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*WORK IN PROGRESS MATERIAL POSTED IS READY BUT MORE TO COME* An Extreme Mobile Processor costs $1000 retail and at least $400 for a good engineering sample. There are plenty owners of the 2920/60XM chips and owners of M18x using unlocked bios provides optimal control over the unlocked processors power parameters including voltage (Turbo Flex VID), amperage (primary plane/TDC) and wattage (Short/Long Watt Limit / TDP). I had a system previous this one (i feel as though new system as motherboard, gpus and cpu are different) that i will refer to as 2920XM OEM sample 1. Later I will add test results from this first sample. The following is based on what i am going to refer to as 2920XM OEM sample 2 which by my test handles about 100mhz or more less and required a bit higher volts to get there. The following results are of sample 2 under the noted test conditions.Room temp was 70F using thermostat. The test system was Alienware M18x R1 with dual 6970M, i7 2920XM oem, oem ram 1600mhz modules @ 1333mhz, oem dual 750gb sata 2 HDs in Raid 0. Fan control was used and so was a notebook cooler and a small lift of the notebooks rear on rear of notebook cooler. These results represent a system given optimal airflow not enhanced cooling in anyway as in air intake is fresh room temp air and exhaust is blown away from system enough as to not recycle hot air back into system. This cooling cannot contribute to any sort of enhanced effect skewing results. The purpose is to reveal given no power limitations at all what overclocks are stable and what settings would one need to accomplish it. Given the method i chose the data should provide adequate understanding of how speed goes up and so does heat so in a dynamic chip as such a high speed overclock is only handled best in one to two cores and decreases as cores are added otherwise temperature becomes a limitation making such an overclock unviable... so stick to a given range and you shouldn't see temps higher in other apps since Intel Burn Test produces more heat and cpu load than most real world use apps. So use this chart as willed one can derive everyday overclocks or use reference for those of you who benchmark. I personally have and see more use not in benchmarking but real world use. To get similar results fan control is not required and very optional as system fan control will still start cooling when the cpu gets too hot, I just like to use defensive or pre-emptive cooling (preventative). For those of you overclocking its all about bang for buck yes? So pick one that best suits your system usage and get that buck out of your XM cpu. With these and the unlocked bios it takes the guessing game out of this or depending on a single overclock someone mentioned to cover all your needs... no its best to know an entire range. Brian K. you just acquired your 2920XM try gaming with the main overclock i not below using 0 flex... I am certain its useful. Before i made this i have a notebook of jumbled notes i made. This is my first attempt at this and to provide users with a useful guide. I will add more as I have time. I hope you all like it I tend to devalue my work. For about 3 months I gamed on 4.4ghz and used 44/44/44/44 at 0 flex using 97watts long limit and 2400 primary plane so 300watts the 97 watts keeps 0 flex voltage enough as under heavy load the 97 watts causes the cpu to drop in a more acceptable range but now I mapped the following I will use the last overclock at the bottom using 0 flex. The most coolest and highest 8thread capable