How to OC the M17x-R2 using SetFSB

Lots of great work has been accomplished here. +1 to all the people involved.

Also, it might be good to make a guide on this specific OC of non extreme CPU.

 

What do you guys have for volt on your cf 5870? I got 0.9v wich i think is quite low. I think i had 1.05v on my r1 with a single 4870. Is this correct??

 

still working with abo to make it work fully. will have high res pictures tonight hopefully.

 

Wow who would have thought it would be something so minor lol! Good job and +1 rep. Well it looks like for now OC'ing is open for everyone so that's good news. I've scored 22,390 in 06 so I think that's the top score right now. Come on codebreaker, beat my score

 

I'm not the one pimping a 480M in this thread.

Edit: In response to your edit, you mean the 480M gets a ~700 point increase? WOW that's amazing John! http://img339.imageshack.us/f/d900fwith58703dmarkvant.jpg/ Dude I know you love nVidia (I like their drivers better than ATi's crap too) but seriously?

 

so was the pll i found the correct one ? im kinda lost as I have not been around in a while.

Good job guys ... all it ever takes is one guy pushing it

 

SetFSB needs to be renamed its not overclocking via FSB anymore

 

RegisterBCLK?

 

I am going to try and help Abo by building him a decent new website in return for helping us.

 

Sounds good Moo A whole website he says... You've got some serious time on your hand, and yes that website needs to be redecorated

 

I am by no means a professional web dev but I could put together something using CSS and XHTML that is better laid out

dowjones42.x10hosting.com

the site I built for my school project, wasn't great but its about all he needs

and it validates

 

and a submit button.
with part of the text already filled in...like the "hello, how are you doing" and "thanks for taking the time to further our over clocking experience"

so there is no confusion about manners...lol

 

lol i like the subway "most popular sandwiches" list. The website looks good, I'm sure it could help him.

Haha..he could have two buttons. One for "mannered Japanese" and the other for "unmannered gaijin".

 

rotflmao!

joker:
my short list of ati stuff.

 

Im also willing to help if you guys want. I can make websites in Joomla.

examples: Trans-Isca, K&D Atelier, Femkes dagboek and my website but its offline for the moment: The 3vil Genius

 

LOL
it was abrupt wasent it?

 

this just happen lozz???

 

which? the abo quote is fake, just translating what he wa trying to say for comedic value. or the figuring out thatch font size was the problem? I figured that out a few hours ago after abo told me to reduce my font size so we could get numbers for the pll diagnostic page.

 

the quote
ok, cause i was like...again.

 

i guess he figured out the g73jh as well

I will use a PHP mailing script to send emails so there is no hassle

 

yeah. we're thinking about modifying the G73JH PLL since that's the one we're using anyway. High res pictures are a go for tonight! Should have them in a few hours.

 

delete post

 

Not true in my case. The ones I outlined must be changed in order to alter 0F and 10. It might be different for non-extreme CPU's though. If you're willing to write up a comprehensive guide, I'll add it for the non-extreme section in the OP. Just PM me when you're done. Also, if you guys have spare time, the M17x Wiki could use updating, especially the benchmark section. I also have an i520 system sitting here so I'll use your findings for that one to see if they work across all non-extreme CPU's.

 

no, you were right, you have to change the lock values first, I got a little confused since once you unlock it, you have to restart the machine to 'lock' it again, even if you change the values back to the lock position.

 

Check out this post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...x-owners-lounge-part-4-a-425.html#post6402387

Apparently M15x won't work with the same PLL we're using. He ended up using a different PLL but 10h won't change for him. This is going to be more complicated than it initially seemed. M17x should be fine for now but unless one of us has an M15x handy, it'll be hard to help them out.

 

We just really got lucky with the Asus PLL, the only similarities the M15x has with the M17x is the chipset I would imagine. Someone is going to have to open it up, check out the clock generator, and buy the datasheet by the sound of it.

 

My M15x doesn't even work with the PLL he specified.

If there's anything you want done I'd be happy to help.

 

WOW the Core i520 is an overclocking beast (up to 20.6% OC)! I ran some Wprime 155 32M tests and here's what I got:

These numbers still pale in comparison to my 940xm numbers though.

 

Well here they are.
Taken with a Nikon D3000 and 18.5-55mm lense.

The first is to confirm that the ICS chip is the clock generator since the 14.318khz crystal is right there(the ics chip can't be analyzed in this picture, but I put it up here since in the next, the crystal is blurred haha)
http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/zz56/blmlozz/DSC_0158.jpg
the second are the numbers on the ICS chip.
http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/zz56/blmlozz/DSC_0164.jpg

you will have to save it and zoom in with picture viewer to get a more clear picture.

