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Project is not dead yet Shell is ANODIZED blue, thanks to Rob at Able Anodizing in Brooklyn, NY, looks even better in person! Also, has two Radeon 7970Ms as well as a Sony Optiarc BD-5850H 6x Blu-Ray burner (a lot quieter than the older panasonic DVD burner I had). Next plan is installing the custom grille I made that sits below the palmrest. I'll take pictures of that once that's done. In the meantime, I hope you like

Hi all, since im using my M14x R2 mainly with an external monitor my PCH temps were quite a bit too high for my taste. So i bought a copper shim of 15mm x 15mm x 1mm to put it between the lid and the chip. The PCH is the most important chip right after the CPU and GPU so i thought it needed proper cooling too. I also removed all stickers on the lid and backside of the keyboard since its not good for passive cooling too. Then i repasted this chip (->which comes only with a crap cooling stripe factory wise) with IC Diamond and put the copper shim between the chip and lid. I used the drop method and let the lid pressure spread it evenly. These are the results: before mod in idle: with mod in idle: Since its a passive cooling mod its mainly for idle cause the temps cant go down that good due to the lack of active cooling. While gaming or other PCH stressing activity i had up to 78 C on that thing. Now i guess it will rarely hit 70 C. Will post the stresstest temp results later.

On ideastorm there is a thread started by BlakeE45 regarding this issue, Dell is reviewing the possibility of adding the card. Please comment and vote! Link: Idea Storm

Update: Work on the article has started. I finished all the benchmarks + graphs and am in the process of finishing up the article before I pass it on to our editors for peer review. Hoping to have it out by Tuesday or Wednesday the latest. It'll be fairly short and to the point, I'm guessing a max of 3-4 pages. Eventually I'll do a follow-up to it when I get SLI.

UPDATE: ALL DOWNLOADS LISTED IN THIS POST FOUND HERE. Nvidia 'Kepler' GPUs - modified VBIOS files >>> NOTE: More versions (including voltage mods) exclusive for T|I users can be found in the second post. <<< The 'Kepler' GPUs from Nvidia perform really well, even at increased clocks speeds they stay quite cool - a perfect behavior when it comes to overclocking and improving the performance. Unfortunately the mobile GPUs suffer from an artificial +135MHz core overclocking limit, so you can't go higher by using tools like Nvidia Inspector and similar. The modified VBIOS files listed here have this limit unlocked, some have increased stock clocks or tweaked voltages. Just refer to the description. All files have been modified by myself, if you like them feel free to buy me a drink, donation link can be found below GTX 660m: 660m_OC_edition__VBIOS_[DELL].zip- comes with unlocked software overclocking limits 660m_GHz-Edition_overvolted_VBIOS_[DELL].zip - default 3d clock 1000MHz, base boost 1200MHz,, memory (3d) 1350MHz, increased 3d voltage undervolted editions possible, depends on interest, tba Some screenshots: GTX 680m: Clevo_680m_-_80.04.33.00.10_'OCedition'_revised_01.zip Dell_680m_-_80.04.33.00.32_'OCedition'_revised_00.zip Increased software overclocking limits & optimized for no throttling. Read the included 'Read me' file before flashing. Instructions: I recommend flashing under DOS using nvflash . Donation link in case you want to buy me a beer Thanks and cheers! More to come. Testers: Thanks @eliteone (Dell 660m), @littleone562 (Dell 680m) For all mods: Use at your own risk.

There has been requests by some for a centralized area to download popular benchmarks and utilities. We've listened and compiled a list of programs we think will come in useful for measuring your gaming systems performance. We welcome suggestions by our community members for other programs/games/utilities and will take popular requests into account and add them. Gaming Benchmarks Download Links S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyrat Download Unigine 'Heaven' DX 11 Benchmark Download version 2.5 Resident Evil 5 Benchmark Utility Download Lost Planet 2 Benchmark Download Devil May Cry 4 Benchmark Download Tom Clancy's: HAWX 2 Benchmark Download Benchmark Applications Download Links 3DMark 11 Download 3DMark Vantage Download v1.0.1 PCMark Vantage Download v1.0.2 build 1901 Fraps Download GPU-Z Download Benchmark Utilities Download Links ThrottleStop 3.00.1 Download HWInfo32 Download v3.70 HD Tune Download Sapphire Trixx Download v4.21 WPrime Download v1.55

I have tested the following thermal compounds in the M14x R1 since it has the biggest heat problems of all Alienware Laptops and is therefor good as a testing subject. The specs are: i7-2760qm | 6 GB Ram | 750 GB HDD | 1.5GB GT555M | Turbo was on at all tests and the Notebook was lifted at the backside by about 3 cm. No VBIOS mods or Overclocking was used everything on stock speed. No external fan or cooler of any kind. I have used 3dmark vantage for the stress test since this is the most real usage of this Notebook as a gaming Notebook and mirrors how the temperature is in everyday use. To get average results i used alot of benchmark tests for each compound after different cure times and calculated the resulting temps i listed below. For every compound i ran about 5-6 tests after the declared cure time. Interesting was that the performance of the Liquid Ultra doesnt change no matter which cure time i tested it. The other pastes had different results after 1 day or more cure time. Here are some pics of the pastes on the CPU, GPU and heatsinks. This is Liquid Ultra on the CPU and MX-4 on the GPU heatsinks: On this pic you can see how it looks on the CPU and GPU: Well i tried to add some more pics but it doesnt let me upload more at the moment i will try later. However you can clearly see which paste wins and where the differences of them are. MX-4: + best application + easy to remove - worst performance compared IC Diamond: + 2nd best performance + no need to repaste for years - leaves scratches - hard to remove Liquid Ultra: + easy to apply + best performance of all tested + no need to repaste for years - hard to remove from the heatsink (only by sanding it) - electrical conductive My conclusion is that of course the Liquid Ultra is the best compound for the M14x R1 since it has the best performance and has the most advantages when it comes to high temperatures. In idle there is not much difference to other high end pastes but at high work load it clearly outperforms the best pastes by up to 5 degrees.

