My Specs
AW-M17x Nebula Red
Intel® Core™2 Extreme quad-core mobile processor (QX9300)
Kingston HyperX 1333 CAS7 4GB Memory
Intel X25-M Gen2 160GB SSD
Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB 7200RPM
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4870 Graphics - Crossfire
Parts I've tested with the M17x
Processor
P8400
P8700
T9900 - Best for everyday use/gaming
X9100
QX9300 - Best for benchmarking
Memory
Samsung 1066 2x2GB - Timings go out of whack when raising the speed above 1066
Samsung 1333 2x2GB
Kingston HyperX 1066 2x2GB XMP - Waste of money since M17x does not support Intel XMP
Kingston HyperX 1066 2x2GB non-XMP - Runs too hot
Kingston HyperX 1333 2x2GB non-XMP - Best overall memory for this system
Hard Drive
Samsung 500GB 7200RPM
WD Scorpio Black 320GB 7200RPM
Samsung PB22-J 256GB SSD
Intel G2 160GB SSD - All the hard disks ran well but I prefer the Intel drive.
GPU
nVidia GTX 280M SLI - I literally downloaded 20 different drivers for the 280s. Each driver acted different based on the game I was playing or the benchmark I was running. Became a real pain.
ATI 4870 Crossfire - The ATI cards have more out of the box power. Drivers are also more stable for gaming. The Cat 9.12 drivers have been perfect for EVERYTHING so far.
Color
Nebula Red
Space Black - Black is "meaner" looking. The red is a little over the top. There are already different color lights on the system and the black makes a better pallete.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MphbJwmXNCs
How to Over-Clock Your ATI 4870s
First the disclaimer: I'm not responsible for you bricking your cards. If you are uncomfortable with flashing the BIOS do not bother with this. If you do something wrong and can no longer boot your system I cannot help you and your Dell warranty will be at risk. BE CAREFUL AND EXTRA PARANOID!
Now that part is out of the way there are different ways to over-clock your GPU, here is a quick step by step on how I do it. When doing these steps turn off any CPU over-clocking you may be using.
Tools needed:
A bootable USB stick
ATIFlash
RBE (Raedon BIOS Editor)
GPU-Z
1) Get a copy of your current BIOS and make an additional copy of it and store it somewhere besides your M17x. Do this by placing a copy of atiflash on your boot stick. Turn your M17x on and get into the system BIOS. You need to change the boot order of your system to look at the usb stick first. Then save, exit and boot off the stick. At the command prompt type atiflash -i. When you do this it should report back to you information on your 4870. It will show two cards if you have a crossfire setup. If you notice the cards are EXACTLY the same (I would assume somewhere written in the bios that one card is defined as Master and the other as Slave). Out of paranoia I treat them as two different cards and repeat the steps twice. Now to get a copy of the bios type atiflash -s 0 bios0.rom. This will take a copy of the bios on card 0 and call it bios0.rom. Repeat for the second card, atiflash -s 1 bios1.rom. Like I said before keep an additional copy of the bios files in a separate location. If you want to go back to stock eventually it's best to load the original copies.
2) Use RBE to change the clocks in the bios files. I normally just take my copy of the bios and drag and drop them right on RBE in Windows Explorer. That will open up RBE with the BIOS file loaded. You'll get a warning about the GPU not having ATI overdrive capabilities. Click OK to it. Click on the button on top called Clock Settings. Here is where you'll set your different clocks and voltage to save to the bios file. There is also a little wizard button you can use that will simply ask you how you want the over-clock settings to look like and your under-clock settings. You can use this wizard if you are a beginner. Once you change your clock and/or voltage settings save your bios. In this example I will call it nbios0.rom for card 0 and nbios1.rom for card 1. Put a copy of these two new files on your boot stick.
3) Flash your cards with the new settings. Reboot your system and boot off the usb stick once again. Here is another step to do out of paranoia. Verify that the checksum for your original bios file and new bios file are exactly the same. If they are not it has become corrupted somewhere along the process. Type atiflash -cf bios0.rom (this is the original file) then atiflash -cf nbios0.rom (this is the new file). The output should be exactly the same. Do it also for card 1. Once you are comfortable everything is OK flash the new bios by typing atiflash -p 0 nbios0.rom. It will tell you it's successful (hopefully) and to reboot your system but DO NOT reboot if you have a second card. Repeat the process, atiflash -p 1 nbios1.rom. Once that is successful pull your usb stick out and reboot. Once you're back into Windows use GPU-z to verify your clock settings.
