crucial 1 tb bx100 or sandisk ultra ii 960gb for 241 shipped

my bx100 has been shipped.

but ill post again when i get it.

however, the price i posted orignally has changed i dont think you can get one for as cheap from jet anymore.

the sandisk ultra ii

http://ift.tt/1RZKNrO

still goes for 241 shipped if you use 20now code.

i compared these two closely before i ordered and i wanted the bx100 because it has the lowest power consumption.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

crucial 1 tb bx100 or sandisk ultra ii 960gb for 241 shipped

Fallout 4 System Requirements/Recommendation

http://ift.tt/1RZrnTX

Minimum
Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz/AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz or equivalent
8 GB RAM
30 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or equivalent

Recommended
Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i7 4790 3.6 GHz/AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz or equivalent
8 GB RAM
30 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB/AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB or equivalent

Fallout 4 has plug & play compatibility with both the Xbox One and Xbox 360 controllers. Alternate controller options may require additional user adjustments

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

Fallout 4 System Requirements/Recommendation

nVidia drivers soon only available through GeForce Experience

It says that GFE will be first access for driver releases, they didn't mention that they will cut website distribution. Still, knowing nVidia, that might happen and that would be very bad for the likes of me, who only install graphics and PhysX drivers, and the rest bloatware leave unchecked.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

nVidia drivers soon only available through GeForce Experience

System fan sometimes doesn't start, requires manual

Hello. I have a problem with my system fan in HP Pavilion G6-2260sw. It all started with 90b error on startup, telling that the fan is not operating correctly, but it was running. Then after some time it stopped running. Spraying compressed air helped, but only temporarily. Then I discovered that spraying compressed air while the laptop was on and fan stopped, caused to startup the fan. Like it needed some help to get started. But after a while it stopped working. I have a better method now. I have my keyboard detached, so when it doesn't start, I lift the keyboard and spin the fan with my fingers and it starts.
I took the laptop apart, no sign of dust. I updated the bios. But it still happens. I plan to replace the fan. What do you think, will it help? The fan doesn't spin freely when off, you would have to apply force constantly for it to spin. Is it normal for some fans, or should all fans make very little resistance to spinning?

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

System fan sometimes doesn't start, requires manual

*OFFICIAL* Alienware 15 R1/R2 Owner's Lounge

- The chassis is incredibly solid. Very impressed with that.

- The keyboard doesn't flex much, but the keys themselves are expectedly pretty squishy (it's a laptop keyboard). It feels better so far than a Samsung Ativ Book 8 that I own, but maybe not quite as nice as the Lenovo Y50.

- The height of the laptop is almost exactly the height of a DVD case with two CD cases stacked on top of it (go ahead, find a DVD case and a couple CD cases, you know you want to).

I feel that random users' opinions of screen quality, keyboard feel, and so on isn't all that helpful, since it is entirely subjective, and you may have a different opinion. I prefer hard numbers relative to other laptops' hard numbers. For example, "the fans are kinda loud" is useless compared to "the fans are measured at 32dB versus this other laptop measured at 40dB." This is the main reason I haven't weighed in too heavily, and am waiting for professional reviews.

Alas, in the midst of waiting for your laptop, or choosing between laptops, you'll lap up anything you can get, no matter how inconsequential it is. So, fine, I'll weigh in a bit more.

A bit of background. I teach game development and graphics design and have done a fair bit of photography. I have owned many monitors/laptop screens, including the LP3065, 2209WA, LP1423p, Samsung Ativ Book 8 (AUO MVA panel), Lenovo Y50 4K (Samsung PLS), and a slew of TN panels.

The 4K Sharp panel on this Alienware 15 is actually really nice. I haven't gotten around to calibrating it yet, but at this point, I dare say that it might be the best quality screen I've used. I have also used Apple Cinema displays and Macbook Pro 15" retina newest version. The backlight bleed isn't good, and there's some serious tonal falloff at the left and right edges, creating an undesired vignette effect. Despite those things, the colors are nice, and the contrast is really good. The screen is probably a newer version of the one tested here: http://ift.tt/1MlWXvc .

The hinge is really solid so far. When you tap the screen, it doesn't wobble, like others I've seen. Very sturdy. The quality of the glass isn't as nice as the Ativ Book 8 in my opinion.

I like good keyboards. I own a Cherry brown Filco with heavy-duty double shot keys, that I bought and customized long before any of the major companies started jumping on the wagon. This is one of a few expensive professional mechanical keyboards I've purchased. That said, the keyboard on the Alienware 15 was a pleasant surprise. When I test out laptops in Best Buy and the Microsoft Store, I type "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" in notepad on each display computer. I wonder what people think when they walk by and see the screens after I'm done. This keyboard beats all of the ones I've tested in the stores recently. This is partially because Best Buy and Microsoft puts super cheap laptops on display, or ones that are too thin to effectively accommodate a nice keyboard.

The keyboard is definitely nicer than the Ativ Book 8's chiclet keyboard, and I'm starting to think it is better than the Y50's keyboard too. I don't think it's quite better than the old scissor switch keyboard on an XPS 1210 I owned, but it's definitely similar. It's just a tad tougher and squishier.

The fans at idle are darn near silent in a quiet environment. You can hear them barely hum when it is silent in the room. However, the CPU and GPU temperature hovers around 50 degrees celsius, which is maybe a bit warm to my liking. I think the Y50 and Ativ Book 8 idle at a lower temperature than that. I might increase the fan speed a bit since they already are so darn quiet. When the fans start kicking in because of GPU load, they definitely get quite a bit louder, but in no annoying way. No buzzing, whining, clicking or anything like that. I haven't put it under load enough to compare, but I'd say it's no louder than the Y50 or Ativ Book 8 under load.

No comment about the touchpad, because I try to use either a mouse, the touchscreen, or a Wacom Intuos instead of that touchpad. It's not terrible, but on this 4K screen, its default sensitivity is pretty low. I've had some trouble scrolling with it too. In chrome (I think), it will often fly up to the top instead of scrolling down. Weird. It also isn't all that precise in my opinion. But par for the course for touchpads I guess. People swear by Macbook touchpads, but seriously, it's still a touchpad. I used one on a Macbook Pro earlier today and no thanks.

- Here's a picture of the black bleed:

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

*OFFICIAL* Alienware 15 R1/R2 Owner's Lounge

AMD Catalyst™ 15.11 Beta Driver

A bigger, stronger replacement for an Envy 15

1) What is your budget?
1500-2000 USD

2) What size notebook would you prefer?
d. Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen
e. Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen

3) Where will you buying this notebook? You can select the flag of your country as an indicator.
US

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like:
b. Dislike:

5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistributed?
No

6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?
Productivity, gaming, A/V editing

7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?
Desk and lap, so need something that won't burn me.

8) Will you be playing games on your notebook? If so, please state which games or types of games?
RPG (Pillars of Eternity, Skyrim) and Strategy (EU IV, Civ V)

9) How many hours of battery life do you need?
Zero.

10) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK?
Online ok.

11) What OS do you prefer? Windows (Windows 7 / 8), Mac OS, Linux, etc.
Windows (7 or 10)

Screen Specifics

12) From the choices below, what screen resolution(s) would you prefer? Keep in mind screen size in conjunction with resolution will play a large role in overall viewing comfort level. Everyone is different. Some like really small text, while others like their text big and easy to read. (Scroll down to see screen resolution information.)
1080

13) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen? (Scroll down to see explanations.)
Don't care.

Build Quality and Design

14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?
Less flashy is better.

15) When are you buying this laptop?
Some time between now and end of year.

16) How long do you want this laptop to last?
5 years.

Notebook Components

17) How much hard drive space do you need? Do you want a SSD drive?
1 TB, can use external drives though.

18) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a DVD Burner, Blu-ray Reader or Blu-Ray Burner?
No.

Other notes
This computer will replace a 3 year old HP Envy 15 that Windows 10 killed (bad AMD driver update killed it I think). I found the Envy to be too hot, too noisy and performance to be less than I'd hoped. So I would prefer something quieter and cooler, even if that means its heavier and bulkier. I'd like something with a sturdy chassis, the Envy was good, didn't fall to pieces despite the heat like my previous plastic Asus laptop did.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

A bigger, stronger replacement for an Envy 15

*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R2/R3 Owner's Lounge

So, it looks like Dell announced the new Alienware 17 r2 at CES today, and there are some nasty changes!

There's some good things - an extra 5 macro keys to the left of the keyboard in addition to the 4 above the numpad from the 17r1, a connector for an external GPU like the AW 13 has (it's an external enclosure with a PSU and a physical x16 PCIe slot, 4x electrical iirc), and 1080p by default. You can also upgrade to touch for some reason, but I really don't see many doing this. There are also 4 m.2 drive slots for you to expand into. And, of course, it is significantly slimmer and lighter - 1.35' thick (down from 1.9') and 8.1lb (down from 9.1lb in the 17r1), which is not insignificant.

But the bad changes really add up. There is now only one 2.5" drive bay and no DVD drive, and only 2 sodimm slots - limiting the AW 17r2 to 16GB max ram. Because seriously, no one would ever mind halving the maximum ram, right?

And as the real kicker, it appears that the video card is NOT an MXM card, and is instead part of the "system board" which also seems to contain the CPU. And the CPU is now a BGA part (socket FCBGA1364) which means it is soldered in-place and non-upgradable. So all of the 'interesting' components are part of the same board, which is unique to the Alienware 17r2. To me, this kills any interest I had. Because seriously, what's the point of an Alienware that can't be upgraded?

