E6540 Owners Thread

Installed the A05 BIOS. No issues to report so far. Also installed Intel Rapid Storage Technology prior to BIOS update.

Windows 7 Pro 64-bit boot times seems slightly faster at around 8 seconds, and Samsung Magician RAPID Mode for my EVO SSD is providing very quick application loading. AutoCAD 2014 is fully loaded in 3 seconds. LibreOffice is essentially loaded on the click.

 

Anyone finding Intel SpeedStep won't maximise performance? It'll throttle up and down, but hits a ceiling of 2.3.Ghz. I've pushed the CPU too 100% in Autodesk Revit and a couple of games, but it just won't budge unless SpeedStep is disabled. Can't imagine what it will take invoke TurboBoost!

 

Oh dear. Did Dell deliberately pre-throttle the system at 2.3Ghz due to poor design?

I've just disabled SpeedStep so the CPU ran at default speed of 2.7Ghz, and it overheated within minutes. Framerates halved in FSX. I guess this means I can't render using the CPU at normal speed either.

 

Maybe they did this because the system could be fundamentally flawed.

 

I found Intel offers a Turbo Boost Monitor download that shows when your machine goes into turbo boost mode. here's the link:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=19105

It has shown my machine jump into turbo boost (3.4ghz) , but only for very short bursts. If I check in control panel/ system windows reports it as 2.7ghz.. duno if thats a static value, read from the cpu or the actual current clock speed.

 

That may just be the CPU type clock speed, not actual current clock speed. Could you find out your current clock speed and please let me know?

Windows 7 inbuilt Performance Monitor can do the job. My clock speed remains stuck on 2,300.00 unless I work off battery (in which it drops). I've also checked this 2.3Ghz figure with CPU other monitors.

http://superuser.com/questions/378208/cpu-monitoring-hyper-threading-current-clock-speed

 

I am very frustrated with Dell this time...

In the Spain Dell website there's only one configuration for the E6540 (i7-4800MQ, 8GB DDR3, 500GB SSHD w/8GB flash, Radeon HD 8790M, FHD, Ultimate-N 6300 3x3, Fingerprint Reader and Smart Card Reader, 9cell battery), but this option comes with NO BACKLIT keyboard.

I talked to my rep sales and he said me that he has 3 prebuild E6540 configs in his system, but none of them can be modified. The other 2 options come with backlit keyboard, but without fingerprint reader, without 3x3 wifi card (2x2 instead), but with WAN module...

My rep sales said me that all new machines (like E6540 or M4800) are only available with prebuild configurations and can not be modified.

I don't understand... the possibility of customization was the main reason we bought at Dell!

 

Performance monitor CPU/Frequency reads "2701.000" on min/max/current for all cores. Speccy64 reports:

CPU
Intel Core i3/i5/i7 4xxx
Cores 4
Threads 8
Name Intel Core i3/i5/i7 4xxx
Code Name Haswell
Package Socket 947 rPGA
Technology 22nm
Specification Intel Core i7-4800MQ CPU @ 2.70GHz
Family 6
Extended Family 6
Model C
Extended Model 3C
Stepping 3
Revision C0
Instructions MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, Intel 64, NX, VMX, AES, AVX, AVX2, FMA3
Virtualization Supported, Enabled
Hyperthreading Supported, Enabled
Bus Speed 99.9 MHz
Stock Core Speed 2700 MHz
Stock Bus Speed 100 MHz
Average Temperature 45 °C
Caches
L1 Data Cache Size 4 x 32 KBytes
L1 Instructions Cache Size 4 x 32 KBytes
L2 Unified Cache Size 4 x 256 KBytes
L3 Unified Cache Size 6144 KBytes
Core 0
Core Speed 3696.7 MHz
Multiplier x 37.0
Bus Speed 99.9 MHz
Temperature 47 °C
Thread 1
APIC ID 0
Thread 2
APIC ID 1
Core 1
Core Speed 3696.7 MHz
Multiplier x 37.0
Bus Speed 99.9 MHz
Temperature 44 °C
Thread 1
APIC ID 2
Thread 2
APIC ID 3
Core 2
Core Speed 3696.7 MHz
Multiplier x 37.0
Bus Speed 99.9 MHz
Temperature 43 °C
Thread 1
APIC ID 4
Thread 2
APIC ID 5
Core 3
Core Speed 3696.7 MHz
Multiplier x 37.0
Bus Speed 99.9 MHz
Temperature 44 °C
Thread 1
APIC ID 6
Thread 2
APIC ID 7

 

Is that with SpeedStep enabled?

I've manually set the CPU to 2.7Ghz using ThrottleStop. Idle temps are around 50c.

How does everybody elses idle temp compare at 2.7Ghz?

 

I believe so- I would have to reboot to be sure - but I don't think I made any changes to that when I was setting up. Have you tried the Intel Turbo Boost Monitor?

Once in a while it pops up to 3.7ghz.. I managed to catch a screen shot of it on my system here: