21 replies to this topic

[Turk4n]

Hey, C.C !

Yesterday, I was over my friends house and she held a "gaming/movie/fun" party. Anyways, I was questioned how safe it is to overclock a laptop/notebook cpu. She wanted to overclock a Thinkpad T60 Intel GM945 chipset. I couldn't answer her question, because I was like what? Overclocking a laptop? It runs normally at 55 celsius !
What should I tell her next time and future questions regarding overclocking laptops :S?

[Turk4n]

Okay, well I haven't google'd anything since wanting to see if anyone here is or was familiar with it.

[TcM]

Does she plan to overclock it from the BIOS?

Well.. my laptop runs normally at 60+degrees... and it came stock with an over clock button... so I don't think that makes any difference.

[Turk4n]

TcM said:

Does she plan to overclock it from the BIOS?

Well.. my laptop runs normally at 60+degrees... and it came stock with an over clock button... so I don't think that makes any difference.

Okay...

[Chinmoy]

most manufacturers have any overclockng options disabled in bios and you need softwares. Nvidia provides softwares-ntune to overclock GPU. For CPU i dont trust any software as they render your system unstable. Better try flashing the bios. And a cooling pad is a must if you overclock the notebook. They need a lot of maintainance. Be careful. If you need detailed instructions, i am ready to help.

[Turk4n]

Chinmoy said:

most manufacturers have any overclockng options disabled in bios and you need softwares. Nvidia provides softwares-ntune to overclock GPU. For CPU i dont trust any software as they render your system unstable. Better try flashing the bios. And a cooling pad is a must if you overclock the notebook. They need a lot of maintainance. Be careful. If you need detailed instructions, i am ready to help.

Cool, but I think now that overclocking would be risky on her laptop :X. Her CPU temp is around 53 Celsius idle and 69 Celsius at full work...

[TkTech]

...
...
A. The intel GMA series are very well documented. It is both possible to overclock and underclock the base frequency.
B. nVidia provides Windows, Mac, and Linux tools to over/under-clock their GPU's as well as control voltage lanes and some model-specific features like the fan voltage.
C. You can easily overclock a laptop but heating is an issue. Mine runs a script that underclocks to 800Mhz if a full screen application isn't running and the temperature passes 80˚C. Overclocking your laptop can easily reach 100˚C plus (which is still functional, FYI)
D. Mine idles at around 65˚C. 69˚C is nothing.

[Turk4n]

TkTech said:

...
...
A. The intel GMA series are very well documented. It is both possible to overclock and underclock the base frequency.
B. nVidia provides Windows, Mac, and Linux tools to over/under-clock their GPU's as well as control voltage lanes and some model-specific features like the fan voltage.
C. You can easily overclock a laptop but heating is an issue. Mine runs a script that underclocks to 800Mhz if a full screen application isn't running and the temperature passes 80˚C. Overclocking your laptop can easily reach 100˚C plus (which is still functional, FYI)
D. Mine idles at around 65˚C. 69˚C is nothing.

OUCH, 100˚C in core temp :(, I wouldn't want a portable oven :crying:

[Chinmoy]

really 100 degrees! it is too much and will definitely cause degradation of processor life. Even after heavy overclocking you should never let the temp. go over 72 degrees. Dont you think you are spoiling your motherboard TkTech! Also, there appears there is some problem. I have an acer aspire 4520, and my idle temperature is around 50 degrees and full GPU and CPU throttle tests sent it to 83 degrees. 100 degrees is not impossible but highly improbable.
And overclocking or underclocking is meant to be done to match the ram frequency.

I have a 1.8 GHz and 667 MHz DDR2. So divide 667 by 2, you get 333. Now find the nearest multiple of 333 close to 1800. That is 1665, and 1998. So I have two options for optimum performance. Underclocking to 1600 or overclocking to 2000 MHz. Both will give better performance overall.
Also, if you want to overclock more, increase the speed by 200MHz, and check for any unstable behaviour. Good luck, and once again, her temperatures are quite normal. Can you post a detailed specification sheet of her hardware?

[TkTech]

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And overclocking or underclocking is meant to be done to match the ram frequency.

Not even close. Read up on the definition for both and repost your statement.

Users do overclock components to keep old hardware functional with newer hardware.
However, I hate to break it to you, everytime you use a 'powersaving' option on your computer, you just underclocked (among other things, like reducing broadcast device power [IR,WiFi,Bluetooth,ect...].)

A Core Duo's maximum operating temperature is 92˚C (however I've maintained 100+). Once you reach past this point for awhile its more important to have a high quality bonder, or you'll start burning the sealant. Macbook Pro's consistently run above this mark, for example, as do first generation HP DV6500ENCA models when using APM instead of ACPI.

AMD's documentation website has a good set of published tests on temperatures & various sealant. They are far more informed on the subject then myself.

Also completely depends on WHAT your overclocking. Your GPU? Your FSB? Your CPU (Multiplier)? Does your chipset support step models? IE, the HP mentioned above supports 800Mhz, 1600Mhz, and 1900Mhz as well as various voltage steps.

Good day.

[Chinmoy]

Definitions are not really my kinda thing. I do not want to limit my knowledge or imaginations in words. If needed I have enough of knowledge about each to define them myself. Buddy i am happy you think that you broke that news to me but sorry to say i knew that from the day i own a laptop. Yes, power saving mode underclocks by itself, and it pretty much pulls down the processor, the display brightness and whatever you know of and have no clue of, also it increases your write caching as keeping data in the ram needs more power, so it writes as soon as it can. This time I hate to break it to you, APM causes heavy damage of the hard-disk!!:eek:
Anther thing, do you know how AMD became famous as a processor company inspite of intel being the big player. Because it shifted focus from clock speed to overall performance, which needs a better latency on the processor, better cache memory, better FSB...
Also, AMD has showcased high processing powers of around 5 GHz and have also sold of underclocked old processors in response to some intel's energy saving processor(1.2 GHz i geuss, correct me if i am wrong). So, do not go by AMD. They are a company. They will see what you will want to need, not what you really need.
And overclocking selective components is again not geeky enough!! You should overclock the whole of the machine to get a synchronised beter performance.

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And overclocking or underclocking is meant to be done to match the ram frequency.

Well, I would like to add it is done as per the user requisites, but of course keeping in mind the ram frequency. Unless you want a heath warming off uselessly inside your laptop as those extra bulk Hertz cycles..

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Users do overclock components to keep old hardware functional with newer hardware.

!!!!Old hardware functional with newer hardware!! @TkTech they do not really sync that well and you need hardware emulation to run old hardware with new hardware, NOT overclocking!!! Overclocking is done to keep old hardware functional with new software!

And im not too much into HP technologies, so sorry!!I have no clue of step models.

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however I've maintained 100+

Also, im curious as to how you keep temperatures above 100 degrees!!