Help me overclock my Asus A53Z-NB61

Here is the machine itself.

Newegg.ca - ASUS A53Z-NB61 Notebook AMD A-Series A6-3420M(1.5GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 5400rpm DL DVD+/-RW/CD-RW AMD Radeon HD 6520G

I'm following this thread as a reference since this is my first time trying to overclock and undervolt.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-dv6z-llano-overclock-optimization-guide.html

The machine itself is stock except for a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate. Haven't upgraded the RAM or HDD. This doesn't have a discrete GPU. It's what they call an APU. Anyway, I ran into a problem when trying K10STAT. The guide said to set FID to 1 and mess with DID to get the P0 state to 2200 ghz as an overclock. I couldn't get 2200 ghz like that so I set the DID to 2, I believe, and then set the FID higher. Then I applied the settings.

Then I opened PRIME95 and tried to run a torture test - I selected In-place large FFTS and left it at the default 4 test threads to run. The number in the box is 4, so I just let it that. I start the stress thread, and my HWMONITOR / HWiNFO64 are open and then the computer crashes a second later and I get a blue screen. So what was the problem? Did I do something wrong? I wasn't plugged into an outlet but I dunno if that's an issue. Just in case, I plugged in my power.

I'm annoyed because this machine is advertised as being capable of hitting 2.4ghz, but it never goes beyond the stock 1.5ghz, and trying 2.2ghz made it crash. This is probably going to be a longer thread because I'm gonna have a lot of questions as I go, so thanks for the patience. I figure it's best to play around with overclocking on a $350 machine rather than an expensive Sager. I'd appreciate if you guys could tell me about your own overclocking ventures. How long did your machine last after overclocking safely? Does it adversely affect the lifetime if it's done correctly? I'm hoping to get performance gains when gaming and in general. I'm definitely going to be upgrading the RAM to 4x2 1333 @ CAS 9, so 8 gigs compared to the stock. Should I just do that before trying to overclock? Thanks.

 

Wow. According to HWiNF064, all four cores are randomly jumping from 700 Mhz to nearly 2300 Mhz even half second to full second. Is this normal? Nothing is running besides my internet, and the four programs I'm using for overclocking and monitoring temps, etc.

Also, how does K10STAT decide which profile to run? Is it based on whichever profile is selected? And also, does it decide to run at P0 or P1 automatically based on the load?

 

Haha, wow, this was fun. I did 1 torture test thread at the stock profile. The cores were going from 1700 Mhz to around 2100 Mhz and the temps were reaching 58 C. When I stopped the test about 2 minutes into it, the temps went down pretty quickly. It's pretty awesome.

Edit one - So am I supposed to stop PRIME95 after 5 minutes? Or does the test end on its own after a while? And what exactly am I looking for? Temps under 85 C? Is that the sole thing to monitor?

Edit two - Gonna crank up P0 to 2000 Mhz and lock P-state at P0. I noticed that locking it at the P state that I'm trying to test ends up forcing the cores to operate up to that clock speed. So probably another five minutes of testing with PRIME95 and monitoring temps, right? And making sure that all four cores are reaching 2000 MHz or so? Several of them are going higher than that sometimes. Is it because B0 has 2400 MHz as the limit?

Edit three - PO @ 2000 MHz – Clock @ 1883 – 1996, occasional 1400 or 1500, temps at around 55 – 57 C, seems like it levels off at around 55-56 C after 4.5 minutes of stress test.

Stopped stress test, dropped voltage from 1.05 to 1.0375. Same clock speed. Temps seem to be leveling off at around 54-56 C, generally at 54 or 55 C. clock @ the same range as before. If not errors after 3.5 minutes, gonna drop the voltage again until I get an error. I think this is the way to proceed, right? Or should I see what maximum safe overclock I can get and then try lower voltages?

 

Stress testing 2,100 Mhz @ 1.0375 voltage. Temps are in the 56-57 C range after 3 minutes. Is it okay to surf the net and listen to music while this torture test is running? Or will it skew results?

I'm eating sunflower seeds and reading various things and listening to music. Also documenting my attempt at overclocking.

 

Got up to 2.467 ghz before I quit. Forgot the voltage. Results are very visible so far. I tried playing Binding of Isaac in fullscreen, maximum resolution, highest detail, etc, and it ran as smooth as butter. Yet prior to the overclock, when I was stuck at 1.5ghz, it stuttered and lagged.

Can't wait to overclock more since I'm getting 60-61 degrees C, which apparently means I can push it a bit more since people are saying that it's okay up to 85, or even 95. Got a few questions on my method for overclocking but I'll ask that later. Hopefully a few overclockers give me their feedback. :O I figure I must be doing something right if the game performs much better.

