Overclocking Question

Hi guys, I was just wondering if I overclocked my computer to 3.2 ghz from 2.53ghz will my CPU get damaged. My temperatures are well below 54 degrees when I do a stress test on the CPU and I played battlefield for countless hours without any problems. If I maintain a low temperature with that overclock setting will it damage my CPU? Is heat the only thing responsible for laptop components to die out faster when overclocking?

 

The answer is no. As long as temps are below 80*C. Actually to cause damage it needs to run continuously at 105*C. Temp is what is the killer. Overclocking is fine as long as your temps are low. 80*C is generally what people feel comfortable at. The M17x has a great cooling system so you shouldn't have problems. Your limit will likely be the stability. If you can keep it stable then your fine. You might even want to go higher if you can. If nothing else for benchmarking. The same goes with GPU's You can OC them using Nvidia System Tools and installing the Performance, part of it. That will allow you to play with the Core Clock, shaders and memory of the GPU. It would be interesting to see your 3DMark06 numbers at stock settings and then overclocked CPU/GPU.

But to reiterate the answer your question, no, it will not cause damage. Only extremely high temps and overvolting will cause damage.

 

Increased heat and voltage are both responsible for CPU deterioration. CPU temp is pretty cool at 54deg and since it's only a modest overclock i don't see it causing much stress to your CPU.

 

Thanks very much for the quick response. I read countless threads where they said overclocking damages the life span of your laptop dramatically, but they never specific said heat was the cause. So, I guess if you can maintain low temperatures your good to go!

 

Bendak, since you mentioned voltage as a component to damage the CPU. How would I know if my voltage levels are safe?

 

I think anything up to 1.4v is considered safe otherwise the processor could start to degrade. I could be mistaken as i've only ever freely OC'd my PC and tolerence levels for laptops could be completely different.

 

Is there any program to see the voltage levels of my laptop components. I got CPUID, but it only shows temperatures and the voltage of the battery.

 

Pretty sure CPU-Z displays core voltage.

 

CPUID CPU-Z will show your voltage and frequency for the CPU. Unless your actually changing the voltage, then your voltage is not going to increase. It's something the operator must change. Many people change it because increasing your voltage allows you to stay stable at higher clocks. One of the reasons for instability is when the multiplier increases in can hit a point where it becomes unstable. This is one of the reasons Intel speedstep is disabled when others overclock. Becuase it can drop multiplier, or increase and get to an unstable place and BSOD.

 

Shaazam,
What did you set your bios to? Everytime I even increase the number even a little, when it boots all I see is a blank screen. Meaning the computer boots and seems to be ok, but the screen is black.

Does anyone know why? My sig has my specs.

 

You might need to increase by a larger margin. Go to 1300FSB or so. Don't adjust by one, or two MHz. I would start by increasing it by 200 MHz.

 

Thanks. I will try it right now.

 

That worked. Thanks!
How do I check what the current clock is?

 

Nevermind. I am using CPU-Z
Core Speed 3087.3

 

She's still got some in her, go up to a 1280 FSB. Thats where I ran my QX9300. Might still be stable at that FSB. What temps are you getting?

 

I am at 1300 FSB
core speed 3087.4
Multiplier x 9.5
HWMonitor is showing 30C & 31C at idle. +/- 2C

 

Your plenty fine. I forgot that you can't play with the multiplier. On an extreme CPU such as the QX9300 you can change the multiplier. Try going up to 1320 or 1330. I would keep increasing by 10 or so until you get unstable. Then run something like intel burn test or OCCT to stress test the CPU. If you do that while running HWMonitor you should get an idea of how hot the CPU will get under 100% load.

 

Nice! Thanks for your help!!

 

No prob.

 

Test 1 w/Intel Burn Test
FSB@1300 core speed@3087
Time 4.47 minutes
Max Temps;
core0: 65C
core1: 66C
ACPI: 77C

 

Test 2 w/Intel Burn Test
**system was found unstable**
FSB@1330 core speed@3158
Time 1.73 minutes
Max Temps;
core0: 65C
core1: 66C
ACPI: 76C

Temps the same... any idea way BurnTest failed it?

