M860ETU QX9300 + GTX280m

H-Emmanuel · 05-17-2009, 10:20 PM

As some of you may know, I managed to get a GTX280M working in this 15.4" laptop, but now we're going to see what happens when on the other side of the heatsink we add a QX9300. I will receive everything next Friday or maybe the following week; however due to exams I won't be able to write a very thorough review before three weeks! I am receiving an M860ETU so that's where all the testing is going to take place. Subscribe to this thread, together we'll make the world's most powerful 15.4"... again! That will take down most 17" notebooks. I'll tell you now though, no suicide runs and nothing over 80c; if some people consider stress testing and damaging an investment, I invite you to fund the project for me!
I now have a 24/7 stable overclock on my GTX280M with 1.05v, we'll see what happens when a 45W TDP QX9300 adds up to that. If the laptop manages to power on all this hardware, the primary goal of this thread will be to undervolt the CPU using CPUGenie even if I have to purchase it (can't settle for 2.40GHz), test battery life and run benchmarks.
I predict breaking 13k with a QX9300 which will be another milestone for 15.4" notebooks.

See you all around, and experienced users are more than welcome to post their thoughts and recommendations here (I'm thinking especially about Kaltmond who pushed this system to the limits already with a 9800m GTX and QX9200).

Let's start with battery life:

Typical student/businessman usage: Microsoft Word/Excel, Windows Media Player, emails, dreamscene paused, sidebar running 8 gadgets, youtube once in a while
T9900 + GTX280m : "Power Saver", 50% brightness, Silent Mode = 2:10
T9900 + GTX280m : "Power Saver", 100% brightness, Silent Mode = 1:45
QX9300 + GTX280m : "Power Saver", 70% brightness, Silent Mode = 2:00

So at idle, the QX9300 undervolted to 1.05v actually doesn't consume any more power than the T9900 does.

75% display brightness should allow about 2 hours. 50% display brightness truly sucks except if it's night. You might actually take longer to do your work since it's so hard to see and therefore consume as much if not more battery than if you had a little more brightness.

So everything showed up this morning, the laptop is built and operating amazingly! Check the screenshots, the CPU runs hot in IntelBurn Test v2 set to Maximum and has a VID of 1.1625v. Going to try lowering the operating voltage!
However you guys are going to laugh, I didn't gain 700 points in 3DMark because from a 3.06GHz dual core to 2.53GHz quad-core lowered my scores in other areas of the test, so I simply scored 12 296 lol!

DECEMBER 2009: Back in the U.S for vacations, brand new shiny OEM QX9300, still waiting on the Arctic MX-3 thermal paste.

So reading another thread about using a 2KOhm resistor to trick the clock generator into using a 333MHz FSB which would bring the QX9300 in theory up to a maximum of 3.2GHz with the highest stock multiplier, I'm very tempted to try it. Having ditched my 3.06GHz T9900 for the QX9300, I would be glad to not only have twice the cores but also running at at least the same clocks! I need to get a good small soldering iron and a resistor. I'm still not convinced to get rid of a my M860ETU for an i7 laptop, I definitely won't if I manage to get a stable overclock on this CPU. Regarding CPU stability, I remember that most QX9300 can actually run stable at 1.050v at 2.53GHz, leaving lots of headroom for overclocking, which is great because we shouldn't have to worry about overvolting to reach 3GHz I think. Now with an OEM CPU and not an ES, I hope that it'll be more responsive to changes made in software such as RMClock and CPUGenie (if I have to lock the CPU down to a certain multiplier for stability). Regarding RAM, the system runs unstable with the RAM of another person who tried this mod; we'll see if it's because of his RAM or if there is a more underlying problem when overclocking by tricking the clock generator.

Happy holidays everyone, let's hope for the best!

Soviet Sunrise · 05-17-2009, 10:38 PM

Godspeed, H-Emmanuel. The QX9300 paired with the GTX 280M at your clocks will easily surpass 13k.

Did you send your original M860TU back for the revised motherboard?

CPUGenie is still new, but a lot of people are taking a liking to it. It will defintely help you lower the temps to push the QX9300 harder during stress tests and benchmarks.

As for the GPU, the reason why your GTX 280M is losing performance at higher clocks is because of the memory. Thermal monitors can only read the core temperature and not the memory as they do not have thermal diodes.

What I suggest is to replace the stock thermal pads with quality ones, such as custom cut Bergquist SIL 60's. Also modding the heatsink by mounting copper blocks on the heatsink itself over where the memory chips are located will also help the memory from choking at higher clocks as well. I have already done the same with my M570TU and I am going to do it all over again for the new GTX 280M I put in. I am only waiting for those damn blocks to come in.

Kevin_Jack2.0 · 05-17-2009, 10:42 PM

Emmanuel, when are you getting the new heatsink? That should be your #1 priority at this point.

H-Emmanuel · 05-17-2009, 10:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin_Jack2.0

Emmanuel, when are you getting the new heatsink? That should be your #1 priority at this point.

It's coming with the M860ETU so I guess I won't have to do a copper mod as Soviet Sunrise suggested. I actually purchased an M860ETU and managed a few days after to resell the M860TU, it was still like new so I didn't lose much money on it.

Also for comparison, the two screenshots are my M860ETU with the exact same specs, except that the first one is with the T9900 and the second one with the QX9300.

Quicklite · 05-17-2009, 10:51 PM

Nice spec you have there.

http://www.xoticpcforums.com/showthread.php?t=3919

By default, QX9300+280m GTX gets 11.5k.

If you can somehow overclock the CPU, then breaking 13 k seems realistic.

I guess your SSD drive will push the score by a few hundred points, and the GPU has space for careful overclocking.

Soviet Sunrise · 05-17-2009, 10:53 PM

Oh yes you do. Posting such an enthusiastic and inspiring speech to make this notebook the fastest in it's size class must come true. It is in our blood, and wallets, to take it to the max by any means necessary.

H-Emmanuel · 05-17-2009, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quicklite

Nice spec you have there.

http://www.xoticpcforums.com/showthread.php?t=3919

By default, QX9300+280m GTX gets 11.5k.

If you can somehow overclock the CPU, then breaking 13 k seems realistic.

I guess your SSD drive will push the score by a few hundred points, and the GPU has space for careful overclocking.

I'm already scoring nearly 12 300 with my T9900, the QX9300 will add 700 points easy.

Quote:

Oh yes you do. Posting such an enthusiastic and inspiring speech to make this notebook the fastest in it's size class must come true. It is in our blood, and wallets, to take it to the max by any means necessary.

Lol what matters too is that it remains portable and can actually run on battery on Power Saver with two cores disabled for an hour and half.

Kevin_Jack2.0 · 05-17-2009, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H-Emmanuel

It's coming with the M860ETU so I guess I won't have to do a copper mod as Soviet Sunrise suggested. I actually purchased an M860ETU and managed a few days after to resell the M860TU, it was still like new so I didn't lose much money on it.

Oops I forgot that part.

Where'd you sell, eBay? I'm trying to sell mine for capital right now.

anothergeek · 05-17-2009, 10:53 PM

13k sounds about right @2.53. I doubt you'll be able to overclock it, it's probably locked like the x9100.

I've only gotten to 11700 with this piddly P9600 <.< When I get my QX, I'm breaking 14k

H-Emmanuel · 05-17-2009, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin_Jack2.0

Oops I forgot that part.

Where'd you sell, eBay? I'm trying to sell mine for capital right now.

Yep but mine looked like new, really, like brand new out of the box. Judging from your specs, yours would sell at 1k or so with all the scratches that I saw in your sale thread

Quote:

13k sounds about right @2.53. I doubt you'll be able to overclock it, it's probably locked like the x9100.

I've only gotten to 11700 with this piddly P9600 <.< When I get my QX, I'm breaking 14k

If you can wait a few weeks, I'll sell you my QX9300 if I judge that I don't want such as beast and battery drainer in my laptop 24/7.

EDIT: 100 posts! That's my first milestone here!

RE-EDIT: by the way, I was thinking, does anyone knows how to pin mod the QX9300 to drop the vCore down 0.1v? Kaltmond did it but he hasn't gotten back to me yet, dropping the CPU down 0.1v would be a great undervolt without the use of any software!