ratinox

Ask Google about "BD PROCHOT" and "M14xR2". Also: http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m14x/1787-%5Bm14x-r2%5D-vbios-mod-higher-boost-clocks-test-versions-only-28.html#post42906 Not saying that it definitely is a GPU thermal throttle but it sure looks like it.

GPU thermal throttling is my first guess.

No, you can't. At the high end you will find all dual-GPU notebooks within the same general price range. You might get a slightly better deal from Sager or MSI this week. Or you might get a better price from Dell. But by and large at the high end of gaming notebooks you won't find "similar power" for "much less". It's sometimes easier to find a better deal in the mid-range (where the M14x line resides). Which really means you're more likely to find a deal on a closeout or refurbished unit. But otherwise, no. As a matter of fact, when I specced out my M14x last year I couldn't find a single 14" Dell notebook with an nVidia GPU and quad Core i7 for less than the Alienware. That's right. Alienware cost me less than Dell's regular brand. Sure, I could have gotten a 14" Dell for much less but it wouldn't be anywhere near "similar power". At the low end... but that's pointless since Alienware doesn't have anything at the low end.

The Momentus XT drives do have very small flash caches compared to a dedicated SSD and it does make a difference in performance. But like I wrote before, how much of a difference depends on your use patterns. If you're playing movies? You won't see any practical difference. If you're loading fHuge game levels? You won't notice much difference. If the software, be it SRT or in the disk controller, is working correctly then large sequential reads won't be cached at all. There is a tangible benefit to the XT lines, though. They work with any and every operating system you throw at them. Intel SRT only works with Windows and you MUST shut it off if/when you boot any other OS. SRT will corrupt your data next time it loads if you don't. ReadyCache, being read-only, won't corrupt your data. The cache won't be available for other operating systems (it, too, is only for Windows) but at least your data won't get ruined by a mistake. Keep this fact in mind if you have plans to dual-boot or switch to Linux.

Bear in mind that the results depend considerably upon your use patterns. SSDs are great for burst reads and writes; they're mediocre to terrible for everything else. Which is why they're great for fast boot times and program starts but that performance trails off for large database or game level loads. For a gaming rig (and this is Alienware) the most effective performance option is a 60-120GB SSD for OS, applications and pagefile; and hybrid disk for large data files. The most cost effective performance option is a conventional disk for everything and a 32GB flash-based SSD for cache. Anything more than 32G cache is a waste. Edit: Intel SRT bonds a single SSD cache drive with a single storage drive. This means you can't put a SSD cache drive in front of a RAID 0 or RAID 1 set. Nor can you bond a pair of SSD + data as a RAID set using the Intel RAID controller. I don't know if you can bond the devices using Windows' software RAID driver. Some other cache solutions, like Samsung's ReadyCache, can be put in front of all disk devices on a given system. I run one of these with a pair of 1TB Seagate drives in my K430 tower. The drawbacks to ReadyCache compared to SRT are that ReadyCache is read cache only (no write cache) and there is no mSATA version. Edit 2: That's Sandisk on the ReadyCache, not Samsung.

GW2 automatically "downgrades" itself to work reasonably well even on minimum spec kit. I ran all of the beta weekends with a mid-range Core 2 Duo and that was when the graphics engine was still CPU bound. Disabling turbo boost doesn't appreciably affect gameplay. I can't say for certain about GPU throttling and related performance drops. I was never able to reliably cause this before so I can't reliably test it now. The math says I have more heat dissipation than the GPU and CPU can generate and the fan does run at a lower speed now than it did before. Good enough for me.

That's because overclocking IS complicated.

My goal with this, as Quix describes, isn't temperature reduction. It's avoiding the temperature spikes that come with the Ivy Bridge self-overclocking aka turbo boost. The two games I play that do stress the CPU are Civ V and Guild Wars 2. Civ is a pig but it doesn't really need high frame rates. GW2 chews on both CPU and GPU and it will trip the GPU throttle for things like big world events. If I want overall temperature reduction then I prop it up on a little riser. That's worth 8-10 degrees F right there.

Did you ever wear the pack with only one strap slung over your shoulder? That counts as wrong usage. It's also likely to cause serious injury to you.

Probably. Disabling turbo boost isn't a performance thing. It's a cooling thing. The CPU and GPU share the same heat pipes and fan, right? With default settings, if the CPU runs hot then the cooling system throttles the GPU. This is not good for games which don't really need all of the processing power that the Ivy Bridge i7's can deliver. Disabling the BD PROCHOT (bi-directional processor hot) signal ensures that the cooling system doesn't throttle the GPU if the CPU runs hot, and disabling turbo boost ensures that the CPU doesn't run hot. Net benefit: both CPU and GPU run consistently without throttling. This is more important to me than getting the highest possible benchmark score.

The instability is probably because you left Intel SRT (SSD cache) enabled. That won't work outside of Windows. It *really* won't work. You'll trash your file systems if you do that.

There we go. A11 unlocked flashed to the board. Turbo disabled in firmware. BD PROCHOT disabled with ThrottleStop. GPU set to 1090/1500 with Afterburner. 3DMARK11 score of P2981: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,Alienware M14xR2 score: P2981 3DMarks Respectable compared to the default A11 unlocked default 950/1000 (yes, it is 950/1000 here, not 950/1400 as advertised) score of 2597.

