Upgrading my ASUS N61JQ quad core processor

First off thanks for this site. I appreciate it as I have a few questions.

My name is Greg not Krator that is my game name that I use in a few.

I ran into a problem with my laptop and found this site through google.

I was wondering my current processor is an Intel quad core 1.7 Q720

If that is enough info I need to know if I can upgrade the processor to a faster one. I am having trouble with a game I am playing and am told that the current processor isn't fast enough for it.

Can someone help me and let me know if I can upgrade the processor and what I can upgrade it to?

Or and this is a tougher one. Can I over clock the current set up to get it over 2.0 htz? What would this do to the following?

1 heat output

2 Stability

3 Could it damage the MB?

I run a laptop cooler when ever I am doing anything that causes it to run hot. I have had trouble with it shutting down because of over heating. I am actually thinking of buying a better cooler. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. thanks guys great site.

 

Greg/Krator, welcome!

I'm not sure that your processor is over clockable - especially if it is already shutting down due to overheating.

You may want to look at ThrottleStop to see if it can solve some of your issues.

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...arket-upgrades/531329-throttlestop-guide.html


Just as important:
have you disassembled your notebook and cleaned out the vents/fins and fans from dust/debris? Have you considered repasting your CPU/GPU with a quality TIM?

Does the game in question have a 'minimum' spec's list that you can share? Also - how much RAM and what O/S (32bit or 64bit) do you have installed?


You may want to read the following link as it pertains a little to your questions:

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...market-upgrades/703291-upgrade-msi-gx740.html





Hope some of the above helps.

Good luck.

 

The i7-720qm can be overclocked through the BCLK, but doing so will increase the heat output as well so if the laptop is already at the point of heating too much, it may not be a good idea.

Tiller raised a very good point on cleaning and thermal paste.

Technically, your CPU is upgradeable to any 45W first cen gore i7, the best of those being the i7-84qm which sin't that much of a step up honestly. I'd be wary of the 55W TDP CPUs like the 920xm/940xm, I have my doubts on the N61's ability to cool those properly.

Also, what is the game that you've been told your CPU wasn't adequate to run?

 

the game requires 2.0 htz processor or gig minimum. It star wars the old republic. Minimum ram is 2 gig. I have 4. the minimum processor It says is a dual core 2gig processor. haven't taken it apart to clean it but I will look into that. Thanks for the tips on that BTW. I am running Win 7 Home 64 bit.

Here is what the game says about the processor required.

Computer
Your computer should have an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better, and an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0GHz or better.

RAM
Your computer's RAM should be as follows: for Windows XP: 1.5GB, and for Windows Vista and Windows 7: 2GB. For PCs using a built-in graphical chipset, 2GB RAM recommended.

The 84 QM what speed would that give me? Just wondering.

Also can the fan inside the laptop be upgraded? to suck more air into it? I can run the game fairly well as it sits but it gets really choppy if I try and do a mission that has 8 players in it. a 4 player mission isn't too bad. I have the game set at minimum video settings. THe graffics card is decent so I know that isn't the problem. I didn't think to look at the minimum processor speed when I bought it. I was more concerned about the graffics card it had.

I did read the one thread about the i5 system. I am wondering if its really worth putting any cash into this machine. Ram is one thing that is cheaper but I think i have more than enough. If a new processor is going ot be $500 then I would rather put it into a new desk top for running games.

 

Here are the specs the game says is minimum for video.

Video
Your computer's graphics card should be ATI X1800 or better, nVidia 7800 or better, or Intel 4100 Integrated Graphics or better.

I have a ATI radeon 5730. Not listed in the specs. I really have no clue how it rates with the minimum specs they ask for.

 

That ATI X1800 'scores' 130 PM points:

See:
PassMark - MOBILITY RADEON X1800 - Price performance comparison



That ATI 5730 you have 'scores' 670 PM points:

See:
PassMark - Mobility Radeon HD 5730 - Price performance comparison




It seems like the cpu is what is throttling not only your game - but also your video card too.


Check out ThrottleStop to see if you're being throttled during play (it has a logging function...) - and see if you can do any dust/debris cleanup that eliminates or reduces this throttling.


If you have access to cheap RAM - it will be worth to try 8GB RAM - this may be what is needed to push the gaming performance into the acceptable realm for your current needs.



