NEW XPS 730x Owner's thread

I am glad to see this thread back. I thought all forum support for the XPS 730 x is dead.

I have a question for you Ph3nom or anyone else that would like to chime in. I have received my new Dominators 1600 Mhz 6GB RAM and tried to OC my CPU and Memory but I could not reach 1600Mhz like Ph3nom has reach. I am attaching a screen shot of my setting changes. Can you guys chime in on what I need to do to get the full speed of my CPU and Memory? I have a H2C i920 that I have OC to 3.3Ghz stable thus far.  My BIOS is 1.5

Thanks

Joe

cbras9:

I cannot locate a driver to work for the media card reader Can anyone help me. I am using Windows7 ulitimate 64 bit

Send me your email addy and I will send you the driver.

PH3N0M:

Okay, I have a serious problem that I hope someone can shed some light on.  On Thursday night, I had one of my Raptor hard drives die on me, or so I thought.  For the longest time, I could hear one of my drives winding down as though it had lost power.  On Thursday night, I was browsing the web and Mozilla suddenly stops working.  Then, AVG reports that an error has occurred and it shuts down, along with several other programs.  Upon checking My Computer, the drive has disappeared.  The only thing I had to do was reinstall my program files because my OS and everything else is on other drive(s).  The drive is under warranty until May of 2012 so getting it replaced won't be an issue.  However...since removing the drive that disappeared, I can now hear ANOTHER drive doing the same thing.  I'm sure it's possible, but I find it unlikely that (2) Raptor drives would die so close together, if in fact they are.  I'm wondering if something is going wrong with my PSU, or...? 

Any insight would be very much appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

Hey PH3NOM,  I had the same thing happen to me.  This is what I found out that caused the issue.  For some reason Winodows Vista thought that one of my drives was the main HDD and did a updated and on reboot I couldn't boot at all.  I got no OS Detected.  So I booted into the bios menu and sure enough that HDD was not seen.  At first I thought my main HDD went dead and I was not a happy camper.  But what was the weirdest thing about this whole thing was that my main HDD was assign as a secondary HDD instead of the main HDD in the bios.  Very odd.  So basically my secondary was assigned as the main HDD and when the update tried to update on that HDD it killed it.  So I'm wondering if you had the same problem.  Oh ya this was on my WD1 TB BLK Cav's.  Let me know if you found the problem.  I also read that it has been happening on allot of the WD HDD.  When I called WD for RMA they did seem surprised.

darkinfero:

Got it stable at 4.01 :) just been picking at it now I'm kinda of happy.

Not that happy with the temps under load like 60-70 but it better then before when I was getting over 80c and I had to back it down

I think I have to reseat the processor. What help alittle bit was keeping the side of the case open to let more air in.

I read around that from the factory they put to much termal paste cause the heat sink is not to hot to touch like it should be with that temp range.

I'm going to put good old artic sliver.

Hopefully I can push it to maybe 4.2 on air lol

I'm a crazy overclocker. I really been thinking about getting a xeon to have more fun

But I must wait for the I9s six cores 12 threads 

Good luck on your overclocks

 

You have pretty much maxed out the OC on the Dell stock MOBO.  I wouldn't take the chance on air to go past what you have now.  Your going to burn out your CPU.  Even the most experienced overclockers will not go past 3.8 on air.  Be very careful.  Also good luck trying to overclock past 4.0.  It won't happen on a dell stock board.  Already tried and failed on boot.

Try this people (For the Media Card Reader):

Control Panel, Folder Options, View tab, uncheck the box that says Hide empty drives in the computer folder

Has anyone experienced an issue with their sound crackling?  I can't reproduce the problem at will, but when it does occur, a reboot resolves the crackling sound.

I'll be listening to internet radio or something and all of the sudden, the audio crackles or buzzes.  I've not been able to find a resolution on my own.

Are you using drivers from Creative, or are you using the drivers from Windows Update?  If the latter, I'd definitely recommend downloading the drivers from Creative and avoid the WU ones... when I tried installing the ones from MS, I had all sorts of problems, including crackling audio and random crashes.

toddmw:

Has anyone experienced an issue with their sound crackling?  I can't reproduce the problem at will, but when it does occur, a reboot resolves the crackling sound.

I'll be listening to internet radio or something and all of the sudden, the audio crackles or buzzes.  I've not been able to find a resolution on my own.

OK Guys,

Something has been bothering since I installed Windows 7.  Everything works great so I am very pleased with it.  However, in the performance information center my processor rating is not what I thought it should be.  Here are my scores from the Performance Information and Tools section of the control panel:

My I-7 965 is overclocked to 3.73 but that is not reflected in the above info.  OK I know I am probably being picky and perhaps someone has a good explanation but I thought my processor score would be higher.  Granted I an not far from the 7.9 rating but I am curious as to why it is not 7.9.  Is is the mobo?  Memory holding it back?  I plan on getting some better memory and upgrading the HD/Graphics card so I understand those scores.  I am curious if the 965 does not get a 7.9, what does?