Heh, @Brian might have some extras leftover. Although, shipping costs will be the biggest killer.

Brian, I am happy you found the info useful, another tip; if you want the hdmi-in to work, you have to mod dells R4 drivers.

Welcome!!

Thanks! and welcome to the forum [MENTION=4664]Alienware-Natalia_J[/MENTION]

Stickied, thanks Natalia and welcome to T|I!

sorry forgot to make pics :/ But its easy to do this mod. you only have to remove the cover + battery ofc. Then remove 2 screws from below. Then peel off the keyboard surrounding plastics. Then remove the keyboard and right below it sits the PCH lid and the PCH itself on the right side. here are some pics to show you (not my own): PCH location copper shim 15mm x 15mm x 1mm fits perfect dont buy a more thick one it could be a problem maybe.

More stuff exclusive for T|I users, voltage mods: All the vbios listed here are attached at the end of the post. ******************************** Nvidia 800m series: Nvidia GTX 880m (8GB version only): 'OC edition' -> unlocked overclocking limits, voltage adjustable, power target adjustable, optimized performance at higher clocks Can be used for all current 880m (Clevo, MSI and Dell). Nvidia GTX 870m: 'OC edition' -> see above Nvidia GTX 860m (GK104 variant): 'OC edition' -> see above. Refer to the file name to know which version is suited for your system. NOTE: Only for the Kepler version of the 860m. Silly Nvidia started giving different GPUs the same name. ******************************** Nvidia 700m series: Nvidia GTX 780m: 'OC edition' -> unlocked overclocking limits, voltage adjustable, power target adjustable, optimized performance at higher clocks Can be used for all current 780m (Clevo, MSI and Dell). Nvidia GTX 770m: 'OC edition' -> see above Nvidia GTX 765m: 'OC edition' -> see above. Refer to the file name to know which version is suited for your system. ********************************* Nvidia 600m series: MSI GTX 680m (4GB version): 'OC edition' revised -> higher limits for software overclocking, stock default clocks ----------------------- Dell GTX 680m (2GB version) vbios: 'OCedition' revised -> higher limits for software overclocking, stock default clocks same with increased 3d voltage ('OV') -> refer to the file name ----------------------- Clevo GTX 680m (4GB version) vbios: 'OCedition' revised -> higher limits for software overclocking, stock default clocks. For P1xxHM based systems I recommend only using version 80.04.29.00.01 !! Some users reported issue with other vbios versions (stock or modified, doesn't matter). EM users make sure you're on the latest BIOS / EC same with increased 3d voltage ('OV') -> refer to the file name (Same warning as above applies to P1xxHM users). ----------------------- K3000m: (Nvidia) K3000m - 80.04.3A.00.07 'OCedition' -> higher software overclocking limit Should work on all K3000m, unless you got a board ID mismatch. (HP) K3000m - 80.04.33.00.2E - 'OC edition' - > same as above, but probably the better choice if you use a HP machine ----------------------- K5000m: (Dell) K5000m - 80.04.33.00.35 - 'OCedition' -> higher software overclocking limit, stock 3d clocks 758MHz It's Dell but should work on all K5000m, unless you get a board ID mismatch. ----------------------- GTX 670mx: MSI 670mx (1.5GB) - 80.04.5B.00.A5_'OCedition'_rev00 -> higher software overclocking limits, tweaked performance at high clocks. Same board as the Clevo card. Clevo 670mx (3GB) - 80.04.58.00.03_'OC edition'_rev02 -> same as above, plus voltage is adjustable per software. ---------------------- MSI GTX 675mx: MSI 675mx (2GB) - 80.04.58.00.14_'OCedition'_rev00 -> higher software overclocking limits, tweaked performance at high clocks. MSI 675mx (4GB) - 80.04.58.00.0E_'OCedition'_rev00 -> same as above, vbios for 4GB card (!) ----------------------- Clevo GTX 675mx: Clevo 675mx (4GB) - 80.04.58.00.05_'OCedition'_rev00 -> higher software overclocking limits, tweaked performance at high clocks. ----------------------- ASUS G75VW BIOS: - 660m at 1000MHz core / 1400MHz memory - additional BIOS menus http://forum.techinferno.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/2538-%5Bg75vw%5D-modified-bios-vbios-higher-overclocking.html ------- Donation link in case you want to buy me a beer Thanks and cheers! *** FILE DOWNLOAD LOCATION: