M17X Overclocking Thread

I wanted to create a thread for overclocking related to the M17X. I have seen a few thread that tried to start this topic but it went off into something else and at the end of the thread we really don't have much help on OC for this new laptop:

Here is what we would want to see:

1. Tool and software to use
2. Settings to try such as Frequencies, Voltages, etc...
3. CPU and GPU OC
4. Optimal CPU and CPU OC for daily gaming use. (If any!)

Thank you for all the people that will want to join this thread.

 

Actually there an amazing post by Moo that answers most of the questions I've asked in this thread.

You will find it in M17 OC thread.

Thanks Moo.

Now for those of you that want to share OC settings, voltages, etc... you've tried and what is the max stable daily gaming use settings then please post here.

 

Well, the only OC I have done so far is to my P8600 running @ 3GHz via bios oc.

 

Are you able to run the pc completely stable @ 3Ghz? Is this a frequency you are now using all the time or did you put it back to stock?


I am working on a refrigerated desk for my M17X. I'll post pics once it is done. Probably not before the end of July though. I put some system into place which should inject 5 degrees celcius air into the fan opening of my M17X. Hopefully this will greatly increase my OC capabilities.

 

I'm going to try and overclock my QX9300 when it arrives. Anyone care to shed some light on how fast I'll be able to run it stable? Preferably from experience rather than speculation.

Ugh, I have a lot of reading up to do.

 

Yes, I have running like that non-stop. I haven't stressed it with OCCT, but I have played hours of games and basic computing type stuff with zero problems.

Temps are fine as well.

 

i have my m17x @2.93ghz tested rock solid .. if i go to 3.06 it BSOD's ... only thing i used was the bios ..

 

I have gotten my q9000 to 2.4 stable.
I did this by just increasing the FSB in the bios to 1285, saving and exiting...

Anything higher, it either hangs or doesnt post

 

What are your temperature readings on your three GPU while idle?

I have the following:

GPU1 280GTX: 56
GPU2 280GTX: 57
GPU3 9400M: 74

Is the 9400M running too hot for idle? I wonder if something is wrong again.

 

I've seen people hit 3.2GHz stable in their M17s so you should be able to get around that or possibly higher.

Remember that each CPU is different and some overclock better than others even if they have the same name. A good example is comparing my Q9000 to the person's Q9000 below me.

I've managed to get mine up to 2.45GHz stable. I'm not pushing it any further for now due to temps but I may do it in the future.

 

ok, can someone try to raise the multiplier to 11(2.93), 11.5(3.06), 12(3.2).

run prime for 5 mins and see what happens.

then try them again but this time if you have ram at 1333, them raise the cpu/ram fsb ratio equal and see what happens.

then if that doesn't work then raise the fsb of the cpu from the begining and see what happens.


please let me know the results.

 

Nice! I could boot with it but OCCT would lockup 10 min into it.. So I just backed it back down some..

 

For overclocking the 280M's, here are some pointers...

At stock voltage, the 280M is already running at 95%. 600/1500/950 is basically the limit at stock voltage. If you get an overvolted vbios for 1.05v, the limit is raised (and consequently temps). My core isn't that great so I'm limited to 630/1575/1000 for stability in most games. A few games like Stalker CS or Crysis I'll drop memory to 975.

Your OC limit in vantage and 3dmark06 is a bit higher, I've gotten to 650-660/1650-80/1025-30. Another guy in the clevo forum got his core to 700 in 3dmark. You may or may not get lucky, but don't fret about it.

 

Mine went 5 minutes in before saying my CPU was too hot odd as last time I checked, 52C wasn't too hot for a CPU, especially not a laptop CPU. (Each of the cores were hitting 80-85C though, but that's not the temp that matters right? That's what my desktop gets at stock clocks) I ran it for several hours, playing Crysis Warhead for about an hour and a half and just idle for the rest of it, and I never once had any trouble so I'm presuming that it's stable.

As I said in the post above it's due to the fact that every CPU is different. I remember one member here sent his M17x back partly because he couldn't get 2.93GHz stable with the QX9300 whereas others were hitting 3.2GHz. I guess I got one of the more overclockable Q9000s We shall see when I try and push it further when I get a Zalman cooling mat for it.

 

I ran it at 11.5(3.06) and ran 3dmark Vantage but it crashed. I got a blue screen. Not sure if it is because of the OC or just Vista.

 

Try OCCT and you will know

 

did you try it with the ram/cpu ro raise it. or did you up the fsb. what else did you do.


we had this similar situation where hellcry couldn't run 3dmark06 at 3.2 but he had to reinstall it and he has fine.

 

I only changed the multiplier and that's it. Everything is stable with multiplier at 11.

The multiplier changes both the FSB speed and the clock speed. It does not change the voltage though which is needed to OC the graphic cards but that's another story.

 

ok thank you. so you can't pass 2.93. that is a isue with alienware limiting your voltage but just to make sure can you download rmalock and go to the voltage and post your result or to use cpu-z and do the same.


also can you try 3.06 and use the ram cpu. I know you said it raise it just buy upping the ram and I have heard this from people but I have cpu-z screenshots of that not happeming in my whitebook.

or what you can do is use it at 2.93 and up the fsb in the bios to squeeze out as much clocks speed as possible.

