[6820hq Skylake] Precision 7720 extreme mods

[JadeRover]

Hi guys,

 

I have some free time on my hands and I just wanted to share some of the mods I'm going to do to my precision 7720. I will write a complete guide once I am satisfied on the overall mods.

 

Currently I have a i7-6820HQ motherboard that I will soon replace with a i7-7920HQ motherboard. 

In the meantime, I have flashed a modified v1.15 bios (enables undervolting) using the dell bios container method here, using version v1.40 as a base :

GitHub - vuquangtrong/Dell-PFS-BIOS-Assembler: A script to combine BIOS entries into executable Dell Firmware Update Utilities

 

I also used this smokeless_UMAF beta tool on a USB found here : Smokeless_UMAF/UMAF_BETA.zip at main · DavidS95/Smokeless_UMAF · GitHub to enable some hidden options in the BIOS : we have access to :

- CPU overclocking (up to the limits of your cpu, my 6820hq went from 3.2 Ghz all core -> 3.6Ghz all core)

- RAM overclocking

- RAM SPD writing (= we can write custom XMP profiles to non XMP ram)

- Intel ME region flash allowed (= we can flash custom ME region with overclocking BCLK profile)

 

Here is my 6820hq running with a 102.7 ish MHz BCLK, going over this results in an instant crash due to intel limitation = need to investigate :

 

Resulting in a ~100Mhz boost compare to non OC BCLK. 3.600Ghz -> 3.690Ghz

 

More to come !

 

 

[Will]

Awesome topic! I’m definitely going to try these mods on my 7720 with the Xeon E3-1535M v6. I’m really interested in the RAM overclocking and RAM SPD writing, do you think it’s possible to push the memory beyond 2666MHz stably? Anyway, I’ll be patiently waiting for the full guide. Keep up the amazing work!

[JadeRover]

I got one stick of 4G 3200Mhz to run at 2933Mhz.

 

I tested it and it is stable, after changing max ram frequency variable to 2933Mhz thanks to SREP_UMAF USB, the laptop refuses to boot once, then it boots okay (happens for each max ram frequency edit I think).

 

Just to be safe, I added +35mv to system agent (integrated memory controller) in throttle stop.

 

From SREP, in pre boot environment, it is also possible to add some voltage to uncore (same as system agent, it will add voltage to the integrated memory controller = more stability).

 

I placed my stick in one of the easy access slots behind the access hatch, unfortunately, as of right now I only have one stick of >2666Mhz DDR4. I will try to make some XMP profiles for my 2666Mhz sticks so they can run at 2933Mhz or so.

[Will]

That's nice! Please, let us know if everything goes well and you're able to get a larger capacity (suppose 16GB) running stably at 2933.