Once I throw in some fresh RAM (4x2 GB 1333 @ CAS 9), I should see better performance in games!

 

Looks good, keep going. Around 85 degrees C it might start feeling too hot & uncomfortable. We all have different tolerance levels.

Sent from my SPH-M580 using Tapatalk

 

But what's safe for the laptop? I don't want the parts to die after a month. If I hit stable temps, will I be safe? Is temperature the sole determinant of how long the parts last?

My voltage has typically been lower than the voltages on the stock profile that I saved. I got the blue screen twice about 7 minutes after firing up my laptop to download Mass Effect 1. I put up the voltage a bit on my overclock P0 so I think that might have fixed it.

 

Well the Max Operating Temperatures for these Llano APUs according to AMD is 100 degrees Celcius. So technically if it ran at 99*C all the time under a controlled environment, I'd guess it would still work. Anything beyond that point I'd imagine the computer would shut down automatically to prevent further damage from overheating. This being the most extreme case, would be the theoretical limit.

I don't know if temperature is sole determinant in how long an electronic part will last but I'd say its very important. With heat being the number one killer of electronic components, my suggestion would be you don't run it that level for obvious reasons. Heat shortens the lifespan of any electronics and can cause premature failure. So in essence, the cooler things operate, the better, safer & longer things can last. My suggestion is to find a level of stability and temperatures you can be comfortable with.

You will keep getting blue screens if the voltages are too low for the clocks you've selected. Lowering the clocks and raising the voltage will help rid of blue screens but temperatures will still increase due to the increased voltages. Its all about finding a balance between the two until you've hit a spot that maximizes clock speed and with heat output.

Personally, my E425 becomes very hot and uncomfortable to use when temperatures exceed 80*C. It's still usable but resting my palms/hands on the palm rest/keyboard isn't enjoyable. I guess If I really needed to overclock and maintain that level of performance/heat output I could use an external keyboard and mouse. But, when I'm casually gaming or just lightly using my computer, I don't even bother overclocking, just undervolting to operate at cooler temperatures.

 

..mostly random and subjective feeling about the n53 chassis is - 75 degrees on the core is the end of the comfort-zone. Beyond that, the heatsink is not really transferring more heat, so the heat bleeds into the other components too much. Bottom, keyboard well, and so on. And since the heatsink becomes very warm, you start risking burning up/reducing the effectiveness of the cooling pads, or drying out any goop left on an uneven heatsink assembly. Then the heat is transferred less effectively again, core might be warmer than it should be all of a sudden, even though the temps are the same and nothing else seems different, etc.

So I wouldn't recommend trying for above 70 degrees on a stock setup you haven't repasted yourself, or unless you're completely confident you can tell when things start to go bad.

..still, the margins for the Llano processors are ridiculous. You get memory errors and bus-speed problems long before the processor actually starts to have problems. It seems possible to run it close to the hardware set temp-limit with no real danger for any of the components. You apparently can't get anything fried (unless you count goop burnt stuck to the surface - it just shuts down at that point), and the volt you can set is within some reasonably low limits again.. so pretty sure you will either lock up because of bus-speed/ram problems, or else hit the temp limit.

But when thinking about.. "this is supposed to last a while without problems", then.. about 75 degrees on the core with n53 chassis.. imo. This doesn't have anything to do with the temperature the processor can handle, it's about the way the heatsink is set up on that model, and how the assembly works/mainboard is mounted, where the heatsinks are, the capacity of the heatsinks, etc. Temps get too high, and the heatsink stops transferring out more heat - suddenly 15 degrees higher on the core, and the temp just increases, heat goes into the motherboard - all kinds of bad things could happen.

 

So 75 C is a stable figure to consider when overclocking? Because I was hitting around 58-60 before I stopped overclocking. I imagine I can squeeze out a bit more speed before I get to 75-ish.

Thanks for the input, guys. I'm gonna make a brand new profile now that I know the basics. Gonna keep a profile at stock for reference, gonna make a low-voltage profile for battery needs, and gonna make an overclock profile with a mix of low voltages (compared to the stock profile) and high clock speed. The overclock profile will be my primary profile only when I need the power and I'm running on an outlet.

I'll keep you guys posted if anyone is interested.

Sidenote - I came across an old topic from another site. From 2007 or so. A bunch of guys were overclocking their laptops and getting excited and whatnot. Looking back made me feel strange inside since they were getting excited over what we now consider garbage specs. And the prices for those machines...were ridiculous! But I imagine people will say the same thing about threads here on NBR in 5 years or so. Gotta love how better technology gets cheaper over time!