Have you guys undervolted?

I'd like to apologize but I'm pretty much gonna be posting this 3 times since the dell forum has been split into a bunch of sections, some of which many dell users do not check aside from the sections of laptops they own.

Anwyays, I'm about to recieve my Studio XPS 13 and was considering undervolting it because of the heat that every1 knows of.

Have any dell owners undervolted? If so, how is the result? And how was the experience in doing it? Have you run into any issues and have you needed to take special precautions/steps?
And would you guys suggest doing it to a Studio XPS 13?

 

Yes I've undervolted all of my laptops, including the 1545, and previous Dell models I've owned. I would particularly recommend it on smaller machines, such as the SXPS 13. Unfortunately your experience with undervolting might not be the same as somebody else's - due to the very reason we can undervolt, i.e. that all chips are not equal. I myself managed to get my old precision down 11 degrees celsius, but this inspiron I've not been so lucky (not that it ran very hot anyway, being a P8600).

Look at it this way, what do you have to lose by undervolting? Nothing. It does no harm, but could do some good. If you have the time to stress test your laptop then I'd always recommend it.

 

I've undervolted all my machines for the past three or so years, starting with an old Athlon XP desktop. I've got the P8400 in my E6400 at the lowest VID for every multiplier but the highest; the fan never goes to full speed even after an hour at full load.

Undervolting isn't as effective as it used to be if you're always running your machine at idle (since Intel really doesn't let you drop idle voltages much these days), but you'll definitely see drops in temperatures at medium and high loads. Definitely recommend it if you can do it.

 

:O Awesome; how's the overall difficulty of the whole process?

 

It's not difficult, just time consuming because you really should stress test each setting for quite some time to ensure it's stable. Would be nothing worse than getting BSOD just as your friend is lining up his shot in Crysis....he'd simply never believe that you quit because of BSOD

 

Easy, but can be a bit tedious if you want to full stress every multiplier; there's a great guide here for RMClock: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

 

Your other thread was closed, so here's my response:

The original post you made was closed, but here's my reply:

Yep, you're correct. When it BSoD's, it doesn't save the setting, so it goes back to the previous 'stable' one. Then you add another .0150 volts onto that and you have a stable voltage.

I reverted 'cos Dell had me format my computer like 7 times in a week (not overexaggerating) for a videocard issue ¬.¬'

Also since I got my videocards fixed, my CPU has been running much much cooler, so I haven't needed to undervolt again (yet =-P)

 

Ohhh icic; well since my last exam is tomorrow, I got lotsa time to kill to go through stresstests for every voltage

Thanks for all the input guys! Looks like I'm gonna undervolt once my laptop comes tomorrow

 

See my signature for undervolting my two current Dell laptops.

On both laptops those undervolts have provided excellent reduction in operating temps and both run (hard tested) totally stable at those levels. If you are looking to cool things down and are not afraid of a bit of logical setup and testing, I'd highly recommend it.

I'd like to have gotten a tad better out of the P8600, but the reduction from base voltage still gave great temp reduction results. It also supports SLFM, which really cools things down when the sytem is idling. The M1330 is at as low of a voltage as it can be set to, so that turned out very well!

EDIT: Expanding a bit on Eambo's post: One thing to keep in mind is to NOT set RMCLOCK to come on at startup until you have done your full cycle of stess testing. If you do a extensive and complete stress test of your setup before you set the undervolting to begin at login, you should have little or no worries about bootup BSODs.

 

Yes, I agree with everyone here about the undervolting. In my M1530 I was able to lower the temps by about 10C (rarely ever peaks past 70 now). One benefit was that it lowered the overall temps in my other components, most specifically the GPU, as well. As for perks to watch out for, there aren't many. Stress tests do take awhile, but I quickened the process by running 2 CPU stress tests at once for 15 minute intervals. Also, whenever you restart your computer, make sure to choose a power plan (either high or power saver, NOT balanced) if you're using the "Performance on Demand" option in RMclock. Along the same lines, you have to always select "Performance on Demand" whenever you restart your computer to have the voltages take affect.

 

I have my Studio 1535 undervolted. The T9500 processor runs at 1.250v stock at the maximum 13x multiplier. I have it set at 1.000v and have not had any stability issues so far. It's a pretty simple process, and only takes time if you fully stress-test it every time.

 

I just disabled all multipliers except for the 6x and 15x (first and last) I was having BSODs with other multipliers and could not be bothered stability testing them all so I just disabled them and undervolted the 2 I left, It has been rock solid for the last 4 months now