AW 17 r2 Reference Guide
AW 17 r2 Service Manual

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R2/R3 Owner's Lounge

Alienware 17R3 and M.2 ports with Samsung 950 Pro report

Greetings everyone. There were a few threads with questions about the M.2 slots as well as what the best/fastest SSDs to plug into them would be and I promised to post my results once the got my Pro 950s I preordered.

Well I'm happy to save the drives are working well and I think I know what the ports support. I plugged two 512GB drives into each of the slots. Unfortunately there is no way to stripe them at the bios level and in fact the bios (A02) doesn't even see the drives at all. However, using a UEFI windows boot disk I was able to install windows onto the drives so it seems they are bootable. (although I had another small 2.5" SSD already installed and it might be using that as the boot manager I haven't checked yet)

Once windows was installed I tried running AS SSD with pretty disappointing performance. I check for drivers and found Samsung has special drivers available for the 950 Pros. I also installed Samsung Magician while I was at it, and while missing support for some of it's features, Magician does recognize the drives. It also provided some nice details (see screenshots below). It looks like M.2 has 4 channels, while the other only has 2. Benchmarking them again with the drivers gave much better results and seems to confirm that one drive doesn't have full bandwidth.

Overall though its working great and despite one drive being slightly gimped I think I'll be keeping both drives in the laptop.

Boot drive. Notice link width is 4 of 4

Storage drive. Notice link width is 2 of 4

Boot drive performance

Storage drive performance. Oddly the sequential read is a lot slower and the write is somewhat slower, yet because the 4k's were slightly faster it got a higher overall score. Also note that the Boot drive had windows running on it simultaneously which is why I expect the 4k's and read access were slower.

If anyone has any questions let me know.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

Alienware 17R3 and M.2 ports with Samsung 950 Pro report

Where are the notebooks with AMD M300 series?

TechTarget publishes more than 100 focused websites providing quick access to a deep store of news, advice and analysis about the technologies, products and processes crucial to the jobs of IT pros.

About Us |  Advertising |  Media Kit

All Rights Reserved, Copyright, TechTarget |  Read our Privacy Statement

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

Where are the notebooks with AMD M300 series?

i5 6600K or i7 6700HQ in a P751DM - G ?

TechTarget publishes more than 100 focused websites providing quick access to a deep store of news, advice and analysis about the technologies, products and processes crucial to the jobs of IT pros.

About Us |  Advertising |  Media Kit

All Rights Reserved, Copyright, TechTarget |  Read our Privacy Statement

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

i5 6600K or i7 6700HQ in a P751DM - G ?

15 or 17?

Hi everyone so I'm going to get the following config and wondering if there's any disadvantages to the 15 over the 17. I've owned an AP M15x and a M17x R4 so of course I'm familiar with size and lack of numpad. The config I want is:

6820HK, 980GTX, PCI SSD, 4K screen

In these respects the two machines are the same, I'm wondering about SSD slots (the 17 R3 has 2, how many does the 15 have?)

Power requirements (is the 15 going to throttle if I crank it up?)

Screen Quality - of course the 15.4 UHD is higher dot pitch, but what about colour quality? Are they 6bpc screens like the M17x R4? Colour quality is a deciding factor for me.

RAM - I'm looking to go for 32GB - I assume both are capable?

SSD - I'd like to have a sata boot as a fallback/compatibility choice and use the PCI SSD as a data drive - This seems identical on the 17 also (sata and PCI SSD)..

Anything else I didn't think of?

Thanks for any feedback!

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

15 or 17?

***EVGA Precision X and Windows 7/8/8.1 and especially 10 bricking systems***

**Official Clevo P75xZM "Batman" / Sager NP9752 Owner´s Lounge** Welcome to the Batcave!

Alright people, since us prospective ZM owners are getting kinda impatient and are starting to suffer from claustrophobia in our little ZM thread, I decided to open up this Owner´s Lounge and welcome THE BATMAN into our midst!

Why "Batman" u ask? Look at those friggin bat-ears on the lid!

Before going into externals, internals and the detailed spec sheet, here are the most important highlights for this machine (and to make sure that people don´t start asking silly questions ):

DESKTOP CPU - up to Core i7-4790K with probable compatibility for 5th Gen Broadwell Core Models! (due to Z97 chipset)

MXM GPU - up to 980M with 8 GB GDDR5 (need I say more? none of that soldered, vRAM gimped crap)

PSU - Stock 230W upgradeable to 300/330W Clevo models (for that extra bit of overclocking juice )

DIMENSIONS - max. thickness of 35-36mm (putting it in perspective: that´s THINNER than current P150 series laptops at 43-47mm with MOBILE CPU!)

COOLING - A total of 7 (yes, that´s SEVEN!) heatpipes connected to both CPU & GPU with a two fan design

NO OPTIMUS - no driver installation hassles, no added display output delay, freedom for 3D capability, overclockable display refresh rate!

TWO M.2 PCIe PORTS - Breaking the SATA barrier and moving towards 2 GB/s throughput!

HIGH-RES SCREEN SUPPORT - up to 4K IPS (may vary depending on reseller/vendor)

VISUALS - Heck, who doesn´t like Batman?!
TWO USB 3.1 PORTS - damn straight, its got ASMedia´s ASM1142 chip integrated, supporting up to two USB 3.1 ports with 10Gbps bandwidth
--> unfortunately, this turned out to be false, even though the Clevo Service manual clearly lists the USB 3.1 capable ASMedia chip ASM1142. See this post for further info!

Nuff´said for now, I´ll let some nice images take care of the rest (courtesy of "the usual leaks", bluemobility, mySn and CEG, you guys rock!

Enjoy!!!

Specification sheet

External visuals
Additional external visuals taken from Sager page: Post by user ghegde
Even more external visuals from Origin (thanks to user wickette for the link!): Origin EON-X
i7-4790K at 4.5 Ghz in Batman! Powered by Origin
Nice article by Notebookcheck.com including tons of very nice pictures: Notebookcheck

Internal Visuals

REVIEWS & REPORTS
Review by HardwareLuxx
Review by BlueMobility
Video from CES 2015 (XMG Interview in German)
Video from CES 2015 (Origin Report)
Review by Notebookcheck (German)
Initial impressions by user Gimmy
Review thread by HTWingnut
Initial Setup Video by user Samot
Review by Anandtech
Overclocking Review by Anandtech
User Review by Ishatix

Clevo Product Pages
P750ZM - Chrome accents on fan exhausts
P751ZM - Black fan exhausts

So, ready for a purchase? Check out this great post by user ishatix that lists all vendors selling Batman in the EU!

BATCAVE Common FAQ's
Please read prior to posting questions.
Regions selling / where to buy​

US
http://www.xoticpc.com/
http://ift.tt/XicEgI
http://ift.tt/1uRx7p4
http://ift.tt/1GHy4Zo
http://ift.tt/1kunvO9

EU
http://www.mysn.de/
http://www.mysn.co.uk/
http://ift.tt/1JkRSSL
http://ift.tt/vOFx5r
http://ift.tt/20xAKk3
http://www.xmx.de/
http://www.one.de/
Exhaustive list of EU Clevo vendors by user Ishatix

AUS
http://ift.tt/1EzPt24
http://ift.tt/1KZHMlR

CANADA
http://www.eurocom.com/

Singapore
http://ift.tt/1jJZens

Also, please refer to the following sections for additional info on resellers:
http://ift.tt/1KZHMlT
http://ift.tt/1KZHMlV
http://ift.tt/1z7SGF2

General Screen questions​

What screen options are available for the batman?

FHD Panels

LVDS

LG LP156WF4 - (78% sRGB/ 72% NTSC) 35ms

eDP
AUO B156HAN01.2 - (96% sRGB/ 74% NTSC) 25ms
LTN156HL01 - 96% sRGB/ 74% NTSC 16 ms'

3K Panel(s)
Panasonic VVX16T028J00 (72% NTSC)

4K Panel(s)
Sharp LQ156D1JW04 (72% NTSC)
Samsung (LTN156FL02-L01) (72% NTSC)

Which is better Matte or Gloss?
This is a personal preference and varies greatly depending on the type of environment you use your laptop in.

Is there a difference between LVDS and eDP?
Generally speaking: LVDS for FHD and eDP for high-res Displays
There are, however, also eDP FHD screens available. eDP is basically the "newer" LVDS version and should be considered as its successor in the long term.

IPS vs TN?
IPS: wide viewing angles, better color reproduction
TN: faster response times, cheaper

interesting article in this regard (thx to lunap for this link!): http://ift.tt/1KZHJXa

What is Gamut and what is acceptable?
Gamut is a term that generally describes the accuracy of color reproduction in a display. The higher the Gamut, the more colors a display can reproduce. Lower-Range Displays sport 60% Gamut, Standard is 72%, whereas High-End Displays start around 90% up to 95 or even 100% in rare cases. What is "acceptable" is up to you and your personal needs. Office work doesnt need anything above 60-72%, Gaming is totally fine with 72%, everything above is only REALLY important for image / video editing and creative work (or people with OCD )

Screen refresh (ms) and common myths?
General rule of thumb: the lower the refresh rate in ms, the less ghosting is discernible, especially in high-speed games such as FPS. Manufacturer info cant be trusted though, since 25 ms, even though regarded as comparably high / slow, does not show any ghosting on high-res IPS displays (based on user reports). Best to ask actual owners or check for yourself!

