Overclocking Acer laptops. Nobody seems to be doing it?

I have an 5920G laptop I want to upgrade some components on it in the future. I was thinking in the meantime, I want to try get as much as I can from the current processor, a T5550 (living tissue over metal endoskeleton)

I'm actually surprised information on how to do this is so scarce. Surely there is a way to overclock this model?

The current cpu temps dont really go past 60c, so I think I'm comfortable even if it raises another 20c or so. But I cant find a single method to alter the clockspeed.

So has anyone done it? Or knows how to go about doing it?

Overclocking the 8600 was a no-brainer, just requiring non mobile drivers, and I've been running it permanently overclocked to I since the day I got the laptop about 2 years ago with no issues.

Its about a 25-30% increase in performance across the board! To be honest I dont see why anyone should be without it. I couldn't stand using it at stock speeds.

A overclocked 8600 just barely made games playable at decent settings even 2 years ago, although thats getting a bit slack now also.

So it frustrates me slightly I could potentially be getting a free performance boost from my processor as well, but no way to achieve it.

Thanks.

 

EDIT:sorry for the double post guys, please reply to one only. I've asked a mod to delete one.

 

How did u OC the CPU?

 

I didn't. I overlocked the video card.

I'm asking how to overclock the CPU.

 

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=522385

 

Ok read over those 5 pages. Doesn't seem like anyone is actually getting desirable results out of it...

Plus I'm not sure how it will go on a 5920g. I dont think its worth the trouble If it requires that type of modding and risks, its probably easier just to replace the cpu with the fastest my 5920g can take? T9300 fastest? OR Can it take quad core

 

Pampum, the fastest CPU the 5920G can handle is the T9500 at 2.6 GHz. Theoretically, you could go for the Core 2 Extreme X9000 at 2.8 GHz, but then we start running into BIOS and thermal issues.
Trust me, it is easier to upgrade than trying to OC the CPU on a mobile platform (akin to pulling the teeth of a great white shark). I went from a T5550 to a T8300 myself.

And no, quad-core is out of the question.

 

tehsuigi
The x9000 looks awesome and has apprently an unlocked multiplyer, but i doubt the 5920g bios will allow any changes to this?

Do you think there would be a in windows way to change the multiplyer whilst running the x9000?
If not, it is really not wroth it as this cpu is about $800 US still!

I know a shop nearby thats sells the t9300 for $200 US, I think this is a good price so I might just get that and drop it in?

There all these overclockng windows programs I cant beleive none apply for the 5920g, so I wonder if with the x900 you could get away with changing multiplyer or fsb in widnows.....

Anyway whats up with the fsb of the cpu being at 800, but the ram 677 in the 5920g? Can I change the ram over to ddr2 800mhz if I swap out my current ones with 800 modules?

upgading the ram, whats the max this board can handle?
Can I go 2x 4GB of ddr2 800mz?
Even if the ram in this motherboard only allows 667 (which I dont know why it would) wouldn't having 800mhz be better since they are the same price and one day MAYBE you could do a fsb overclock so you have room to move.

Or maybe I just run 8GB ready boost and buy myself intel turbo memory and leave the ram alone..

 

Darn right the 5920G BIOS won't let you use the unlocked multiplier. Only certain OEMs let the X9000 loose.

I believe you need a certain BIOS version in order to use the Penryn CPUs - do a search here on the forums, I'm pretty sure the info's there. But yeah, the T9300 is a great CPU. No sense spending that much more money for an extra 100 MHz in the T9500.

I don't know why the RAM limit's at DDR2-667, but that's the way it is with ALL 965 chipsets - maybe because DDR2-800 support was immature at the time the 965 chipsets were released? Regardless, you could go to DDR2-800 modules if you feel like overclocking the FSB at some point. They'll automatically downclock to DDR2-667 when installed.

Max the 5920G can handle is 4GB as per Acer specs.
ReadyBoost is pointless - it only really makes a difference when you've got less than 2GB of RAM. 4GB of RAM should be more than enough.
I've been thinking about Turbo Memory myself, but I've heard it also is rather useless at boosting performance.

If you really want to unleash your 5920G and have it scream, get a solid state drive instead. It's a really big, really FAST flash drive that replaces your hard drive.

 

Hmm have you looked into windows programs that may allow overlocking of the x9000? but I think we can all agree that overlocking the non extreme CPUs in this laptop is next to impossible. Maybe if you can grab an x9000 somewhere at a bargain price it is worth it even at the stock 2.8ghz speed.

Certain BIOS? Wouldn'T just the latest be the best for this? I currently have 3805 in there and want to move up to 3813 but after what you said IM not so sure?

If they downclock to 667 maybe the timings will reduce as well resulting in lower latency? I dont think there is much talk of latency but it makes a difference. I wonder what the best ram for the 5920g would be? You could even buy over 1000mhz ddr2 ram, which may have super low timing on 667 speeds.

Has anyone actually tried putting in 2x 4gb?

hmm I have heard the opposite, both readyboost and turbo memory provide significant boost in usability. It won't make your benchmarks processing, or games faster, what it does is reduce the time it takes for applications to get around to performing tasks. A lot of the time on a computer is used to prepare data for processing. Tests show improvements in the way applications run, from the reviews I've read. And as applications need more and more resources this will just apply more and more.

I hate the idea of readyboost usb stick though, the only reason I mentioned it is I thought I could get it working with the card reader secure digital port built into my laptop. I lost the cover for it and hardly use it, plus have plenty of SD cards 16GB around, so I figured why not, i cant hurt performance can it? But trying it it wont let me enable readyboost, it just seems the SSD as a storage card, any ideas?

Btw I had no idea if I had turbo memory installed or not, So I downloaded this and installed this
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...03&OSFullName=Windows 7 RC1, 64-bit*&lang=eng

because that is the one that apparently comes with the 5920g, and when installed it I got intel matrix storage console saying everything is working fine, haha! what?. I guess I don't have turbo memory.

Yes I'm looking into that as well. I wonder whats the maximum sata speed this board will make use of.

I also want to do something to upgrade the 8600 but I'm not sure whether to make a new topic or not. This thread seems a bit offtopic, but you seem knowledgeable I know about the search function, but It seems most 5920g threads don't have a clear outcome, very little final results success stories.

The 5920g is such a great laptop I'm surprised there isn't a more clear fan base/support around it. Maybe there is a more orientated 5290g site?
I really want to get it working as slick as possible without having to shop around for an enitre new laptop which does not appeal to me as much.

 

Could be the latest one - 3813 rings a bell. I'm just not a 5920G user, so I don't know.

Since DDR2-800 sticks tend to run at CAS latency 6-6-6-18 at its top speed, it would run at 5-5-5-15 at DDR2-667, like the bulk of RAM modules out there.
If you want the absolute FASTEST RAM there is for your machine, get a set of Kingston HyperX DDR2-800 CL4. They should run at DDR2-667 at 3-3-3-9.

No, no one's tried because we believe Acer's specifications. Also, that's Intel's specified limit for the chipset.

Well, you're more than welcome to give it a try.

The 5920G can use up to SATA-II speeds.

And as for upgrading the 5920G's MXM-II graphics card, well... here's food for thought.

There are oodles of 5920G users here on NBR, but they are dispersed into a number of topics.

 

Why do you even want to OC your CPU? Most of the time the CPU is running at a fraction of the speed (<1GHz) since the power isn't needed. Besides, the reason why no one can overclock is because the PLL isn't supported by SetFSB. CPU upgrades are also generally a waste and won't yield any noticeable difference unless you are constantly stressing the CPU in programs such as MATLAB.

Memory speed is also mostly a marketing gimmick. You won't see any performance difference from say 533MHz and 1066MHz (hypothetical speeds), irregardless of CAS latency, since memory bandwidth is *never* the limiting factor. Similarly with the CPU, more than 4GB is generally not a worthwhile upgrade if it won't be used (games won't take advantage of it, only a few programs in certain situations like Adobe Photoshop will).

With 4GB of memory, ReadyBoost and TurboBoost generally will make a system slower since flash memory is much slower at reading/writing (with higher latency) than RAM. As stated before, if you want a noticeable upgrade, a SSD will give you a big boost in snappiness. Don't worry about SATA/150 or SATA/300 (despite the 965 chipset supporting SATA/300), since even SSDs cannot saturate SATA/150 with random R/W (sequential R/W have little effect in real world performance) and the real aspect that gives SSDs their "speed" is the 10-100x lower latency than hard drives.

 

CPU upgrade also help BIG TIME with video encoding, which is something I do constantly.
Good point with the RAM speed/latency thing; I sometimes forget that myself.

