junglegus

Opened her up to re-paste - the GPU heatsink grill was blocked by dust! respasted GPU and CPU, maxing at a much more reasonable 95, with a much lower average in the high 80s. Still high I feel, but much more playable and no crashes yet. awesome! interestingly, the heatpipes look to be miles away from the GPU

Thanks! Will give that a crack tonight and see if temps reduce

Digging up an old thread....I noticed that I was starting to get shut down issues, HWinfo was showing the fans weren't running at full speed and GPU temps were getting up to 106'C before crashing! I followed the fan instructions earlier in the thread and have managed to keep it hovering just below 100', but that is still pretty hot. I'm going to take it apart again and do a new paste job, BUT I think I've managed to fix the issue (meaning I'm not shopping a new PC, phew). Question: is there anything else I should be doing? Is it possible I've damaged the GPU or would the auto shut down have saved it? Thanks! Gus

I assume you mean the "speedstep technology" option - it's enabled, and stealth mode disabled (i'm assuming you mean the little RPM icon on the touch panel - games would be unplayable without, right?) - any other ideas? Added after 6 minutes: weirdly - retested for the 3rd time and it came back with 7.3 better! still, it's the lowest score on the Index. i feel like getting a desktop at this point is admitting defeat. being able to run crysis 2 in dx11 at extreme settings is pretty sweet though. thanks!

Question - this might be a dumb one - the 920XM gives a windows experience score of 5.5 and the sysinfo program say's it's running @ 2 ghz. is there any chance that the turbo boost function isn't running? the windows experience isn't necessarily a great guide, but seems low. the CPU does seem to run cool - need to check temps but it's significantly cooler than the GPU

6990m is in, performing great - temp got up to 84 degrees - is that OK? super easy installation - great help guide! still need to update BIOS - can't find a blank CD and exe on the dell site doesnt work. i ended up getting the 240W PSU just to be on the safe side - seems to work a lot cooler than the 150W which is nice. my only concern is the backplate - i'm using the 260m one (the vendor didnt include the 6990m one) - is this OK longer term?

Cool thanks - glad to hear it! Still waiting on the 6990m to get through UK customs - will update the BIOS when I install that along with the Driver Cheers! Gus

Couple of questions - hoping you guys can help. I'm still waiting on the 6990m to arrive, should be here this week. 1. I installed the 920xm and 8gb of ram, there's a noticeable increase in speed when gaming, it's a lot smoother - one question i did have is the CPU fan seems to be blowing air that isn't really that hot. HWinfo32 shows temps in the region of 55 degrees C or so, but it just seems a little odd that it's running a lot cooler than before. Could it be that cleaning out the dust and a new thermal paste job is keeping it cooler, or could it be that a bad thermal paste job isn't conducting correctly? Appreciate feedback here. 2. When I use an external monitor, i find after 30-45mins gaming (skyrim right now) I get a substantial slowdown, as in games become unplayable. Temps seem OK - this doesn't happen at all using the usual laptop screen. Any ideas? Thanks! Gus

Posting to share the love - haven't found a thread I like this much in a while! Thanks Marco Hi Marco, Your posts have been inspirational - i've placed orders for a 920xm and 6970m based on your posts as an alternative to buying a desktop. wish me luck! just a quick question - is the 6990m exactly the same process and works the same as installing the 6970m? the ebay seller is offering me an upgrade - not sure of $ yet but worth it in your opinion? thanks in advance for any help - it's greatly appreciated! Cheers, Gus One more! Sorry. The seller also just advised that i need a 240W power supply and the AMD backplate - can you confirm that's the case and Marco's (excellent) response: It depends on the card you get... as described in the thread, some of the clevo cards come with the backplate soldered to the card, make sure you don't get such a card. But I guess you won't since you're seller is advising you to get the AMD backplate... but this is easier said than done... no one is really selling them, I'd ask the seller to include one. I guess it's "upgradeyourlaptop" from ebay? He should have the backplates, cause this is actually eurocomm which is selling cards on ebay. The regular backplate which you have on your current card will work as well, but it's not a perfect fit. I used it for about half a year with my 6970m and it worked fine. It didn't fit as well when I got the 6990m so I did some very slight modding to make it fit a bit better, it's not perfect but it works. (I can post a picture of it if you want). Currently I'm using the proper backplate, I was lucky to get my hands on one. To sum it up, the regular backplate works, but the other is preferable since it doesn't touch any capacitors on the back. About the PSU, I used the 920xm / 6970m combo for about half a year with the 150W PSU, and I never had issues, even during benching. It can run hot when you stress GPU and CPU, but it should work fine, the Dell 150W PSU can be run at 180W all the time without issues, only drawback is that it isn't really efficient, a lot of power gets dissipated as heat. The 240W will run cooler and leave enough headroom, thus run more energy efficient, but you shouldn't notice any difference in performance, at least I didn't see any differences. Only reason I got the 240W PSU was because I did some crazy stuff with my CPU, which resulted in crazy power draws (>200W) which caused the 150W PSU to trip instantly. The 6990m is definitely more desirable than the 6970m when it comes to gaming, but the 6970m is an extremely strong card as well, about 2x the performance of a 460m / 5850m in games. Added after 6 minutes: Hi Marco, Thanks - great response! Appreciate the time you put into it. I've put your response on the thread It's this card: eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace Seller is Ian (blue32701) He said he'd include a backplate, so fingers crossed it's the right one. Sounds like I'll give the PSU a crack and see how I get on - question - would this 240W supply work? (GENUINE Original DELL 240W AC Adapter Charger PA-9E: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics) - has the same part number you posted early but seems to be generic dell. Pity I ordered it so close to Christmas - will be a while till I can bolt it all in! Will keep you posted on how i get on. Wish me luck! Cheers, Gus