overclock is the one using the least voltage. If one can use enhanced cooling like an air-conditioned climate controlled room perhaps one can use higher 8 thread loads but for average room temp the following should paint a great visualization of recommended ranges.The tests were done by stock baseclock that is 99.8 mhz in the bios which shows up as 99.7 in Windows. Thefollowing is presented and tested by using multipliers as the variable and for majority of tests other variables are the voltage and some watts are different but was needed to be higher as under the type of load in the program Intel Burn test i was using most cpus under stock settings are dropping to 3.2-3.4 or maybe 3.6-3.8ghz with a basic overclock. Using more amps is required not vice versa as one has to be higher the other doesnt need to be higher to yield better performance at same speed ranges and to prevent the mhz from dropping under load due to power restrictions... these cpus actively dynamically raise speed and volts many times a second and when a heavy work load like per say encoding, rendering, some gaming (the newer games are starting more two recomend quad core cpus) the mhz tend to drop even if temps are in check and thats because amps and watts arent high enough or voltage is too high. Given 97 amps and start raising watts shortly after 10-20 watts its ineffective at actually boosting the mhz max speed that it will maintain at those loads on 8 threads. Now do the opposite and you get a better performance yield... do both and your all set but I suggest raising AMPS / Primary Plane high and only ever changing watts so 2400 primary plane or 300 amps max has shown me it can push any ghz under any load other factors would be only limiting factors (temps). So 300 amps and 95-170 watts should be good to maintain any of the ranges below no matter how much your heating up. Note cpu heat raising requires more amps and watts for same load and speed interestingly enough... so like 97 amp 99 watt might maintain a speed under average temps but as temps raise from normal usage that amount alone can require more amps or watts if the watt and or amp limit retricts it anyway the speed drops... this is not throttling as that usually pertains to temps max limit imposed by maker. Another form of the cpu speed dropping not from thermal throttling is a pattern i noticed that despite all limiting factors not limiting things lol that if flex was too high it didnt matter how high i had amps or watts the voltage or flex being too high eventually imposes its own strange drop in mhz starting in 8thread working back to single thread the higher you go and huge amounts of heat if you attempt to near that new imposed max speed at that voltage so thats why the below chart shows where the thresholds are under such heavy workloads/ temps and even voltage ranges.There are other methods of overclock i have explored and can be used well too. using same high amps like 300 set a slightly higher frequency set than voltage will handle and use a little lower watts and under light loads you can use higher frequencies but as load raises youve saved it from bsod124 needing voltage because the cpu starts naturally dropping speed because of the watt limit you've set. example is setting 45X on multis and using lower flex than needed to keep cool and just enough watts to maintain 4.5ghz in a couple cores but when it comes down to it and voltage requirements start raising the watts keep it in check. So have at it decide what ranges you like as noted you dont need watts higher than 95-170 for the most part but amps should be way above 776primary plane or 97 amps which is the stock range. As i have time i have lower workload apps ill map out too which will take less time.... wprime and vantage are some post suggestions if you want me to try some for you. lesson benchers wprime 32m gets higher scores at higher mhz 8thread in both cases and only runs for a few seconds so heat is less an issue and higher scores yield from the higher mhz so do runs like that and if going for 1024m it about the highest 8thread it will do but temps will be an issue so you need to use as low a voltage possible again in both cases since unlike below we arent going for crash proofing but fastest coolest overclock to get a higher bench score... dont confuse below for that as its more for showing what can be used ofr a all day everyday overclock but has its uses for you guys benching and or trying different speeds and keep crashing not knowing whats the issue. not all cpus are alike but overall your cpus should handle the same ranges given the same settings... and if the app has lower load then it should no doubt run full speed and even cooler than i have posted. please not this is stock factory paste and i noted i have 2 cpu cores that are 10c hotter than other two from factory under and even 8thread load accross cores... so actually that helps make these results more protective of you guys because most wont see as high max temps on the cores as i did... 5 tests of Intel Burn Test (system is on stock OEM paste) 2000MB ram load at 5tests unless otherwise notedResults are interpreted as follows if a temp is noted per core that range was tested and passed and that was the resulting temp max via Throttle Stop with more data option (8 reads a second), if a - is noted the test was not performed possibly uneeded, if BSOD124 is noted that meant the test was performed and crashed due to requiring more voltage and finally if Thermal Shutdown is written the system failed to maintain thermal stability and thermal protection kicked in turning off the system. each test of 5 took any-wheres from 6 minutes to 15min depending on threads used[ATTACH=CONFIG]3394[/ATTACH] 1 Before a Dual Core run showing IBT and TS configured [ATTACH=CONFIG]3395[/ATTACH] 2 During the beggining of a Dual Core run [ATTACH=CONFIG]3396[/ATTACH] 3 During the beggining of a Dual Core run SHOWING AFFINITY [ATTACH=CONFIG]3397[/ATTACH] 4 During the beggining of a Dual Core run SHOWING AFFINITY SET TO DUAL CORE [ATTACH=CONFIG]3398[/ATTACH] 5 During the beggining of a Dual Core run SHOWING AFFINITY SET TO DUAL CORE AND IT RUNNING temps and stats on 44/44/43/43 300 amp/300watt[ATTACH=CONFIG]3399[/ATTACH] 44 44 43 43 tdp 300 tdc 300 flex 0 wei cpu 7.8 [ATTACH=CONFIG]3400[/ATTACH] 44 44 43 43 tdp 300 tdc 300 flex 0 wei cpu 7.8 20tests IBT 2 4 6 8 threads [ATTACH=CONFIG]3401[/ATTACH] 44 44 43 43 tdp 300 tdc 300 flex 0 wei cpu 7.8 wprime 1024m 23m [ATTACH=CONFIG]3402[/ATTACH] 44 44 43 43 tdp 300 tdc 300 flex 0 wei cpu 7.8 super pi 32m [ATTACH=CONFIG]3403[/ATTACH] 44 44 43 43 tdp 300 tdc 300 flex 0 wei cpu 7.8 super pi all scores[/CENTER] TDP/Watts TDC/Amp/Primary Plane Voltage/Flex Speed Range Tested Ghz Multipliers 1 Core 2 thread Temps 2 Core 4 Thread Degrees Celcius 3 core 6 Thread 4 Core 8 Thread 99 2400 Primary Plane / 300 Amp 25 4.5 45/45/45/45 68 100 - - 105 300 25 4.0 40/40/40/40 - - 99 - 99 300 25 3.7 37/37/37/37 - - - 99 99 300 25 4.6 46/45/40/37 69 - - - 99 300 25 4.6 46/45/45/45 73 - - - 99 300 25 4.7 47/45/45/45 71 - - - 99 300 25 4.8 48/45/45/45 BSOD124 - - - 99 300 27 4.8 48/45/45/45 71 - - - 105 300 28 4.8 48/45/45/45 BSOD124 - - - 105 300 29 4.8 48/45/45/45 BSOD124 72c - - - 110 300 30 4.8 48/45/45/45 BSOD124 73C - - - 110 300 31 4.8 48/45/45/45 76 - - - 300 300 31 4.8 48/45/45/45 BSOD124 - - - 300 300 99 4.8 48/45/45/45 91 - - - 300 300 99 4.9 49/45/45/45 92 - - - 300 300 99 5.0 50/45/45/45 BSOD124 (CPU FREQUENCY CEILING) - - - 300 300 33 4.9 49/45/45/45 BSOD124 - - - 300 300 44 4.9 49/45/45/45 81 - - - 300 300 44 4.9-3.7 49/45/40/37 81 86 95 100 300 300 31 4.8 48/45/45/45 BSOD124 - - - 300 300 33 4.8 48/45/45/45 75 - - - 300 300 32 4.8 48/45/45/45 BSOD124 75C - - - 300 300 33 4.5 48/45/45/45 - 89 100 - 300 300 33 4.0 48/45/40/37 - - 92 - 300 300 33 3.7 48/45/40/37 - - - 97 300 300 33 4.6 48/46/41/37 - 86 97 - 300 300 33 4.7 48/47/41/37 - 87 - - 300 300 33 4.7 48/47/45/45 - 91 - - 300 300 33 4.8 48/48/45/45 - BSOD124 - - 300 300 34 4.8 48/48/45/45 - BSOD124 - - 300 300 35 4.8 48/48/45/45 - BSOD124 - - 300 300 36 4.8 48/48/45/45 - 95 - - 300 300 36 3.7-4.1 48/48/41/37 - - 98 95 300 300 33 3.8-4.2 48/47/42/38 - - 98 97 300 300 36 3.8 48/48/41/38 - - - 98 300 300 33 3.9-4.8 48/47/43/39 BSOD124 86 100 99 300 300 44 3.7-4.9 49/48/40/37 80 91 91 96 300 300 34 3.7-4.8 48/47/43/39 BSOD124 - - - 300 300 35 4.8 48/47/43/39 79 88 100 THERMAL SHUTDOWN 300 300 35 3.8 48/47/43/38 - - - 98 300 300 20 4.7 47/45/45/45 BSOD124 - - - 300 300 44 4.9 49/48/41/38 84 93 97 99 300 300 44 4.9 49/49/41/38 83 BSOD124 - - 300 300 50 4.9 49/49/41/38 - BSOD124 - - 300 300 24 4.7 47/45/45/45 70 - - - 300 300 25 4.7 47/47/45/45 - BSOD124 - - 300 300 27 4.7 47/47/45/45 74 85 - - 300 300 27 4.7 47/47/45/40 - - - THERMAL SHUTDOWN 300 300 27 4.7 47/47/45/39 - - 100 99 300 300 24 4.6 47/46/45/45 BSOD124 82 - - 300 300 25 4.7 47/46/45/45 70 85 - - 300 300 25 4.5-4.0 47/46/45/40 - - THERMAL SHUTDOWN THERMAL SHUTDOWN 300 300 24 4.5-4.0 47/45/45/40 - - 100 THERMAL SHUTDOWN 300 300 25 4.4-3.9 47/46/44/39 - - 100 99 300 300 24 4.5-3.9 47/45/45/39 - - - - 300 300 20 4.6 46/46/45/45 - 87 - - 300 300 19 4.6-4.5 46/46/45/45 71 87 THERMAL SHUTDOWN THERMAL SHUTDOWN 300 300 18 4.6 46/46/45/45 - 84 - - 300 300 16 4.6 46/46/45/40 - 84 - - 300 300 14 4.6 46/46/45/40 - BSOD124 - - 300 300 15 4.6 46/46/45/40 - BSOD124 - - 300 300 16 4.0 46/46/45/40 - - - THERMAL SHUTDOWN 300 300 16 4.6-3.9 46/46/45/39 - BSOD124 100 99 300 300 17 4.6-3.9 46/46/45/39 BSOD124 84 100 99 300 300 14 4.6 46/45/45/40 BSOD124 - - - 300 300 18 4.6-3.9 46/46/45/39 70 84 100 99 300 300 15 4.6 46/45/45/40 BSOD124 - - - 300 300 16 4.6 46/45/45/40 BSOD124 - - - 300 300 17 4.6 46/45/45/40 BSOD124 - - - 300 300 14 4.5-4.0 45/45/45/40 67 82 100 THERMAL SHUTDOWN 300 300 12 4.5-4.0 45/45/45/40 63 76 96 100 300 300 10 4.5-4.0 45/45/45/40 63 75 96 97 300 300 9 4.5-4.0 45/45/45/40 - BSOD124 94 96 300 300 10 4.5-4.1 45/45/45/41 - - 95 99 300 300 O 4.4 44/44/44/42 BSOD124 - - - 300 300 1 4.4 44/44/44/42 BSOD124 - - - 300 300 2 4.4-4.2 44/44/44/42 BSOD124 - - - 300 300 4 4.4-4.2 44/44/44/42 60 73 93 99 300 300 O 4.3 43/43/43/43 59 70 89 99 300 300 O 4.4-4.3 44/43/43/43 59 76 88 98 300 300 O 4.5-4.3 45/43/43/43 BSOD124 - - - 300 300 O 4.4-4.3 44/44/43/43 59 70 89 99 300 *THIS TEST UNLIKE ALL OF ABOVE WAS DONE 20 TESTS FOR EACH CORE INSTEAD OF 5 LIKE THE ABOVE TESTS PER CORE. 300 *NOTE THE TEMPS ARE BARELY HIGHER THAN THE 5 TESTS UNDER IBT MOST CPUS MUST DROP THEIR SPEED ONLY A TEST OR TWO IN CONFIGURED WITH 300 WATT MAX AND AMP IT WONT (THESE ARE NOT ACTUALLY DRAWING ANYTHING NEAR THAT THE VALUES ARENT TAKEN LITERAL BUT USED IN A FORMULA MADE BY iNTEL) O 4.4-4.3 44/44/43/43 60 73 91 99