 

Thanks for that. So basically any cl4 800 ddr2 ram should work at 3-3-3-9 automatically when down clocked to 667? Sometimes the motherboard will control these factors manually. I'm just wondering how it is for the 5920g.
I guess no point getting 1066 ram? There is not much price difference so I'm looking at the absolutely best thing I can chuck in there as far as ram is concerned.

The mx2-gfx, so that's it then, that radeon is the fastest mx2? Where would I even buy one? Scour ebay? I really would have proffered something from nvidia.

I also noticed the 5930g threads. IS any of it applicable to 5920g users? Or are they too different?

 

I have to say the reasoning you take towards this issue is ridiculous.

Why Do I want to O/C my CPU?. For the same reason that people buy new computers, to get better performance.

The reason that the CPU runs at a fraction of the speed in certain instances is to save power and reduce heat. This happens ONLY when not much is being asked of the CPU, so since it has no demand why not run at lower speeds.

Clearly, when *power is needed* it DOESN'T run at a fraction of its speed, it runs at maximum capacity, so I dont know what point you were trying to make but it just contradicts the rest of your views, that faster CPUs aren't needed. If they weren't needed current CPUs would never need to run past anything but at fraction of their speed, which is just plain wrong.

Ridiculous. Almost every aspect of using a computer benefits from a faster CPU. You name it it is usually improved. Dekstop, browsing, opening/closing stuff clicking on stuff, using programs, music video, everything is snappier on faster processors. And games pretty much which ALWAYS benefit from faster CPUs, unless your graphics card is incredibly lousy and you are running too high resolution and settings
.
It is not always the most important component in improving certain aspects of performance (like browsing through your files, thumbnail generation etc the CPU is usually waiting for the storage device such as hdd) but for most things it is, and it always helps to have a faster CPU.


Furthermore HEAPS of tasks on your pc stress the CPU to capacity.

You are giving of the impression that if people switch over to a celeron now on their computers they wont notice a difference unless they are scanning for aliens or running MATLAB which is simply incredibly far from the truth.
The only way your comments would apply to me is if you somehow knew I was someone who just boots up their computer, dials in with their 56k modem and checks their pop3 email from relatives, which you dont, and I am not.

Heck my t5550 core 2 duo wont even play hi-def YOUTUBE without stuttering. And that is as plain jane computer use as you can get, and you are telling me I wont notice a difference, as EVEN my current CPU is sitting around doing practically nothing, cakewalking everything because itself is too fast for me let alone an upgrade. DOh!.

Memory speed is not a marketing gimmick.

It is the frequency the memory modules and bus run at. They are NOT hypothetical.
Also latency or timings of your RAM is less important than memory bandwidth (especially these days), but it still makes a worthwhile difference IMO if you can have lower.

You can say Memory bandiwdth is not a limiting factor because eventually they will store/receive the data required, but higher bandwidth memory will do this faster. IF you consider you and applications waiting a longer time to perform taks not a limiting factor then sure...


I agree 8GB is not massively worthwhile these days as 4gb is enough for most things, all the more reason why memory speed *IS* more important!

You ended up in a spot where you saying neither speed or amount of memory past 2-4Gb is important these days. Ram is one one of the most fundamental aspects of a computer and you make it sound like its as worthwhile as the color of your case fan.

If you think simply amount of memory is the only thing that matters when it comes to ram, go manage to get 2-4GB of pc100 sdram and try use that these days to see if you notice a difference.

I can see this being the case, Though I have never tried it and wouldn't know. But as long as windows normally uses RAM and only uses readyboost when it runs out of RAM, I dont see it being a problem, as even ready boost will be faster than having to thrash of the hard drive.

Again, why take Sata I and when you can take Sata 2?

I keep getting the feeling you are taking this laid back attitude towards common conceptions when it comes to PC speeds to seem cool and in the know how. Something like sticking it to the man, computer speeds, they are a government cover-up man!
Sorry but your speed attitude is way overdoing it, unless as I said you are speaking to someone so only checks text based pop 3 email on dial up....

And btw I've seen heaps of reviews of SSDs with 220MB/sec+ read speeds. This easily goes beyond 140MB/sec or so you can pull from Sata 1.


sigh I just dont know what else to say..

 

Sgogeta4's point is that most of these upgrades may help in certain situations, but the best upgrade on any system is to pinpoint its bottleneck and upgrade from there. More often than not, the bottleneck is the hard drive.

