine with the Q9000 and will be receiving it soon. It will be interesting to note any heat differences as well as game performance.

 

M860TU = First version of the laptop (9 month old)
M860ETU = revised version with support for quadcore (I think the heat sink is the only difference)

 

So the M860TU can get QC if it get the heatsink it requires?

 

From what I understand, the modification was on the GPU side of the heatsink. So theoretically, you can put a quad there now but not a GTX260M.

Of course, just the mere idea of putting a quad in 15 inch chassis makes some people squeamish. My experience so far is that it's an overrated concern. It depends on how you use your laptop(the high temps are the result of stress testing). My temps are consistently in the 39-40C range. I predict around 45-50C with quad optimized games (I play ut3).

There are affordable ES quads out there. The best way really is to test yourself and see if you can live with it.

 

Nope TU bios doesn't support quad although I'm almost certain it support the gtx 260m which come with a heat sink

 

Didn't Kaltmond install a quad in his?

 

I remember somebody trying one in the TU and it didn't work so I gues Kaltmond has a ETU but I might be wrong

[EDIT] yes he has a M860ETU
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=364578

 

H-Emmanuel tried Q9000 and Q9100 (I think) and none of them worked.

 

3DMark:

http://service.futuremark.com/home.action;jsessionid=5FCEDD949AAA4496FEE155D27AE182F0

Vantage:

http://service.futuremark.com/home.action;jsessionid=81020C4FD19906DA05B0F62702C3D986

 

When H-Emmanuel tested the Q9000 and Q9100 on his pre-quad M860TU, the system would not POST because the BIOS did not have the microcode written for the Q9xxx line. But what about the X9100? Clevo never supported that in the system, but it works just fine. This is because all of the Montevina dual-core CPU's share the same instruction set in the BIOS. Clevo was playing the marketing game with the X9100.

Moreso, the motherboard doesn't support the electrical pin out of the Q9xxx. Even if the machine were to operate open-cased with a 200mm fan underneath it, it still would not POST because of the hardware limitations. It's as simple as that.

In k9hydr4's machine, we saw temperatures hit pretty high on only two cores and an idle GPU. However it is still difficult for us to analyze this pragmatically as there are too many missing details and variables. We have no idea what the ambient/room temperature is, whether the M860TU was sitting on a hardwood desk or a cooler, how long the QX9300 was running before Orthos was terminated, and ultimately a proper test of a four core full load at maximum speed for a moderate amount of time (15-20 minutes).

Concerning the revised M860TU and "support" for only the Q9000, I believe that this time around it is indeed a thermal issue for systems with a Q9xxx. Let's say for the sake of an ideal situation that we have an M860TU with the Q9000 and the GTX 260M with both components at stock clocks. Both components share the same heatsink and only one fan. If the CPU is idle and the GPU is at full load, eventually the CPU temps will slowly rise subtly because of the shared heatsink, and vice-versa. However, if both the CPU and the GPU were to run full load from Orthos and Furmark, we would eventually have very high temperatures touching into the 80's and will slowly touch the CPU's TJMax after X minutes. This is not the case with other Clevo machines, and even desktops for this matter, such as the D901C and the M570TU that have one heatsink and one fan dedicated to the CPU and one heatsink and fan dedicated to the GPU. However from a realistic point of view, we do need to worry about this as much because no CPU or GPU run at full load for long periods of time when gaming or in other applications. Nevertheless, this doesn't mean we should not cease monitoring the temperatures or slack off in giving a high performance system the care, maintenance, and respect that it deserves.

 

*sigh*

Here's my executive summary:

Yes, it's too hot. No, you should not install it in your M860ETU/NP8662.

Most people will just have to wait until intel get their act together. Wait even longer until until prices come down at a reasonable level-

 

You are shooting blanks here.

 

I'm new to gaming.

Could you provide a link or discussion on how to conduct gaming benchmarks?

Thanks!

 

http://www.wprime.net/ CPU test

www.Futuremark.com for 3d test's theres at least a free trial

http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php (for heat tests, monitors all hardware temps )

What else guys?

 

Ok. What settings should I use for each tool?

Thanks!

 

Use the default settings for any 3dmark product.

 

I did, but have been accused of shooting blanks, so apparently something is off--

 

Did`nt mean it like that. Its just that we cant see the scores, atleast I can`t. Print screen with scores and upload them to imageshark or something. Sorry if I offended you.

 

No worries. Ill upload when i get home-

 

k9hydr4. You may want to look into undervolting your QX9300 and GTX 260M to lower the temperatures.

 

Will do. What utilities would you recommend?

 

For the CPU, you can use either RMClock or CPUgenie. RMClock unfortunately does not recognise non-integer multipliers so you will be forced to settle with 2.40GHz. CPUgenie does not suffer from this, however the application is trialware. You can use it for 30 days before it prompts you buy a licence. I forgot how much the licence costs, but I'm sure it is not too much.

For the GPU, you will need to obtain a copy of your GPU BIOS with GPU-Z, edit the voltages in NiBiTor, and then flash the new BIOS with nvflash.

 

I got RMclock working- has anyone here figured out the ideal undervolt settings for the Quad core? Kaltmond?

Thanks!

I haven't forgotten about the benchmarks- I just got tied up on other things.

 

You have to find out the stable voltages for the QX9300 on your own as the quality of every chip is different.

 

Ok thanks-

Is it the same for the GPU?

 

Mine is [email protected], default VID is 1.1625V. Read from Core Temp and Everest. I did the hard pin mod to lower Vcore, not per RMClock.

 

Unfortunately, 1.1625V is the lowest I can select from RMClock (max is 1.3750V)

 

Read from Core Temp or Everest, i think it should give you the correct VID. CPU-Z and RMClock are higher than that.

 

Benchmarks:

3Dmark:



Vantage: