DaneGRClose

No the temps dont go up that bad but for some reason unless it's sitting at about 40 degrees or less over 107.0 causes it to bounce and reset when it reboots, if I have DICE on the CPU I've been able to go to about 107.5 though. The max temps I've seen even overclocked pretty heavy and with max load and no additional cooling are high 80's to low 90's.

The one thing I wish we could find out how to do is to increase the voltage on the GPU, if I could get some additional voltage at the GPU and run on DICE I think it would be possible to start getting into the 15.5-16k GPU score range and over 17k total score but it seems to stutter at the higher clocks with the current voltage.

On the CPU or on the GPU? I haven't seen the limit yet, I'm running a modded sBIOS that allows me to see more stuff and the limits set is something like 110.11 on the BCLK. I think the only way I would get anywhere near that is to spray the damn CPU with liquid nitrogen the whole time lol, anything over 106.5-107 requires dice to be sitting on it the whole time.

LOL, trust me Jimbo I'd like to but the two things that are holding me back are the price tag of a rig to keep me competitive in the bench scores on the 18x and of course my wife due to the cost lol. We'll see what happens. Right now I'm sitting on top of every category of the R3 benching and still finding little ways to slowly increase the score so I still have some playing to do

Thanks Stam, took quite a bit of tweaking not bad for a +/- 11k gpu/13k total score rig. I'm very impressed with it. Not gonna lie though, really tempted to sell it and pick up an 18x, just too tempting to be up there with the dual card configs as it's something I've never done.

I think something similar to what you have done now would be awesome, go with a blue or green base with a lighter secondary color like silver or white in some sort of design on it.

I did a bit of Vantage benching lately mw86, mainly just been gaming and learning some new networking/server stuff. Here it is, finally hit over 15k GPU! 3DMarks: P16,548 GPU: 15,215 CPU: 22,445

Here are my most recent runs, nothing new on 3DMark 11 but a couple nice 06/Vantage runs. P16,189 GPU: 14,838 CPU: 22,270 22,534 3DMarks SM2.0: 9,199 SM3.0: 10,212 CPU: 6,420 107.11 BCLK

Yes and no, I'm not sure how the CPU overclocking will/does work in the M18x but a lot of the info will still be applicable for CPU overclocking, as far as the GPU overclocking aside from changing the clocks again it should be the same. Alot of the basic stuff in overclocking is the same with any machine, but the fine tune details specific to the machine can make or break maximum levels of performance. More to come tomorrow.

Okay I'll write something up, I may talk to one or two other people once it's written to see if they want to add anything. I'll try to get it up tonight or tomorrow.

I could probably write something up, are you needing one or just want one on the site in general Michael? And CPU, GPU, or both?

Changing the settings in Catalyst Control Center, settings such as tesselation levels, aa levels, etc that can determine how well you run a game or benchmark. I just call it CCC tweak as I didn't feel like typing the entire statement out.

I checked this out for you and the only oddity I noticed was that when I pulled the charger out it stayed on "plugged in, charging" for a few seconds although the charger wasn't plugged in. I tried it on both the AMD card and the IGP and got the same exact results each time, the charger stayed lit, the battery icon said charging even though it wasn't for a few seconds then went to the normal percentage, when I plugged it back in it was instant on returning to normal. With what you're describing it sounds like your charger is bad and/or possibly the actual charging port. I know there's supposed to be an overload trip type switch in the brick so if it's reading incorrectly there or within the computer it probably stops directing the current hence the light shutting off. If you know anyone else with an alienware(M15x, 17xR1/R2/R2) I'd try your charger on their rig and see if it does the same thing, if not call AW and ask for a new charger telling them it's shutting off randomly. If I can help anymore just shoot me a pm

Yeah just some light a/c though, don't think I want to go quite as far as dice on this rig, I may consider it down the road but not right now as I don't want to run the risk of jacking it up by pushing it too far with dice on it. I just lowered the temps to about 20-25 c before starting the run. I like the new 11.5a hotfix drivers, they bench very well.

Here's my most recent benchies, some promising stuff here as I think it could be pushed even further with some driver and CCC tweaking. Vantage: P16,128 GPU: 14,793 CPU: 22,117 11: P4,445 Graphics: 4,150 Physics: 7,905 Combined: 3,960 06: 22,317 SM2.0: 9,126 SM3.0: 10,108 CPU: 6,345

I have no idea man, my card idles at about 50 after a repaste(no aftermarket pads yet) but it did idle a bit higher in the mid 50's with stock paste. So no you're not dreaming and you don't have a bad card. The nice part is I'm running flashed clocks at 775/1100 and the temps only go up like 2-3 degrees. I'll try that out later tonight, I've done a lot of benching today and my wife is feeling neglected lol.

Yeah I noticed the same Michael, I'm starting to wonder if maybe turning off the Aero portion of the desktop may be causing it. I fixed it by changing from High Performance to Balanced in the battery settings.

Nice runs man, you running DICE or A/C on those runs? You're getting closer to that 1ghz core

Thanks guys, my BCLK was at 105.9 with GPU at 845/1200 for the 3Dmark11 run. On 3dmark06 I was at 106.2 bclk and 830/1200 gpu. I'm still trying to get everything dialed in and waiting on my hyperx as I think my ram is holding me back on my bclk.

Finally got my new rig this week, here's a few of the runs I did tonight. 3DMark06 22,317 Marks SM2.0: 9,126 SM3.0: 10,108 CPU: 6,345 3DMark11 P4,249 Graphics: 3,949 Physics: 7,946 Combined: 3,771 Wprime32 8.37 sec

Ouch! Well it's tempting but I think I'd build a desktop before I bought an 18x with that battery life. Nice rig but I'm enjoying my new R3 just fine

Looks like pricing on upgrades has gotten a lot better from the initial config page we saw. $400 for XFire 6970's is actually a pretty dang good price IMO, looks like most of the pricing held solid but the most important ones are better. I haven't seen any numbers on battery life, does anyone know what the battery life is?

Yeah, first off don't use the credit card method. IMO it's too easy to "fk"(lol) up so I've always used the "Rice drop" method on the GPU and the line method on the CPU. If you have a larger surface like a desktop part manual spreading can work well but with a laptop especially if the part is still in the computer you have very little room to work with to ensure an even and thin spread. With the CPU apply a thin line about 50% of the length of the CPU, push the heatsink down as level as possible and give a very very slight twist to reduce the likelihood of air pockets in the paste. Also keep in mind that the old saying of "less is more" is very true, you want the absolute thinnest layer possible while still filling all of the gap between the heatsink and die which isn't much. Hope this helps, just post if you have any more questions/issues.

For mine I had to go into the ATI CCC panels and change the settings within the color panels, based on the screen that I've had so far(3 as sad as it may seem) all 3 were slightly different so just play with the settings for your panel to what looks best to you. Now if you're going for the best color reproduction don't ask me as I didn't "tune" it just played with the settings til it looked better. On a side note if Dell ever actually ships it I got the specs on my replacement rig and I have to say I'm very happy Got upgrades on the CPU from a 2630qm to a 2820qm, upgrade from DVD to BR, upgrade from 4gb to 8gb, and have the 6970m/60hz/6300 with standard on the rest :D

Holy hell that thing is big, I figured it would be big but not that much bigger than the R3. That's not even a laptop, can't be classified as a DTR, it's a hybrid all-in-one desktop lol. Kinda like the Ford Taurus X it's not a car it's not an suv or truck it's a cruck. I guess we can call the M18x a Desk-book lol.