How to Use SetPLL to overclock your R2 over 166

DISCLAIMER: I accept no responsibility for your actions based on this guide. What you do is from your own free will, this mod is not forced upon you.

What is this?
This is a requested guide for further overclocking an R2 beyond 166mhz.

Who can do this?
Anybody with an R2 that is already stable at 166mhz with Throttlestop. i3/i5/i7 166 welcome. No pinmod needed.

What can I expect to get beyond 166mhz?
The current highest overclock is csufy's i7 at 182mhz. Most 166 R2s can clock between 166 and 180. Your Mileage May Vary. It may seem small but it could be the difference between losing to SB and tying to SB for an i7.

Is there a noticable effect on the battery?
Not that I know of since voltage is not changed.

Do I need a notebook cooler(s) with this?
No.



How to do this:

1. Download and extract the SetPLL archive. Note the destination folder.



2. SetPLL is a command line application so you must open command prompt before starting it. Just type cmd into Windows search and press enter.


3. Remember the SetPLL directory which you have noted? In my case, it is C:\setplldv2. Use the command, “cd” and the directory to navigate to it. So in my case, the code is “cd C:\setpllv2d”.


4. Now, type in “setpll m11xr2” to query the available clockspeeds.


5. Select a clockspeed and enter the command “setpll m11xr2 xxx” where “xxx” is the clockspeed.


6. Test for stability with IntelBurnTest or your favourite stability tester.

7. Now, to automate the overclock we need to make a shortcut to setpll, right click the shortcut and enter properties. There, inside the Target textbox, you need to enter “m11xr2 xxx” where xxx is the clockspeed.


8. Place the shortcut into the startup folder. You're done now.


Cool story bro, but I want more powerrr.
You can:
Modify the RAM SPD and overclock further
Do a voltmod and overclock further
Wait for an R3 and buy it. See how much extra performance it has first.
Buy an alternative powerful ultraportable with a full voltage CPU and overclock it (Sony SA/SB, Acer 3820TG)


Credit to AnonyMouse for creating SetPLL, moral hazard for maintaining it and nando4 for supporting it.

 

Some last tweaks:

Intel GMA BCLK trick
Try this guys. Go to Intel graphics properties, enter Power settings and select maximum battery life. Since graphics is onchip, it could add some vcore to the CPU when graphics is lower powered.


I think my RAM is unstable, how can I test this?
Use Prime95 and select the SmallFFT torture test. That test does not stress the RAM, meaning it should be stable for longer.

It is the RAM. What can I do?
Buy another kit and hope to get lucky.
Do a RAM SPD mod.

Stable List
1. DavyGT - i5 - 178 - SPD modded

 

Nice guide. I'll have to try this when I have time.

 

How to make the overclock 166mhz stable eh?

Mine even 160mhz will randomly hang or blue screen of death already
Last time tried 166mhz and can only stay for half hour then blue screen..

 

Thanks.

Try running one stick of RAM to see if RAM is limiting your overclock. Swap the stick and try again to see if it's more stable.

 

Very nice DavyGT. +1
I have similar problems with random lockups and bluescreen if I go over 150mhz. I will try what you said, and replace with the original Dell ram. Do you Know if Corsair Value ram is generally bad? Any specific ram type you recommend?

 

Thanks.
Did you notice a change in stability when you changed the RAM?
RAM is pretty much luck of the draw as different modules from the same range will all overclock differently.
Drawing from my own experience, from 3 sets of Dell Samsung RAM, they all overclocked from 1035-1070mhz which shows they are all overclocking differently, even from the same kit- one of my current Samsung sticks can't handle any more then 178 (1068mhz) stable while the other stick can go to 183 (1098mhz) regardless of timings. I guess Dell Samsung RAM can hit over 1000mhz is all I can say from my small sample of 3. Do you have a kit of Hynix by any chance?

 

I just tried with my original dell ram, Nanya sais the sticker on those (2x1gb). Did not notice any difference, bluescreen at 160mhz startup. Tried with one aswell. Same ar with my Corsair Value. Could be all the ram that is "bad", but I doubt it is the ram now. What do you say? Worth spending 130$ on a HyperX ram kit (4gb).. Money out the window if the ram is not the issue..

