[GUIDE] How to speed up your M11x - what I did to make it as fast as my i7 M15x

Benchmark for my M11x with 2GB 1066 memory, 4GB 1066 memory, 4GB 1333 Memory swapping the factory 5400 RPM to an intel x25 G2 80GB and below that comparison between the Agility OCZ 60GB 1.5 Firmware and the X25-G2 80GB Intel SSD





Video of the Agility startup

Overall.

As you can see changing and swapping ram from 2 - 4gb and then from 1066 to 1333 makes no real difference. I do recommend 4GB if you plan on running multiple apps and heavy games. The greatest upgrade you can do is an SSD you will be opening programs and doing everyday apps as fast as an i7 machine. I say this as a fact because I have a M15x i7 with an SSD and outside of gaming with higher frames everyday use is so similar that if I hooked these to up an external monitor, keyboard and mouse I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

If you can afford it get the OCZ limited edition with 200+ write speeds you can only imagine the speed you will have at your fingertips. Its $400+ but if this is your everyday machine do it!

The intel SSD is more stable. It starts windows in about 23 seconds whereas the factory hard drive starts in about 75 seconds+ and the Agility starts in about 26 seconds. The Agility has a faster write speed but overall performance wise I love the Intel especially because my OCZ agility failed on me 2 days ago.


UPDATE:
If you plan on getting an SSD instead of going through all the multiple recommendations for optimizing your drive with windows 7 I just use SSD Tweaker which has the most optimized settings for your SSD

SSD TWEAKER Download here

 

Cool tips man

 

RAM won't make any differance because the M11x operates with a FSB of 800MHz. Any RAM clocked higher will be downclocked to run with the M11x chipset. Dell uses 1066 because the have an abundance of them for all their notebooks. Nice comparisons of the SSDs though. The SSD is pretty much the only way to increase performance on the M11x. Since the PLL is locked overclocking the processor isn't possible (yet) unless you pin mod it, which no one has done yet. CPU choice doesn't make any speed differances. The only thing the SU7300 adds is the ability to operate virtual systems. You can however overclock the GPU,and depending on the game, it will increase performance. Nice work though. +1

 

Good tips... Has anyone benchmarked the SSD drives in reference to gaming FPS? I think we all know that loading times are faster but is there an actual impact on FPS?

Best Wishes,

StevenX

 

I don't believe SSD's effect or increase FPS

 

they do, a lot...

 

^^^huh, how does the ssd gave you better fps?

 

^^faster texture loads into memory

 

I agree...

 

the FPS won't be "better", but the overall gaming experience will be better.

FPS does not take into account the actual experience which can include stuttering while waiting for the hard drive, slowly loading textures, choppyness due to hard disk reads. These are all avoided with SSD's so the overall experience will feel like it flows better.

However, once everything is loaded into RAM you won't notice much difference. The big difference will be felt that the overall experience is much smoother and snappier especially during transition parts of a game when you load a new level or if you enter a new zone and new textures need to be read off the hard disk. it will vary from game to game, some won't really show much of any improvement and others will (such as WoW).

 

Must admit fitting an 80GB Intel X25-M SSD in my M11X makes it fly and very smooth gaming with super quick load times.

The M11X doesn't make the most of the SSD as when I ran HDTune with the SSD in my desktop the read speeds were even quicker (using 1066 DDR2 6GB RAM + E6750 CPU).

 

i wish they make a new M11x R2 and release it fast. it would be a much better m11x after all the suggestions, complaints, and real world interactions recommendations from m11x users and owners. i really wish they would release it asap. nwe i will start a thread for suggestions and recommendations for on a refresh or a revision of a new m11x

 

Best option is the OCZ Vertex Limited Edition 100GB super pricey at around $400 but with these specs in a non raid 0 environment it is insane:
Max Read: up to 270MB/s
Max Write: up to 250MB/s

 

Is it possible to pick up 204 pin 800 mhz ram? I looked on newegg, but no such things exist lol.

