M6600 Owners Thread

One problem with a W7170m is that that generation of laptops uses eDP panels and I believe that the M6600 uses LVDS. I know that I ran into that problem trying to upgrade a M4600 to a W5170m (read the M4600 upgrade thread for the full tale of woe.) The M4600 doesn't have the dual display connectors like the M6600 does though. Also, I saw a W7170m for $150 on Ebay a while back - I didn't jump on it, to my eternal regret...

Anyway that's not actually what I came here to talk about. I'm attempting a somewhat more mundane M6100 upgrade. The first time I installed it it throttled a ton due to ****ty thermal paste. The second time, it ran fine but I saw a post in another M6600 thread about someone who had killed two 680ms, the first time by using insufficient thermal pads and the second time by using so much pads that it kept the heatsink from properly contacting the GPU die. So I tore it down and added a ton more pads and reassembled it, and it started crashing during benchmarks. I was terrified I'd broken something but I took it apart and took off some of the extra pads and now it's running fine again, albeit still throttling a bit.

So my current hypothesis is that the last time I installed it, there was a bit too much of a gap between the heatsink and the die. What I'm wondering is why this resulted in a crash instead of just insane thermal throttling. When it was working normally, the GPU would run at 97-99 degrees and drop the clock every time it hit 100 degrees.

Questions moving forward: Is there some way to improve the interface between the heatsink and the GPU die? An earlier benchmark got slightly higher results in Unigine Heaven, so I'm inclined to think that performance could still be improved. Also, 99 degrees seems really high.
Would installing the overclocking vBIOS mod help, or would it still be thermal throttled? I would think that increasing the TDP would just result in more heat output, which doesn't really help me.
Do I have everything that needs to be covered with thermal pads, covered? Here's what I have covered:

 

I re-padded my M6100 at one point, and it looked like this. I used 1.0 mm pads and doubled up on the VRMs, etc. With valuxin's vBIOS mod I'm still only running in the 80s. You're using A15 system BIOS, right?

 

Yes I'm using a15. One possible culprit is the **** generic brand thermal paste I'm using, I did some research and couldn't tell if getting better stuff was worth it, so I didn't.

 

Can someone confirm the M290X works on the m6600? I'm about to pull the trigger on one.

 

I believe that it's the same chip as the 7970m, so even if it's incompatible for some reason, you could probably flash the vBIOS and make it compatible. (Fun fact: The r9 m290x, 8970m, 7970m, and desktop HD 7870 are all the same chip.) Then again, both of the cards I tried to flash within the last few months bricked, so I'm probably not the best person to ask.

 

OK so I replaced the thermal paste with some name brand stuff and holy cow- it was the difference between throttling at 100 degrees and hovering around 75 under full load. I was skeptical about how important good thermal paste is, but (at least with a tiny die like this one) it made a huge difference.

 

Would you be interested in parting with those bricked cards? I have a M8900 in my M6600 and am look at the R9 M290X cards currently.

 

They're MXM A, way below an M8900 in performance. If you're looking for something cheaper than a 7970m/8970m/m290x, I recommend going on Ebay and picking up a Firepro M6100, they can be had for $130 or so if you're patient and perform about like a 960m which is a little below the 7970m but still quite solid and much better bang for your buck. The M8900 can be sold to cover most of the cost if it's working well.

 

Thanks. I had a M6600 a few years ago that came with a M8900. Dell replaced GPU under warranty as it was artifacting. Dell sent a M6100 and it was much better.I sold that workstation after I finished school and have purchased another one recently.

I also just purchased a R9 M290X 4GB.... So I will be a test subject.

Also, I tried to put in a Dell 375 Bluetooth dongle but it is not detected in device manager.
I even ran an ubuntu live disc to check the hardware in terminal... the Bluetooth is not being detected.

 

Didn't know Dell did that! I knew that the M6100 was officially supported, but it's neat that they could just upgrade it like that. Definitely looking forward to seeing how the r9 m290x turns out. I have another M6600 - or half of one, at any rate (good motherboard and CPU, almost everything else is damaged) and it would be nice to know if the M290x is an option if I do decide to fix it up