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M17x-R2 CFX 5870 modding for extreme oc

post #1 of 18
Thread Starter 
Hi Guys!

I just want to show my mod on my 5870's may someone find it useful.

Warning!
Do not replicate my mod unless you know what you doing is may not for your nerves!
I don't encourage anyone to do anything, if you follow my work you do it at your own risk!
Warning!


Used tools and components :

1, 0.5 mm aluminum sheet for the memory instead of the 1 mm thick thermal pads.

2, 0.5 mm plastic sheet for the GPU die just to be safe! the 5870's don't have metal frame mounted onto it like 4870's.


3, 3M 467MP adhesive (double side tape)
4, water paper (200u particle size) to polish the GPU cooling block (missed the pics ) when is looks a mirror is good
5, AS thermal compound for anything

6, really sharp blade to cut the aluminum sheet, make sore is not resemble a geo map (and patience)
personally i recommend to polish the edges of the cutting and wash them, to prevent metal particles lurking around inside the laptop not healthy...


How to?

1st, cut out from the aluminium sheet 4x, 550 mm x 150 mm pice's this goes onto the memory...

2nd, cut out from the plastic sheet 4x, 5 mm x 5 mm pice's and halve them to make little triangles this is for the GPU


3rd, stick the adhesive onto the little triangles then stick it onto the GPU on each corner.


4th, remove the cooling unit from the card and clean with IPA, than polish up the middle copper surface... until is more shiny
the original is awful because... not necessarily need to sit on the gpu properly (thanks for the thick thermal paste).

5th, make little balls of AS on each RAM chip then put the aluminium sheet onto it (little cicle moves), then make another little drops of AS on the top.
Do the same to the GPU die. not need a big ball is should be sit on it just perfectly.

Just took me 6 hours to workout anything correctly ,cutting , polishing ,gluing ,mounting. I know, a lot of guide out there what, and how to do to make that monster quiet

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post #2 of 18
nice work

What are your temps like now ?
post #3 of 18
Thread Starter 
Just testing right now.
Idle: 35c / 45c i got hydra vision and hydra desktop ruining + snap view for glass effect.
under load with photoshop cs5 45c / 52c, ghost warrior (cfx not working)... ?? ~62c , Mass Effect 2 ~55c / 62c (cfx)

as you see is been oc'd 800/1100mhz driver AMD catalyst 10.10 so, i can say good . max i tried 900/1300 ??? after 20min gamiiiiiing it crashed so just try different clocks.

and y the hell ESC not working in games "because a left photoshop in the background"
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post #4 of 18
Nice tips and sharing AMD 10.10 has a hot fix out at the same time (10.10a) - did you try it as well?

cheers ...
post #5 of 18
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by qhn View Post
Nice tips and sharing AMD 10.10 has a hot fix out at the same time (10.10a) - did you try it as well?

cheers ...
no i did not. Using the AMD reference driver now. Dell supplied driver is a disaster... top of that i only install the driver from the package. No ccc been installed since AMD drivers out of box sets-up dual card config.

working on another pprojects is well as soon i got something i'll post it.
post #6 of 18
Thread Starter 
Just finished some additional testing and tuning. i only work with the AMD 10.10 drivers i will not try beta or OEM drivers.
10.10 is works for me. I achieved stable clock speed and not "cooking" temperature at:

Idle : ~48 °C
Load: 57 - 68 °C
Extra load 75 -79 °C

I raised the idle clock speed from 100 MHz / 150 MHz to 200 MHz / 300 MHz " i dont intend to drift too far from the power outlet anyway"

and the oc speed is now 820 MHz / 1150 MHz not bad. Considered the Juniper XT reference clock speed is 850 / 1200 Mhz
I can hit this level but the temp goes crazy ...

after 6 hour of gaming Aliens vs. Predator "DX11 enabled" had no problem and i did not feel my laptop hotter than it was before.

