New M11x Owner ! General Overclocking Questions, please help!

Well, to correct my topic title, I am a soon-to-be M11x owner as I just received a call from Dell today telling me my M11x will be on its way to my home tomorrow. The anticipation has been killing me for this past week, however there were a few concerns regarding overclocking the CPU as I've noticed a number of people having problems with it throughout the forums. Sorry for the people who've probably read like a ton of topics about overclocking, however i did some searches and they only really concerned with overclocking and the issues people are having, so I decided to start a new thread.

So off to my concerns. Since a lot of people are having issues, I'd just like to be prepared for my M11x and know a few things about overclocking. I've owned a Mac for 2 years and Ive never did any overclocking back when I had PC, so Im just kinda new to this hole thing, please forgive my lack of knowledge on this stuff. In terms of overclocking, I know that we can simply do it from the BIOS screen but my concerns are:

-Is it better to turn overclocking off when you dont game?
-Is it harmful to turn the overclocking on forever (assuming i dont have issues with it).
-If you turn the overclocking on once, do you have to go back and switch it on once you turn off the PC?

Anyways, my main concern is if I'd have to go and turn the OC off once im done gaming, since it'd be kinda a hassle. However, if there are harms to keeping the processor OC'ed forever, then I guess I could at least sometimes go ahead and turn it off when not using it. Other than that, I dont htink I have any other big concerns. I knew I had a ton of questions, but I guess ill post them up while I wait! Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your help!

 

Are you talking about OC of the CPU or GPU? I'm assuming CPU?

Basically just go into the BIOS and turn Overclock to on, and leave it on. It'll stay on the setting you switch it to in the BIOS. Only thing you'll sacrifice is battery life, and even then it isn't much. Problems people are having is it will either overclock fine or it won't (random lockups, reboots, BSOD). If it doesn't OC, request a replacement right away.

 

Nothing wrong with OCing the CPU forever. It will not cause the CPU to die any earlier than a non-OCed CPU. It also does not get any hotter than a non-OCed CPU since the killers of any CPU are high temps and high voltage. The bios undervolts the CPU while OCed (kinda stupid since it's probably what's causing some to have unstable OC or BSODs) so you are ok with both temps and voltage. Leave the OC on if it works for you. Mine has been on since the first day I got it, no problems here. The bios setting is also saved so you will not need to go back to enable it again.

Also please check out our M11x optimization thread for tips to reduce CPU usage when idle. Doing these tweaks will improve temps and battery life.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=463114

 

Thanks for the help guys! greatly appreciated =)
Cant wait to get my hands on this... T_T

 

Hmm, for some reason I didn't realize that CPU undervolts, when overclocked. My guess is whats happening is that when the multiplier changes, then it becomes unstable. I wonder if those who get BSOD would still have a problem if they turned off Intel Speed Step. It may be a work around, though it's not a soution. Just thinking our loud.

 

The ideal solution is that Alienware provides a BIOS update that allows us to regulate the FSB and VCore, within reasonable limits. This would likely reduce returns of machines due to BSODs, because people can find a stable overclock by themselves. And even clock higher than 1.73 GHz in some cases, which would be much welcomed on this machine, since the CPU is the bottleneck.

I hope more people can spread this message to Alienware. I don't really see a clear reason why they limit the overclocking options on the M11x, compared to their other models. The M11x runs very cool, so there is room for more overclocking options.

 

I think the problem here is that the m11x is the only computer they market to mainstream [as evident through bestbuy] and therefore the "average" consumer is using this and not just typical enthusiasts that buy the 15/17x...
People screwing around with that would cause more returns than anything.

 

I think the undervolt may be the same misreading like the actual clock speed. I don't know if we'll ever find out for sure what the clock speed and voltage is.

 

Well, that can be argued. The "average" consumer shouldn't even be required to enter the bios, I guess? Nor care or know about overclocking?

The thing is, you can't guarantee a stable overclock with a preset VCore for all shipping machines. It's just a hit or miss for the buyer. FSB and VCore regulation should be there for the users that actually buy the machine because it can be overclocked, in my opinion.

 

DR650SE, Again I think speedstep is automagically disabled when you overclock the CPU. We need alienware to confirm this. Thanks, StevenX

 

Hey guys, How do you overclock the M11x processor, does it tell you how to do it in the manual?

 

Yes it does.

Push f2 on bootup
Go to advanced option
select overclock
then save and exit

 

in the bios. you enable/disable it.

 

i have a question not related to the OP...

is there any benefit in Undervolting the ULV cpu? does it at all help? is it harmful since the processor is already using low voltages?

 

If the CPU can run stable, the lower voltage should incrementally increase longievity.