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Same here.
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Alienware X51 thread of 2.56TFLOPS comfy couch gaming at 180W in a console size box
- Thread starter Chittagong
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SlaughterX
Banned
7.1 works fine for me (connected to my Yamaha receiver via HDMI, though it detects my TV instead for some reason), did you configure your audio device for 5.1?
Might be an issue with the HDMI cables you are using. I had a similar problem with my computer not displaying via HDMI.
ChanDangle
Member
I know the x51 can be upgraded but do you think they'll ever do a updated revision to this?
epicnemesis
Member
I tested it with a dvd and it works with dolby, but I dont have a system wide setting for it for some reason, I just got the thing today so I havent put it through its gaming paces yet but I'm worried about surround sound when I do start playing.
I am finding that couch computing is a pain in the ass. Are there any browsers that are at all useable at 6-10 feet? also is there some sort of windows theme i can download to make texts and menus and stuff bigger?
Chittagong
Gold Member
Yeah you might need to set 5.1 / 7.1 manually to make it stick system wide, the setting is buried in Windows Control Panel, Sevices, Sound Devices. Be suree to hit the test button to verify.
I'm using Chrome, I think it had some sort of a zoom option I chose but it was a while ago.
For Windows, your best sofa option is Wndows 8 start screen, it's seriously great. Combine it with Pin Steam from the Windows App Store and you'll get huge beautiful tiles for your games.
They did one refresh already, their update cycle seems to be about teice a year.
Horse Detective
Why the long case?
I was really into this thread until I realized I wanted more of a desktop experience (mouse/keyboard for games) than that of a console. I can't make up my mind.
You can use this on your desktop too. The bonus is that you can also use it as a traditional console as well.
Chittagong
Gold Member
X51 can be stood up vertically by your monitor and comes with KB/M for your desktop gaming pleasure. Personally I do both, play with KB/M (Battlefield 3, Legend of Grimrock, Diablo 3) and 360 controller (Skyrim, Metro 2033, NFS Most Wanted)
It looks like iBuypower is launching a X51 competitor called the Revolt. It's slightly bigger but is quite competitive regarding price/performance. If it's halfway decent I may consider it as a living room PC.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6608/ibuypower-releases-the-revolt-fully-custom-compact-gaming-pc
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6608/ibuypower-releases-the-revolt-fully-custom-compact-gaming-pc
ShinobiFist
Banned
That thing is ugly and big. Why are they hush about the ram? Lets see how the reviews stack up.
MrCompletely
Member
so my X51 has been shutting down on me after about an hour of gaming. I did install a Gtx 560 ti, which i know is known to run hot, but I've used EVGA's precision tool to crank the fan up to a constant 100% and it looks like temps are topping out in the low 70's at full load. I think it might have to do with the power the card is drawing. I'm not too knowledgeable or experienced with PSU's, but is the 560 ti drawing more power than the 330w PSU can handle? Would a kepler based GPU like the gtx 670 ease up on the power draw for the GPU?
Here's a comparison between the two:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/547?vs=598
It uses a little less under load (would ignore the numbers somewhat, because they use systems with a lot of overhead... as evidenced by the 111 watts at idle. A less extreme system should be idling at half that with Intel/Kepler.)
Hard to say if it'll actually fix your problems. I would think if it was due to exceeding PSU ability, it'd happen in the first 2 minutes of a game just as easily as the 1 hour mark.
That's it, I think I am buy one of these. I am in need of a new gaming PC and the X51 looks better by the minute. Most likely I am just going to upgrade to the i5 and the gtx 660. I can probably get ram much cheaper elsewhere. Is the difference between the i5 an i7 (that is offered for X51) really not that great, like mentioned by the OP? Could I upgrade the processor later down the road from the i5.
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
RAM is cheap. I'm wondering how they got a 680 in that thing.
Chittagong
Gold Member
You could measure the power draw with one of those meters I have in the OP, costs about a fiver on Amazon and comes handy at home to get an understanding of how much electricity you spend. I doubt that is the cause of your shutdowns though. The 330W PSU is plenty capable and I believe it has a lot of redundancy.
Heat would not seem to be the issue either, yours maxes out way cooler than mine (91C). How are your CPU temps? If they are in a similar range I think you can rule out heat as a culprit.
Third possibility is a loose connection or a faulty 6 pin cable, would be a bit weird that it would manifest itself only after an hour but it's one of the things that do occasionally cause erratic video card behaviour.
The final and maybe most likely option would be some sort of a driver conflict, maybe the old drivers are still haunting or one of your accessories is causing the crash at some point. I'd clean out all drivers and then do a clean video card driver install, unplug all USB accessories and disable all non-essential extensions and see if the problem persists. Also you could see if a BIOS update is available.