(But I agree that a new/current platform/system will be a more worthwhile pursuit than dropping more $$$ into this old platform).





Good luck.

 

I can chip in since I had this machine once. You can overclock with a program called setFSB, it costs about $15 and can easily bump up your 720qm up to 820qm speeds. There are generally no adverse effects though your maximum overclock is partially dependent on your RAM as the FSB increase will also affect the RAM (but not any other buses), using 1333mhz RAM can help with increasing headroom as it will just default to 1066mhz. Be sure to use a software program to loosen the timings on your RAM from within Windows.
Is the performance worth it? yes if you use all the cores a lot considering the cost vs a new CPU. I believe the i7-840qm is 1866mhz base clock with turbo up to 3.2ghz on 1 core.

The big problem is with the Clarksfield generation of chips themselves. You will notice that the chips will constantly downclock due to hitting the TDP/TDC limit of 45W/37A respectively even at stock. My 720qm very rarely hit the maximum 2.8ghz (it constantly hovered around 2.66ghz) with 1 thread and I've never seen it do 1.73ghz on all cores (even though it technically can). The i7-840qm will only exacerbate the problem since while it has higher base speeds, it will almost never hit the advertised turbo speeds even with Throttlestop due to the 45W/37A TDP hardware limit (this is why the 820qm and 840qm are considered very poor perf vs cost). Overclocking will increase your base speeds but will reduce the likelihood of you reaching your turbo speeds.

If you are still keen on a hardware upgrade, I hesitantly recommend the i7-920xm. This chip has an unlocked multiplier AND unlocked TDP/TDC (something that has not been featured since this model). You will not need SetFSB with this processor or the 1333mhz RAM as you can overclock by multiplier. I had this chip and it was a real joy to use, you basically completely eliminate the TDP/TDC throttling by using Throttlestop to set the TDP/TDC at 120W/100A so the chip has essentially infinite thermal/power headroom. Once that is done, you can set the multipliers for 4 cores, 3 cores, 2 cores and 1 core. My settings were 17/18/24/26, the problem wasn't that the CPU was getting unstable or even heat, the issue was that the N61jq has VRMs only engineered to deliver up to 95W of power to the CPU. The i7-920xm can theoretically clock as high as 3.46ghz on all cores (on Alienware machines) easily but this machine cannot take the extra power strain, I needed a 120W adaptor just to get that final 5W worth of juice (the original 90W adaptor won't cut it at my settings, you'll have to take things down by 1 multiplier).
This will really increase performance in video encoding and other uses but I don't think its worth it unless you can get an ES for $300

Otherwise, you are far better off with an Arrandale chip, (i.e. i5-580m, i7-620m, i7-640m), any of those will outperform the i7-720qm in almost all scenarios (even video encodes that use all cores), run a lot cooler and also has high single thread performance (due to high clockspeed). These chips will also almost always run at their Turbo speeds due to less cores, and less power/heat output. As icing on the cake, all Arrandale chips have unlocked TDP/TDC settings for some reason so you can force your CPU to turboboost all the time with Throttlestop without worrying about heat throttling.

btw, my N61jq is now dead due to fried vRAM, basically, don't OC the vRAM at all, its not worth it

 

Ok thanks guys. It seams I will go along with what I have for now as neither scenario looks like its really worth it. I can't afford to buy and new machine but I can't afford to bugger this one up either. I don't know enough about these things to make it worth doing myself. I do have a very good friend that builds his own machines and even build servers and is a server network engineer. He will know more about this if I go ahead with it.

I really appreciate all the info guys. At the very least I wanted to know if it was feasible. You guys have answered that remarkably. I will look into cleaning it out and replacing the thermal paste in it. Always a good idea to do that stuff. Thank you so much for all the help.

If you are hesitant then why? LOL Just kidding. If I threw this ship in would I have to do much else? If I can't over clock the VRam then I don't think its worth the effort. Not really sure though. I might be interested in the chip but I am just not sure right now. Let me think about it and show my buddy this thread.

 

Sounds like you're pursing the best course you can at the moment.

Just to summarize in order of least cost, easiest/least damage possible and importance:

1) Download ThrottleStop and without playing with the settings or 'enabling' it - set it to log while playing a game to see if you are currently being throttled (the cpu or the chipset will be showing less than 100% modulation).