And if YouTube is giving your T5550 grief, it's time to upgrade to Flash 10.1 Beta and a new Nvidia driver - they allow YouTube decoding to be offloaded to your GPU like other H.264-encoded content.

In the end, the slowest component of any computer is the person using it. And that one's the toughest to upgrade.

Back to your previous post...
1. Yep, because the timings are stored on the RAM modules itself. Should autoconfigure provided you have a matching set.
2. Nope, because DDR2-1066 will also downclock to DDR2-667.
3. Get the terminology right - it's an MXM-II card. And yes, the ATi Radeon HD 4650 is the fastest for the 5920G. Other models in the Acer line use a GeForce 9600M GT, but the 5920G has been proven multiple times to not be compatible with it.
4. The 5930G uses more recent components - a faster Core 2 Duo, better chipset in the PM45, DDR3 memory, and an MXM-A card instead of MXM-II. Your machine has more in common with my 6920G than with the 5930G.

 

Agree the hard drive is the slowest component, however it doesn't mean a faster CPU and more ram and a faster gfx wont make a difference unless you upgrade the hard drive first.
Different applications will be helped in different ways. The hard drive is rarely to blame for poor yourube performance or slow encoding or low fps in games is it.

Yea I heard about that now. Just installed the beta 3. Dropped my CPU usage down to about 70% so no more stuttering
However my point is its a pretty poor statement to be saying faster CPUs are useless.

Yea which is exactly the reason why we can do nothing but focus on making computers faster .
The time spent waiting for little things to load up, or things to start download etc with people that dont have the cutting edge hardware is quite significant.



Btw yea I know its MXM-II. I jus like abbreviate

You got my meaning which is all that counts, its not like you thought I wonder if he means MMX support on pentium processors

EDIT:Also you said the ati 4650 is the fastest 5920g card. What about the 4670 GDDR3? Wouldn't that be the fastest? And when you find them how much do they usually sell for? And are the ddr2 and ddr versions that much slower?

Do you think a 9650M GT is much slower than these cards? Also how does a fx770 M stack up against these? On notebook check the fx770m benches significantly faster that the 9650M GT, which is weird because its meant to be a variant of the 9600GT and less games orientated. SO which is better 9650M GT or fx 770 for gaming?

 

Take what Notebookcheck says with a grain of salt - its average scores are across different 3DMark resolutions, CPUs, and graphics card memory types.

True, the Radeon HD 4670 GDDR3 is the fastest, but it's incredibly hard to come by; it also wasn't ever manufactured by Acer, so there are compatibility concerns to keep in mind. There is ONE user here on NBR who upgraded their Acer to a Radeon HD 4670 - there are at least FIVE who went to a Radeon HD 4650.

In terms of video memory, GDDR5 > GDDR3 > DDR3 > DDR2. Having the extra bandwidth does help, but the Radeon HD 4650 is a capable GPU even with DDR2 memory.

The GeForce 9650M GT is just an overclocked 9600M GT, and like it, its "better-or-not" is based on the memory it's given. If the 9600M GT has DDR2, the Radeon HD 4650 will pants it. If the 9600M GT has GDDR3, it's more of a fair fight. Same thing for the Quadro FX 770M, which can be a capable gamer if it's soft-modded to use regular GeForce drivers.
However, neither of these two GPUs were released by Acer on MXM-II format, so I can't guarantee their compatibility.

If you want more info on MXM, visit MXM-Upgrade and the Acer MXM thread.

 

Ok so to put it simply either a 4670 or a 4650 is a sure bet that it works since there have been users that got it working on a 5920g.
I think if one can do it anyone else should be able to. I dont see why the 4670 should be any harder than a 4650 to get working anyway. Thats 6 users so far.

is gddr3 THAT much faster than ddr2 on the same card in terms of real world perf?
I notice there are either 1GB DDR2 9650GTs or 512MB GDD3 9650GTs but no 1GB gddr3 9650GTs.
Would the extra 512mb in the ddr2 be better of the faster gddr3 speeds but only 512mb?

How would these 2 cards differ in say 3dmark06 or crysis?

Also I have found some 9600GTs/9650GTs for around the 150-200US mark but no 4650/4670s. If they ever do pop up, how much would I expect them to cost?