Thanks for letting be vent on a minor issue :)

Mark

mpoffo:

OK Guys,

Something has been bothering since I installed Windows 7.  Everything works great so I am very pleased with it.  However, in the performance information center my processor rating is not what I thought it should be.  Here are my scores from the Performance Information and Tools section of the control panel:

 

Component	Details	Subscore	Base score
Processor	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 965 @ 3.20GHz	7.6	5.9   Determined by lowest subscore
Memory (RAM)	6.00 GB	7.6
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT	7.3
Gaming graphics	3323 MB Total available graphics memory	7.3
Primary hard disk	362GB Free (451GB Total)	5.9

My I-7 965 is overclocked to 3.73 but that is not reflected in the above info.  OK I know I am probably being picky and perhaps someone has a good explanation but I thought my processor score would be higher.  Granted I an not far from the 7.9 rating but I am curious as to why it is not 7.9.  Is is the mobo?  Memory holding it back?  I plan on getting some better memory and upgrading the HD/Graphics card so I understand those scores.  I am curious if the 965 does not get a 7.9, what does?

Thanks for letting be vent on a minor issue :)

Mark

Your score looks correct.  Your system has to run almost perfect and that's one thing that Dell systems are not.  Also Speed Step and C-State slows down the CPU.  Now if you had the retail MOBO were the speed of the CPU is consistent instead of up and down we would be getting perfect 7.9.  But since we have a Dell modified MSI board we will never see the Sweet Apple at the end of the road.  Just be luck we get 7.6.

xfaega:

Also Speed Step and C-State slows down the CPU.

SpeedStep and C-State Tech doesn't slow down the CPU. SpeedStep allows the processor to meet the instantaneous performance needs of the operation being performed, while minimizing power draw and heat dissipation.  When running a benchmark or performance evaluation, the CPU runs at the fastest speed allowed by the multiplier and base clock.  C-State Tech refers to the power saving feature of your CPU.

xfaega:

Now if you had the retail MOBO were the speed of the CPU is consistent instead of up and down we would be getting perfect 7.9.

If you disable SpeedStep and C-State Tech, your CPU will stay at 3.2GHz unless you've overclocked it or increased your multiplier.

MPOFFO, don't be concerned with the Windows Performance Scoring system.  It's a fluke.  Does your PC perform to your expectations in running applications and gaming?  If it does then you have nothing to be worried about.  You'll be spending a lot of money to achieve a score that means nothing in terms of true life performance.  The higher the score, the easier your system will be able to handle assigned tasks but with your rig being in the 7 range (other than the HDD), you're well above the rest of the population.

FYI, my scores are 7.5 for the CPU, 7.6 for the RAM, 7.9 for the graphics and gaming graphics, and 5.1 for the disk data transfer rate.

Thanks for the replies.  I am not concerned about the scores.  I just like to know why they are the way they are.  I am pleased at the moment with my system.  The upgrades I have planned are because I want to do them since I am a "geek" that way.  I like to try things and maximize performance.  It just occurred to be that I have an I-7 965 extreme edition processor and was not sure why I would not max this test out in CPU score.  I know the 975 is the new standard so maybe that would have scored better.  As a point of reference my rig did max out at 3.73 during this test per CPU-ID.

Mark

PH3N0M:

SpeedStep and C-State Tech doesn't slow down the CPU. SpeedStep allows the processor to meet the instantaneous performance needs of the operation being performed, while minimizing power draw and heat dissipation.  When running a benchmark or performance evaluation, the CPU runs at the fastest speed allowed by the multiplier and base clock.  C-State Tech refers to the power saving feature of your CPU.

Hey PH3NOM, not trying to step on anyones feet but the speed step and c state does affect the out come.  My buddy has the same i7 965 and a Asus Rampage Extreme II and overclocked to 3.73 and his score is 7.9.  He has speed step and c state disabled.  But when he does enable them his score goes down to 7.5.  That is why I made that reference.

Also Dell MOBO will not overclock the i7 965 or i7 975 unless you use the turbo mode.  I have tried countless of times to over clock past the stock speed by disabling the speed step and c state and at reboot no post. 

PH3NOM,  Post your set up in your bios.  Maybe I'm doing something wrong.  Thanks

Perhaps it is more complicated that this but are the Windows 7 performance tests simply not tweaked to deal with c-state or speed step?  Xfaega,  are your CPU scores similar to mine even though your running at 4.06?

I certainly realize in the big picture it really does not matter but now I am more curious than anything.

Mark

mpoffo:

Perhaps it is more complicated that this but are the Windows 7 performance tests simply not tweaked to deal with c-state or speed step?  Xfaega,  are your CPU scores similar to mine even though your running at 4.06?

I certainly realize in the big picture it really does not matter but now I am more curious than anything.

Mark

Mark, my score reflects your score also.  Even overclocked at 4.06.  As I have stated from what we have experienced with Speed Step and C State for some reason it plays a big roll in the score points with Win Vista and Win 7.  Buy like PH3NOM stated if your system is running like the way you like it then windows score points shouldn't matter.

I would like to bump this and see if you guys can help me reach 1600Mhz for my Dominator RAM.

 I only can reach 1333Mhz for my memory. Please see my above post for screen shots of my BIOS.

Thanks,

Joe