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Hahaha, don't worry :D Welcome to T|I!

Here's the watercooling thread of Jahnsinn, pretty cool if you ask me, but of course not portable. http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m15x/2220-%5Bguide%5D-m15x-water-cooling.html

Yeah its one awesome mod I thought. I like having portability when needed but mostly use my lappy as a DTR. The cooling mod is really impressive though and its a great step forward. I imagine someday an even smaller setup could be used.

Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2

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This has been an excellent thread. Think I've read it start to end about three times. This is my first post as a new member on TI, so forgive me if the format is not correct.

To Jahnsinn: You mention in a post on the 15th September that you are going to try liquid cooling on the GPU in the M15x. Is this a custom modified heatsink or where are sourcing the heatsink from? What is a liquid cooling heatsink? (copper tubes filled with mercury or the like?)

To Jahnsinn: In one of your earlier posts you made reference to purchasing the 7970M through eurcom on Ebay and provided a link. The link you provided is just to Ebay.co.uk and not to an ebay item. Are you referring to Upgrademonkey on Ebay? I've bought upgrades from these guys before and the service and products have been good.

Nice work by SVL7, I’ve found your threads really knowledgeable and can tell you know what you are talking about. If I upgrade to a 7970M and use your bios, I'll definitely be buying you a pint.

sry mate for the late response.

the cpu is a heatsink, originally made for cooling desktop GPU dies.

eurocom is named as upgradeyourlaptop on ebay.

AMD Radeon HD7970M (WimbledonXT) MXM 3.0b 2GB GDDR5 VGA Module - CrossFire Ready | eBay

thanks to @mw86 and @svl7 for the quick reply to @frostie :)

btw @mw86: I got a notifier you mentioned me and got redirected to Brians flickering issue O.o strange thing.

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@Jahnsinn No worries, I can see you are keeping busy building the first fully water-cooled laptop system, pioneering stuff. I have viewed the thread you posted, it's impressive. You could heat your home with that mod, just plumb it to the central heating system some way... keep you warm when you're gaming. Can't wait to see the results.

Thanks for clarifying the ebay 7970 supplier. I have bought from them in the past, but this time round I've gone with MXM-Upgrade. With the current Euro to Sterling rate I ended up getting the card for £50 less. I need the larger X bracket and MXM-U included that in the deal, the other guys didn't and wanted £15 on top of the price for it. Cheeky!!

My card is on the way. Should have it mid next week, Happy Days... here I come. :-)</SPAN>

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Hi, Thanks for your answers, I have the latest bios and I tried with both the seller's drivers and the latest. same result, besides the laptop turns off while booting so I don't think it is a driver problem.

I got the laptop checked by a technician an he said it is a mobo problem, some transistors are damaged, U$60 hope that's the price for that :P

...

After the fix he made a chip in the mobo is heating up because of the 7970m's energy consumption , to solve this the technician is asking me to let him change a transistor in the 7970m, the new one will make the card use energy with less oscillations/s should I let him do that? That doesn't make any sense to me. Thanks.

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After the fix he made a chip in the mobo is heating up because of the 7970m's energy consumption , to solve this the technician is asking me to let him change a transistor in the 7970m, the new one will make the card use energy with less oscillations/s should I let him do that? That doesn't make any sense to me. Thanks.

Plus to add to what was mentioned above any warranty support if there is any coverage for the hardware will likely be void on any sort of fix like that. Perhaps it may allow you to game more dependably without underclocking or undervolting the card. Could this guy give you a description of his plan and you post it here. In the mean time i would hold off as mentioned. @svl7 here could help you determine if such a mod would even be legit etc.

Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2

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@sartios

There are two sizes of X bracket currently used to support MXM 3.0A and B type cards. The mounting points for the heat-sink for both sizes are the same, but the bracket centres are different. See the links below to illustrate examples. To my knowledge Nvidia currently design their GPUs around the 18mm centre X bracket. It is only ATI who use the 26mm centre bracket on some of their GPU boards.</SPAN>

Your GTX460M will have the 18mm centred bracket and this will not work on the 7970M. If you use an 18mm bracket on a 26mm card the bracket edges will come into contact with components causing shorting and possible damage to the card. My advice, purchase and use only the correct bracket. Do not modify or fit the smaller bracket.</SPAN>

Have you bought the 7970M yet? If not, then make enquires with your vendor as they will provide the X bracket in the deal or will be able to supply you with one at a reasonable price. As a guide typically $20 - $30 for a new bracket. </SPAN>

Click on the link below for an example of a 26mm centre GPU X bracket:</SPAN>

GPU Spreader x Bracket for MXM 3 0B AMD HD69X0M HD79XXM VGA Modules | eBay

Click on the link below for an example of a 18mm centre GPU X bracket:</SPAN>

GPU Spreader x Bracket for MXM 3 0B NVIDIA GTX and Quadro with Matching Screws | eBay

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i managed to get a dell rep to sell me the 7970m. regarding the bracket, i am using a 5850m gpu atm, will the bracket fit fr the 7970m? please advice thx.

Wow, congratz, that's quite an achievement, hahahaha! They never wanted me to sell anything which wasn't officially available for the M15x. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the Dell card will come with the proper backplate... but I can't guarantee it. The 5850m bracket won't work.

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Wow, congratz, that's quite an achievement, hahahaha! They never wanted me to sell anything which wasn't officially available for the M15x. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the Dell card will come with the proper backplate... but I can't guarantee it. The 5850m bracket won't work.

I guess it takes the right rep. AW-Federico replaced faulty parts with them for me but he would have been willing to sell them just the same.

Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2

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M15X Strikes again! Nice bench Jahnsinn looks like the performance drivers have better synthetic bench scores. Good clocks how cool they running on your new liquid setup? I found mine switch to a clock intermediate and ive watched it via OSD. Its between 2D and 3D clocks. .8v 150/300 .9v 450/1200 1.05v 850/1200. So for 2d i had cool and efficient performance changing 150/300 to 450/1200 @ .9v. When I've tried 3d on 2d it didn't run right for me, I noticed it not running full 3d clocks when it should.

Nice clocks though 950/1400 is great. 1.1v is near the max ive seen benefit. 1.125 can help at 1040-1125 core but nothing is stable there. In dirt 3 1.1v 1040/1625 i was able to race at on ultra 1080p max CCC quality could add. But BF3 and Crysis 2 are another story as they are pretty stressful.

Have you tried vantage. Seems like 12.11 driver is really boosting 7000 series.

Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2

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M15X Strikes again! Nice bench Jahnsinn looks like the performance drivers have better synthetic bench scores. Good clocks how cool they running on your new liquid setup? I found mine switch to a clock intermediate and ive watched it via OSD. Its between 2D and 3D clocks. .8v 150/300 .9v 450/1200 1.05v 850/1200. So for 2d i had cool and efficient performance changing 150/300 to 450/1200 @ .9v. When I've tried 3d on 2d it didn't run right for me, I noticed it not running full 3d clocks when it should.

Nice clocks though 950/1400 is great. 1.1v is near the max ive seen benefit. 1.125 can help at 1040-1125 core but nothing is stable there. In dirt 3 1.1v 1040/1625 i was able to race at on ultra 1080p max CCC quality could add. But BF3 and Crysis 2 are another story as they are pretty stressful.

Have you tried vantage. Seems like 12.11 driver is really boosting 7000 series.

Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2

couldn't bench much so far. quite busy at the moment, loads of work, don't know where to start first :(

chiller is set on 12°C, that's just the point before condensation appears on tubes and quick couplings. gpu runs with full load taken at 35°C, cpu at 28°C average. unfortunately I don't have time to update my guide post. damn work, I need to find something I earn money whilst sleeping^^

weekend is near, maybe I get some more time there.

cya l8er

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couldn't bench much so far. quite busy at the moment, loads of work, don't know where to start first :(

chiller is set on 12°C, that's just the point before condensation appears on tubes and quick couplings. gpu runs with full load taken at 35°C, cpu at 28°C average. unfortunately I don't have time to update my guide post. damn work, I need to find something I earn money whilst sleeping^^

weekend is near, maybe I get some more time there.

cya l8er

Thats is incredible temps bro, incredible. Can't wait to hear more when you have time to update.

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Thanks for the answers,

Plus to add to what was mentioned above any warranty support if there is any coverage for the hardware will likely be void on any sort of fix like that. Perhaps it may allow you to game more dependably without underclocking or undervolting the card. Could this guy give you a description of his plan and you post it here. In the mean time i would hold off as mentioned. @svl7 here could help you determine if such a mod would even be legit etc.

Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2

@mw86 The technician says he tried the card in another laptop and it had the same effect, heating the chip in the mobo because of the card, does anybody (maybe @svl7) know if this is normal? or won't affect the mobo in the long term?

I'll be giving more details later.

@hitokiri_jaguar Hi mate. Just to clarify, the chip the technician mentioned is heating up on the motherboard, did it burn out and need replaced? I would hold off on allowing him to modify your 7970, as this will make it a non standard card and de-value it.

@frostie

It hasn't burned, but what I understand is that he thinks it may... if the laptop stays on, I'll be giving the reference of the chip later, thanks

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Thanks for the answers,

@mw86 The technician says he tried the card in another laptop and it had the same effect, heating the chip in the mobo because of the card, does anybody (maybe @svl7) know if this is normal? or won't affect the mobo in the long term?

I'll be giving more details later.