As for the fx 770m, you say its a capable gamer, but better or worse than a 9600/9650 GT when it comes to gaming and by how much?
They are around the same price Is why I ask. So if you can get the same perf out of them + some cool professional grade 2d/3d CAD etc support why not?

ahh opps unfortunately i just realised no one knows if a 9650GT will wok on a 5920g?

you say you cant guarantee comparability here but in the link you sent me it seems you are sure it does not work. [Note: The 9600M GT is NOT compatible with the 5920G]

so is there still a chance it works just no one has tried, or its definitely been proven not too? also no mention of fx 770 comparability.

Sorry Im asking so much its just this info is next to impossible to come by anywhere else.

Heres what it says for 9650 gt compatibility on sellers site.

Please check compatibility with your laptop manufacture before you purchase !!
ACER ASPIRE: 4930G / 5930G / 6920G / 6930G / 6935G / 7720G / 8730G / 8930G
TravelMate 7730G / Extensa 4630G / TravelMate 4730G
ASUS M50 / C90 series

No 5920 in site...but those other laptops are so similar..

 

Again, the factor is that Acer has released Radeon HD 4650 MXM-II cards, but not a Radeon HD 4670. Having the card come from Acer itself helps vastly with compatibility.

GDDR3 allows for much more bandwidth than DDR2. For example, the 9600M GT comes equipped with either DDR2 at 400 MHz or GDDR3 at 800. That's double the memory bandwidth, and helps to increase its gaming scores.

The reason you see that is because DDR2 is cheaper than GDDR3 to implement - hence, OEMs can equip more of it and hopefully trick users into thinking "more memory = better card." The truth is that "FASTER memory = better card." Give me 256MB of GDDR3 over 2GB of DDR2 any day of the week.

Not sure - although you shouldn't take them as gospel, Notebookcheck's benchmark results are still useful. Just click the Details or More Info tab to see what memory speed the card is, what resolution, etc.

MXM-Upgrade.com has the Radeon HD 4650 for 200 euros here.

Quite a few users have tried to install a GeForce 9600M GT in their 5920G to no avail. They simply do not work.
That's why the 5920G isn't listed on the eBay page, probably: those other laptops may be similar, but they are not IDENTICAL. The xx30G/xx35G models are sold with the 9600M GT because they're a later generation of laptop than the xx20G, and the 6920G and 7720G are there because they were successfully upgraded to the 9600M GT.

No one really bothers with the Quadro cards, for some reason.

 

If you disassemble the system and identify the PLL model used, could try to TME-unlock the PLL if it's setfsb supported, OR do a direct PLL pinmod for a higher FSB. Both situations covered in this thread.

 

Actually nando apparenlty someone already identified the ppl as SLG8SP514 on the 5920g. However, now what? what app do you use to overlock as no app supports that.
Maybe there is a supported ppl thats close enough to this to work?

 

Someone identified their 5920G as having a ICS9LPRS365BGLF, proceeded to tme-unlock it and used setfsb to overclock here.

 

Never wanting to pour petrol on the fire . .

Have done endless upgrades and find

Processor upgrades do generally speed application opening, photo and video editing/rendering etc but only if that is the hold up.

If the processor is waiting for disk reads /writes it is no use making it faster

Increasing memory speed last time i did it 4GB DDR2 800MHz to 4GB 1066MHZ was probably the worst value for money upgrade I ever did as there was virtually no difference even in benchmarks. Fortunately I was able to move the 800MHz RAM onto another system where the improvement over 2GB of 666MHZ was noticeable.

Plenty of evidence that there are diminishing returns for most users above 4GB of RAM anyway.

Stuttering video play etc will be improved if the Graphics card is not up to speed but again only highly demanding games need a top level card.

As you tell I quite like the feeling that everything in my configuration is 'top end' but the only bang-for-buck upgrade is the one that affects the thing that is the bottleneck slowing down something that you actually find to be too slow

 

And never forget BruBoo, that the slowest component of ANY computer system is the human being who's using it.

 

Nar . . I am damn fast for wet-ware

Unfortunately my maker refuses to make upgrades available and would prefer I contribute parts and money to create newer smaller systems that have fewer legacy issues. Having tried this I understand that their support is now down to me . . .

 

nando, funnily enough I was googling and found that pll as well.

It works, no errors or anything, but it wont accept the overclock when you go to setfsb. It just resets back down to 166. Thanks for the link, so does that mean the only way to overlock this board even with the right pll is to physically modify the motherboard?

Very frustrating.

How did this guy even know what to do? How is he modifying his volatge, you can see he is undervolting overvolting etc....