vantage run with my new machine: Added after 3 minutes: sorry..here a screenshot where you can actually see the score... ;-)

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Well, I only know that it wasn't possible to go above 1.15V with modding the VBIOS of the 5870m, but it might be different with your cards... worth a try anyway, but the temps will go up pretty crazy. So you can try modifying the VBIOS and see whether it actually changes anything or not. Otherwise, there's the hard way, as in the link Stam provided... but that's pretty hardcore (But fun, trust me, hahaha!!)

Probably you could, take a look at this: AMD 6970m voltage mod for higher overclocking | Tech|Inferno

Thanks heaps for your input guys, I really appreciate it. Also thanks @sgt. and @Stevenx for sharing your first hand experience. I'm glad to hear that the M14x has some decent power behind it and can also be scaled back for respectable battery life. The issue with dual SSD sounds a bit off putting. I was planning on putting a SSD in the main and a HDD in place of the optical drive... You guys are probably very right in advising me to wait, I'm in no real rush to grab one right now. Hopefully the R2 Ivy Bridge refresh will correct a few of these issues and maybe bring more to the table... and half the fun will be speculating about it, right?

Marc I'm moving your post and creating a new thread for it.

@Rypac - I received my m14x the first week they were available. I have really loved the machine so far minus a few minor details that get on my nerves. (like the issues with dual SSD drives). I like the machine because (for me) it fits the line between portable, comfortable to keep in lap, performance and features. I was playing some blu-rays from the exernal asus bdrom drive I have and again I was amazed (even at 720p) on how the screen looks and the sound quality. The others have a point about waiting. Ive had mine since the end of april 2011. I would assume that Alienware will refresh this machine pretty soon. For me, I really like the I7 cpu. It doesn't always make a huge difference in games but when you need it, its there. Also it can be scaled back to conserve battery. The gpu is good enough to output to a large TV. I was showing my real father Star Wars the old republic on my sony 46 lcd a few weeks ago and he was impressed how clean it looked. I wont lie and say the machine is all powerful and its equal to the m17. Its not. The CPUs are comparable since they both take the same 26xx, 27xx, 28xx series. The graphics are not in the same ballpark. The 560m is not much more powerful at lower resolutions but once you get above 720p it pulls away. The 580x or 6990 and no reason to even compare. As long as you are realistic about what the m14x can do I think its a great machine. Good Luck, StevenX

The retention mod can be found here: http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m17x/13-m17x-r2-cooling-mod-ashtefere.html Extra info on cooling here: Alienware M17x Teardown & Cooling Modification | Tech|Inferno Another GPU repasting example with ICD 24 here: http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-discussions/913-ic-diamond-24-survey-results.html 1)Repasting and the retention mod will allow you to further overclock. An aircondition unit hitting cold air on the GPUs will help when overclocked during benchmarking but you will need some dry ice or liquid nitrogen to reach extreme levels. 2)You can't go past 1.15V with any software 3)You can't, for that you will need an extreme CPU like 920XM/940XM 4)All that apply for the GPU apply for the CPU as well, for extreme levels though you will have to resolve to extreme solutions. For the signature you will have to exceed I think 10 posts or something before you can use one.

I would wait too... unless you find a great deal that you can't beat.

At this point in time it's hard to recommend an upgrade. With the the R2 refresh in the air, it's really up to you. If you can wait 2-3 months i'd recommend waiting to check out what the M14x-R2 is bringing to the table. A safe bet would be to assume ivy bridge refresh + the NVIDIA card refresh, would you wait ?

I myself just got my M14x for Christmas and Im loving it. Its my first alien so I can not compare it to anything else however, I can tell you that its a great little machine. My graphics are amazing nothing in comparison to my husbands M17x of course but for this machine they are wonderful. My battery life depends on what Im doing on it. when playing BF3 I have to be plugged in which can be a bit of a bother but not much. I get around 4 hours battery for regular everyday usage such as emails FB or any little thing I do. I myself have not had any problem with on the go things. I use this for everything from gaming to watching movies to well everything LOL I do not see that you would have an issue with this upgrade. I of course am Just speaking for my machine and what I can do with it. There are others on here way more educated and more sure of what you are looking for them I so please dont just take my word on this. I personaly love my m14x and would not trade it for anything. Its weight and size is perfect for me and if you are an on the go sort of person this would be better then the m17x on that scale. ( my husband has the m17 and its a beast where weight is concerned LOL) Good luck with your choice and I hope this helped some.

OK first of all I'd like to say hi as its my first time posting on here. im fairly new to overclocking in the sense that i have results but i have no idea how good it is or not when compared with other peoples. ok im running an M17x-R2 with an core i7 820qm processor and DUAL HD4870S IN CROSSFIRE. now ive devoted most of this weekend to squeeze every last ounce of power from my pc. I was trying to break P13K score on 3dMark Vantage and i wouldnt rest until i had done so. THE GOOD NEWS IS. I DID!!! i have know idea whether a score of P13222 is good for dual 4870s in crossfire but as far as im aware its pretty good so im fairly happy lol. i used SetFSB to overclock the 820QM processor to 1.90 GHz. and had both my 4870s overclocked to a core speed of 662 MHz and a memory speed of 1075 Mhz. for cooling i only used the fans on the laptop itself running at the highest rpm possible (forces using HWiNFO 64) so i wont try overclocking anymore cos my cards hit 91 degrees and the prcessor core 1 hit 92 aswell. but anyway the final result i got to with 3dMark Vantage was P13222 (for dual 4870s i believe that is very good)

The Guys at Realmware updated the BF3 Borderless Tool to v1.2: Changelog: Features: Added an option to disable Aero while playing — this can significantly improve the game's performance and reduce stuttering. Added an option to have BF3 Borderless start minimised. Added an explanation for why the game might be undetected. Added tooltips to explain what each function does. Fixes: Fixed window appearing in Alt+Tab menu while minimised to tray. Fixed a rare crash that could occur while detecting game. Fixed bug where error log would not be written after a crash. Fixed bug where "About" window could be opened multiple times. Fixed bug where window position would not be properly restored. Improvements: Significantly improved performance while detecting the game. Improved the rendering of text when ClearType is disabled. Downloadlink: Downloads - BF3 Borderless - Realmware BF3 Tools