 

Probably just overclocked to high. You can dial it down and fine tune. For stability you can come down a bit, if you were running benchmarks you would probably keep cranking it up so it's just stable enough to eventually get through a run on 3DMark06.

 

Test 3 w/Intel Burn Test (standard - 5 runs)
**Success**
FSB@1320 core speed@3136
Time 3.75 minutes
Max Temps;
core0: 66C
core1: 67C
ACPI: 77C

I think I may leave it here for a bit.

 

Yea, see if it crashes after a few hours. Don't think it will, but you never know when overclocking. Looks like your temps are fine so that should be a problem at all.

 

Thanks for your help. I am pretty excited I have finally been able to successfully overclock!
+Rep to you.

 

No prob at all. Enjoy. Next Lesson...GPU OCing...

 

Bring it on!

 

NVIDIA System Tools Allows you to change your GPU Core clocks, Shader,memory freqs. Just gotta play with it. OCing too high will lead to artifacts or display driver failure. Either crash, or freeze up. Pretty much just like CPU OCing.

 

I currently have EVGA Precision installed and it can adjust Core Clock, Shader, & Memory
My Single GTX260 is set (Default) as follows;
Core: 383
Shader: 767
Memory 301

 

Pardon me, but could any1 tell me the highest stable core, shader and memory clock of GTX 260M? (im using 2x 260 btw)

Thanks in advance

 

Thanks dr650 for the response. And to picardsm, my BIOS is set to 1333/1333 if you want to go higher I suggest increase the FSB in 10-15 incredents. I got that problem too when my computer boots and it goes into a black screen on the login page, but try to increase it to my setup then let me know.

 

You'd have to play around with it. Trial and error. I've never used the 260s.

 

what multiplier are you guys using? 9.5x

 

My processor can't access the multiplier, so I think you need to talk to someone who has a extreme processor.

 

All depends on the CPU chip. Each chip is differant, even if if they are the same CPU. Two QX9300s will overclock differantly. My QX9300 was able to hold a 10x multiplier, 1280 FSB stable. Though I only OCed for benchmarking. And I'd go above that for benchruns. I only needed it to be stable to get through 1 run. You can tell by the screen shots of my bench scores in my sig.

 

Hey, I was wondering if it was possible to overclock pass the frequency. Will that slow down my laptop in any way?

 

Shaazam,
Did you stress test at 1333/1333?
If so, what did you use to test it?

 

Past what freq? It won't slow it down to OC it. Might just become unstable. At that point you need to back down. Keeping things cooler can also help OC higher. Depends on what your OCing for. For benchmarking you want to keep it as cool as possible to OC as high as possible for a score. Not practical for real world use though. OCing is all trial and error.

 

I used wPrime and ran the 1024 test and it didnt get any errors. If there are other programs where I can stress test it, let me know

 

Intel Burn Test, or OCCT

 

I tried Intel BurnTest = errors
OCCT = error detected on core #0

 

how do you know whatOC is good, like I don't want it to OC for benchmark but just for game/normal useage

 

Whatever is stable for you. As long as the system is stable, then you are golden.

 

For the intelburntest what stress level did you use and how many times did you run the test?

For the results what does 3.160597e-002 stand for?

 

If anyone is interested, my M11x overclocked in bios to 1.73 with SU4100 processor is rock solid and occt shows both cores at 47c at idle and 58c after one hour of testing at 100 percent cpu load. I feel very comfortable leaving it overclocked with these temperatures...

 

Shaazam,
If you are asking me, stress level standard, 5 times. Default settings I believe.

 

even though it failed, I have left it at 1333. Played MOH last night no issues.
will prob play Far Cry 2 tonight.

 

If only we could OC higher...Somone is going to figure out a way.