Leaderboard

The battery just can't provide a 100W GPU, 40W CPU, etc, with that much power... therefore the GPU and CPU downclocks itself. Of course it will run on battery, but not on full clocks. Review Alienware M17x R3 GTX 580M i7-2820QM Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews Go to battery life and read.

Update: Build is complete! Here's some photos we took today, if time permits I might do a quick review of the case and motherboard but we'll see. For now here's the shots:

Asus MarsII QuadSLI Build by ConkersGrillforce1337 Asus MarsII Initial Build In late October 2011 I and some of my friends built the system for the first time. It was the first time I ever built a desktop system. Components: Asus R.O.G. Maximus IV Extreme-Z Intel Core i7 2600K G.Skill RipjawsX 4x2Gb, 1866Mhz, CL9 ASUS MARS II Quad Sli SH100S3Kingston HyperX SSD 240GB + WD VelociRaptor, 10'000rpm, 600GB Enermax MaxRevo 1500W + Corsair AX850 Corsair H100 + Kingston HyperX Cooling Fan Black Plextor PX-LB950SA Aerocool Strike-X Panel Logitech G19 3x Dell UltraSharp U2412M The build process was associated with some unforeseen problems. Especially the assembly of the upper psu and the Corsair H100 CPU cooler with lack of space. After some hours and several tries the system started to work. Xigmatek Elysium vs CoolerMaster HafX: Xigmatek Elysium + Radeon HD 6990: Full resolution pics: Click here Asus MarsII Repaste Svl7 has done a repaste on both cards to dissipate heat more efficiently. Full resolution pics: Click here ​LGA2011 Update The configuration above had one big, the lower MarsII was completely over the usb, audio,...connectors. The result was that the lower MarsII had not a permanent 100% connection to the PCIe interface. I knew Asus recommended the Asus Rampage 3 Extreme to MarsII QuadSli users, fortunately at the same time the successors of the LGA1366 were released. I decided to buy a Asus R4E and Intels new flagship Core i7-3960X. I ordered a new rear fan with red leds and a second ram cooler too. I also replaced the four ram cooler fans with blue leds by red illuminated fans. Full resolution pics: Click here RMA Rebuild I had to RMA my Rampage 4 Extreme due to BIOS flash problems. After a month I got my motherboard back and I reconstructed my system. This time I put more emphasis on putting the cables together in order to improve the air flow. Due to thermal issues with GPUs 2 and 4 I had to be a little creative. The professional solution would be water cooling system, probably some time in the future... Full resolution pics: Click here Benchmarks 3DMark11 E24118 P17035 X6930 3DMark Vantage E94797 P53745 X35753 Full resolution pics: Click here Asus GTX 670 DirectCU II Top The constant heat problems when working with two Asus MarsII graphicscards have forced me to buy an Asus GTX 670 DC2T card. Now I have time to create my own watercooled solution or probably I'm able to get the watercooler design from l3p.nl. Back on topic, I'm pretty impressed what a single GTX 670 is capable of. I'm running the card on all three displays with a resolution of 6040x1200 (bc) and every game is playable on maxedout settings there are only three exceptions so far: Battlefield 3, Metro2033 and Crysis2. I ran some benchmarks, results in the images below. Some further testing will be necessary to get the card to its limit, thanks to Svl7 for analyzing the vbios. Full resolution pics: Click here Watercooling Project Taking the Asus MarsII to the next Level, discussion continues here

That sucks...can you modify the case so it will fit properly? A friend had a problem with the graphicscard heatpipes, they were too high, he solved it with cutting the plate, which was in the middle of the case. Did you use the "HD Audio" Connector or the "AC'97" Connector? Can't see it on the picture. The connector on the motherboard seems to be connected as it should be. Did you check the connections on the frontpanel? Did you install the RealtekDriver and the SoundBlaster X-Fi? Asus Support site I use: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Directlink to newest Realtek audio driver: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download Audio (watch the version, they're always messed up) SB X-Fi driver (under Utilities): ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download Maximus IV GENE-Z/GEN3 LucidVirtu: lucidlogix with GPU Solution

Computer companies need to start investing more money in battery advancement instead of CPU or graphics. Its sad that our high end systems can't play games or some times even boot on the current batteries. I would give up a second hard drive and DVD burner to have more battery if it meant I could play BF3 for 2-3 hours unplugged.

You can't battery doesn't provide enough power

thx man! yeah i will see if i can push the graphics higher if i leave the bclk lower. but anyways i like the result i got so far yeah temps are pretty cool, and the 855 is acceptable too haha i did actually think about upgrading, but the price has scared me away. but as soon as i will think about it again, i will come back @ you for your suggestions conc. laptop monkey. sounds very good! [MENTION=305]Staff Sargent[/MENTION] how did you notice that the turbo is not going as high as it's supposed to? if you read the clocking from vantage, it doesn't mean anything. i sometimes get 860mhz for cpu speed in vantage, but still get over 22k in the vantage cpu-bench-result. if you want to really see how fast it's going, use intel extreme tuning utility, or hwinfo. good bench btw @all: i still get the issue, that my alien will not boot on battery every few times i start it. i had this on my old m17x-r3, and now on the new one also. if i try to boot from battery (battery charged to the max), the alien power button will light up, alien fx also..then after a few seconds, lights will go out again. the display never gets lighted when this happens! if i plug in the ac power, it will do the exact same thing again, but after the lights go out, it will boot up again (by itself) and the laptop then starts normally. does anyone else get this?

Well the M15x version of 260M had throttling built in until Dell released an updated system bios that fixed it. I'm not sure if the M17x-R1 ever had this problem or not. However, you can try my old method of fixing throttling for the M15x and see if it improves your situation: http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m15x/26-alienware-m15x-nvidia-260m-throttling-investigation-solution.html

Im certain they will have some hard opposition. But Im sure they can ride it out...

Brian that's for you http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JhlfT-x6Ys0