It's nice that we are now getting more gaming-ready prebuilt (small) PC options for people who desire such a thing. To me, the Revolt looks like a more suitable design for very high performance in terms of thermals.
MrCompletely
Member
Thanks for the suggestions! The CPU temps are in the 60's during gaming, so I'm pretty sure that's safe. I've also been alt-tabbing during play to monitor temp, but I've since enabled the log file in EVGA precision and will probably switch to Afterburner for monitoring and fan control. I had to really stretch those 6 pinners in an awkward angle to make it fit into the card, so I will check those connections and also take some compressed air to the cards fan.
I used to clean out my drivers, but I've gotten lazy about it - what's the best solution? Is CC cleaner still a thing?
If you want to get into PC gaming, an i5 is more than enough honestly. Regular users wont take advantage of everything the i7 has to offer. It's still a nice option if you want to make your PC last a while though.
MrCompletely
Member
It looks like i was wrong about my 560 ti running the high 70s under full load, its running closer to 99/100 degrees, which I know is too hot for this card. This is probably why it's shutting down. I thoroughly cleaned the dust out with some compressed air, maybe it will help. My readings pre-clean were wrong, so I guess it could have been running at 110.
I'm thinking the thermal paste might need to be re-applied to the heatsink, but I have no idea how to do that and I'm strongly considering a 670 gtx anyway in a few weeks, ive seen success stories with that card.
I'll continue to stress test it under full load until I get another shut down, then probably stick to games that don't max out the card, like Dishonored and XCOM
I'm thinking the thermal paste might need to be re-applied to the heatsink, but I have no idea how to do that and I'm strongly considering a 670 gtx anyway in a few weeks, ive seen success stories with that card.
I'll continue to stress test it under full load until I get another shut down, then probably stick to games that don't max out the card, like Dishonored and XCOM
Chittagong
Gold Member
yeah that's definitely the reason for the shut down then, cards shut down at 100 to avoid damage. You have a couple of things you could look at:
- Blocked fan on video card. This is the most likely reason for temperatures that high. It only takes one fan to be blocked to the temps to skyrocket. You'll want to see that the video card is not leaning onto anything, or that the 6 pin cable isn't touching the fans.
- Broken fan. It also might be that one of the fans is broken. Run the device lid open to visually confirm that all of the fans are indeed spinning.
- Termal paste. Like you mentioned, this is another possible reason for high temperatures. Personally I think it's a bit unlikely because video cards are built as tight integrated packages not meant to really be opened, so they tend to apply the original paste well.
- Card too hot for case. I don't think that this is the problem, because I have read of people installing a 660TI successfully to the X51. You might want to google for X51 + 660 ti and see which versions people are running.
Dude. Fermi runs crazy hot and gobbles power like an incandescent bulb. Fermi has no place in the X51. I'd only run that with the case open.
Fongul
Member
Depending on the sound output you want, you will need to go into the control panel into the Sound settings to change the audio to the source that you need. I have wound up setting a shortcut to the Control Panel Sound setting right on my desktop for easy manipulation for my X51. I go between using the excellent Psyclone PSP Charging Dock w/Speaker for listening to videos & music while browsing and using the Optical out to the Turtle Beach Earforce DSS for all my surround sound gaming needs. Easily toggled once you know where to change it...
If your X51 has Windows 7, I would recommend that you go into the Display settings and set your font at 150% to help with seeing your text just a little bit better when you are using it with a big screen Plasma or LCD. Otherwise, like stated, Windows 8 is a good on the couch solution as well. You can access your Display settings in Windows 7 by right clicking your mouse while on your Desktop or by going into the Control Panel to access it that way.
560Ti = ~170W TDP
670 = ~150W TDP
660Ti = ~135W TDP
In addition, the reference coolers on Fermi aren't quite as efficient as Kepler in moving that heat away.
Just ordered one of the Dell website looking forward to getting it, will the pc run just as good without hdmi and just through the normal computer monitor cables? Cos I wasn't gonna use it for couch gaming, just normal pc gaming with my non-hdmi monitor (if that made any sense?)
It'll be fine with DVI yeah.
Ahh brilliant that's the word I was looking for, thanks!
liquidfox00
Neo Member
Won't come till the end of the month but i'm really looking forward to it.
Processor
3rd generation Intel® Core™ i7-3770 processor (3.4GHz, 8MB Cache, with Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost 2.0)
Operating System
Windows 8, 64-bit, English
Monitor
No Monitor
Memory
8GB* Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
Hard Drive
1TB SATA 3Gb/s (7,200RPM) 32MB Cache
Video Card
1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660
Optical Drive
Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BD-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Warranty
1 Year Essential Support
Processor
3rd generation Intel® Core™ i7-3770 processor (3.4GHz, 8MB Cache, with Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost 2.0)
Operating System
Windows 8, 64-bit, English
Monitor
No Monitor
Memory
8GB* Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
Hard Drive
1TB SATA 3Gb/s (7,200RPM) 32MB Cache
Video Card
1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660
Optical Drive
Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BD-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Warranty
1 Year Essential Support
Chittagong
Gold Member
Haven't had a problem with anything so far. Even D3DOverrider works now (essential for Metro 2933)
Welcome to the coolest club of gaf liquidfox, seems you went all out!
Nope since it's after the DVI slot and afaik DVI is single direction. So your computer would not have a way telling that you have the adapter and degrading your performance. That said, amazing 1080P monitors are $100-200 now, replacing your VGA should be your top priorityyou will get so much more out of your X51
epicnemesis
Member
Problem solved. Plugged the x51 directly to the reciever via hdmi as opposed to plugging the hdmi to the tv and optical to the reciever. Had to move the 360 to that setup but I seem to still get 5.1 on it so I will take it.
SlaughterX
Banned
360 doesn't support HD audio anyway so that's how you should have it set up.
How much ?
liquidfox00
Neo Member
It ended up being $1199 cdn. Not the nicest price but I know I'm paying for the brand and the convenience so I'm good with it.
I want to get one but probably not a good idea right now. I should really save
Wait for Haswell, is what I'd tell anyone right now looking at an X51.
Up until this point, how far you can push a processor is directly related to the power delivery quality of the motherboard. Haswell is moving the VRM (voltage regulator module) directly on-die, which has a two fold benefit.
1) Multiple power states far beyond the fairly straightforward power saving features of Sandy/Ivy, meaning overall power consumption goes way down.
2) The ability to overclock the processor without needing a fancy motherboard to keep the voltage in line and stable for what it will need.
"Big deal", you say, "the X51s surely won't ship with unlocked K processors!"
This is where it gets doubly interesting. Right now, we can't overclock basic Sandy/Ivy processors because the BCLK (base clock) is directly tied to a number of functions that the processor has, from the PCI-E controller to the internal memory controller (IMC). In addition to that, the IMC on Sandy/Ivy hasn't been great, which really limits what one can do with overclocking memory.
In order to achieve these power saving features, they are going to have to split the BCLK from the other functions.
So, what this means is that it is possible that not only will you be able to OC the X51 chips, but you'll be able to OC the lower end chips in order to meet performance of the higher clocked ones. Right now, to get a decent core frequency, you're basically stuck with having to get the i7 model. That (hopefully) won't be necessary with the new ones.
The only possible caveat in this whole deal is if Dell puts all of that way locked down in the BIOS, which certainly could be the case.
However if it does come to pass that Dell locks down the BIOS, surely one of the upcoming competitors to the X51 (MSI, ASUS, tons of the other custom PC makers are all planning similar systems) will surely have a BIOS that is far more open to tinkering allowing for all that I've outlined above.
Up until this point, how far you can push a processor is directly related to the power delivery quality of the motherboard. Haswell is moving the VRM (voltage regulator module) directly on-die, which has a two fold benefit.
1) Multiple power states far beyond the fairly straightforward power saving features of Sandy/Ivy, meaning overall power consumption goes way down.
2) The ability to overclock the processor without needing a fancy motherboard to keep the voltage in line and stable for what it will need.
"Big deal", you say, "the X51s surely won't ship with unlocked K processors!"
This is where it gets doubly interesting. Right now, we can't overclock basic Sandy/Ivy processors because the BCLK (base clock) is directly tied to a number of functions that the processor has, from the PCI-E controller to the internal memory controller (IMC). In addition to that, the IMC on Sandy/Ivy hasn't been great, which really limits what one can do with overclocking memory.
In order to achieve these power saving features, they are going to have to split the BCLK from the other functions.
So, what this means is that it is possible that not only will you be able to OC the X51 chips, but you'll be able to OC the lower end chips in order to meet performance of the higher clocked ones. Right now, to get a decent core frequency, you're basically stuck with having to get the i7 model. That (hopefully) won't be necessary with the new ones.
The only possible caveat in this whole deal is if Dell puts all of that way locked down in the BIOS, which certainly could be the case.