 

Before buying more memory, try doing an SPD mod. You'll need a 32bit OS (XP, Vista, 7) and an old trial of Thaiphoon Burner. By doing the SPD mod, the timings are forced to run higher and slower, meaning it could stabilize 160. The timings are normally run at CL6 meaning it is very fast. By changing it to CL7 or 8, RAM clocking can be improved. Some sticks just won't overclock regardless of timings though.

 

After changing the timings on 32bit os, can we then change back to 64bit with said timings in tact?
or can we run the thaiphoon burner in a 32bit VM on our 64bit win7?

Also do you have knowledge of how to pinmod the i5/i7 chips Dave? Thanks mate

 

Yes, the timings will be intact on boot.
Thaiphoonburner has to be run on a native 32bit install however as direct interfacing with hardware us required- a VM just adds another layer of software onto of chipsets and other devices.

There is no need for a pinmod for R2 as TME is unlocked already and FSLx doesn't look like it can offer that fine control shown here.

 

Stable at 170 with both sticks of stock memory.

Tried out seperate sticks and I could get 176 with one and 170 with the other. Looks like its time to pick up some new memory

Any suggestions? The corsair I bought before wasnt even stable at 166.

 

Thank you for all the info mate, rep to you sir!

 

I ordered another set of Corsair memory from Amazon so I could return it with ease incase it wont OC.

Im sitting stable at 180 BLCK after 20 runs of wprime with one of my stock memory sticks.

 

Okay so I am using Wprime to test stability. Kind of a beginner when it comes to testing this. So, would consistently faster times be considered stable or is there some other variable?

 

Google IntelBurnTest. Let it run for about 10 to 20 runs. If there's no problem, then it's stable.

 

Favorited and plus rep... I knew most of this from you telling me before but thanks again

 

I wouldn't use WPrime as it's a benchmark that isn't very intensive, meaning instability can slip through the test, doesn't test memory very well and isn't as set and forget as IntelBurnTest or Prime95.

I recommend IntelBurnTest maximum stress with 4GB setups as the test gets more stressful with more RAM. A 2GB setup running this isn't going to be stressed very hard with IBT as a result of low memory usage so I suggest Prime95 or more runs in IBT.
If Windows doesn't crash, it means it's stable. Higher benchmark results are because of the higher clockspeed.

 

Hi DavyGT. I wanted to ask you, when doing the stability test with the higher settings, do you run it with TS on or off?

Thanks for your instructions so simple I was unable to understand the original instructions given by the OP of this program.

 

I have a question, My m11x r2 came with 1333mhzs samsung ram and i was wondering why it showed it running at 481mhzs which is 962mhzs instead of 1333mhzs but found that answer that the m11x ony does 800mhzs.

But shouldn't the 1333mhzs overclock good?

Best i can get is 166mhzss threw the bios but if i try 170mhzs with setpll i get a instant blue screen

Does that mean my cpu hit the brick wall? Or somehow is the ram holding me back even tho i would think it would be fine because it has up too 1333mhzs headroom.


Edit it does seem like it it the memory causing it tho because it keeps poping up a blue screen that says memory management .

 

So, Ive intel burn tested at 175 and 178 successfully and games run for 1-2hours flawlessly. Weirdly enough but if I enable GameBooster(not that I use it, just wanted to see if the fps increased even more) I almost instantly BSOD. Just a heads up if you run it normally.

 

I have m11xr2 i5 8gig ram i have bios oc'd at 166mhz, running throttle stop, and just did this setpll at 180mhz. I ran intelburntest for 10 runs at very high, and did not bsod. i'm going to keep oc'ing it slowly and see where my max is

 

Ok just re-ran with setpll at 191 and ran intel burn test at standard at 5 tests (for time sake) and was successful. Anything about 191 I got an error from intel burn test.

 

Thanks.

Keep TS on otherwise the test would be inaccurate as the R2 will throttle down to a lower clockspeed and not test the new, higher clockspeed.
Thanks.

The problem with any memory, whether it be DDR3 800, 1066, 1333, is that it is being run at CL6 timings on the R2 regardless of specification meaning low overclocking. You have to do a RAM SPD mod in Thaiphoon Burner to force higher timings so the RAM can operate at the specified speed (ie: CL7 for 1066mhz RAM). Since RAM clocks up because of higher timings, faster RAM won't do much as it is being run at CL6, same as slower RAM.

