New to Dell - Are they overclockable?

Hello all,

I just bought a Studio XPS 1340 with a P9500 processor and the GeForce 9500m GE graphics option. This is my first "OEM" machine since my first computer, a Packard Bell my mom bought the family in 1994, and so I am have been spoiled with the easy overclocking and tweaking to be had with the plethora of white box machines I have put together over the years.

My question - How difficult is it to overclock the CPU and GPU on Dell Laptops? Are there any special methods or programs specific to Dell motherboards that I should be looking into?

Thank you?

 

I don't know it's hard to overclock. But probably you have problems with heat.

 

Dell does not support overclocking by default on anything but the M1730 (and even those options are primitive).

Nonetheless, GPU overclocking through software should be straight forward; I'm guessing most commonly used overclocking software will support the 9500M by now.

CPU overclocking is a different story; I highly doubt the M1340 PLL is supported by any of the few overclock-your-CPU-through-the-PLL software. There are no other software solutions I know of to overclock a laptop CPU.

 

Your not going to be able to overclock the CPU, but the GPU should be pretty easy.

You cannot overclock the CPU because the core multiplier is locked, and your not going to be able to change the FSB speed since all the clocks in the system are derived from it, and changing it without locking the others will cause a crash.

 

I figured the GPU wouldn't be too difficult, but since the MB and BIOS are proprietary there are no ways to access the FSB...

 

Plus you really dont want to overclock a laptop much as it will really kill its lifespan.

 

If you keep it cool, you probably wont do much damage to it. I keep my M1730 OC'ed to 3.2 for gaming, and when I'm using my notebook cooler, the things fine.

It's a bit harder for the other models, since there's no Dell supported solution, but you should be able to.

 

Thank you all for your replies. I have been looking at the hardware forums and so far other than undervolting the CPU using software or overclocking the GPU using software there really aren't any hardware tweaks that can be had on newer Dell notebooks. Am I missing something? I am used to really digging into my desktop machines for every last bit of performance and I have the urge to do the same on my new (and first) SXPS 13.