However if it does come to pass that Dell locks down the BIOS, surely one of the upcoming competitors to the X51 (MSI, ASUS, tons of the other custom PC makers are all planning similar systems) will surely have a BIOS that is far more open to tinkering allowing for all that I've outlined above.
Chittagong
Gold Member
So here's a question for people understanding PCs.
Is it possible to set the PC / display not to go a sleep when music is playing?
The problem is that my X51 puts the screen to sleep after a while without input. This is problematic because it causes my receiver to lose the signal. So listening to Spotify or Xbox Music is not really possible without constantly poking the mouse.
Given the high power usage I'd still want the device to sleep when no audio is playing obviously.
Is it possible to set the PC / display not to go a sleep when music is playing?
The problem is that my X51 puts the screen to sleep after a while without input. This is problematic because it causes my receiver to lose the signal. So listening to Spotify or Xbox Music is not really possible without constantly poking the mouse.
Given the high power usage I'd still want the device to sleep when no audio is playing obviously.
Sentenza
Member
Sure, you have just to disable the energy-saving options from Windows control panel.
Are you on an SSD?
I ask, as hibernate is bad for SSDs. Also takes a huge portion of your drive.
I think what is going on with your specific system is that it's not going to sleep. It's just shutting off the display. When the display goes off, the receiver says "well I don't want your audio either then", and stops playing. So, just turn off the auto display shut off, and keep hibernate active.
ShinobiFist
Banned
Actually, if you go to Newegg, and try to built the same cpu, it would come close to that price. Of course you're getting a bigger PSU when you build one. When I was going to build my PC, I notice that I would only be saving 150$. I didn't take under consideration the price of the OS, case and fans and such. The way I see it, I payed for labor, as in someone build it for me. And quite frankly, I save a lot with the deal for my X51.
liquidfox00
Neo Member
Absolutely. I priced out the parts before I pulled the trigger on the x51 as well. I only used Newegg and I included the case, OS, and fans and was only saving $100. Like you said I chalk that up to labour.
I know if we would have priced out everything from different sources where ever the best price was available we could have probably saved closer to $250 but at the end of the day that just wasn't a worthwhile use of my time.
Very much looking forward to getting the system. I am currently gaming on an m11x R2 and it isn't holding up very well when it comes to games released in late 2011/2012. I need an upgrade. I really want to try Planetside 2 but my laptop won't run it at all which sucks.
epicnemesis
Member
Can you expand on this a bit? I am running an SSD in this but the whole SSD scene is so complex to me that something like this slips through my research.
How is it bad and how do I save that memory?
Running Windows 8 now, everything works! Had some hickups getting Farcry 3 up and running again but that stemmed from Steam Backups not being compatible between Windows 7 and 8 - re-download solved it. EA's Origin also doesn't work (crashes on login) if programs like MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision X are running; has something to do with overclocking settings on the GPU -- will look into this further but for now it doesn't bother me as default settings work just fine.
I also actually kinda like Win 8 overall (dun dun duuun).
Plus now I can finally push the physical power button on the PC to shut down legitimately again (as recommended by MS), like it used to work back in the DOS days.
I also actually kinda like Win 8 overall (dun dun duuun).
Plus now I can finally push the physical power button on the PC to shut down legitimately again (as recommended by MS), like it used to work back in the DOS days.
Go here and check out 'System Setup After Installation'.
Basically, hibernate writes everything from memory to disk. Windows saves a chunk of your disk equal to the amount of memory installed in the system. If you are talking about 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, that's a big chunk of it.
In addition, every time you sleep your system, you are writing a huge amount of data to the SSD, decreasing its life span each time.
Hiro_Kunimi_80
Member
I'm about to order an X51 and i'd like to make some additional upgrade out of the box (GTX 670 and SSD )
1) SDD: i've seen some video with an ssd "tape-fixed" in addition to the HDD.. it's possibile to add 2 SSD drive one "tape-fixed" and one that replace original HDD ?
2) i believe the GTX670 it's the best card that Fits (for size and power requirement ) inside an X51, at least right now.. correct ? my question is... since i've to order one anyway, i can buy the cheapest i can find, or there's any preferred manufacture (maybe with smaller design or better fan ) on the market for an X51 upgrade ?
1) SDD: i've seen some video with an ssd "tape-fixed" in addition to the HDD.. it's possibile to add 2 SSD drive one "tape-fixed" and one that replace original HDD ?
2) i believe the GTX670 it's the best card that Fits (for size and power requirement ) inside an X51, at least right now.. correct ? my question is... since i've to order one anyway, i can buy the cheapest i can find, or there's any preferred manufacture (maybe with smaller design or better fan ) on the market for an X51 upgrade ?
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