Dell Studio 1557

[trancedrift]

Hi kizwan,

So how did you guys (kizwan and OneCool) managed to fry you Studio 1557s? Does it have something to do with the modded BIOS?

I want to update my BIOS in order to turn hyperthreading off, and maybe disable core #4. I don't want to do any overclocking of the cpu/fsb/memory clocks. I was just wondering if the reason for the mobo deaths was the overclocking or some of the functions that were unlocked...

Btw I still have another 2 years of warranty on the laptop and I am planning to continue using it for the full period as I actually mostly useing it as desktop replacement. For mobility purposes I will buy soon some netbook/i-pad alike... or ultrabook (samsung tx100 is amazing,asus eee pad transformer and slider as well). This is the reason I am still wondering for the update on the BIOS, I don't want to compromise my warranty but would like to disable atleast hyperthreading as it doesn't really contribute to the perfomance but instead causes the Turbo mode to kick in more often.

[kizwan]

Hi,

Its turned out that it's false alarm. My Studio 1557 still OK. I'm using desktop graphic card (eGPU) with my Studio & it sometime (rarely) it make my Studio to do weird things. My Studio somehow power off while windows loading. I don't know what causing it because temps are low. One thing I learn from unclewebb (ThrottleStop author) is that Dell notebook will power off automatically when it want to consume more power than adapter can provide. To fixed this, only need to disconnect both battery & AC adapter. Then connect both back again. Problem solved.

So far overclocking is not possible on Studio 1557. This is because clock generator on our Studio 1557 only support 100MHz & 133MHz bus speed.

I do a lot VMware simulation on my Studio 1557, so extra CPU threads are very useful. Since I already connected eGPU to my Studio 1557, it's already become partial desktop computer. However I can hotplug the eGPU whenever I want. My Asus become backup notebook & I also use it whenever I go mobile, meetings, outstation, etc.

If you want to disabled HyperThreading, I think it's good idea too. Not many applications or games utilize multi-threads. With the modified BIOS you can:-

• Enabled/Disabled HT
• Enabled/Disabled Turbo Boost
• Enabled only 1 or 2 or 4 cores

Using modified BIOS might void warranty if *they* found out.

[trancedrift]

Hi again,

I updated the BIOS today to the Dell provided A09 and it stoped some time before the end saying that flashing failed due to image problem, after that kbd (I think also the touch pad) was locked. However after restat I checked the BIOS and it said A09 and everything worked fine.

I also updated audio and video driver (quite some changes after the new Dell driver - gpu recognised as HD545v, and everything looks and moves smother), and put the Intel Boost widget. I noticed that the Boost funtion kicked in almost all the time! So after the suspicious official BIOS flash and the knowldge that just as I expected the laptop is abusing the Boost function because of the Hyperthreading, I decided to flash it with your moded A09 BIOS. It took me some time to make Crisis back up and MSDOS startup disk - I had to make everything in virtual Win XP. The flashing worked smoothly and the new BIOS as well. I disabled only the Hyperthreading. I decided not to touch the number of cores as 3 cores is not available and after HT is disabled I realized that I will end up with only 3 open threads which a little bit too little. So.. everything worked as expected, windows loaded and it shows only 4 cores. It seams like it is using a little bit more CPU time now, which is also to be expected with less open threads. However I was amazed to see that the Boost function almost never kicks in, really only when a heavy process is started. No random Boost when surfing in the Net or watchng youtube videos. As a result temepratures now with 4 active cores are ~61 C at the moment which is about 7-8 degrees C less that they used to be with 4 cores with HT and 3-5 deg C less than with 3 cores and HT enabled. Most importantly with HT on temepratures used to jump up quite quickly (I guess again beause the Boost was constantly on) and now they seem to be more stable.
I think that when I clean the heatsink and put new thermal paste the temps will drop to 55 deg C idle.

I am quite satisfied with the mod and I want to thank you for making it

[kizwan]

Congrats! I'm glad you like it.

[kizwan]

DIY eGPU implementation: 15" Dell Studio 1557 + ATI Radeon HD 5870 @x2

Link:-

• DIY eGPU Experiences
• My eGPU casing (not DIY)

Specification:-

• Dell Studio 1557 + 4GB DDR3
• PE4H-EC2C package (+ 2xPM3N cards for x2 link)
• eGPU: PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 5870 @x2 link
• Corsair CX500 V2 500W (12V/34A)
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Method (x1 setup):-

- Power ON the notebook with eGPU already connected & powered ON.
- Using modified drivers: D.N.A.