4K Screens​

Is there a difference between the Sharp and the Samsung 4k Panels?
Depends on how you define "difference". The underlying Panel tech is different (Sharp IGZO IPS RGB Stripe vs. Samsung LPS Pentile Matrix, Google is your friend!) and on paper and controlled testing environments, the Sharp panel beats the Samsung panel in pretty much all aspects. If you, the user, notice a difference side by side, however, is a completely different story and depends, as so many other things do, on your personal preference / sensibility to such things.

What are expected frame rates in games/performance loss?
Based on DSR reviews, one can expect about 50% performance loss on a 3K panel at identical Software and Hardware settings when comparing it with a FHD screen. With 4K, that number increased to about 70-80%.

Can I downscale?
Sure thing! And the scaling isnt even all that bad on 3K and 4K screens, its actually pretty crisp based on my own experience (see sig) and other user reports

3K Screens​

Which resolutions scale well with 2880x1620p?
1080p looks great on my 3K display and I´ve seen user reports saying that scaling down to 720p is fine, although more blurry than higher resolutions. So as long as u stay at 1080p or above, u should be fine even when downscaled.

Can I downscale?
Yes you can, see 4K Screens.

What frame rates would I be expecting?
See 4K Screens for reference.

What is the performance difference between 3k and 4k gaming wise?
Depending on the game / application I would say to expect a performance loss of around 40-60%.

Can I upgrade to a 4k screen later if want to?
Yes, since 3k and 4k screens both use the same connector this won't be an issue. Please see Screen options for a list of compatible screens. However, you cannot upgrade from a FHD screen to a 3K or 4K screen, since they use different cables and sometimes even different connectors! (see LVDS vs. eDP, for reference)

Can I downgrade to FHD if I don't like it?
Yes you can, just make sure its an eDP compatible panel! On the other hand, its impossible to upgrade from an FHD to a 3K/4K panel.

FHD(1080p) Screens​

Which Screen do you recommend?
Check the "MOD Section" on Luna´s summary of the best available 15.6" FHD displays.

Can I swap eDP to LVDS if I want to change to a higher gamut?
Suuuure, just grab a soldering iron, completely revamp your motherboard and youre good to go

Common CPU Questions​

What CPU's are offered?
Basically all CPU models compatible with the LGA1150 socket: http://ift.tt/20xAKAk

cool thing about this: future Broadwell CPUs will use the same socket

To K or not to K and why?
K CPUs are unlocked in every way possible. If you like to tweak and get the most out of your Hardware, then by all means go for a K model. If you just want to run your hardware out of the box and cannot bother spending time tweaking, then K is not for you! As easy as that

I only plan on gaming, which CPU would be best for me?
If you are simply gaming and nothing more and are on a budget then the i5 would be the best option, however if you are able then the i7 would be far more viable as it makes use of HT which many games these days can make use of especially if you're playing high end MMO's or multiplayer (BF4 etc) Video editing, and other tasks.

i5 vs i7
See Hyperthreading for more information.

i7 generally sports more CPU Cache.

I5 does not make use of HT, which i7 has.

Common misconception: I5 is the best chip for gaming because it is faster.. FALSE i5's are not better for gaming, they are more cost effective for gaming.

Hyperthreading on (BF3 Multiplayer)

Hyperthreading off (BF3 Multiplayer)

Understanding Hyperthreading
Please see http://ift.tt/1KZHJXe

4790K vs 4790S?
See section "To K or not to K and why?"

Does lower TDP = lower temps?
Yes and no. Generally, TDP describes the power envelope, in which the CPU is allowed to boost to its max. possible clocks. Depending on the CPU model, a lower TDP could mean lower clocks and thus lower peak temps. In other cases it does not make any difference whatsoever, because the voltages and clocks applied cannot saturate the given TDP envelope.

Things to keep in mind:
high Voltage = high Temps
high Clocks = higher Voltage necessary = higher Temps
high TDP = more room for the CPU to "stretch its legs" thermally and wattage/power-wise

GPU QUESTIONS​

Why is there no Optimus? Isn't Optimus good?
Depends on what your needs are. If youre primarily focused on battery life, then sure, Optimus is great! But check the benefits of NOT having Optimus below

Benefits of no Optimus.
- You can OC your internal/external display to 120hz or higher (if supported)
- You can drive higher resolutions on external displays
- You have no input lag when driving external displays or gadgets like the Oculus Rift
- You have the possibility to drive applications in 3D

970M vs 980M which is best for my needs?
How am I supposed to know what your needs are?!?!
But seriously, if you plan to upgrade every 1-2 years anyways, then the 970M is enough for you. Keeping your machine for 3 or more years, however, would probably shift the focus to the 980M for being more future-proof. It also depends on your everyday usage of the GPU. Are you always playing the latest games and NEED to have every settings maxxed out? As hinted before, the best judge of your needs is YOU! So be check reviews, be aware of the 30% performance gap between the two GPUs and check what u plan to do with the gpu, then the answer will present itself to you. Of course, dont forget your available budget

How much hotter does the 980M get?
"Hot" is a term that is completely misplaced when it comes to Maxwell chips. Personally, I cannot seem to get my 980M to even break 70C, no matter what I throw at it! Nuff said...

Can I overclock the 970M to be like the 980M?
It is indeed possible to push the 970M to 980M levels, as our resident Laptop reviewer and UBER-user HTWingnut has already shown in a Clevo P65x series notebook. If youre a tweaker on a tight budget, that would surely be an option for you Just dont cry like a baby, if 980M owners overclock THEIR cards accordingly and still leave you behind in a dustcloud

MEMORY RELATED QUESTIONS​

What is the Max memory this unit can take?
32GB, maybe more in the future, should DDR3 SO-DIMM modules with 16 GB capacity come widely available.

How much memory do I need?
If gaming only then 16GB will be fine, this will support games + multi tabbed browsers and 1-2 VM's. If doing more VM's and or require more processing for design/engineering level applications then 24-32gb is recommended. however we highly recommend 16gb at the minimum, as 8gb is easily capped, rendering you in a throttled state.

Memory speeds? Which is best for me / my usage?
If you're simply gaming and only using your laptop then 1600 is more than likely all you'll need. If you're doing major editing with video and other cpu intensive applications (engineering and more) then 1866/2133 may provide a slight bump. 2400 and higher is more for benchmark results as the difference is marginal. The higher the timings, the more vcore is required to run these, and if you plan on OC'ing your CPU then you will need to take this into account, else you will be dealing with higher than normal temperatures, however this is only if you plan to utilize 32gb or higher. 16gb will be fine @any speed.

Which brand is recommended?
Kingston/Corsair/G.Skill/Crucial/Samsung

HDD/SSD QUESTIONS​

M2 drives, are they worth getting right now?
As with every new tech, M.2 drives, especially the PCIe variety, still sport pretty bad bang for your buck and at this moment in time dont really kick SATA3 2.5" SSD butt. My suggestion (opinions may differ, as with all topics) would be to wait for the Samsung SM951, the Mushkin Hyperion series or similar specced drives that should hit the market this summer / fall. Until then, ull be more than just fine with high-tier 2.5" SSDs

Edit: Eurocom tested SATA / M.2 PCIe 2x / M.2 PCIe 4x in our Batman: http://ift.tt/18JvVxN

I saw the P941 gets temps up to 115C is that real?
This is real and applying a thermal pad may slightly reduce the temps, however those temps were given using insane tests, though the drive itself does get hot. We recommend holding off for the SM951 which will be replacing the XP941 and has nearly double the speeds.

Which SSD is recommended for long term / gaming?
Crucial M series provides great bang for your buck combined with high reliability and very fast performance. If it has to be the fastest, go for either Samsung Pro 850 or SanDisk Extreme Pro Series SSDs.
Also refer to this great article right here: http://ift.tt/1lREHNz

EVO vs PRO?
Ive seen lots of discussion on this topic and my point on this is: In the end, it comes down to personal preference! So check the reviews, ask the user base and build your own opinion I myself have had a great experience with my 850 Pro 1TB and wouldnt wanna go Evo at all, but other people might greatly differ from this stance.

Sandisk vs Samsung I hear a lot about the 2.
Based on performance and many tests, both are nearly equal, most recommend the Sandisk for cost effective reasons, however you will be fine with either.

THERMAL QUESTIONS​

I see that the 4790K gets pretty hot in reviews, is this normal?
Most reviewers use stock thermal paste which is normally applied poorly resulting in higher than normal temps, and also run multiple benchmarks which produce higher than normal real world results ( exaggerated in this case ) If pasted properly one would notice a reduction of at least 5-8C minimum. Please also refer to my overclocking / undervolting guide for more hard data on the 4790K in Batman used in worst-case scenarios (Prime95).

How hot does this unit get under load?
I would be surprised if my 4790K at 4 Ghz / 980M at Stock combo would exceed the low to mid 70s at ALL

How hot does this unit get under load? (normal use)
If by "normal use" u mean web browsing, Office work, Image Editing, etc. then I´d say anywhere in the 60s, not much more.

Does it throttle at high temps? If so how can I avoid this?
Every hardware component has a built-in throttle that kicks in once a specific temperature threshold is reached. Tackling high temperatures can involve lots of things, such as: Repasting / Using high-perf. Thermal Pastes and Thermals Pads / increasing fan speed / Propping up the back of the machine to increase air flow / Undervolting / Underclocking / restricting TDP envelope / regular maintenance and cleaning of heatsink fins and fans / making sure the machine is used in a well-aired and cool environment, etc.

