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    Overclocking Help!

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by mosaicman3, Jul 21, 2010.

  1. mosaicman3

    mosaicman3 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I was chatting with live support on Dell about overclocking the i7-820 processor. The person helping me said instead of buying the 920, I can buy the 820 and overclock it by 340 mhz.

    I have a few questions.

    I. I thought overclocking a laptop by more than 50 mhz was unsafe.

    II. Could I just get the 620 and overclock it enough to match the performance the 920?

    III. Or is it worth the $600 extra from the 820 to get a 920.

    IV. What do you recommend?
     
    mosaicman3, Jul 21, 2010
    #1
  2. ttnuagmada

    ttnuagmada Notebook Evangelist

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    overclocking a CPU is only unsafe if you are having cooling malfunction or push the limits of overvolting and a cooling malfunction would fry it anyway if it fried it at all.

    There's pretty much no way to damage it with basic overclocking.

    my CPU is running 600 mhz over stock. It's as stable as it is at stock speed.
     
    ttnuagmada, Jul 21, 2010
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  3. mosaicman3

    mosaicman3 Notebook Enthusiast

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    So what would you reccomend me to do? Get the 920 pre overclocked, or get the 820 for $600 less and overclock it? Or get the 620 and over clock it ($900 less).
     
    mosaicman3, Jul 21, 2010
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  4. ttnuagmada

    ttnuagmada Notebook Evangelist

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    the 620 is only a dual core CPU. The 820 has locked multipliers. I'm sure you could still overclock the 820, but the 920 is going to be more flexible.
     
    ttnuagmada, Jul 21, 2010
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  5. mosaicman3

    mosaicman3 Notebook Enthusiast

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    So based off of what you've said, I feel I should get the 820 and overclock it. So how much should I overclock it by? What's the safe max?
    And what if im feeling a little risky and i want to go past the safe zone, how much more should i max until crash?
     
    mosaicman3, Jul 21, 2010
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  6. ttnuagmada

    ttnuagmada Notebook Evangelist

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    As long as you are jacking the voltage up, OC it as much as you want. It will crash when its unstable, but nothing is being damaged.

    OC it until it can run Prime95 for a good while without any errors. You should be rock-solid at this point.
     
    ttnuagmada, Jul 21, 2010
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  7. mosaicman3

    mosaicman3 Notebook Enthusiast

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    This is gibberish to me, whats Prime95? how do i keep the voltage up? How do i get prime 95? Can I keep voltage up while running at battery?
     
    mosaicman3, Jul 21, 2010
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  8. stamatisx

    stamatisx T|I

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    All of you questions concerning OCing and CPU/GPU performance comparisons are answered here:

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/476426-m17xr2-overclocking-guide.html

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/495203-how-oc-m17x-r2s-920xm-940xm-using-setfsb.html

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/455435-official-m17x-benchmark-thread-part-3-a.html

    Read through the whole thread, not the first or the last post. If you address your questions to the appropriate thread you have better chances for a faster and accurate answer.
     
    stamatisx, Jul 21, 2010
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  9. mosaicman3

    mosaicman3 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Most guides are for the 920 processor, i wanna get a 720, any help?
     
    mosaicman3, Jul 21, 2010
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  10. stamatisx

    stamatisx T|I

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    Seriously now, you read all those threads I linked you already and you didn't find what you needed?
     
    stamatisx, Jul 21, 2010
    #10