Gamebooster must be messing up. Gamebooster 1.4 works fine here. Try 20 runs of maximum stress IBT to be sure.

Good. Now to make sure it's stable try 20 runs of maximum stress IBT as you are very close to the edge of instability.

BTW, the labels for clocks above 185 may be inaccurate as I haven't tested them. Can you confirm if they're correct?

 

Thanks DavyGT. System froze at 180 was able to get 175 stable on IBT max 20 runs. I'm cool with it I guess since its the stock RAM that came with the system 8GB worth

 

Good. Now to make sure it's stable try 20 runs of maximum stress IBT as you are very close to the edge of instability.

BTW, the labels for clocks above 185 may be inaccurate as I haven't tested them. Can you confirm if they're correct?[/QUOTE]

Will be trying 20 runs on max stress after work. I used CPUZ to verify and they were accurate other than the occasional +/- 0.5-ish

 

I finally got around to doing an OC (i7/4GB) and tried 166 first and it works insofar as youtube videos.
I will try the Intelburn tonight.
Im keeping my fingers crossed.

 

I just did the Bios OC to 166 and ran Intel Burn on max 15 times. I feel lucky for this because I know a lot of people have problems with this.

You mentioned that setpll works for people that have OC'ed using ThrottleStop. I did a Bios OC. Will Setpll still work for me ?

I now have what may be a really newbie question: Since the i7 is 1.20Ghz, when everyone here talks of 166 do they mean making the CPU run at 1.66 Ghz ?

The Bios overclock refers to 1.66 Mhz, It confuses me how the cpu can be quantified in Ghz while the overclock is MHz.

 

Yes, of course. What I meant in the guide is that it will allow you to clock over the 166 limit in BIOS but TS is a necessity to notice the increased clockspeed as the CPUs can remove Turbo and stay at normal multipliers.

The CPU clockspeed is derived from a formula that consists of: BCLK * multiplier. The i7 comes with a native multiplier of 9x so to get the clockspeed, we multiply it with the stock BCLK. 9 * 133 = 1.2Ghz so that's the reasoning behind it.

Now to overclock the R2, we increase the BCLK from 133 up to 166 in BIOS. What this effectively does is that it increases the clockspeed to 9 * 166 = 1.5Ghz. By increasing the BCLK mhz, we are increasing the clockspeed in Ghz.

With the R2 Core i CPUs, Intel has implemented a clockspeed enhancement called Turboboost and this enables higher multipliers resulting in higher clockspeeds. The multiplier for dual core loads for that i7 is increased to 14x for example, so if we put that in with the overclock, 14 * 166 = 2.33Ghz and this is a large improvement in speed.

In summary, by overclocking BCLK in mhz, the formula, BCLK * multiplier, allows a gain counted in Ghz. This is further improved by Turboboost and Throttlestop.

 

Ah, I am using Gamebooster 2.0 could be that. I uninstalled it either. Didn't get many frames with it either way.

 

Just an update: I've done many tests and the most stable for me was setpll at 180, ran the intel burn test 20 runs and the highest setting with no errors or crashes.

I'm surprised not more people are hopping on the setpll for those of you looking to squeeze a little more power out of the m11x.

BTW I have i5 8gig ram and bios oc'd to 166 as well.

 

GQGiant, I think that you did it wrong by doing a bios OC. I have not done this yet however I beleive you are supposed to use ThrottleStop to get up to 166 and then use SetpLL to go higher.

Here is a quote from DaveGT: "What I meant in the guide is that it will allow you to clock over the 166 limit in BIOS but TS is a necessity to notice the increased clockspeed as the CPUs can remove Turbo and stay at normal multipliers."

DaveGT please weigh in here but in a nutshell are you saying that using bios to OC to 166 and then using SetpLL to go further IS NOT as benefitial as using Throttlestop to get to 166 and then SetPLL to go further ? Basically I take this to mean you will stay at your OC and never Turboboost also.

GQGiant, you may have to Disable OC in bios and then use TS and then lastly use SetPLL.