2) Download a trial version of PerfectDisk Professional 12.5 and run a couple of: online and offline (boot time) defrag runs to eliminate the lags/slowdowns as much as possible being from your HDD.

See:
Defrag & Fragmentation Prevention - PerfectDisk 12.5 Pro


And no, other defrag options are not equivalent - PD 12.5 is in a league of it's own for defragging and keeping your system actually defragged with little additional interaction from the user except for the above initial steps (my recommendations).


3) Buy a can of compressed air. Ensure you ALWAYS hold the can upright and you don't shake it. Clean out dust/debris from fan, vents and heatpipe fins and all other areas you can access.

4) Re-Run ThrottleStop with logging enabled again and see if the throttling has decreased or made an improvement (it should have at least a little).

5) Buy a quality TIM and repaste your CPU and GPU heatsinks - making sure to clean off the old paste completely first - waste a little of the new paste and put it together and install it fully - then immediately take it off and inspect if the amount and application 'style' you used covered the area 100% with no excess squeezed out at the edges while still covering the area completely - practice this step until you are sure the method you're using is working 100% (tighten the screws 1/4 turn at a time and in a diagonal pattern to ensure the paste is spread evenly with no air pockets).

The following link shows how different type of processors need different type of TIM application methods (worth a quick look no matter which TIM brand you end up buying):

See:
Arctic Silver, Inc. - Instructions


6) Buy the cheapest ($$), fastest (MHz), lowest latency (CL timings - lower is better), Lifetime warrantied Brand Name RAM you can in a 2x 4GB configuration to give your Win7x64 setup the RAM it needs to really fly.

This following link shows 'why' you want this type of RAM - even if your system doesn't support it 'officially':

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...m-full-speed-help-screenshots-appreciate.html


7) This step will be time consuming and will require an external HDD to move your DATA files to temporarily - what we are doing here is 'short-stroking' the O/S partition to give the most responsive user experience possible:

a) Copy all your data to an external drive (copying your data to 2 external HDD's highly recommended - for redundancy).
b) Right click on Computer, select Manage, select Disk Management and finally select the C:\ partition and right click on it and select Shrink Volume. You are aiming for a 100GB maximum size for C:\ drive so enter 102600 in the dialogue box and let it shrink your drive. If you can't shrink it to 100GB (or less) use PerfectDisk to 'shrink' your disk as much as possible (use the 'Prep for Shrink' option). With C:\ successfully 'shrunk' from anywhere from 80GB to 100GB - go back into Disk Management and create a new partition which will be your 'Data' - with this partition successfully made, simply copy back your data to this partition.

Run PD Pro 12.5 again a couple of times (as originally instructed to fully setup the new partitions) and you should notice a quantifiable increase in the responsiveness of your system (and all the programs installed).


For a more in-depth look at step#7 above:

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...ades/441674-so-many-tests-so-little-time.html



With all the above steps completed, your system should be noticeably more responsive, quieter and cooler for a total cost of less than $100 and hopefully be enough of an improvement to allow you to enjoy the game as it was meant to be played.




Good luck.

 

Throttlestop won't help with the throttling, you simply cannot force the non-XM Clarksfield chips to run at full turbo due to the 45W/37A TDP/TDC hardwired in. Unless you can change the TDP/TDC settings like the Arrandale or XM chips.
More specifically, with Clarksfield, there was a limit with TDC, this was fixed at 37A this parameter was commonly a bottleneck to turboboost even when adequate cooling (TDP) was provided. Sandy bridge and Ivy bridge chips had a much more generous TDC setting (the i7-3610m has 112A TDC set) with limited TDP, this basically meant that the CPU had no power restraints but was instead bound by thermal restraints.

The reason I think the vRAM died was due to the location of one of the chips, its directly above a heatpipe so in my case, there was well over 90W of thermal energy pulsing down the pipe and the ASIC basically got fried.

 

Many Asus laptops start using Chipset Clock Modulation when things get warm or for a variety of random reasons. ThrottleStop can not be used to overclock the 720QM but it can be used to monitor for this type of throttling and it can also be used to help correct it. A log file while gaming will show whether this is the main problem or not. The two types of clock modulation should show up in the log file as 2 columns of 100.0% which shows the CPU is not being throttled with any clock modulation.

 

Unclewebb has a point and sometimes the throttling isn't even because things run too hot as was the case for the G73SW.