How to Over-Clock your QX9300 to 3.2Ghz
The best thing to do to get the most of your over-clock in your system is to find the best memory divisor. I'm not going to write a long extensive article on how to do this, I will just say most have had good luck with over-clocking by linking the fsb:memory to a 1:2 ratio. This means if you set your fsb to 1280 then set your memory to 1280. If you do research on the subject you'll see the terms double and quad pumped. All this means in the end is to find out how fast the bus is going simply divide the fsb by 4 and the memory by 2. So going back to 1280 the fsb would be 320 and the memory would be 640. Hence the 1:2 ratio. Hope this makes sense.
I bring up 1280 because that is how you would set your fsb and memory to equal 3.20Ghz with the QX9300 if you multiplier was set to 10. 10 x 320 (from the example above) equals 3200Mhz or 3.2Ghz. Easy right? So do it! It will work! Wait it BSOD!! Ok not so fast. I've been having a more difficult time doing this with Windows 7. So here's an old virtual server trick that I tried with Windows 7 and so far it seems to work.
All you're going to do is simply disable the driver for the processor. I've never seen this have a negative impact in the past but then again I don't normally do this on gaming systems. I used to do it to virtual machines all the time when they would randomly BSOD for no reason. OK so here's is how to do it. There are actually multiple ways to do it. If you like doing it from the command prompt knock yourself out. Just like most anything when playing with registry values or Windows services there is a way to execute it from the command prompt. Here is what actually needs to be changed in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Processor
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Intelppm
In both these locations there is a "Start" string set to 3. Change it to 4 then reboot. That's it. Next time you go into device manger you'll see the little exclamation on all four cores of your processor. This means you have successfully disabled the processor driver. Obviosly the processor itself is operating at advertised speed. You just don't have a failing driver when over-clocking. So do it again, go into your bios, set the multi to 10 and your fsb and memory to 1280 and boot. Tada! Go ahead and do it again. Set your fsb and memory now to 1300 or 3.25Ghz....TADA!!! Now watch your 3DMark06 score soar since it loves processor speed. Please post your results in this thread!!
Benchmark Highs
3DMark06
13K Vantage Run!!!*
*I have reached 14K GPU on Vantage.
Gaming Benchmarks
Resident Evil 5: Stock Hardware Running My QX9300 as a Dual-Core Processor
Resident Evil 5: Stock Hardware with AA and Motion Blur turned off
Resident Evil 5: CPU OC'ed to 3.28Ghz with AA and Motion Blur turned off
Street Fighter 4: AA is Off
Street Fighter 4: AA is Off, Proc OC'ed to 3.28Ghz
Stalker Call of Pripyat: 3.28Ghz, Ultra settings using DirectX 10.1
ATi 4870 Dell Part Numbers
Component Part(s) of X650M
G51FX CRD,GRPHC,HD,4870,XT
C846N SRV,SW,DRVR,VID,AMD,M98XT
H754T ASSY,BRKT,VGA,HTSNK,M17X
Dual – 320-0759, BOMs to MOD D684N, BOMs to
Component Part(s) of D684N
C846N SRV,SW,DRVR,VID,AMD,M98XT
NHCHW CRD,GRPHC,HD,4870,XT,MXM,CBL
G51FX CRD,GRPHC,HD,4870,XT
Coupons
Dell.com/epp has 10% off Alienware systems right now.
Drivers Updated 2-20-2010
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 A01 8.635 WHQL driver for Vista & Win7 64b
Version: 8.635-090804a-087472C-Dell, A01
Vista64 | Win7
Cat 9.12 Released! Windows 7 64bit - This requires the MobilityModder to work on a notebook.
Pics
Credit goes to SillyHoney@NBR. The pics represent what the red looks like very well.
AW-M17x Nebula Red
Intel® Core™2 Extreme quad-core mobile processor (QX9300)
Kingston HyperX 1333 CAS7 4GB Memory
Intel X25-M Gen2 160GB SSD
Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB 7200RPM
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4870 Graphics - Crossfire
Parts I've tested with the M17x
Processor
P8400
P8700
T9900 - Best for everyday use/gaming
X9100
QX9300 - Best for benchmarking
Memory
Samsung 1066 2x2GB - Timings go out of whack when raising the speed above 1066
Samsung 1333 2x2GB
Kingston HyperX 1066 2x2GB XMP - Waste of money since M17x does not support Intel XMP
Kingston HyperX 1066 2x2GB non-XMP - Runs too hot
Kingston HyperX 1333 2x2GB non-XMP - Best overall memory for this system
Hard Drive
Samsung 500GB 7200RPM
WD Scorpio Black 320GB 7200RPM
Samsung PB22-J 256GB SSD
Intel G2 160GB SSD - All the hard disks ran well but I prefer the Intel drive.
GPU
nVidia GTX 280M SLI - I literally downloaded 20 different drivers for the 280s. Each driver acted different based on the game I was playing or the benchmark I was running. Became a real pain.
ATI 4870 Crossfire - The ATI cards have more out of the box power. Drivers are also more stable for gaming. The Cat 9.12 drivers have been perfect for EVERYTHING so far.
Color
Nebula Red
Space Black - Black is "meaner" looking. The red is a little over the top. There are already different color lights on the system and the black makes a better pallete.
Bug Found When Over-Clocking the CPU in the M17x with 4870 GPUs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MphbJwmXNCs
How to Over-Clock Your ATI 4870s
First the disclaimer: I'm not responsible for you bricking your cards. If you are uncomfortable with flashing the BIOS do not bother with this. If you do something wrong and can no longer boot your system I cannot help you and your Dell warranty will be at risk. BE CAREFUL AND EXTRA PARANOID!
Now that part is out of the way there are different ways to over-clock your GPU, here is a quick step by step on how I do it. When doing these steps turn off any CPU over-clocking you may be using.
Tools needed:
A bootable USB stick
ATIFlash
RBE (Raedon BIOS Editor)
GPU-Z
1) Get a copy of your current BIOS and make an additional copy of it and store it somewhere besides your M17x. Do this by placing a copy of atiflash on your boot stick. Turn your M17x on and get into the system BIOS. You need to change the boot order of your system to look at the usb stick first. Then save, exit and boot off the stick. At the command prompt type atiflash -i. When you do this it should report back to you information on your 4870. It will show two cards if you have a crossfire setup. If you notice the cards are EXACTLY the same (I would assume somewhere written in the bios that one card is defined as Master and the other as Slave). Out of paranoia I treat them as two different cards and repeat the steps twice. Now to get a copy of the bios type atiflash -s 0 bios0.rom. This will take a copy of the bios on card 0 and call it bios0.rom. Repeat for the second card, atiflash -s 1 bios1.rom. Like I said before keep an additional copy of the bios files in a separate location. If you want to go back to stock eventually it's best to load the original copies.
2) Use RBE to change the clocks in the bios files. I normally just take my copy of the bios and drag and drop them right on RBE in Windows Explorer. That will open up RBE with the BIOS file loaded. You'll get a warning about the GPU not having ATI overdrive capabilities. Click OK to it. Click on the button on top called Clock Settings. Here is where you'll set your different clocks and voltage to save to the bios file. There is also a little wizard button you can use that will simply ask you how you want the over-clock settings to look like and your under-clock settings. You can use this wizard if you are a beginner. Once you change your clock and/or voltage settings save your bios. In this example I will call it nbios0.rom for card 0 and nbios1.rom for card 1. Put a copy of these two new files on your boot stick.
3) Flash your cards with the new settings. Reboot your system and boot off the usb stick once again. Here is another step to do out of paranoia. Verify that the checksum for your original bios file and new bios file are exactly the same. If they are not it has become corrupted somewhere along the process. Type atiflash -cf bios0.rom (this is the original file) then atiflash -cf nbios0.rom (this is the new file). The output should be exactly the same. Do it also for card 1. Once you are comfortable everything is OK flash the new bios by typing atiflash -p 0 nbios0.rom. It will tell you it's successful (hopefully) and to reboot your system but DO NOT reboot if you have a second card. Repeat the process, atiflash -p 1 nbios1.rom. Once that is successful pull your usb stick out and reboot. Once you're back into Windows use GPU-z to verify your clock settings.
How to Over-Clock your QX9300 to 3.2Ghz
The best thing to do to get the most of your over-clock in your system is to find the best memory divisor. I'm not going to write a long extensive article on how to do this, I will just say most have had good luck with over-clocking by linking the fsb:memory to a 1:2 ratio. This means if you set your fsb to 1280 then set your memory to 1280. If you do research on the subject you'll see the terms double and quad pumped. All this means in the end is to find out how fast the bus is going simply divide the fsb by 4 and the memory by 2. So going back to 1280 the fsb would be 320 and the memory would be 640. Hence the 1:2 ratio. Hope this makes sense.
I bring up 1280 because that is how you would set your fsb and memory to equal 3.20Ghz with the QX9300 if you multiplier was set to 10. 10 x 320 (from the example above) equals 3200Mhz or 3.2Ghz. Easy right? So do it! It will work! Wait it BSOD!! Ok not so fast. I've been having a more difficult time doing this with Windows 7. So here's an old virtual server trick that I tried with Windows 7 and so far it seems to work.
All you're going to do is simply disable the driver for the processor. I've never seen this have a negative impact in the past but then again I don't normally do this on gaming systems. I used to do it to virtual machines all the time when they would randomly BSOD for no reason. OK so here's is how to do it. There are actually multiple ways to do it. If you like doing it from the command prompt knock yourself out. Just like most anything when playing with registry values or Windows services there is a way to execute it from the command prompt. Here is what actually needs to be changed in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Processor
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Intelppm
In both these locations there is a "Start" string set to 3. Change it to 4 then reboot. That's it. Next time you go into device manger you'll see the little exclamation on all four cores of your processor. This means you have successfully disabled the processor driver. Obviosly the processor itself is operating at advertised speed. You just don't have a failing driver when over-clocking. So do it again, go into your bios, set the multi to 10 and your fsb and memory to 1280 and boot. Tada! Go ahead and do it again. Set your fsb and memory now to 1300 or 3.25Ghz....TADA!!! Now watch your 3DMark06 score soar since it loves processor speed. Please post your results in this thread!!
Benchmark Highs
3DMark06
13K Vantage Run!!!*
*I have reached 14K GPU on Vantage.
Gaming Benchmarks
Resident Evil 5: Stock Hardware Running My QX9300 as a Dual-Core Processor
Resident Evil 5: Stock Hardware with AA and Motion Blur turned off
Resident Evil 5: CPU OC'ed to 3.28Ghz with AA and Motion Blur turned off
Street Fighter 4: AA is Off
Street Fighter 4: AA is Off, Proc OC'ed to 3.28Ghz
Stalker Call of Pripyat: 3.28Ghz, Ultra settings using DirectX 10.1
ATi 4870 Dell Part Numbers
Component Part(s) of X650M
G51FX CRD,GRPHC,HD,4870,XT
C846N SRV,SW,DRVR,VID,AMD,M98XT
H754T ASSY,BRKT,VGA,HTSNK,M17X
Dual – 320-0759, BOMs to MOD D684N, BOMs to
Component Part(s) of D684N
C846N SRV,SW,DRVR,VID,AMD,M98XT
NHCHW CRD,GRPHC,HD,4870,XT,MXM,CBL
G51FX CRD,GRPHC,HD,4870,XT
Coupons
Dell.com/epp has 10% off Alienware systems right now.
Drivers Updated 2-20-2010
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 A01 8.635 WHQL driver for Vista & Win7 64b
Version: 8.635-090804a-087472C-Dell, A01
Vista64 | Win7
Cat 9.12 Released! Windows 7 64bit - This requires the MobilityModder to work on a notebook.
Pics
Credit goes to SillyHoney@NBR. The pics represent what the red looks like very well.
We need some benchmarks from you for sure, when you have it.
wow... thats pretty hot... whats your secret?
