overclocking a dell 9400

hi guys,i am new here _
i am a noob in computer hardware or so, therefore hopefully i can get some help here

i am getting a dell 9400, hm...actualy it will arrive tomorow about 5pm
i am waiting for this days for weeks

i had read quite some review,that this notebook although with the geforce7800, but the 3dmark is still very low.
i dont wan that to hapen,i had add in alot more money to get this graphic card instead of the integrated one

what should i do when i 1st get my notebook?
update the driver?than overclock it?or?
i never overclocked my pc or notebook before,therefore i hope someone can help me on doin this
i dont want my laptop be dead in hours after i get it :S

besides,what is the disadvantage or overclocking?
and i would like to ask also, what will be the 3dmark of 05 and 06 for a notebook, which is consider good or very good?
will i be able to get a very good 3d mark after i overclock my notebook? (dont wan over overclock it, just optimal overclocking)

besides overclocking, anything posible that i can do to increase the performance of the notebook?


thanks in advance to everyone here
hope i can get some useful info and help me in my notebook
realy excited now

 

Check out this thread. It's for the Inspiron 9400, which is about 76 ish page strong now. The 9400 is the same as the E1705, but from Dell Small business. You have to trawl through it which I did, but lots of great info in there, lots of input from users that used non Dell drivers to get better performance and optimal clock settings etc. for their 7800.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=36118&page=56

 

I wouldn't overclock a brand new computer if you don't know what your doing... lol. Overclocking voids your warranty so watch out. One thing you can start doing is removing all of the "Crap-ware" you get with your dell. Free trials, and other trash. That will speed up your computer, and free up your CPU for other tasks.

 

i had go through the page,but its realy too many @.@

besides,i had read many ppl say that to reformat the notebook to remove the bloatware(sp?), should i do it?
but what i am sked is, i also read that dell wont give any CD with the windows and drive?
if so, hw am i goin to formate my notebook?

and overclocking isit just use a program(such as driver other from driver of dell?) or i have to open the whole notebook?

 

besides, if i use the dell driver for the geforce7800, will it be good enough to play graphic demands game?

and if i use other driver,does it void my waranty?

is it easy to overclock? i realy never test it before, but from what i had read, the 7800 was underclock by dell way too much

 

I'm like you in the fact that I have never done any of this before. If this is new to you I strongly suggest you do not reformat. From what I understand it can / will disable the Dell Media Direct function, and it can be hard to get it back.

This is what SouthernGirl suggested I do.

You could just remove the software using add/remove in the control panel. The problem is that you will still leave registery keys and folders, and this will clog down your system. If you go with this method, I recommend getting a good registery cleaner, and using it, but I don't think it will get rid of the junk completely.

It sounds like a clean install helps your performance more, but this method is deffinetly much more safe.

Changing your drivers does not void your warranty... And actually you can overclock your GPU without voiding your warranty. You would just have to be careful not to overclock it so much that the GPU gets damaged (Also remove the overclocking software before sending it in for repairs).

The 7800go is still a very good GPU even when it's underclocked. I'm assuming the main reason it was set so low is to save battery life.

 

yeah, i had read ur post in the other thread freddick

i will most proably use ur settings
btw, i forget what driver you use, and i forget the page, can u tell me again?
the dell9400 topic is too big @.@

i had format the notebook i am using nw, a compaq presario x1090, but thats easy.
fredrick, did u reinstall everything or just uninstall those file?
i will see if it is easy to reformat anot,if its hard,than i may give up and just uninstall those file

 

You must be thinking of someone else lol. I don't even have my notebook yet. And I wont for another 1-5 months -_-

But anyways, I wouldnt reformat untill you read about some of the problems people are having.

Im not sure how a reformat works, but if you are able to select specific partions, make sure you dont get rid of the Dell media direct one. It sounds like its not very easy to get back.

 

if you have complete care warranty you could take the risk

 

lol, i am thinkin you are fredrikandersson,lol
i oni see the same name in front
hahahahah

i had read those problems ppl facing,and it is realy troublesome @.@

 

Overclocking (and I use that term lightly with this video card) is not a difficult thing to do at all. Using the drivers from tweaksrus.com instead of the dell supplied drivers (running at low speed) provides you with several extra tabs on your video card display properties including a Clock Frequency Settings tab which gives you two choices: Optimal Overclocking Frequencies (automatically detected with a push of a button) or manual overclocking to what ever you want to "try" which requires pushing a "test" button for your choice. Basically, I haven't noticed much difference in temperatures of the gpu with what ever setting I've selected but think the optimal settings are safest and most reliable. The optimal settings give you about a 40% increase over the dell drivers. Yes - 40%!!

I still would beg to argue that anything below the 400mhz speed Nvidia posts the spec of this card to be is Underclocking. ????

 

^ Yeah, what he said. Just follow instructions at tweaksrus.com on usage of driver cleaner to get rid of your old drivers and install the modified ones. If you're still antsy about OC'ing, just detect the optimal speeds and drag the sliders to a lower speed proportionately (I'm not completely sure if proportionality is very important -- but if it is to you, the core clock on the go7800 is 38%-40% of the memory clock)

But anyway, before modifying stuff, especially if you've never done it before, see if the notebook performs to your liking at stock settings. We must learn to be content... pfft...

 

I just had a look at this link:

http://www.overclockers.com/tips1204/

Is there any way that the Duo Core could be overclocked by the same method (Increasing the fsb by hardware). It seems as if it is relatively simple operation. Considering that Dell have a very good instruction site on the disassembly and assembly of their laptops the task would not be that complex and risky.
I know that its a bit of a stupid question since I allready have the fastest laptop processsor money can buy. But it would be cool to know it could be done. You never know, two years down the line that extra performance might be necessary.