I think thats right.

 

I have bios OC to 166, have throttle stop running, and then did the setpll to 180. I've been using CPUZ to verify (assuming it's reliable) and it's showing 180 with a +/- ~0.5

 

The +/- 0.5 is due to the PLL's spread spectrum mode varying the PLL frequency slightly to reduce EMI emissions. On some systems there isn't any noticable affect in disabling Spread Spectrum other than giving a fixed BCLK and a slightly better overclock.

ICS PLLs tend to set Spread spectrum using byte 4 bit 1:0 (0=off, 1=on), so change m11xR2.lut the bute in RED below from 0xFF to 0xFC to disable it and test to see if this improves/extends the overclock.

Code:

set local0=0x29A5FFFF[COLOR="Red"][B]FC[/B][/COLOR]FF0011

 

Throttlestop does not overclock the system. Rather, it fixes the low Turbo power limits that Intel placed in the CPU so the maximum multipliers can be kept.

In a nutshell, I'm saying Throttlestop should be used with SetPLL for the maximum speed increase as SetPLL increases the BCLK speed, while Throttlestop allows you to retain the increased speed.

As far as I know, everything GQGiant did was right.

If that works, then I'll add it to the tweaks section. It adds .1-.5mhz BCLK for me.

 

I know throttle stop doesn't oc. I just wanted to show people how I was running my set up with zero problems.

 

wow I love this program. I'm testing now the setpll 194 oc on my m11x r2 i5....no problems so far....

 

194 ?

I think thats the highest yet. I hope its stable.

Congrats.

Let us know if you go higher. Wow.

 

Can you boot Win7 to use only a single core ( msconfig->Advanced options) AND lock the CPU multiplier in Throttlestop? If can get a higher overclocks then the CPU is the OC wall. If not then the RAM/chipset is the OC wall so flash the RAM's SPDtable with a higher CAS entry <strike>using SPDTool</strike> and see if that gets you a higher overclock.

 

194x12=2.32Ghz. That's running at the same speed as an i7 166. Can we have CPUZ validation?

SPDTool doesn't work with DDR3.

 

So, what is the best way to stress test with Intel Burn Test? Max out both cores (4 threads), or boot up using just one core/thread and hit it with the max multiplier?

So far, I'm at 178 and rock solid. It's kinda insane.

 

If you have 4GB RAM, you should run 20 runs of maximum stress IntelBurnTest on all threads. If you have an i7, you may want to test single core stability as well with a single thread of P95 or IBT.

 

Most people already know this but you can use this program without Turbo Boost on to get more stable overclocks.
I am having great success with this combo... I no longer need throttlestop

 

I've tried that but failed the max stress test on the Intel burn test

 

Why would you do that? You will lose Turbo multipliers (14/17) and only have 9x. 9*180=1.62Ghz which is slower then a Throttlestoped i7 at stock (14*133=1.86Ghz).

 

which system do you have and what are your stable numbers?

 

i5, 8GB stock Samsung ram.

 

Just finished Intel Burn Test at Maximum / 4 threads / 20 times. "Success!" at 180mhz.

Going to try 183 later tonight before bed (8GB of RAM 20 times takes a while!).

Not sure if it means anything, but my CPU temperature during the burn test always maxes out the same, regardless of overclock. 167, 175, 180 = 81c max. Usually hovers around 76c during the test.

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit pushed me up to 85c last night!

(Thankfully, for most use, I'm seeing temps between 47-62)

 

I know more RAM = longer test, and is incredibly tedious, but it's necessary to test the memory as RAM is, in most cases, the weakest link in attaining a higher SetPLL overclock.

The temperature is not going to jump exponentially as the voltage is untouched.

Need for Speed loads higher temperatures because it's stressing both the GPU and CPU but it's not close to the unsafe region.

 

183 bombed out after the 2nd run. Didn't BSOD or lock up, thankfully. Burn Test just told me quite frankly that my system was unstable.

I've tested 180 now with my games, and all but one have no issues. Ironically, NFS Hot Pursuit gets a blue screen and reboots after about 15-20 minutes of play. I have a shortcut setup to toggle setpll for 180 and 175 depending on what I'm doing.

Love SetPLL!