New generation time, so new notebook project. The machine of choice for this run will be the MSI GT72, it has a lot of positives, good cooling, sound, build quality etc. The largest negative of the unit is a soldered CPU so less fun to be had from that front:
The stock machine I am basing this off is the GT72 Pro-211. It's currently in production and should ship this week. The stock configurations is:
Core I7 4710HQ
2x8GB 1600mhz CL11 DDR3
1x 128GB M.2 SATA SSD
1x 1TB HDD
GTX980M 8GB GDDR5
So how is this a project build? Well I think it's one of the strongest bases for tweaking out there. The unlocked system bios has MANY options which I hope to exploit with some of the following changes:
4x4GB Samsung 30nm DDR3 sodimms. My aim is around 2400mhz clocks on these.
4x256GB M550 M.2 drives in raid 0 should keep things speedy
1x512GB OCZ vector SSD (Spare drive gives me some nice extra space)
In the future as 17.3" IPS displays hit the market I will likely swap one in due to the eDP connector already in there.
The CPU will overclock with multiplier adjustments up to 3.5ghz on all 4 cores to 3.7ghz on one core. I hope to get this up to 3.7-3.8ghz on all 4 cores with bios adjustments.
The next focus will be on the cooling. I'll measure each part and try to use the thinnest pads possible to help improve contact and lower temperatures. As a matter of course I shall be using IC diamond to repaste too.
As they are worked on an unlocked vbios should allow control over voltages and power levels to help really let the GM204 to stretch it's legs. I will also investigate the VRAM power delivery circuitry to see if a volt mod can help memory clocks (I believe it's Hynix T2C ram being used).
We'll see how well the 230W brick copes, it may need to be cable swapped with a higher capacity unit if I run into supply issues.
So hopefully from next week I can start adding updates
The stock machine I am basing this off is the GT72 Pro-211. It's currently in production and should ship this week. The stock configurations is:
Core I7 4710HQ
2x8GB 1600mhz CL11 DDR3
1x 128GB M.2 SATA SSD
1x 1TB HDD
GTX980M 8GB GDDR5
So how is this a project build? Well I think it's one of the strongest bases for tweaking out there. The unlocked system bios has MANY options which I hope to exploit with some of the following changes:
4x4GB Samsung 30nm DDR3 sodimms. My aim is around 2400mhz clocks on these.
4x256GB M550 M.2 drives in raid 0 should keep things speedy
1x512GB OCZ vector SSD (Spare drive gives me some nice extra space)
In the future as 17.3" IPS displays hit the market I will likely swap one in due to the eDP connector already in there.
The CPU will overclock with multiplier adjustments up to 3.5ghz on all 4 cores to 3.7ghz on one core. I hope to get this up to 3.7-3.8ghz on all 4 cores with bios adjustments.
The next focus will be on the cooling. I'll measure each part and try to use the thinnest pads possible to help improve contact and lower temperatures. As a matter of course I shall be using IC diamond to repaste too.
As they are worked on an unlocked vbios should allow control over voltages and power levels to help really let the GM204 to stretch it's legs. I will also investigate the VRAM power delivery circuitry to see if a volt mod can help memory clocks (I believe it's Hynix T2C ram being used).
We'll see how well the 230W brick copes, it may need to be cable swapped with a higher capacity unit if I run into supply issues.
So hopefully from next week I can start adding updates
