ratinox

The best TIM in the world is useless if there is no coolant flowing through the heat exchanger. In other words, there are no "secondary methods" in a cooling system. Either everything works or the whole fails. Ignore cleaning an airflow at your own risk.

MSI is good for the price but the build quality isn't as good as Dell/Alienware. They don't offer any kind of on-site service; it's either take it to the vendor or pay for RMA shipping. Step up to Clevo/Saeger and you get the build quality at a higher price point but you still don't get on-site service.

Which is 10C lower than Intel's maximum temperature rating of 105C so you're operating within the manufacturer's specifications.

Cleaning out the dust should always be your first activity. Nothing else will help if the physical bits are clogged. Prop up the back with anything that opens up airflow under the fan. I use a couple of cheap rubber door wedges. That alone is good for a 5C to 10C temperature reduction on the CPU under peak load. I don't know when it was added but I know that the A13 firmware has a toggle to disable CPU Turbo. Turning CPU Turbo off is good for a 10C to 20C peak temperature reduction on the CPU.

I've never had a problem with ISRT that was not of my own making. For example, trying to dual-boot Linux.

Then you have (had) a faulty main board. Dell will (should) do something about that if it's under warranty or you pay for the repairs.

I doubt it. The 67C throttle point is nVidia's spec. Dell can't change that without violating whatever agreements they have with nVidia. At the very least it would void the GPU warranty. The problem disappears if you prop up the back of the unit to open up airflow under the fan. But I repeat myself yet again: http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m14x-aw-14/1755-m14x-cooling-3.html#post28820

Optimus is the mechanism that switches between the on-board Intel IGP and the discrete nVidia GPU. Optimus is part of the nVidia graphics driver, not the system or video firmware.

Mathematical accuracy vs. speed. The Quadro line is for professional use where consistent mathematical precision is required. The GT line is for games where speed is required and mathematical accuracy beyond 2-3 decimal places is irrelevant. In practical terms, you won't see a difference between the two in actual game renders other than frame rates. Where a GT might render a game at 30 frames per second, a Quadro of the same vintage might render it at 5-10 frames per second. On the flip, if you're doing CAD work, the GT might leave you with machined parts that don't quite fit together properly. This might be acceptable for Ikea but not so much for Boeing.

You don't need an unlocked BIOS to disable BDPROCHOT. c.f. every Throttlestop guide ever written.

Factory defaults. Those offer the best balance of heat, performance, power consumption, stability and longevity. For anything else? Ask Google about overclocking guides.

Welcome to the real world where refreshes and new models arrive every 12-18 months. You had the choice of waiting or buying when you did. You choose to buy and you got your R2 several months before those who waited for the new models. That's not a matter of fairness. That was your choice, the same choice that anyone who buys computers has to make. GTX 765m is not "much better" than GT 650m. It's incrementally better. The SPU and clock specs look good on paper but in actual use, with real games, 765m functions as an overclocked 650m with more SPUs -- because it is an overclocked 650m with more SPUs. We won't see "much better" until nVidia starts shipping the Maxwell GPUs next year. PS4 and Xbone will have about as much processing power as a mid-range Core i3 which means what you have is already several times better. AMD's Jaguar FPUs? They're for netbooks. They're made for low price and low power consumption, not for performance. Don't get me wrong. I love AMD's Fusion architectures of which Jaguar is the latest iteration. It's just that Fusion is terrible for high-end gaming. But then, neither Xbone nor PS4 are for high-end gaming. They're for the iPhone generation of social networking and media sharing. If you're having problems with BF3 then it's not the GPU. It's something you've done or haven't done. Install the latest nVidia drivers. Set the game to use the nVidia GPU instead of the Intel IGP.

I listed them because they're games that run both CPU and GPU to full capacity.

So. I've been running the unlocked A13 firmware for about a week: CPU Turbo disabled in firmware, BD-PROCHOT disabled in firmware, Core Clock and Memory Clock set to +135/+400 with MSI Afterburner. It's been solid for Guild Wars 2 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Yeah, because a whole 180 scan lines is a deal-breaker. Hint: that's about half of a NTSC TV screen's vertical resolution squeezed down into about an inch of screen real estate.