 

I'll try that, I will let you know. Actually at 3.06ghz it was very stable I played Farcry2 with it but when it came to run 3DMARK Vantage it crashed.

 

cause it stressed your cpu that's why.

when I mines at 3.33 ran but crahed at anything spu intensive.

 

Others have reported the 9400M that high. I actually keep mine off for better driver support.

 

yea i would turn off the 9400m.... when your on the go, however, and you need battery life, turn the 9400m on...

 

Do you disable it in the BIOS?

 

joe for 3dmark06 your cpu is fine how did you do in vantage with newer drivers you should be able to hit close to 16,000

 

I am having trouble installing those stupid new drivers. I've followed the steps given by some guy here but it does not work for me. I used the INF modified ones.

Maybe I'll just wait for the updated one that will come up in a few weeks...

 

yes. Turn hybrid & integrated off.

 

If you turn hybrid and the 9400M off you can use the drivers in my sig. No special instructions! They just don't support Hybrid setups.

 

not liking that battery is why i got this thing

but i did buy another M17x battery with 25% off


I will be devoting a huge amount of time trying to fix this

 

I'm not really thrilled with the use of the nvidia chipset and IGP.

I don't value battery life in a system like this so I wish they would have just used the tried and tested Intel chipset

 

There are third party drivers working w/Hybrid. They just aren't performing as well as the ones I'm using.

 

I'd be thrilled if it worked right...and if it doesn't screw up the performance of ATI cards.

 

Looking @ it now you may need to install both a Nvidia driver and a ATI driver on the same laptop.......Civil war will break out in the registry

 

If I had the choice I would most definately forgo the nforce chipset for Intel.

I believe most of my system's hiccups have been almost exclusively related to the nfoce drivers.....

 

I'll turn off the hybrid and the integrated in the BIOS and will keep you updated with the new driver.

I am planning on trying a little GPU OC today after the new drivers are installed and running those benchmark again.

Hopefully I can pass the 16K mark in 3DMark 2006. The problem is going to be the outside temperate. I am in LA and it's really hot today. Room temperature is around 25 degrees which does not help in OC.

 

You'll definitely have to install separate driver packages for the ATI cards and the chipset IGP but that's not a big deal. It may even make it easier since it's unlikely that the ATI package will try to install drivers for the IGP eliminating the need to go into the BIOS to disable the 9400M like you have to now when you want to use the dedicated nvidia cards.

 

Yea i do agree i was thinking about it .. and assumed that ,,,,

 

i'm running stable at 2.93 GHz now. multiplier at 11x (in the bios). 11.5x worked for a few minutes but i noticed in CPU-Z it suddenly dropped to 6x and then BSODed. ha! at least i lasted the first 24+ hrs without a BSOD

i've also 'unlinked' the ram-fsb in the bios.

gonna try upping the FSB later.

 

Booted at 3.6Ghz this morning. CPU voltage is showing 1.350V. CPU temp @ idle is 37c. Under load after 5 minutes CPU temp is 60c w/ no cooler.

11.5 (default) x 1240 in the bios.

Going to see if 3dMark06 is stable at these speeds.

 

nice that is the max volts that's recommended from intel. you maybe able to hit 4.0ghz at least on boot but it will not run stable and will crash at running a something.

 

3dmark crashed on me but the X3 demo is running. One of the better looking benchmark tools I've seen. Will post results in the benchmark thread.

 

I've booted at 3.8ghz with my M17X QX9300 but it crashed on all test.

The PC is running stable at 3.2Ghz right now and a light OC on the GPU. Will run some test later during the day and post bench results.

 

wow, that's awesome. what are ur settings...multiplier, fsb, memory?

i'm stable @ 2.93 Ghz. if i bump up the fsb from 1066 to 1099, it stays stable for a while but eventually BSODs. if this is common for everyone else, then u've got urself a nice CPU

specs that match urs...
Black
QX9300 @ 2.93Ghz
GTX280M SLI
4Gb RAM @ 1333Mhz

 

Actually it just crashed: .... Strange though because I played Farcry on it for like two hours without an issue.

I had the voltage increase thought to 1.35. I usually don't like playing with voltage because this is really the one thing that can kill all your PC.

Besides that I just had the multiplier set at 12.5. Well too bad. I think 2.93Ghz is going to be the absolute safe zone here.

More tweaking needs to be done on the GPU OC, that's where a few FPS will be gained in games and bench too.

 

Oh, there is one question that was not answered in a previous thread so I am going to ask it here.

Will it be possible to upgrade to the mobile extreme I7 or will the socket and platform need to be different when it comes out?

 

what bios are you using? voltages are locked in the stock bios "A00 for evaluation only" - was the one i got.
from cpu-z, bios:

 

was answered actually, by moo or sleey0. don't recall which thread but - won't be able to upgrade since they use a different socket.

 

think i just beat the asus in GPU Scores

 

It's not just a different socket but a whole different type of technology.

 

Maybe you guys can help me out here..how do I overclock my P8700? I have tried using SetFSB but I get a chipset error, I am not able to do anything in clockgen it seems..and my cpu is locked in the bios since I don't have the QX9xxx CPU. I have tried using Ntune but my Ram and CPU frequencies are linked so whenever I OC the CPU, I OC the ram too. Any way to disable that?

Also, what is FSB frequency in the BIOS? It is set to 1066 as well as the ram, but whenever I change it I can't see anything different..please help