 

Yep zoomed in and can make them out. Good job on locating the PLL. Since the Asus one is working for us, perhaps Abo can just modify SetFSB for us slightly so it pre-populates the registers with the unlocked settings on startup. That way we could set it to start with Windows and use the slider to change the OC. I sent him a donation a few minutes ago.

 

I just saved/zoomed in and it looks like photobucket compressed the pictures. Give me a second and I should be able to fix this. You can clearly make out the letters on the ICS chip when zoomed in, instead of being pixelated like it is now. My last email from abo sounded like he was thinking we were done hehe. I told him back it would be nice if we can get the sliders working, however I'll mention prepopulating the unlocking registers and making us a copy of the asus PLL and just modify it for our needs.

edit: It looks like there's no way around the compression in photobucket. Anyone know where I could upload the uncompressed 2.5MB picture?

edit2: abo doesn't think this is the Clock generator, because (if I'm understanding this correctly) the pins are little(or he might mean because there are too few pins). Which i/e means, because it's a square BGA-ish IC instead of the more traditional rectangular foot IC. I don't think he's right in this, because I know Clock generators are made like this.

 

Try imageshack.us.

 

what happens if you try to change per say...the second register. does it make your system crash or does it boost as well?
(first row - register 2)

 

thanks, I used to use imageshack all the time.. been such a photobucket person I forgot all about it

the new, uncompressed images:
http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/2779/dsc0164cl.jpg
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/2121/dsc0158vb.jpg

 

BTW this is what The Moo posted about the PLL before: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6156684-post1793.html and this is the reply TheCodeBreaker got from Abo: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/476426-m17xr2-overclocking-guide-12.html#post6177410. So it looks like Moo's was either misread or is the wrong one too.

 

I didn't see that number anywhere, and I've spent a good 2-4hours combined combing the mainboard so far. It has to be close to the 14.318khz crystal, so there's no other place for it to be, and the ICS chip is the only one on the front and backside that's close to this crystal that remotely resembles a clock generator. Abo wants me to open it up again and check the underside. Going to call ICS tomorrow before I do that again. haha

 

Well at this point if Abo can alter setfsb with the correct PLL that'd be fine but at least OC'ing doesn't hinge on that outcome since we can already do it now. Now the last hurdle we need to get over is the Intel TDP limit.

 

which is why I'm going to call them first, and then I still might not do it. It obviously works just fine, and a mainboard removal for some slider bars? meh...

 

All we really need is one of the many NBR members here that can program to step up. They can write a program that directly interfaces with setfsb and changes the registers. For example, you turn on this program and at the prompt it asks, "enable overclocking for M17x?", you click on YES and it alters all the registers in setfsb. Then whoever programs it can have sliders for each of the different CPU's along w/their corresponding incremental bclk/register changes in the form of sliders. If I knew programming I'd whip up a program to do it but that will be left to someone else that has the desire to even bother. If not, it doesn't really matter, it's a simple 2 step process anyway.

 

that would be the easiest way for sure, I've told Abo if we can do something similar in my last email. Specificly if we can make our own PLL and just have it automatically change the register values for us.


edit:
Abo says

so send him your ID number so you can get registered!!! or Else he'll find you gaijin!

btw, its the number in the very first window that pops up in setfsb 2.3 , the one that has a blank field and you have to hit 'enter' to bypass.

 

thank god 1st Wprime run
not bad for a dual core imo

 

I think your link's broken, clever.

Edit: Nice run man. A bit faster than the i520 I've got.

 

lol yeah i cant type... i think i can get a little more out of it well see

 

Check out the large difference OC'ing the i520 makes in 3dmark06! The first pic is with the CPU at stock and GPU at stock settings. The second pic is with the CPU OC'd and GPU at stock. I'm going to install vantage and try that next.

Edit: Added vantage runs. Stock vs OC'd CPU. No GPU changes.

 

It looks like Abo already added the changes to his newest program update. It doesn't offer the same robustness as manually changing the registers yourself since you have to use the Asus PLL but at least you get to use the sliders! This is perfect for newbies that don't want to mess with registers. I'd encourage everyone that wants to OC and has an M17x to donate to Abo and get his latest version. It's the best way to get continued support from him for his hard work.

 

That's awesome news, can't wait to try this out on the new rig when it gets here tomorrow. You guys are all awesome doing all the leg work on this to help others out.

 

Best i can do before BSOD

i can get it over 4.2ghz but it crashes seconds after completing a sub 15 sec wprime not bad almost 4ghz stable

 

Clever, that's pretty awesome! You should do some Vantage and 06 runs, I've noticed both benefit from OC'ing the i520. One oddity I noticed was that the Vantage CPU score dropped by OC'ing the GPU's vs leaving them at stock. Not sure why that happens but overall the score is still quite good for an i520 system. These settings are 100% stable:

 

yeah im gonna run some 06 & vantage runs right now. thanks for the Kind words!

 

Latest Wprime run w/the i520 system: