XPS 8930, Intel Speedstep and BOD

Question

Hi,

I had a problem with this machine: it was very noisy (cooling fans while playing games like X-plane) and it liked to crash to blue screen when running X-plane. Some kind of stuttering were also noticable while it displayed 30-40 fps. Recently I have turned Intel Speedstep off in BIOS and the machine became quiet and stable. No more blue screens, runs smoothly but is a bit slower (had a frame rate up to 60fps, now is not more than 40fps, somtimes less than 20 fps).

I thought that disabling Intel Speedstep would not cause my computer run slower but I see I was wrong. It looks like Intel Speedstep can use some kind of turbo and this "turbo" is not available in non Speedstep mode. I suppose it's that "Turbo Boost Technology", Am I right? If there's a way to stress the processor in controlled way to see if this turbo crashes the system?

DELL XPS 8930, 32GB RAM, 2xSSD +1xHDD,
NVIDIA(R) GeForce RTX(TM) 2060 6GB GDDR6
9th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 9700 (8-Core, 12MB Cache, up to 4.7GHz with Intel(R) Turbo Boost Technology)

speedstep · Accepted Answer

evga 700BR will likely solve the power issue.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/evga-700w-atx12v-eps12v-80-plus-bronze-power-supply-dc-dc-technology-black/6346160.p?skuId=6346160

if you have optional optical drive you will need 15 oin to 6 pin sata power adapter for that.

https://www.amazon.com/CRJ-15-Pin-Slimline-Sleeved-Adapter/dp/B07FK5G2TF

DELL-Cares · Answer

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RoHe · Answer

Which PSU do you have in this XPS 8930, the stock 460W PSU or the optional upgraded 850W PSU?

There have been reports of odd behavior in XPS 8930 systems with the RTX 2060 video card with only the 460W PSU. The 460W PSU may not be able to handle the load of that video card...

And there are numerous threads about fan noise and mods to improve cooling in this PC model too.

Jaro001 · Answer

Hi, Ron. Thanks for the advice. Yes, I got the stock 460W PSU. The lack of power was the one of reasons I supposed. But how can I prove it?

RoHe · Answer

@Jaro001

IMO, you have two choices:

Upgrade to 850W PSU and maybe install better cooling (Lots of threads about these XPS 8930 upgrades)
Downgrade the GPU

Only you can decide, and -of course- I can't guarantee that either of those will fix the issues...

Jaro001 · Answer

Downgrading GPU is not an option, of course. Happily few years ago fine PSU (Chieftec CTG-750C (https://www.chieftec.eu/en/psus/ps-2/a-80-series/ctg-750c.html) have been bought by us to survive a little server. When it became that the mainboard was defective the PSU entered the shelf. Up to today

It's working fine now and all I got to do is to buy this power adapter to get DVD working - the smallest problem.

Starting tests.

Thanks again. Regards.

speedstep · Answer

The adapter for optical drivePower  15 to 6 pin mini sata is an issue with non dell power supplies. Its a standard connection on laptops but not desktops.

XPS Desktops

XPS 8930, Intel Speedstep and BOD

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