 

Probably just easy enough to buy 1066MHz as the system will just downclock it to run at 800MHz. Or perhaps ebay.

 

Can we overclock the ram? Has anyone tried SET FSB to overclock the CPU past factory OC?

 

M11x clock generator ICS9LPRS387BKLF

 

Awesome! That is horrible there is no support.

Does anyone have any WEI scores with 8GB of ram?

UPDATE:
If you plan on getting an SSD instead of going through all the multiple recommendations for optimizing your drive with windows 7 I just use SSD Tweaker which has the most optimized settings for your SSD

SSD TWEAKER Download here

 

The new Nvidia Drivers are also a plus to speed up overall performance

 

1 on its way for my M11X... ordered it from Newegg

 

In overclock mode the FSB of the M11x is 1066MHz - and this speed is officially supported by the GS45. People quite often think the speed of the FSB is always the same as the RAM speed, this is incorrect. As you can see below the memory is unnecessarily crippled due to the way AW have configured the RAM in the BIOS. A simple adjustment in the BIOS could have the RAM running at 1066MHz.

The RAM speed is calculated using a memory divider (aka FSB: DRAM ratio).

Standard mode : 800MHz FSB - RAM (1:2 ratio) = 800MHz
Overclock mode : 1066MHz FSB - RAM (2:3 ratio) = 800MHz.

Just to work out the RAM speed in OC mode for those interested:

1066MHz / 4 (I'm dividing by four to get the base bus speed as the FSB is quad-pumped) = 266MHz (You'll see this figure mentioned in the M11x manual). The 2:3 ratio you can pick up in Everest, CPU-Z etc.

So 2 is the FSB, 3 is the RAM - Divide by 2, multiply by 3. 266 / 2 = 133MHz x 3 = 400MHz. DDR = Double Data Rate so multiply speed x 2 = RAM speed of 800MHz. So in overclock mode, the FSB is 1066MHz and the RAM is 800MHz. So it's technically not downclocked at all, it's the way it's configured to run.

 

Well technically not downclocked, just the easiest way of putting it. Regardless of the speed the RAM can run at, (1066, 1333, 1600 ect) it will only run at 800MHz. But excellent explaination. +1

 

RAM speed is crippled by the FSB since it runs twice as slow. That is not something AW did in the bios. Unless you can get your FSB up to 400Mhz it will be a bottle neck for the memory bus.

 

Yeah, exactly. Thanks.

Or up to 533MHz as the RAM shipped with this system is capable of 1066MHz - but you and I both know that a 1:1 FSB:RAM ratio is never going to happen in this machine. My point was that it's being crippled even further by the configuration of the memory divider making it run at 800MHz instead of it's capable 1066MHz.

Just worked out that if somehow the bus speed was raised to 533MHz, it would run the poor little SU7300 at 3.46GHz...

 

but slowing down the memory to 800Mhz will get you closer to 1:1. Making it go even faster than the fsb just increases your latency.

 

True, but I personally prefer higher speeds over lower speeds with tighter timings - although the difference is minimal anyway. It's more out of principle than anything else - they advertised 1066MHz RAM so it should run at that speed. What would be fantastic if we got the option to configure the memory divider and the timings - then I could really take advantage of my HyperX RAM.

Although, I do have a slight confession to make. In the U.S. it's advertised as 1066MHz RAM but in the UK, it's actually advertised at 800MHz RAM (even though I got 1066MHz RAM)...



So I can't really complain at all...

 

Those are just bios changes. Actually all AW has to do is allow Intel XTU work with the system.

 

But doesn't the mobile CPU have to be an Extreme edition for it to work? It's mentioned here. Maybe AW will implement further OC options once it's "settled in" and all current issues are ironed out.

 

It needs to be extreme to do multiplier and voltage changes.

 

i wish i can drop the i7 extreme in this machine haha

 

it wouldn't survive the boot period before it melts into your lap.

it's too bad a 256GB ssd is way out of my price range. and i actually want 512GB...

 

While it's true that FSB and memory were once synchronous and they no longer are, the principle of excess memory bandwidth being useless remains. Basically, a CPU can only process a " X"GHz if it can I/O with memory/registers at that speed. Obviously, we can't have 4GHz system RAM, so we have to compensate with multiple levels of increasingly slower on-die and external cache memory all the way up to a multi-channel memory bus. The FSB is what communicates with the system through that system bus, so any excess memory bandwidth, regardless of the async frequency, is completely wasted. The one exception is integrated graphics in a board like the nVidia nForce using the extra bandwidth for boosting the integrated graphics' shared memory performance (not the CPU). It indirectly benefitted the CPU by not using as much memory bandwidth for the integrated graphics, though not using integrated graphics renders that benefit null.

 

Ordered the OCZ LE 100GB will let you guys know how it performs compared to the G2

 

Ubuntu 10.04 is the fastest OS for this machine. With an SSD and multiple 3D desktop environments I don't think I will go back to windows 7


video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLNETUGOglg

 

Has anyone performed a secure erase on their ssd drive while its in the M11x? I am trying to use an hdderase 3.3 bootable cd on my intel g2 ssd and after the y/n, next, and y/n screens, it just sits there with blinking cursor before it detects the connected drives.

I had the bios set to ATA mode.

 

Finally received the OCZ Limited Edition SSD
Sequential Access - Read up to 270MB/s
Sequential Access - Write up to 250MB/s

Will install it and let you know my thoughts. This will be replacing my current
Intel X25-M G2 80GB SSD
Sequential Access - Read up to 250MB/s
Sequential Access - Write up to 70MB/s

 

OCZ LE is amazingly quick. Best upgrade for the M11x Hands down

 

I was able to fit a dual OS setup on this 50GB hd. 5 GB dedicated to Ubuntu 10.04 and the remaining to W7. Both run great.

 

Hey guys
Is it me/ because i have a Vertex 60gb installed on A m11x R1. and de reads are 125mb.
Sdd is aligd at 64k,and i installed w7 from a boot usb..

i also have read a lots of post about ssd, but no one tells how to install it right

Thx for help

 

Anyone tried to overclock FSB in the OS from 200MHz to 266MHz using software? This should give us true 1.73Ghz on CPU and 1066MHz on RAM.

 

@Me-How - which m11x? R1 is TME locked and can't be overclocked with software.

StevenX

 

StevenX how are your bench from the ssd?
Mine wont get over the 125mb.

Petraon

 

My reads on crystal disk are in the 230s.. I dont have it in front of me but something like 239. HDtune reports a lower figure but Crystal is more accurate I believe.

So you may want to choose several different HD benchmarks and that will give you a better idea of your performance.

StevenX

 

Ok.. thats on a m11xr2? mine is a R1.
Crystal all on default
seq: 190.4 read 93.62 write
512k: 141.9 read 90.05 write
4k qd 32: 46.57 read 8.7 write.

60gb Vertex (first 1) specs are 230 read and 90 write.
That any good?

Thx M8

 

You may want to check out whether you have TRIM enabled on your OS and SSD firmware. OCZ SSD's based off of the Indilinx controller (which the OCZ Vertex uses) need firmware v1.4 or higher to support TRIM.

There is a known behavior with SSD's where they get slower over time, because of the way that data is written and erased from the drive. Anandtech wrote this nice article about it. This link is to the one page in the article that talks about how to fix it, but the rest of the article talks about why this occurs in the first place if you are interested:
The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News


If you want to just do something quick-and-dirty for benchmarks, use this utility. It's the garbage collection utility from OCZ. It basically does the same thing as TRIM, except TRIM is an ongoing process. Garbage Collection is a one-time deal that you run whenever you need it (about once a week)
http://www.ocztechnology.com/files/ssd_tools/OCZ_GC_3.rar