Can I use this in my lap?
Of course you "can" and I´m also aware that this is a "Lap-Top", but seriously? Why would anyone use a DTR on his/her lap?!?!! Just leave the damn thing on the desk and use a frigging iPad or MBP for your lap...! I personally just dont get it... But oh well, everyone is entitled to their opinion

What Thermal paste is best?
Non-Metal based: IC Diamond and Gelid GC Extreme
Metal-Based: CL Liquid Ultra

Gelid GC Extreme vs CLU
GCE is non-metal based, thus doesnt require as much careful handling as CLU, which is metal-based and thus electrically conductive. On the other hand, CLU beats any non-metal TIM, including IC Diamond and GC Extreme, hands down. So in the end, its up to you to decide if youre up to the task or not!

SOUND/AUDIBLE QUESTIONS!​

I've read/used previous clevo's and the speakers were horrible, how does this unit compare to X unit?
Thus far, based on my own experience and other user reports, this machine sports one of the best speaker systems on the laptop market and definitely THE best among Clevo machines But dont take my word for it, ask other users as well!
The only "issue" I could find with the speakers is a slight sound tearing when the volume is cranked up and too much bass is used. Thus, just dial down the volume and bass, and you should be fine

Does this unit have a subwoofer?
No, only the 17 inch version of Batman sports a sub. Based on reviews, that sub doesnt really make much of a difference though...

I work in a quiet room, how loud do the fans get under load? Normal / idle use?
This laptop is DEAD. And I DO mean DEAD! Its unbelieveable, how friggin quite Batman is in idle / normal usage, even in a super quiet room (say, a library), its impossible to make out any fan noise. Even under stressier conditions when the fans finally DO ramp up, the noise they produce is not annoying whatsoever. Again, this is based on my own experience with this, other people more sensible to barely audible noises may differ from this opinion.

WIRELESS QUESTIONS​

Which card is better the Killer1525 or the Intel 7265?
Based on recent results and reviews from others we're highly recommending the Killer1525, HOWEVER if you use Linux then we highly recommend the Intel as linux does NOT support the Killer. In the end, both cards have received stellar and abysmal reviews, so results may vary in both cases!

I've read Killer has issues with connectivity is that still an issue?
Due to recent driver update the Killer wireless appears to be trumping the Intel 7265 as the 7265 has reported spikes in use. These spikes, however, are not reproducible on all configurations and may only pertain to certain applications.

I read that the Killer card is great on wireless but has issues w/ blue tooth?
This has been fixed via recent driver / EC firmware upgrade on Clevos.

BATTERY RELATED QUESTIONS​

How is the battery life?
With such a performance punch and lacking Optimus, dont expect too much in terms of battery life! I was able to eke out 3 hours via undervolting / underclocking / switching everything off / on minimum brightness. More realistic would be 2 hours of regular usage.

Can I game on battery?
You will not be able to play games on battery, it's not designed for that. At best you might get 30 minutes, also expect to have some throttling. Older / less demanding games are of course a different topic. In general, it is not recommended to game on battery, as it puts unnecessary stress on it and thus speeds up its demise!

230W vs 330W which do I need?
230W is sufficient for stock clocks / moderate overclocks on both CPU and GPU (+15-20%) or extreme OC on one of the two (30% and up, most likely the GPU in this case ). If youre planning to tweak EVERY component of your system to its maximum stable setting, then by all means go with the 330W PSU!

I'm Samuel Jackson from "Unbreakable", what does the battery weigh?
Um.....no idea, why does that even matter? Anyone feel free to chime in! *lol*

Can I still OC later if I have the 230W? If so what are my limits?
Since I havent checked it with my power-meter yet, I can only make an educated guess: My 4790K overclocked to its max. thermal limit at 4.5 Ghz pulls around 78W under load in undervolted conditions, so lets say 80W. The 980M is rated at around 100W, that makes a total of 180W. Depending on your configuration, the rest of the system (Mobo, IO, Display, Storage, Sound, etc.) may draw anywhere between 20 and 40W, so that would leave 10-30W of headroom for overclocking the GPU. Since overclocking without overvolting has a near linear dependency of clocks vs. power consumption, that would leave enough headroom for 10-30% OC on your GPU. However, at that level, you would be constantly maxing out your PSU, so I would then recommend switching to the 330W model.

What batteries brands are compatible w/ this unit?
I highly recommend only going with original Clevo parts!

General OC QUESTIONS​

What is undervolting? How do I do it?
Undervolting lowers the voltage input into a specific component, be it CPU, GPU, RAM, or whatever. Benefits are lower power consumption and thus lower temperature without the need to also lower clocks and thus performance. However, extensive testing is necessary to ensure system stability, since too little voltage can make it crash (no harm done though, as opposed to crashes caused by overvolting!)

HowTo: http://ift.tt/1IdGlQ6

Undervolting vs Overclocking? Which is right for me? Pro's/Con's:
Whatever is "right for you" depends on your everyday needs and wants. Best of both worlds would of course include overclocking while undervolting, thus getting more performance at less heat and power consumption! (see my overclocking 4790K overclocking guide, which is a nice example of parallel overclocking and undervolting )
Short overview:
- Overclocking gets you more performance and scales linearly with Wattage and Temps when no overvolt is involved
- Once you hit your Clock limit, but still have thermal headroom left, you can overvolt to get higher stability at higher clocks. But beware, overvolting scales exponentially with temps and power consumption! Thus, tedious testing and careful preparation is needed!
- Undervolting saves you temperature and power consumption without sacrificing performance. System stability might be affected by too much undervolting.
- Underclocking, like Undervolting, saves you temperature and power consumption, but at the cost of performance. This is a viable option for situations where noise and battery life are more crucial than performance.

Programs for testing stability
- Prime95 for CPU (small & large FFTs) & RAM (Blended & Custom Blended using all available RAM)
- Intel XTU for CPU & RAM
- Unigine Valley/Heaven, 3DMark Firestrike for GPU
- Your favorite games with high-end graphics for GPU
- Memtest86 for RAM
- Desktop visuals for Display refresh rate

Overclocking BSOD codes *your best friend*​

BSOD codes for overclocking

0x101 = increase vcore
0x124 = increase/decrease VTT first, if not increase/decrease vcore...have to test
on i7 45nm, usually means too little VVT for the speed of Uncore
on i7 32nm SB, usually means too little vCore
0x0A = unstable RAM/IMC, increase VTT first, if that doesn't work increase vcore
0x1A = Memory management error. It usually means a bad stick of Ram. Test with Memtest or whatever you prefer. Try raising your Ram voltage
0x1E = increase vcore
0x3B = increase vcore
0x3D = increase vcore
0xD1 = VTT, increase/decrease as necessary, can also be unstable Ram, raise Ram voltage
0x9C = VTT most likely, but increasing vcore has helped in some instances
0x50 = RAM timings/Frequency or uncore multi unstable, increase RAM voltage or adjust VTT, or lower uncore if you're higher than 2x
0x109 = Not enough or too Much memory voltage
0x116 = Low IOH (NB) voltage, GPU issue (most common when running multi-GPU/overclocking GPU)
0x7E = Corrupted OS file, possibly from overclocking. Run sfc /scannow and chkdsk /r

DELID SECTION
WARNING this section is for advanced users ONLY! If you are unsure or have never touched your hardware before you should seek professional help (hardware personnel NOT Dr's!)as this could permanently destroy your CPU.​

What is Delidding?
Modern CPUs have a so-called IHS or Integrated Heatspreader on top of their CPU dies. As the name suggests, this heatspreader evenly spreads the heat onto a larger area for the respective CPU heatsink to suck up and get out of the system. In the "olden days", Intel soldered the CPU die to the IHS and thus heat transfer was very efficient. Starting with Ivy Bridge though, Intel cut costs and exchanged the solder for regular thermal interface material (TIM) / thermal paste. The idea of delidding is to remove that IHS, exchange the TIM with a high-performance paste and then either reinstall the IHS or run the CPU "bare die", thus with direct contact between the CPU die and the CPU heatsink.

Delidding Guide
See this link for more information:
http://ift.tt/20xAMYZ!

Why CLU?
Generally, Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra (CLU) is the preferred TIM for delidding projects, since it sports the very best thermal conductivity. Due to its metal-based nature and thus inherent electrical conductivity, handling CLU HAS to include the utmost care and tedious preparation!

Known issues / fixed etc​

Coil whine
Has been verified in various units, however does not cause any issues other than small noise in quiet rooms w/ no sound. Also affects units arbitrarily, some (like mine) have unnoticeable whining sounds, that ure only able to hear in a dead quiet room when you glue your ear onto the chassis. Other cases have been documented with far worse pitches / volumes. As with everything else though, it also highly depends on the sensitivity of the respective user to such noises. For videos and sound samples, please refer to the respective posts in this thread.
Additional info from mySn/Schenker rep:
"We have had a report through from the RMA department regarding coil whine in this model and the 17" version. As you may be aware, we have been working with Clevo on this to help them resolve the problem and have passed a lot of information to them as well as chassis for them to test. Now that the MB revision is available the issue should be fully resolved. The Nvidia GPU buzzing is a separate issue (which Nvidia do not acknoelwsge a problem with) and there is also a rare problem with buzzing through the speakers that we are also talking to Clevo about.
For now, I just wanted to pass on our official RMA rate of the P75xZM and P77xZM due to coil whine, which is 0.8%. I can't give you the number of chassis that we have sold for obvious reasons, but it is based on a rather large pool of data.
Our hope is that it will instil a bit more confidence in the laptop models; though there may be a handful of customers on nbr that have said they have issues the actual percentage of owners who have experienced coil whine is below 1 in 100!"

Flimsy / Wobbly screen
In order to make this machine so powerful, but at the same time comparably compact / thin, the screen lid was designed to be thinner than in previous Clevo performance models. Some users have expressed worries, especially concerning frequent travels with this machine in combination with packed suitcases / backpacks / etc. Although I myself have noticed that, compared to previous laptops Ive owned, I´m more careful on how I place my Batman and what I put on top of its lid, as with every expensive piece of tech equipment I suggest: Careful handling, regular maintenance and lots of luuuuuuv! I dont find the screen so delicate as for it having the risk to fall apart by just using it in a regular manner.
Following these simple rules will make you a happy camper indeed, just dont be surprised if it cant handle being packed in a maxed out suitcase / backpack being placed under tons of other stuff Absolutely NO laptop should find itself in such a situation!

Downloads
- P75xZM User Manual
- P75xZM Service Manual
- Driver Downloads at MySn (XMG - XMG U505 - Drivers)
- Latest stock Bios & EC from Prema-Mod Website (also includes Clevo 980M & 970M stock vBios with overclocking functionality )
- Driver Downloads at station-driver (need to know your hardware component model name!)

Display calibration profiles
- AU Optronics B156HAN01.2 (AUO12ED) FullHD (calibrated with X-Rite i1Pro 2) source: notebookcheck review
- Sharp LQ156D1JW04 4K/UHD (calibrated with X-Rite i1Pro 2) source: notebookcheck review
- AU Optronics B156HAN01.2 (AUO12ED) FullHD (calibrated with BasICColor and I1 Pro profiled for daylight photography) source: user ibarron

MOD Section
- Prema vBios MOD for unlocked Clevo 980M and 970M MXM overclocking / overvolting / no power throttle / custom thermal protection
Note: Prema vBios Mod includes a built-in protection against tools like Furmark and MSI Kombustor! If you flash this mod and use one of those tools, your machine will black screen and shut down! Rather use game benchmarks or something like Futuremark Firestrike / Unigine Heaven & Valley in this case!
- PremaMod Bios with tons of unlocked features
- Summary on the best available 15.6" FHD display options (including a winner!) by LunaP
- What to consider when planning to lap your heatsinks
- Mr. Fox modded Desktop GPU drivers 344.75
- Mr. Fox modded Desktop GPU drivers 345.20
- Mr. Fox guide on how to properly use Coolaboratory Liquid Ultra TIM (including test data)
- HowTo install a dualboot system with Windows & Linux
- HowTo perform an .inf mod to make all drivers compatible with your GPU
- Modded .inf supporting Clevo 980M 8GB MXM / 970M 6GB MXM in 346.87 driver (latest to support overclocking)
- Nvidia 346.87 complete driver package including modded .inf to support 970M / 980M on Win8.1 (thx to iata for the .inf mod!) Install with Driver Signature Enforcement disabled!
- HowTo downclock your GPU using Nvidia Inspector and make the settings stick at boot in order to save on heat and power consumption
- HowTo circumvent Nvidia´s infamous "Clock-Block" on the current 347.52 WHQL drivers
- HowTo swap out your display (general steps, not specific to laptop model)
- Suggested Thermal Pad placement on GPU and CPU
- HowTo hardcode keyboard and front light color profiles in regedit
- HowTo exchange the spring-screws on the CPU heatsink with regular screws in order to apply more heatsink pressure (=reduce CPU temps)
- Annoyed by your sub-100 Mhz BCLK at stock? Try this! additionally with this fix for crashes!

IMPORTANT
The Ultimate Batman Overclock and Modding Thread!

If you have any more infos or questions please hit me up or let me know here in the thread so i can properly update the OP!

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

**Official Clevo P75xZM "Batman" / Sager NP9752 Owner´s Lounge** Welcome to the Batcave!

Bought my ASUS G750-DB71 from Xotic PC- 3 motherboards and RAM replaced in less than a year

Just sent this to Xotic PC in an e-mail:

Tanner,

After much thinking, I decided to get a second opinion on my laptop. Just like with Doctors.

So I had a local PC guy check out the laptop thoroughly. He took the laptop apart, put it back together (this does not void the warranty as the laptop is out of warranty) and checked out all components like RAM, CPU, GPU, etc. No problems could he find other than the motherboard needs to be replaced.

Here is the “apparent reason”, in my opinion, for the 4 motherboards (original plus 3 ASUS replacements) that were changed out in less than a year on my ASUS ROG:

Missing screws throughout. He thinks what may have happened is that as the system was built and repaired several times by ASUS screws were not available or were not put it with no QA on ASUS’ part. Couple this with the back and forth via UPS and FEDEX- my house to Xotic PC to ASUS in CA and back, components may have shifted and as the laptop was moved they shifted into each other. I can think of no other reason for my problems, although other people had none as you have previously stated.

He also found that there are two hinges that are supposed to hold one component in place and there is only one. And the CMOS Battery bracket was broken in one place and, get this, super glued in.

When I put my ASUS away for a month, I took it off the table and placed it in a computer case and left it on the floor next to the table (not a kitchen one) out of the flow of traffic against a wall. This may have loosened some components impacting the motherboard in putting it in and taking it out. So when I turned it on, I go the switching between the HDD and LED lights. He even put an external monitor on the laptop and no video.

So here are my conclusions:

1. Both he and you said I was unlucky and you recently said no problems with the ASUS G750JW-DB71 laptop. You are both right. It appears that ASUS lack of QA throughout for my laptop buy and repair did not exist. Seems like they got it in the door. Slapped a new motherboard on and it worked for them. No one saw or cared about missing screws to anchor the system down or fixing it correctly.

2. As a reseller, XOTIC PC QAd the laptop for a week after build but could not have known how the motherboard and other components were secured. As of today, I have spent well over $2,000 on this laptop: $1630 to buy, close to $300 in shipping back and PC tech examination .And it does not work.

3. ASUS will deny everything as is their custom. I have scoured the web and this seems to be the majority opinion.

So, I am now out over $2,000 and I seem to have no legal recourse. Tanner, sending it back to you will not solve the problem as you will send it back to ASUS, they will slap the motherboard into it, back to you and me. That is going to be over $500 for me alone ($450 for the motherboard and the cost to me to send it to you). Maybe back here by December 2015. It will probably die sometimes in February 2016, if I am lucky. Put yourself in my place. Would you be upset with the situation? When fixed, would you try to pawn it off on someone else?

If ASUS is a good and reputable company, they will provide me with a new laptop free. When I get it, I will take it back to the same PC specialist to check it out: To make sure it was put together carefully and nothing is missing.

Finally, I have had many laptops and desktops, and let me repeat, not ONE ever had to have a motherboard replaced. This whole experience has left a very bad taste in my mouth for the ASUS Company.

Ed

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

Bought my ASUS G750-DB71 from Xotic PC- 3 motherboards and RAM replaced in less than a year

**Official Clevo P870DM Owner's Lounge - Phoenix has arisen!**

I know that discussion about this laptop was in the air for some time now but I haven't seen dedicated topic to it - so here comes new thread with some pictures.

This model is called the P870DM. There is a G-Sync option available as well called the P870DM-G.

And now some specs:
Procesor
Intel® CoreTM i7-6700K processor (14nm, 4.0GHz, DDR4 2133MHz, 8MB Smart cache,TDP: 95W)

Intel® CoreTM i5-6600K processor (14nm, 3.5GHz, DDR4 2133MHz, 6MB Smart cache,TDP: 95W)

Intel® CoreTM i5-6500 processor (14nm, 3.2GHz, DDR4 2133MHz, 6MB Smart cache,TDP: 65W)

Intel® CoreTM i5-6400 processor (14nm, 2.7GHz, DDR4 2133MHz, 6MB Smart cache,TDP: 65W)

Chipset
Intel® Z170 Express Chipset

Screen
17.3” (43.94cm) QFHD (3840x2160) / FHD (1920x1080) 16:9 panel, 4.0mm

RAM
Dual channel DDR4

Four 260 pins SODIMM sockets, support DDR4 2133 MHz ( Real operation frequency depends on processor)

Expandable memory up to 32GB/64GB, depends on 4GB/8GB/16GB SODIMM module

GPU
• Support 4 active displays

• Support NVIDIA® Surround View via HDMI x1 and miniDP x2

• NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 980M (N16E-GX)

- 8GB GDDR5 Video RAM

- Support PCIe x8

- Microsoft DirectX® 12 compatible

- MXM3.0 Type B

- NVIDIA® PhysX®

- GeForce CUDATM technology

- Support NVIDIA® SLI® Technology

• NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 980 8GB GDDR5 <- desktop card

• NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 970M (N16E-GT)

- 6GB GDDR5 Video RAM

- Support PCIe x8

- Microsoft DirectX® 12 compatible

- MXM3.0 Type B

- NVIDIA®PhysX®

- GeForce CUDATM technology

- Support NVIDIA® SLI® Technology

Hard Drive and Optical Drive
Two changeable 2.5” 7mm/9.5mm(H) HDD/SSD, SATA interface (RAID 0/1)

Two M.2 2280 SSD SATA/PCIe interface (RAID 0/1)

Keyboard and Touchpad
Multi languages full color illuminated full size keyboard with numeric pad and anti-ghost keys

Built in touch pad with multi-gesture and scrolling function

W/A/S/D gaming key

Audio
High Definition Audio

S/PDIF digital output

Built in array microphone

Built in two speakers

Built in one subwoofer speaker

ANSPTM 3D sound technology on headphone output

SOUND BLASTER® X-FI® MB5

External 7.1CH audio output supported by headphone, microphone, Line-in and S/PDIF jack

I/O Ports
5 x USB 3.0 ports (1 x powered USB port, AC/DC)

1 x USB 3.1 (*Type C - Thunderbolt™ 3)

2 x RJ-45 LAN port (Killer Double Shot-3 Pro)

1 x HDMI output port (with HDCP)

2 x Mini Display port 1.2

1 x Headphone jack

1 x Microphone jack

1 x S/PDIF output jack

1 x Line-in jack

1 x DC-in jack

Card Reader
6-in-1 Push-Push Card reader

- MMC / RSMMC

- SD / mini SD / SDHC / SDXC up to UHS-ll

Internal slots
Three M.2 card slots

-1st for WLAN Combo M.2 2230 Card with PCIe and USB interface

-2nd for SSD M.2 2280 Card with SATA / PCIe Gen3 x4 interface

-3rd for SSD M.2 2280 Card with SATA / PCIe Gen3 x4 interface

Comunication
Built in Qualcomm® 10/100/1000Mb Base-TX Ethernet LAN

2.0M FHD video camera

Battery and AC Adapter
Full Range AC adapter, AC in 100~240V, 50~60Hz, DC output 19.5V, 16.9A, 330W

Embedded 8 cells Smart Lithium-lon battery pack, 89WH

Battery life: 180 minutes (TBC) (with NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 970M single, 89WH Battery)

Security
Kensington® Lock

Finger print

TPM 2.0

Dimension
428(W) x 308(D) x 45(H) mm

Weight
4.8kg

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

**Official Clevo P870DM Owner's Lounge - Phoenix has arisen!**

killer 1525 or killer 1103 ?

TechTarget publishes more than 100 focused websites providing quick access to a deep store of news, advice and analysis about the technologies, products and processes crucial to the jobs of IT pros.

About Us |  Advertising |  Media Kit

All Rights Reserved, Copyright, TechTarget |  Read our Privacy Statement

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

killer 1525 or killer 1103 ?

"Windows dvd player" in Win10 doesn't appear to work.

I recently took advantage of the Win10 free upgrade, I upgraded from Win7, the download/install went smoothly until I tried to watch a movie via "Windows dvd player" that was included with the W10 upgrade. Long story short the player does not work.

Troubleshooting and driver update both checked out ok. I downloaded VLC's media player and it too would not play dvd's (I've tried multiple dvd's) I went back to Win7 to see if dvd's would still play there, just as they had before, sure enough dvd's played in Win7 on both WMC and VLC.

I tried again in Win10, nothing! Is there a "fix" for this issue or is my dvd player now rendered useless in Win10?

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

"Windows dvd player" in Win10 doesn't appear to work.

new Dell Precision 5510 (Twin of XPS15)

Looks like Dell Sales / Online Chat has confirmed an October Release Date. This coincides with the 2013 release of the updated Precision's in October as well.

---- Partial Transcript

09/28/2015 11:00:12PM

Agent (Masrath J): "Welcome to Dell US Small Business Chat. My name is Masrath and I will be your Dell.com Sales Chat Expert. I can be reached at masrath_jahan@dell.com. We are available 7 days a week."

09/28/2015 11:00:17PM

Agent (Masrath J): "hi Kyle"

09/28/2015 11:00:29PM

Kyle Newton: "I'm Interested in the Dell Precision 3510, 5510 or the 7510"

09/28/2015 11:01:29PM

Agent (Masrath J): "Thank you for chatting with us, I'd be happy to help you. "

09/28/2015 11:02:31PM

Agent (Masrath J): "Kyle may I know if you've been looking at the dell outlet website for these systems"

09/28/2015 11:02:42PM

Kyle Newton: "No Dell.com"

09/28/2015 11:02:53PM

Kyle Newton: "It's the new Precision Laptops"

09/28/2015 11:02:59PM

Kyle Newton: "Just released."

09/28/2015 11:03:32PM

Agent (Masrath J): "okay"

09/28/2015 11:03:49PM

Agent (Masrath J): "Please give me 2-3 minutes, I will check that for you"

09/28/2015 11:03:58PM

Kyle Newton: "ty"

09/28/2015 11:05:25PM

Agent (Masrath J): "Kyle we don't have those products available yet for sale"

09/28/2015 11:05:55PM

Agent (Masrath J): "can you please share the link for the laptops you've been looking online"

09/28/2015 11:06:35PM

Kyle Newton: "Not yet available?"

09/28/2015 11:06:44PM

Kyle Newton: "What about in other markets, UK, etc?"

09/28/2015 11:07:25PM

Agent (Masrath J): "yes it's not available yet"

09/28/2015 11:07:35PM

Kyle Newton: "Uhm..."

09/28/2015 11:07:42PM

Agent (Masrath J): "we don't have them in other markets too"

09/28/2015 11:07:47PM

Kyle Newton: "Can you tell me which one is 15" at least?"

09/28/2015 11:07:54PM

Agent (Masrath J): "sure"

09/28/2015 11:08:40PM

Agent (Masrath J): "it is the precision 5510 with a 15" scree size"

09/28/2015 11:09:04PM

Kyle Newton: "what are the sizes of the other 3 models ?"

09/28/2015 11:09:24PM

Agent (Masrath J): "and alos the 3510 is a 15" ascreen"

09/28/2015 11:09:29PM

Agent (Masrath J): "and the otehr two are 17""

09/28/2015 11:09:48PM

Kyle Newton: "Ok. That makes more sense then."

09/28/2015 11:10:08PM

Kyle Newton: "Can you tell me which GPU options it will have? I am currently using a M4800 "Trial" machine from a reseller."

09/28/2015 11:10:18PM

Agent (Masrath J): "okay"

09/28/2015 11:10:19PM

Kyle Newton: "I have a K2100m, but I am needing more power."

09/28/2015 11:10:37PM

Kyle Newton: "Quadro K2100m*"

09/28/2015 11:11:55PM

Agent (Masrath J): "Kyle we don't have an accurate info about the GPU options"

09/28/2015 11:12:12PM

Kyle Newton: "Why not?"

09/28/2015 11:12:15PM

Agent (Masrath J): "however it would be the highend Nvidia and AMD grphics options"

09/28/2015 11:12:50PM

Agent (Masrath J): "the sales dept. have not been updated about the new product info yet"

09/28/2015 11:13:00PM

Agent (Masrath J): "hence we don't have the specifications of the new models"

09/28/2015 11:15:44PM

Kyle Newton: "hmmm"

09/28/2015 11:15:56PM

Kyle Newton: "You don't have a release date either?"

09/28/2015 11:16:59PM

Agent (Masrath J): "well October it would be launched"

09/28/2015 11:18:04PM

Kyle Newton: "have any exact date in october?"

09/28/2015 11:18:55PM

Agent (Masrath J): "I am sorry Kyle we don't as yet"

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

new Dell Precision 5510 (Twin of XPS15)

Dell XPS 13 2015 Skylake Infinity Display Owners Thread

I see that here and in Dell's advert they seem to be saying the XPS 13 9350 has upgradable RAM (DDR4) talking about 32GB in future.

This makes me think it's worth getting the 8GB QHD+ version with 256GB SSD. Then upgrade the SSD and RAM later when the price comes down a bit.

Be interesting to see what speed PCIe SSD is supported by the M.2 slot, some of these drives can do over 2GBytes / second! You can still buy PC2100 RAM that is only that fast...

I think the USB C Thunderbolt is very interesting indeed. The idea of connecting to an external full blown desktop graphics card and 4K monitor would be very nice.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

Dell XPS 13 2015 Skylake Infinity Display Owners Thread

Latitude E7250 (2015)

Just received my i5 touch 256GB model. First Dell after a decade of Lenovos.

Build quality appears excellent, solid well-made device.

I ordered a spare battery just in case (51wh) although frustratingly it needs some screws to fit the cover on (as opposed to the battery actually having a cover if that makes sense); will report back on battery life once I've had a few days' use (Windows 10).

Screen is excellent, although not worked in any challenging conditions yet, but love the 1080p (primary reason I upgraded from my Lenovo X230).

Keyboard is ok so far, not keen on the tiny enter button but will hopefully get used to it.

The touchpad is quite good, at least twice the surface area I had on my X230 but we will see over time how easy it is to adjust to the lack of TrackPoint (pointing stick..)

Same insides as the E7240 what I can tell (checked vs the notebookcheck site) - I took off the back easily and am upgrading to 16GB RAM and going to try a 2nd mSATA SSD in the WWAN port, hope that works as I could do with more space than 256GB..

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

Latitude E7250 (2015)

MSI GS60 Ghost/ Ghost Pro Thread

It caught my attention as soon as I saw it on some CES article. It looks to be a 15" version of the GS70. It's reported to be just slightly over 3 pounds which is damn amazing if true. If the battery life is at least up to 8 hours, this could be the best thin gaming laptop.

I doubt this laptop will be released soon. Hopefully, MSI will release it soon. Otherwise, their competitors might sooner capitalize on this market. Razer just needs to upgrade the display on their Razer Blade 14" and Gigabye just needs to upgrade the battery life on the P34G.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

MSI GS60 Ghost/ Ghost Pro Thread

How much should as I spend...Could be a good investment?

If you are looking for something that is going to be upgradable, you would need to look at the P750DM or P770DM (Sager NP9758 or NP9778). Those are the only Clevo models with an upgradable graphics card. They also have a desktop processor on them as well. They are a step up in price compared to another model, like the p650rg / p670rg (NP8658 or NP8678) though. With the upgradable graphics on the 750/770dm models, its going to still be a while before any new generation of GPU is out. I would think there might be an upgradable card, but couldn't guarantee that they would still use the same MXM style cards in the future though.

I think if you got a model with a 980m in it though, you would still probably be good a couple years out. Even a model with a 970m would still be solid for gaming over that time frame probably.

As for timing, there are going to be some models out soonish with the 980 desktop card or 980m SLI, but again that is looking to be a sizable jump up in price though. I don't think it is a bad time to buy, as it looks like it is going to be a while before you see any type of models being refreshed, since it just happened with Skylake processors.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

How much should as I spend...Could be a good investment?

M17x R2 7970m CrossfireX Ultimate Installation and Tweaking Guide

Hello all,

I am now a proud owner of a pretty much awesome m17x R2.
Nebula black, with the specs in my sig.

I have edited this post to serve as a Tweak Guide for m17x R2 users interested in unlocking the full graphical potential of their machines. You may find some parts of the following instructions useful even if you don't intend to use crossfire'd 7970m cards.

Why should one do this? Well, for starters, the m17x-R2:

- Supports Nehalem i7 Extreme and is capable of cooling it, thus leading to truly impressive performance results even so many years after release;
- Supports up to 16GB of DDR3-1333 RAM. If 16GB sticks ever become available it would be interesting to see if it can take 32GB;
- Has what I consider the best laptop display ever - 1920x1200, 17.3" Wide-Gamut RGB-LED;
- Supports 7970m CrossFireX in a GREAT way :thumbsup:;
- Is a bit more compact (although just as heavy) as the other Alienware alternative, which may be important for some (such as myself);
- Has pretty much the best build quality I've ever seen in a laptop;
- Bling®-ready ;
- Good sound quality;
- Lots of ports.

This Guide is intended to be used all the way. I have managed to set up my own machine to perfection, with full feature access (HDMI with sound working, perfect Fan control working, hibernate/sleep working, overclock and overvolt as well as underclock and undervolt available, etc). Some parts of this guide may not work for you, but I am reasonably sure of their success rate. Should you follow this guide, providing there are no caveats for you, your end-result should be a machine meeting the standards of perfection Which cannot be said about many other machines.

I don't really have a camera nor the mood to do a full picture guide, so those of you hoping for visual references should head on to this handy teardown guide. You only need to go as far as removing and re-seating the video-cards.

Also, I suck at formatting walls of text If any one of you can find it within the goodness of his heart to make a more visually-pleasing layout for the following guide, please do so and share it with me and you will receive the much-appreciated position as a contributor in the credits

Enclosed, is a brief synopsis of expected performance as benched with 3dmark11:

AlienHack's score: P10049
Nospheratu's score: Firestrike P8337; 3dmark11 P11449
Batfuse's score: P8870
My score : P9810
Trome71's: FireStrike P8333; 3dmark11 P11716

For comparison, the average i7-extreme overclocked 7970m crossfire-equipped m18x machine scores about this much: P11198 (oh look, slower than nospheratu's m17x hehe).

Keep in mind that synthetic benchmarks don't reflect the gaming performance, which for most games will be identical even with the faster sandy/ivy cpu's.

Without further ado:

STEPS:

1. Requirements:

- Two 7970m cards. WARNING. CHOOSING THE WRONG CARD WITH THE WRONG VBIOS WILL RENDER YOUR MACHINE NOT POSTING AND YOU WITH A USELESS CARD. As far as I am aware of, Clevo cards have no restrictions, whereas Dell cards are restricted to being released with vBios versions up to and including 015.021. 015.022 vBios cards are not supported (the machine will fail to Post) nor can they be downflashed (Attempting to do so will brick the card). There HAVE been reports of users getting 015.022--firmware cards and having them compatible, but unless the seller allows you to return the cards, you can't figure out which one would work and which won't.
I have not attempted nor do I know of anyone to have used a different manufacturer card (such as MSI), although I don't see why it wouldn't be possible.

- A modded PSU is not strictly required. Nospheratu, AlienHack and myself have all had success using crossfired 7970m cards in tandem with Extreme Series CPU's, even heavily overclocked on both. Although there is evidence that you would not want to push the overclock too high in order to not degrade de PSU too fast (Nospheratu has experienced lowered stability over time at very high overclock levels), you don't exactly have to worry about power-related shutdowns either. Thus, decent-quality stock 240W Dell PSU's are quite sufficient. This is true even in a context like AlienHack's, where he is currently limited to using very high voltage (1.1V) on one of his cards.

- You will obviously require a CrossFireX cable

- If you can't get your hands on proper 7970m X-Brackets, you can make due with mutilating the brackets of your previous cards to serve as base, by separating the four corners of the X-Bracket from the middle. I have had success using this method, though I obviously do not recommend it. I currently use two intact 7970m X-Brackets.

- If you're going to pull off such a mod, I heavily recommend maxing out the configuration of the machine for bling purposes This means Extreme-Series CPU (though you will be served pretty well even by 720qm/740qm/820qm/840qm with the ability to moderately increase the potential of those CPU's using bclk overclock, slight overvolt and increasing TDP limits in ThrottleStop), 16GB of DDR3 DRAM, 1920x1200 RGB-LED screen, hybrid HDD's or SSD RAID or SSD + large HDD combo. If you're going to spend the hundreds of $$$ that this machine requires for being awesome, might as well go all the way

- Prepare, in advance, a USB stick preloaded with FreeDOS and the AMD 7970m modded vBios pack provided by svl7 over at TechInferno. This is an absolute requirement. Do not avoid this. There are very big chances that your cards may require bios reflash to work in your machine, and not having access to these vBios'es will cripple you and ruin your experience. (Alternatively, you can try the experimental vBios extracted from AlienHack's ES card, which helped fix a few compatibility problems in some cases)

- Note: svl7 has modified the 022 vbios to offer native overdrive functionality without other software tweaks. I recommend you attempt to use them before other vbioses:
View attachment Dell 7970m - 015.022.000.001.000000.C42904A1.119 - OverdriveMod - UV 0975v.zip
View attachment Dell 7970m - 015.022.000.001.000000.C42904A1.119 - Overdrive Mod_1050v forced.zip

- Have a screwdriver set designed to be used with small screws. A magnetic screwdriver would be very recommended.

- Have a non-capacitive thermal paste handy - I recommend Prolimatech compounds, even though I currently use Ceramique.

- Have some extra thermal pads of 0.5mm and 1mm sizes available.

- Remove all GPU drivers (AMD or nVidia) prior to beginning the procedure - you don't want to have to reinstall windows. If using AMD cards, use the AMD Cleanup Utility. DO NOT USE THIS UTILITY ON WINDOWS 8. Your other option is removing the drivers from the control panel, then restarting into safe mode and using Driver Sweeper.

- Have prepared the Catalyst Mobility 13.11 beta driver, HwInfo64 and RadeonPro.

2. Hardware Installation:

- Remove the power cable, all peripherals and the battery. Open the screen and hold the power button for around 15 seconds to completely drain the machine of power. Ground yourself previously by touching a grounded metal object. If you can, use anti-static gloves when working inside the machine.

- Remove the three screws under the battery (this will allow you to remove the palmrest/touchpad), followed by the bottom cover. Make sure you keep the screws somewhere where they won't be lost, and also keep them organized separately in order to not confuse them. Be advised that there will be a lot of screws to remove. Once the bottom cover is removed, also remove the two screws positioned near the display assembly, to the left and right edges of the bottom cover portion under the screen assembly (this will allow you to remove the bezel providing the power button and gains you access to the keyboard).

- Gently pry away the palm-rest/touch-pad segment. Lift it carefully without ripping away the connector leading to the motherboard. Gently release the connector. Make sure that the two gum-pieces on either side of the palm-rest do not fall away and become lost. They may fall easily and you should keep them by your side.

- If you do not plan to do maintenance on the CPU, removing the wi-fi card antenna cables or the large cover between the keyboard and motherboard is not required. This is good, because it's a hassle you don't need. at the moment.

- Tilt the screen back and gently pry away the bezel containing the Alien-head power button. This part is also connected to the motherboard using a cable. Make sure to carefully detach it first.

- Unscrew the five small black screws keeping the keyboard down. Gently lift the keyboard up and away from yourself, and then tilt it forward, but not too far. There are two cables linking it to the motherboard - a smaller one on the left side and a larger one near the middle. Gently pry these away as well.

- Installing the cards is pretty straight-forward. Remove your existing cards and the thermal pads on them. The cards are held down by two screws on either side of the width of the card, and you can remove the cards with their heatsinks equipped in one go.

- You have the option of reusing the Dell stock pads or replacing them with your own. Depending on your original heatsinks, you may require different sizes of thermal pads. Moving from a pair of GTX-285m cards, my heatsinks require me to use 0.5mm pads on the vRam chips, 1mm pads on the VRM's, and I also use the fatter pads (around 5mm) to cool down the mosFET's. Other users have reported needing 1mm pads on ram and 0.5mm on VRM. Either way, when preparing the cards, make sure that after you screwed the heatsink down nice and tight, you check the contact between heatsink and RAM, as well as VRM's, and also core contact.