Off topic
Conclusion : i dont see how this cooling system will be able to support fermi. dell have to redesign it, or really underclock fermi and rename it to "fermi light" with 5870 oc'd is already on it's edge.

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post #7 of 18
Brilliant input AssimilatorX

Interesting remark about the new fermi and the cooling.

cheers ...
post #8 of 18
Thread Starter 
Thanks qhn i hoped someone like it. I just try stay objective . Since i had my 1st R2 with cfx i realized until you can play the games it doesn't make any difference. Was nv fan before and shouting with dell customer rep, because they pushed me the 4870 cfx So i ripped the 260 GTX SLI from my R1 unfortunately on of them was faulty, i could not kept it. That time was no nv card offered with R2.

off:
i working on other project to dismantling the laptop to the tiniest paces. It'll be up tomorrow.
post #9 of 18
Thread Starter 
Created more mod:
Shielding for the CrossfireX cable, and a emergency recovery dvd to automate recovery after bad vbios flash.
The dvd also holds an over clocked 104 vbios and the A09 system bios with the latest AW Diagnostic tool so called "BlindFlash" process

I used the DELL supplied 13B96101.104 VBIOS


All binary and executables on the dvd are unmodified except one, the over clocked vbios (800 / 1100 MHz)

The dvd is set to automatic recovery for Alienware M17X-R2 5870 CrossfireX systems when you use it take care.
Be clear minded when using my disk if you brick your laptop dont blame me. I have tested all functions i created on my own laptop.
DO not intend to use it on 4870. If you have 4870 and leave the disk in the drive than boot from it, got 20 sec to choose from the menu.
After 20 sec the atiflash will start. Within the 20 sec period just press Q it will kill the timer and not start the automatic flashing procedure.

M17xR2_Recovery.7z

updated ver 1.1

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post #10 of 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by AssimilatorX View Post
... After 20 sec the atiflash will start here if you press Q it will kill the timer



Somehow I just have a weird feeling about "pressing Q to kill the timer"

Great sharing ...

cheers ...
post #11 of 18
Thread Starter 
Sorry my mistake ...
If you have any good suggestion i happy to integrate

i go correct it now thanks! by the way the holly purpose this disk to automate the blindflash process
post #12 of 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by AssimilatorX View Post
Sorry my mistake ...
If you have any good suggestion i happy to integrate

i go correct it now thanks! by the way the holly purpose this disk to automate the blindflash process
Just joking my good person Q is my name , as a name for many others

Leave it be - I think it makes more sense and easy to remember ... Q for quitting (not this "q" now )

cheers ...
post #13 of 18
Thread Starter 
I know that... except the name LOL but indeed it was not entirely clear.
post #14 of 18

Hi everyone,

 

I wanted to say, you can use copper instead of aluminum, it's more effective - search for "copper sheet" on eBay, there are a lot of different sizes available. And you can cut them with some shears or big strong scissors.

 

I did something similar because I kinda had to for my Elitebook 8530 - check the post out, maybe it'll give you some ideas, too...

post #15 of 18
Thread Starter 
Really nice indeed.
Bit crazy but we are crazy are't we? LOL i have done strange things too like build a backlit keyboard onto my mom's inspiron winknudge.gif
post #16 of 18

How did you cut the aluminum with a blade? I cut it with shears, but it bent so I had to straighten everything. Did you just cut it on a table and was it straight afterwards? Thanks!

post #17 of 18
Thread Starter 
What i did is use a carpet knife and a metal ruler . Place the ruler onto the sheet where i wanted to cut, and and pull the carpet knife multiple times until it felt ez to fold without bending it ... or you can just use another straight thing example back of a big kitchen knife or something .
post #18 of 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by AssimilatorX View Post

Really nice indeed.
Bit crazy but we are crazy are't we? LOL i have done strange things too like build a backlit keyboard onto my mom's inspiron winknudge.gif

This - I would like to see laugh4.gif

cheers ...
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