GTVEVO

Been using the Oculus Rift CV1 since release, I am hooked with VR. The experience is unexplainable when it works compared to monitor gaming, happy to see you are enjoying it also Prema.

True but you can only purchase what is left over as there is no more production after the 880m models and their track record wasn't very good as they were subject to GPU throttling troubles along with high temps. I would suggest the latest frame model with the 780m gpu and 4900 series i7 cpu if you can find one. Just my opinion.

If you will not be playing games go for the 970m sli version or even a single GPU version (047) and buy some ram outright to fill the top two ram slots under the removable panel if needed. The cost for ram is probably 100-120 us dollars for 16gb of DDR3 1600mhz SODIMM. You can upgrade down the road and the either option has more than enough power.

I can vouch for the GT80 both the 001 and 009 setups are built for gaming and perform brilliantly. I do play farcry 4 and running wide open with HBO+ is stunning and locked at 60fps with gpus between 50 - 75% in most cases. I previously owned the AW18 780m with 4930mx and the GT80 is a very noticiable step up Aw18 scoring 8500 roughly and GT80 scoring over 13000 firestrike scores in stock clock and similar CPU speed. You won't be disappointed if you looking for a gaming machine.

Here is some updated information that could be helpful if you have a no post situation on your hands, looks like possibly a 2nd solution sequence to get your machine alive again. How to reset the BIOS if one runs into no POST with a messed up BIOS.

Does the screen come on at all? If not you have probably ran into a no post issue which is not fun at all. The only way to get around the no post issue I the actually remove the processor and go through a series of reboots with and without a processor. There is a thread on here somewhere about this problem when the bios gets corrupted. The other way is to just call Dell and have them come replace the motherboard.

Anyone that has an AW18 with a BD Rom or BD RW please post the make and model number, very much appreciated. Thanks

Just wanted to ask if anyone had the proper part number # to swap out the current DVDRW slot drive for a BD RW drive on the AW 18 (newest mode late 2013). Thanks in advance.

Fixes states, please share any testing. Fixes & Enhancements 1. Modify power down mode for 4dimm and 2channel memory. 2. Modify related overclocking items for setup menu. 3. Implement MXM1 and MXM2 Fan control and thermal status for diagnostic. 4. Modify battery OCP protect function. Changes I have noticed. 1) Over clock levels changed, only level 1 exists with a max of 4.3 ghz min of 4.0ghz 2) Fans do seem to respond quickly honestly, this is a hard one to test but hopefully others will confirm.

No problems at all with throttling. I did crash what seem to be the drivers once but nothing outside the norm. Only wanted to push to get 10k, great mod and very easy to use for any technical person. Now if I can just figure out or understand the invalid results on 3DMark which seem to be modified drivers or something. Their scores seem to be pretty high allow the GPU to be pushed even further with scores 11000/12000. range

Thanks Robbo for the confirm, 1050 was achieved on the verified driver without too much difficulty. http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2079433

No, not to my knowledge.

Where are you guys seeing the need to be able to adjust the voltage of the 780m's in the AW 18 with 4930mx. 3DMark scores seems to get inconstant after only +60 GPU and +230 Mem. So far 8922 score on a verified driver.

Yes thanks for the post and great information! Really appreciate the tip, I will try to check some clearances as I have noticed that my temps have raised a small amount after my short term success. I don't get thermal shut down but I do see spikes up to 90 for a short time until the fan ramps up on the stock clocks. Also on a good note I was told through a Dell tech that they are working on another bios update to help the fan delay and ramp up which was mentioned when I was looking at the price of the R2 CPU fan directly from Dell so it does sound like a few people are aware.

Antec Formula 7, both tests was done sitting on a static plank that elevates the rear. One thing that is still in the back of my mind was the heatsink didn't seem to fit very tight, might be some more room for improvement. Anyone using a shim or anything?

Great info, doesn't any know the stock draw on the AW 18 4930mx 780sli? I would like to know how much head room we actually have also.

I am wondering if results are mixed, I recently upgraded from the 17 to the 18 with 4930mx/780m and saw massive CPU temps as described everywhere, the first thing I did was checked the bios and it was version A03. Because of this I upgraded to A06 and the fan profile did seem to be better but slow reacting as already pointed but all of my benchmark tests did give me better results but still I felt temps were high getting into the mid 90's and even some spikes above that on stock clocks. Next I went back to A05 and my results seemed to be exactly the same so I still wasn't seeing the improvement I wanted. Because of this I broke down and cleaned, repasted the CPU and ran the same tests with a 10 to 15 c improvement with stock clock results max being 82c and overclocked seeing 85c max then trending down as the fans ramp up with no more throttling and temp spikes! I did this on the GPU's also and there was some noticeable improvement seen so I just wanted to share and say THANKS to all the great information that was provided here by the members.

First I would recommend giving more information such as your setup and environment so we can visualize. Next I would recommend to get some software to monitor the GPU stats such as NvidiaInspector and log the GPU speed, voltage, temp and see what trends its setting to hypothesize whats happening. Could be driver issue, bad ventilation/cooling or faulty card, the only way is to track it and use the process of elimination in most cases. There seem to be many knowledgeable members here so I am sure with the right info someone can lend some valuable advice.

You want to share your coupon code with us? I currently own an m17x with a 780m but I can't stop looking at the 18 with dual 880m's.

I believe you are in the right place, you will need to flash the Graphics card with a modified bios that will then allow you to adjust the core voltage to a proper value and allow the card to be more stable. Please be careful but you can start reading here. http://forum.techinferno.com/nvidia-video-cards/2166-%5Bguide%5D-nvidia-vbios-flashing.html