@frostie

It hasn't burned, but what I understand is that he thinks it may... if the laptop stays on, I'll be giving the reference of the chip later, thanks

Sounds like this guy is reffering to a voltage regulator somehere in the system and according to Svl7 in most cases voltage regulators can sometimes not even be covered with thermal pads. I guess it depends but in most cases those can take nearly as much heat as a processor does. Maybe this guy can use real terms for you so we and you know what he means even a picture. Svl7 has been in and out of his system so if you can get a pic or a name of the chip Svl7 may be able to comment. To my knowledge though if it is just a voltage regulator than it may not be a problem. Another thing is maybe he is right and there is a chip getting more volts or something on the 7970m vs older cards. Hopefully he has more info to go on. He can talk about it in Tech or Electrician terms he doesn't need to dumb anything down as unlike me there are some well versed professionals here.

Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2

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Hi, Thanks for your answers, I have the latest bios and I tried with both the seller's drivers and the latest. same result, besides the laptop turns off while booting so I don't think it is a driver problem.

I got the laptop checked by a technician an he said it is a mobo problem, some transistors are damaged, U$60 hope that's the price for that :P

he also said that the new psu is damaged. the psu is not causing the freezes but it is not charging the laptop.... Can I use an m17x one? like this one? Original Genuine 240W AC Power Adapter Charger/Cord for Dell Alienware M17x | eBay

@hitokiri_jaguar. In one of your older posts, you mentioned the technician thought that some transistors on the motherboard were damaged. Is your Alienware working again? If so what did he do to repair it?

I agree with mw86 that it sounds like he is worried about the power draw of the 7970 on the voltage rails of the motherboard, causing voltage regulators to stress and over-heat. Most voltage regulators have internal thermal protection and load protection to prevent damage. I really don’t think it needs to be of concern, don’t modify your card. Components do randomly fail, and as luck had it unfortunately one of your components failed. I'm still waiting for my 7970 to be shipped but judging by this forum and other forums there are plenty of people running 7970M in the M15x and experiencing no such voltage regulator issues. I'm still interested in hearing what the technician has to say, please keep us posted.

@svl7 As mentioned I am still waiting arrival of my 7970 to do my own testing but from reading other peoples posts it appears that the card throttles when running at stock core voltage 1.05V. Under-volting fixes this issue, and I can understand why as the card will draw less power from the motherboard supply rails and the voltage will stabilise as a result, and less thermal energy produced. Then I read posts where people have over-volted to 1.1V and have managed to overclock as a result. This will lead to a higher power draw than at stock. This leads me to believe that the card is not throttling due to thermal throttling but due to voltage rail monitoring with set voltage values to bring on throttling…?

I just find it really interesting. I have to admit that I have no experience of the in-depth effects a Vbios has on the operation of a card or different driver builds. Maybe the answers to my questions rest with these elements. I understand you are busy and don’t expect time to be spent on this, I’m just glad the card works and can’t wait to get my hands on one.

Anyone else pondering upon this?

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sorry for bumping this thread up, but here's my problem

i have installed 7970m on my m15x system following svl7's guide, including backplate grinding and heatpipe modding. So far everything went ok, 3dmark score ok, game playing ok.

But when i play some heavy game like sleeping dogs, medal of honor 2012 and stress test using furmark, the system automatic shutdown when gpu's temp goes beyond 87 degrees!

have tried undervolt to 0.95 but nothing change, still shutdown when temp reach 86-87 degrees!

please help me!

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First of all... don't use furmark if you want to have an functional GPU.

Then... your temps are quite high for this card, you shouldn't get past 85°C, really. I hardly hit 80°C in long gaming sessions. You're sure the heatsink fits well? Enough pressure? Is your system flat on the table or do you lift it a bit below the battery? Cause that helps a lot...

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First of all... don't use furmark if you want to have an functional GPU.

Then... your temps are quite high for this card, you shouldn't get past 85°C, really. I hardly hit 80°C in long gaming sessions. You're sure the heatsink fits well? Enough pressure? Is your system flat on the table or do you lift it a bit below the battery? Cause that helps a lot...

thanks for quick reply :)

as i said, not only furmark cause high temp, but in heavy task games like sleeping dogs or MoH warfighter the system still shutdown midgame

i tried repaste using Coolaboratory's Liquid Ultra and Laird's thermal pad on Memory module and VRM... but still no use, idle around 45-50, load increase slowly to 85-86* then shutdown immediately!

I have even tried lift the battery side much higher.

any suggest? i'm really frustrated now :(

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thanks for quick reply :)

as i said, not only furmark cause high temp, but in heavy task games like sleeping dogs or MoH warfighter the system still shutdown midgame

i tried repaste using Coolaboratory's Liquid Ultra and Laird's thermal pad on Memory module and VRM... but still no use, idle around 45-50, load increase slowly to 85-86* then shutdown immediately!

I have even tried lift the battery side much higher.

any suggest? i'm really frustrated now :(

I got the same issue on m15x when first upgraded to 7970m. I solved the issue by re-fix the bracket for the card. Make sure it's properly tight to the GPU.

Here is my GPU logs when playing MOHW on Ultra settings --> 7970m m15x - Pastebin.com

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