- Another consideration is that the screws may fail to provide proper core contact. This is true when moving from 285M cards to 7970m cards, in which case you will have to carefully pry away the C-Clips (washers) of each individual heatsink screw, remove the screws from the heatsinks, and then re-attach the C-Clips to the screws. This will allow more pressure of the heatsink on the cards and not force you to purchase different heatsinks and/or screws. Make sure you check whether or not you get proper core contact before doing this, because if it is sufficient, doing this mod may result in excessive pressure and the cracking of your GPU core.

- Once you've attached the heatsinks to your new cards, gently seat them in and screw them down.

- Installing the crossfire cable is slightly tricky, because the connector for the second card is placed underneath the heatsink itself, and the heatsink will exert some pressure on the connector. Make sure you curve the cable to provide enough room for the heatsink to seat, while not exerting too much pressure on the connector of either the cable or the card.

- Before doing anything else, if you've not been extremely careful about not touching it and moving it by mistake, I recommend gently disconnecting and reconnecting the LCD cable to the motherboard. The connector to the right needs to simply be pushed in until it clicks and stays even. The connector to the left requires you to gently pull up the metal rim, seat the connector flush against the socket and gently push down the metal rim until it clicks closed. Be advised you're not pushing on the rim perpendicularly, but aim to have it rotate into position. This is to avoid confusing relating to failure to display on the LCD.

- I recommend connecting back the keyboard and power module but not screwing them down, and attempting to boot the machine. If you see the AlienHead logo, you're golden. If not, attempt to boot the machine while connected to a secondary display though VGA output.

- If you fail to get VGA output as well as LCD output, you're in a bit of trouble. First, you will have to test each card individually in the master (left-most) GPU slot, and see if either of them boots. If you have one card that boots and one that doesn't, use the non-booting card in the Slave slot. You will attempt to flash it with different vBioses until you find one that works or you're forced to replace the card. The main body of this guide will assume that the cards booted correctly, with troubleshooting being done on a case-by-case basis in the rest of the thread.

- Follow most of the above steps in reverse in order to put your machine back together and move on to the software configuration.

2. Software Installation:

- Once your system posted, there is one more potential hiccup: it is possible for the machine to start with an incompatible card in the slave slot, and so long as drivers for the cards are not installed, you may even boot into windows. However, the card will be listed as "unable to start" in the device manager, and with drivers installed the system will freeze at boot. Obviously you should try every single vBios you can get your hands on in order to make it work, but if it fails and the card is simply incompatible, you will have to replace it.

- In this phase, you will also attempt to flash undervolted (preferably Dell) vbioses. This would not be a concern so long as you had access to a properly modded 330W PSU - the procedure of which has been outlined by imsolidstate on his own website. Otherwise, I recommend keeping the cards at stock clocks at the lowest stable voltages possible. Your aim should be in increasing your CPU overclock potential and keeping your PSU as healthy as possible. You are forced to flash these vBioses for undervolting because while it is possible and easy to increase your voltage and core clocks from software, it is mostly impossible to undervolt from software. Having a lower-voltage vbios equipped will allow you to tweak upwards from software should you feel the need to, while also having a low voltage option accessible, as well as keeping temperature and power consumption low and increasing the lifespan of your machine. I personally use a Dell 0.975V vbios on both cards.
Nospheratu has devised a pretty easy method to make an Adaptor to provide the 240W ID signal while using any unmodded PSU. You can find his post here.

- After your machine boots into Windows, install the Catalyst Mobility 13.11 drivers with all options. Restart the machine, then install HwInfo64 and RadeonPro if you haven't done so already. Catalyst Mobility 13.11 = Frame Pacing Driver and it works great in the m17x-R2, and every AMD user for whom it works ok should use it.

- Open the start menu, type regedit and open the registry editor. Select the uppermost first option (Computer), press CTRL+F and write EnableULPS. For each entry found (EnableULPS or EnableULPS_NA) change its value from 1 to 0. This will disable the ability of the OS to shut down the secondary card when not in use. If the ability to shut down the second card is something you absolutely require - to your detriment - then do not do this, but keep in mind that the rest of this tweak guide requires this step for multiple functionalities. After this, restart the machine.

- You have the option of entering BIOS and looking for the USB PowerShare functionality. If you keep your machine on a USB-powered cooling pad (As I do and recommend), it might you off that the fans of the cooling pad keep spinning while the machine is sleeping. I personally also hate having USB mouse light on. Disable this feature if you want to not have to unplug your USB devices to keep them powered down when sleeping.

- In Windows, open up Catalyst and temporarily Disable CrossFireX. This will allow the HwInfo64 sensors to properly read clockspeed / voltage / temps / etc. for both card. Open HwInfo64 and configure it. Under the Fan Respin Period I recommend using 1000ms. After that you can minimize HWINFO and re-enable Crossfire. Set HWINFO on auto-start minimized with windows. Keep in mind that when restarting windows, you will have to open the fan control tab in HWINFO on startup each time. You can bypass this requirement by using hibernate or sleep modes, which will remember your fan speeds properly when resuming. ULPS disabled is required for proper usage with HWINFO (when enabled, if the second card shuts down, HWINFO will lose fan control ability as well as sensors over the second card and you will have to turn off HWINFO, disable crossfire, re-start HWINFO and re-enable the fan control settings and then re-enable crossfire all over again. This is why I recommend disabling ULPS). In addition, click configure in the Sensor Status panel and increase the scan interval to 10000 (or higher, if you feel comfortable) and click set. Keep in mind this will increase the time between sensor reading from whatever value you have set up all the way up to 10 seconds (at 10000ms) or whatever value you set it to, thus the changes in fan speed will now trigger with more delay. On the other hand, this will free up valuable CPU time that you really don't want to lose in CPU-intensive applications (especially since the performance drop with the scan speed too high can be up to 15% on the CPU)

You should now have available: HDMI (without sound on Clevo, fully functional on Dell cards), Crossfire, Sleep/Hibernate, and plenty of overclock room for the CPU with ThrottleStop as well as custom independent Fan Control settings for each of the main three components (CPU / GPU1 / GPU2) The amount of headroom is subject to vBios limitations on gpu voltage. Nospheratu has succeeded in using the ASUS GPU Tweak utility to undervolt and clock-control the cards. This is conditional on having run MSI Afterburner (recommended versions are 2.2.4 - 2.3.1) with the -xcl flag once prior to trying the utility. If afterburner freezes your system, make sure ULPS is disabled and try running a game, alt-tabbing out of it and running afterburner immediately. If it is successful, restart your machine and you can then use ASUS GPU Tweak. Visit the link for complete details on how to configure ASUS GPU Tweak.

All that remains to be done now is:

3. RadeonPro Tweaking: - I'm not sure whether or not RadeonPro tweaking is still of any use now that the frame-pacing driver is out. Needs to be tested.

- You can use RadeonPro with most of the instructions here to lower CrossFireX-specific microstutter and generally increase gaming performance.

- Select the "Global" profile and edit the following (push the Save Changes button in the bottom left-most corner of the application window after each change):

- Under the "Visual" tab, do whatever tweaks you wish (i recommend Antialiasing "Enhance application settings" and Anti-Aliasing filter set to "Edge Detect"). Set Vertical Sync Control to "Always On".

- Under the "Advanced" tab, disable "Force Triple-Buffering (OpenGL)" and set the Flip Queue Size value to 0 or 1 (determines the amount of frames that will be rendered in advance). Tweak the rest to your heart's content.

- Under the "Tweaks" tab, set Vsync control to Driver Default, set Display refresh rate to 60, uncheck Triple Buffering, Check Dynamic Framerate control, set Keep up to 58-59 fps and save.

- Set RadeonPro to autostart minimized. If a specific application requires further tweaking, create an individual profile for that application to meet your specific demands using the above tweaks as a starting base. Make sure that you can mostly if not always sustain a framerate near to the value defined next to the Dynamic Framerate option. I don't recommend using settings that will push your framerate under 45fps. Lower details if you have to. The 7970m crossfire may be the second/third most powerful dual-gpu laptop solution at the present moment, but there's still games and settings that may tank your performance, and you will require the absolute highest possible contribution from your CPU in order to not be bottle-necked in certain games. I have found that an extreme series processor running 24/24/24/24 multipliers with TDP/TDC settings of 80+/62 will remove pretty much any CPU bottleneck in most games. Just make sure you can cool it (which is why I also recommend a cooling pad such as the Notepal U3).

This concludes our regularly scheduled program for the complete awesome machine that is the Alienware m17x R2

Credits go to Nospheratu (for being the first person to join the bandwagon of this thread and the first to achieve success, as well as providing tons of information regarding many of the instructions above, AlienHack for much the same reason only slightly delayed, Pau1ow, Meaker, svl7 @ TechInferno and Mr. Fox for being general founts of wisdom without whom it would have been much harder to build up the above guide (even if they don't know it ). imsolidstate and StamatisX for being pioneers into the realm of PSU modding as well as being some of the people doing early experiments on this crossfire possiblity (along with svl7). Honorable contributor mentions go to flingin and others I will add here on a case-by-case basis (which means I soon as I remember them ).

And of course, myself for being generally awesome.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

M17x R2 7970m CrossfireX Ultimate Installation and Tweaking Guide