Method (x2 setup):-

- connected everything
- power on eGPU
- power on system
- set x2 on Port1 using Setup 1.x
- Reboot (using Reboot command in Setup 1.x)
- boot into windows
OR can use automated script in STARTUP.BAT:-

:: enable disk caching to improve performance
call speedup lbacache
:: enable x2 on port1
call iport x2 1
:: wait for HD5870 to be attached
:: call vidwait 60 1002:6898
:: check that it's a x2 link
call iport scan
:: give a prompted countdown for 7 seconds
call wait_e 7 "Confirm link is x2 - if not hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and try again"
:: run result of last PCI compaction
call pci
:: chainload to MBR
:: call grub4dos mbr 
:: need to reboot to re-detect the eGPU
reboot

With the above script, only need to:-
- choose Setup 1.x at Windows/Setup 1.x boot menu
- choose first option to use STARTUP.BAT
- it will reboot automatically
- finally, choose Windows at boot menu.
DRIVER:-
- Using modified drivers: D.N.A.
OR
- dGPU HD4570 use mobile driver where driver is installed manually in Device Manager. eGPU HD5870 use desktop driver (using the .EXE file).

First PCI bus with 8 digits memory address = TOLM^1
1 On (first gen) Intel i7 quad-core processor, this register is called TOLM, not TOLUD.

Boot without eGPU connected (0xC8000000: TOLM=3.125GB):-

Boot with eGPU connected (0xA8000000: TOLM=2.625GB):-

eGPU ATI HD5870 @x1 link Setup:-


eGPU ATI HD5870 @x2 link Setup:-

BENCHMARKS

DirectX 9
3DMark 06 (1280x1024)	RE5 (1280x800-variable)
x1 link:- Result: 13157	x1 link:-
x2 link:- Result: 13556	x2 link:-

DirectX 10
3DMark Vantage	Devil May Cry 4 (DMC4)
x1 link:- x2 link:-	x1 link:- x2 link:-

DirectX 11
3DMark 11	Heaven Benchmark v2.5 Basic
x1 link: Result x2 link: Result Detailed Scores   x1 link x2 link 3DMark Score P3156 P3659 Graphics Score 3220 3667 Physics Score 3391 3868 Combined Score 2520 3335 GraphicsTest1 15 FPS 18 FPS GraphicsTest2 18 FPS 19 FPS GraphicsTest3 21 FPS 23 FPS GraphicsTest4 8 FPS 9 FPS PhysicsTest 10 FPS 12 FPS CombinedTest 11 FPS 15 FPS	x1 link | x2 link FPS: 22.7 | 28.3 Scores: 572 | 714 Min FPS: 13.2 | 13.8 Max FPS: 60.0 | 71.2 Hardware Binary: Windows 32bit Visual C++ 1600 Release Mar 1 2011 Operating system: Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1) 64bit CPU model: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz CPU flags: 1595MHz MMX SSE SSE2 SSE3 SSSE3 SSE41 SSE42 HTT GPU model: ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series 8.850.6.0 1024Mb Settings Render: direct3d11 Mode: 1920x1080 fullscreen Shaders: high Textures: high Filter: trilinear Anisotropy: 4x Occlusion: enabled Refraction: enabled Volumetric: enabled Tessellation: normal

GAMES EXPERIENCE

Games	Settings	FPS (average range from lowest to highest)
		DirectX 9		DirectX 10		DirectX 11
		x1 link	x2 link	x1 link	x2 link	x1 link	x2 link
DiRT 2 (with *x1 link* setup, choppy/stutter) (with *x2 link* setup, game running smoothly)	Resolution : 1280x800 Refresh Rate : 60 Multisampling : 4xMSAA VSYNC : Off (ALL) : (Preset - High)	Inbuilt:- Min:12.5 Avg:14.2 17 - 19 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4	Inbuilt:- Min:17.1 Avg:26.3 32 - 34 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3	N/A	N/A	Inbuilt:- Min:12.5 Avg:15.4 17 - 24 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 Pic 7	Inbuilt:- Min:20.3 Avg:26.6 32 - 37 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 Pic 7
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (with *x1 link* setup, very lag with DirectX 10 & 11) (with *x2 link* setup, game running smoothly)	Resolution : 1280x800 Overall Quality : Advanced Level of Detail : High Texture Quality : High Shadow Quality : High Effects Quality : High Anti Aliasing : 8x Anisotrophic Filter : 16x VSYNC : Off HBAO : Off	39 - 60 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6	57 - 80 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 Pic 7	25 - 35 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 Pic 7	39 - 50 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 Pic 7	22 - 30 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 Pic 7	38 - 50 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5
Need for Speed: Shift (with *x1 link* setup, choppy/lag when too many cars & effects at the same time) (with *x2 link* setup, game running smoothly)	Resolution : 1280x800 Refresh Rate : 60hz Anti-Aliasing : 0xAA Windowed : On Texture Filtering : Anisotrophic 16x V-Sync : Off Car Detail : High Shadow Detail : High Track Detail : High Motion Blur : High Texture Resolution : High	16 - 72 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3	33 - 74 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 Pic 7 Pic 8	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (with *x1 link* setup, steady FPS & microstutter) (with *x2 link* setup, game running smoothly)	Resolution : 1280x800 High Resolution Textures : On Motion Blur : On Shadow Level : High Anisotropic : On	23 - 40 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 Pic 7 Pic 8 Pic 9 Pic 10 Pic 11 Pic 12	34 - 45 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 Pic 7 Pic 8 Pic 9	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Left 4 Dead 2 (with both x1 & x2 setup, game able to running with stable 60FPS most all the time. FPS capped at 60.)	Resolution : 1920x1080 Anti-Aliasing Mode : 4xMSAA Filtering Mode : Anisotropic 8x Wait for Vertical Sync : Enabled (Double Buffered) Shader Detail : Very High Effect Detail : High Model/Texture Detail : High Multicore Rendering : Enabled Paged Pool Memory Available : High	60	60	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary/Conclusion:-
When compared with Nvidia games experience on x1 link, the ATI graphic card unable to deliver comfortable performance when running on x1 link. This issue can be fixed with x2 link. Fortunately, Dell Studio 1557, just like Studio 1555 & 1558, can support x2 link configuration (PCIe port 1 & 2). Also it seems, there are enough PCI bus space to support SLI/CFX configuration. So, my next plan are:-

• To get two PM3N (mini-PCIe) card to drive HD5870 on x2 link. [[Update 24 August 2011: Ordered 2xPM3N mini-PCIe cards]]
  
• (Optional) Get a PM3N card & Nvidia GTX460/470 card for x1.Opt link configuration on Asus K42JV notebook.
• (Wish) Get a PE4H-PM3N package & another HD5870 to setup CFX configuration on Dell Studio 1557.

[trancedrift]

Cool stuff I think the HD4570 is bit let down for the generally powerful Studio 1557. At the time I was purchasing the laptop I was contemplating getting an ASUS with Core i7, almost the same specs, again with Full HD screen res and 500gb hdd but with nVidia GPU, it was one of the top models at that time. However the price difference of more than 400 euro was too much for just the GPU... and after all, I have the feeling I am getting too old for playing too much games I think that hitting the pubs after work is better spent time, especially considering that after I get married I will be deprived of that pleasure as well

PS: I did finish Dirt 2 though several months ago, it was running quite smooth and had no problems. Rally simulators are my favorite, can't wait to have enough cash to actually own a real street legal race car , some Evo or WRX STi

[kizwan]

When buying notebook, I usually aim for middle-range GPU but with powerful CPU. This GPU is more than enough for me to play games. I only spent 3 to 4 hours a week playing games. At that time, I found the Dell Studio 1557 specification is the best. That is why I chose it. FWIW, it does deliver the performance I expected. I run multiple VMware guest OS on it.

[trancedrift]

When buying notebook, I usually aim for middle-range GPU but with powerful CPU...

Well, that exactly what Studio 1557 is about. It is supposed to deliver performance for creativity and professional applications. It is not a gaming laptop. In fact, although I have finally turned off the Hyperthreading, it is a quite useful feature and I myself have befitted quite some times from the 8 available cores when I used to run 2 virtual Linuxes and still be able to write and execute scientific simulation scripts on Matlab in the Win environment - and they do use a lot of the CPU power. It is only when games are involved that overheating becomes an issue because the GPU struggles to keep up.

[getheo]

hi guys i also have a dell studio 1557 and i want to know if these Kingston HyperX Plug in and Play DDR3 1600MHz CL9 8GB SODIMM Memory Module (Kit of 2): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories will be ok with my laptop.

[kizwan]

I don't see any reason why it won't work. However, I don't know whether it will run at DDR3-1600 or in backward compatibility DDR3-1333. When you tried this, please post the result here.