i7 Overclocking Issue

Hi All,

I bought my m11x r2 in June, however for some reason i can only overclock my i7 to 154mhz, it just blue screens on every other setting above this. According to cpuz, i have the C2 revision of the chip.

Is this classed as a fault or do i just have to put up with a lower overclock on my cpu? I understand that every cpu is different, but i expected a lot higher than 154mhz. Im also running the A03 bios.

Thanks in advance,

Ryan

 

I'm able to go up to 166, and I don't even bother using it since I can't even tell if it's helping performance wise.

 

~154mhz is as far as mine goes, too, IIRC (been awhile since I had it OC'ed, but it was in lower 150s)

 

Have you downloaded and installed all the latest Dell drivers from their website? I have the same specs as you, OC160, no problems whatsoever. CPU-Z shows CPU Cores maxing around 2.7GHz.

 

^how do you get it up to 2.7 .. mine only goes up to 1407.3 MHZ... i disabled speed step .. oc at 154...

 

Turbo boost.


Anandtech noted in their m11x R2 review, that overclocking reduced overall performance, because Turbo Boost would step in less frequently.



In the mobile parts, Turbo Boost is rather insane, compared to their relatively tame desktop counterparts. Something like an 8x multi bump for single core loads, and a 5x multi bump for dual core loads.

 

I got the BSOD so much, even in the low 150's, that I gave up on overclocking altogether and went back to stock speed.

 

Don't disable speed step. Leave everything on, and just OC your system.

 

Im guessing that the C2 revisions of the i7 dont overclock that well then

 

167 and stable since day 1 had it over 2 months now

 

i also noticed that over clocking to 158 gives me slightly better 3dmark06 scores than i do when i OC to 166. I guess Anandtech were right on this one.

 

I always thought crazy the idea of overcloking a CPU with turbo boost, which is basically an automatic dynamic overclocking. When a person overclocks a CPU with turbo boost, he/she is basically adding a manual static overclocking to a CPU already subject to an automatic dynamic overclocking, which sounds very risky, after all manual static OC was supposed to be substituted by automatic dynamic OC, not to be a complement of it.

In other words, turbo boost is for CPU what optimus is for GPU, and since these are automatic dynamic processes out of our control, it is somehow crazy to kick in them further manually.

Call me old fashion (hey, I still prefer trackpoints instead of touchpads), but if I could choose, I would rather stick with a CPU without turbo boost (maybe just with speed step, which is basically a dynamic underclocking) plus manually switchable GPUs. They say dynamic and automatic is always more efficient, but I prefer to have more control making my decisions and implementing them manually. It is not surprise that OC + switching between GPUs in R1 seems more stable than in R2.

PS: yeah, my car still has manual transmission, too...

 

This makes me jealous. Why the hell cant i get anywhere near that with mine!?

 

Every chip will overclock differantly, even if they are cut from the same wafer. It could be a voltage issue, or possibly even cooling. Not all chips are equal, even identical ones.

 

I understand that but its a 12mhz difference on the overclock setting. i would expect maybe 6 at most on the i7 ULV's

 

When you overclock the CPU using the BIOS, what a lot of people don't know is it also overclocks the memory. I have a sneaking feeling that it's the memory is what makes the system BSOD at high frequencies. If you can use a third party overclocker and playing around with the CPU and memory settings, I'm sure you can overclock your CPU higher than the 166 limit while finding a stable memory setting. However, I do believe it will void your warranty???

 

If you don't mind me asking what is the stepping on your cpu and the 3dm06 cpu scores?

 

When you guys get BSOD's do you get the "This computer has rebooted from a bugcheck"?

I've noticed that I can do quite a bit of gaming at 166 mhz overclock, but if I try doing things like Netflix (or youtube) I can often produce a BSOD randomly.

I'm thinking my CPU might not be liking the 166 overclock, which is a shame because the additional FPS in gaming is awesome. I may have to try the next level down.