Correct me if I'm off base here, but "plays fine" and "way too many bugs and problems" are opposed descriptives. It's a high performance gaming rig. If you want quiet then buy an Atom netbook.

nVidia's Linux binary blob driver doesn't support Optimus -- switching between low-power IGP and full-power GPU. Bumblebee exists to address this. You won't get full graphics support working without it. You need kernel 3.5 or newer to get support for Creative Sound Core3D chipsets. You MUST disable Intel SRT in Windows. Failure to do so will result in trashed file systems. I suggest the T|I Steam forum if you wish to engage in Steam/Linux advocacy.

Intel's pre-release Haswell Core i7 (fourth generation Core architecture) desktop CPUs perform comparably to the current Ivy Bridge Core i7 mobile CPUs in R2. The IGP will be better than the current HD4000 but you probably don't care about that for gaming which is why you buy Alienware. There's just no point to putting Haswell in a gaming rig if you already have Ivy Bridge. Meanwhile, nVidia's Maxwell-based GPUs won't be shipping until early 2014. A Haswell + Kepler (GT 650M) R3 shipping late this year will be functionally identical to what you can get right now. Same computing power, same graphics power, same power consumption across the board. The earliest that a Haswell + Maxwell R3 is even possible is over a year out, probably mid to late 2014. It will happen just to keep Dell's CPU lineup current with Intel's manufacturing. Regardless, I wouldn't wait. It will be a minor upgrade to the current lineup.

Any pack designed for carrying a notebook computer is probably junk. The back will be flimsy and do nothing to distribute the weight to the worse than useless belt -- if it even has a belt. My advice is to get a good, solid day pack (I'm currently using a Deuter ACT Trail 32 -- possibly the best day pack I've ever seen, never mind owned) and a padded sleeve that fits your computer and pack. Your back will be glad you did.

There are a couple of weak links in the R2 design. One is the shared cooling system. CPU and GPU share a pair of heat pipes connected to the fan assembly. If something runs too hot then everything is throttled. A riser stand that opens up airflow under the fan assembly helps tremendously (see my test results here: http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m14x/1755-m14x-cooling-3.html#post28820). The other is the display panel. Don't get me wrong. The 1600x900 panel is beautiful. But like most notebook displays it has a refresh rate of 60Hz. This limits what the GPU is allowed to push.

Oh, great. I flashed the unfixed A11. Blind reflash ahead. Edit: and one USB recovery attempt with stock A11 later and I'm the not so proud owner of a brick. Recommend not blind flashing the stock A11 firmware. Edit 2: Dell is sending a tech to swap the main board tomorrow. I'm very glad I got the next business day warranty support.

Bingo! Power draw spike -> overload -> safety shutdown. That's why they come with a 150W power brick.

It's not the CPU or GPU, and it isn't cooling. If it were any of these then you'd see problems on mains power. No, my suspicion is the battery power system. It's not designed to handle intensive gaming sessions. I mean, a battery pack rated at 4-5 hours of run time being drained by 20% in 10 minutes? That's Full to Zero in 30-40 minutes, roughly 1/8 of its intended run time. With the X-Stand I'm not running the cooling system at full. And I don't have the super-fast WiFi chipset. The faster i7 does draw more power, and your cooling fan is going to be running at higher RPMs without a riser. I can see this causing power load spikes that overwhelm the power system, especially if you have beefy peripherals like active cooling mats and programmable keyboards and mice sucking power from the USB ports.

The original AC. Which is notorious for being a GPU pig due to poor optimizations. As a note: this is the 1600x900 screen with AC running at native resolution. Performance profile set to "high". Guild Wars 2, full screen, highest graphics settings, frame rate limiter off. Going on 8 minutes without a hitch. It's consumed about 20% of my battery capacity.

Don't know. I haven't tried to sign up with either a physical bank or a virtual bank in many years. Most of my finances are through my credit union.

I have almost the same configuration that you have, but with the i7-3610QM instead of the i7-3740. Windows 7 x64, stock A10 firmware, 310.90 nVidia drivers, default overclock/overvolt settings on CPU and GPU. Five minutes of Assassin's Creed from Steam does not reproduce the problem you describe. Currently waiting for it to recharge. Will try again with Guild Wars 2 once the battery is topped off.

Virtual banks are real banks (FDIC insured) that have no physical presence. ING Direct is one of the big names. Or was; they've been taken over by Capital One.

My suspicion at this point is that Windows is reenabling the Logitech drivers. Using the uninstall tools (Control Panel -> Uninstall) does not always remove third party driver INFs and DLLs from the system. Windows will happily use those instead of the stock Windows drivers when you next connect the device. You need to dig into Device Manager to really remove them. Connect the device, start up Device Manager, find the device, and remove driver. Disconnect the device. Connect the device. Windows should use its own mouse drivers. If it still uses Logitech drivers then you'll have to restart in Safe Mode and manually root out the Logitech INFs and DLLs. Edit: This isn't unique to Alienware. I have an Asus netbook and an HP netbook, both with Synaptics touchpads, and both have problems with the automatic disable if external mice are connected if any third-party mouse drivers other than the Synaptics driver are loaded.