upgrade laptop psu for more wattage?

getting i Clevo p150hm laptop with a 485m gpu, and various other things listed in my sig.

it comes with a 180W psu, which will leave very little room for over clocking. the p170 (17" version) has a 220w psu, but we later found out it has a different laptop power plug.

there a way to convert the larger psu to work with the p150? a safe way lol. dont want sparks flying and wires stickin out everywhere when i try to use it

 

does the clevo use the round 4 pin DIN? I know with the Targus universal 180w the original output is too a 4 pin DIN plug then there are addapters to regular jack sizes.............

 

You don't want to be mucking around inside your PSU, for obvious and warranty reasons. If you want a higher-wattage PSU, buy another compatible AC adapter.

 

no matter what your external power brick is rated at, you will always be limited by the capabilities of the INTERNAL dc/dc power components.

These are soldered to the mobo and are not user-servicable.

 

i'm liking this idea. gotta figure out what kinda jack it uses though

noted sir

this is true.. not sure what mine's rated at. although my reseller pointed out at one point that a rig w/ a similar config was pulling 215w at the wall under full load, so assume it can handle more then the stock 180psu

 

As long as you aren’t running benchmarks that stress the CPU and GPU to the max at the same time you should be fine. Your system is most likely designed in the same Clevo fashion as previous laptops then it should have a pretty beefy internal design, but like anything if you stress it long and hard enough it will be prone to die early.

If you go back and read the early 8760 Sager thread people were complaining the 120W was not adequate, then to find out they were running benches that stressed the CPU and the GPU to the limits, and shutting down the system or resetting the supply. When the same systems were run in everyday fashion they were fine.

The 215W at the wall equates to about 182W at the load, assuming a power supply efficiency of 85%. So it seems like they adequately sized the brick for reasonable every day use. Add up the CPU+GPU+ Display+ all the rest you still should be ok.

For Instance:

CPU 45W-50W
GPU 100Wmax
Display 15W

The rest of the system has an allowance of 15W, that’s seems pretty reasonable, Also the figures I used above are at pretty high stress levels as well.

Anyway get your laptop and run it and see how well it runs, you may not need a bigger brick.

 

it should run perfectly fine.. it seemed some were running into the issue of not enough available power when attempting to overclock the gpu.

this upgraded psu would be only for the purposes of benchmarking, as im sure the laptop runs perfectly fine with the standard one

 

repeat: an upgraded external power brick will not auto-magically make more power available via the internal dc/dc components.

 

this is understood and taken into consideration thanks.. i'm just assuming that it can take in more then what it is currently given. i realize that up to a point, it will stop utilizing the extra wattage so it doesn't damage the components or whatever. i'm just wondering what this point is. and it's not going to draw more power than what it needs. i'd just like to find a psu solution that will give me more headroom for overclocking.. already have the cooling side taken care of, so that's not an issue.. just need more powah!

 

The problem isn't the internals when you overclock multiple components. the problem is the internals are designed with overhead, meaning they can when stressed hard enough place too much demand on the brick. The idea of the larger brick is to provide for the overhead and possible spikes etc.

I'll agree though once you have reached the overhead limit of the internals it doesn't matter how large the PSU is. The idea in laptop design though is make the power brick the weakest link as it is the cheapest and easiest to replace. The large power brick can take away the power brick as the weakest link.

On that note you now make the laptop internals the weakest link. You then could overstress them, the end results being obvious. So be aware before you start playing with the power, you have to ask yourself what is it you would like to take the chance of burning out?

 

Well sometimes you get laptops like mine where the internal power circuitry seems massivly over designed with phases galore.

 

I'm not planning on massive over-volts lol.. Just upping stuff a bit. Idk if this alternate brick will actually come true since I'm sure my reseller is probably lookin at this thread overclocking gpu too much will void my warranty I believe. Not sure how they figure that out, since they'll overclock it a bit before I actually get it.

I'm not asking for the ethics/risks for doing this, I'm just looking for a bigger psu

 

Look at Targus 180W universal PSU. I think one of its tips might work with your Clevo.

 

180w is what the current psu is though. i was looking to go up, not sideways

 

please define, exactly, what you think you might 'gain' with a 230 watt vs a 180 watt EXTERNAL power brick.......

 

i understand what you're saying about the limits of the internal components.. this is all assuming that they will accept more than what they are being given by the stock psu. if it turns out to not help, then you are correct sir, and i will give credit where credit is due (im sure you're not after my praises though lol).

under load though, the current 180w psu is already being maxed. if i decided to OC at all, i wouldn't be getting enough from it which would mean the oc would make it unstable.. it seemed this was an issue that another user was running into when he tried to OC any substantial amount.

is my understanding of this correct?

 

It may be correct. Unfortunately it is a guessing game, there is no way to know what the internals will handle and every system will vary somewhat as to what they can do. The danger lies in the fact you are possibly supplying over the safe amount of amperage the board can handle. This again is a guessing game where as one board may have no issue with it another may.

As an example, over simplification here, you will see all over people over clocking a CPU. Where one person at the same vCore runs without an issue another is overheating at the flip of a switch. The overheating unit for some reason is loosing alot of power to heat, since the vCore is constant between the machines it is amps being chewed up to raise the wattage draw and increase heat. This extra amperage could be the load that brings other components to their limits and possibly increases heat there as well.

So in the end a larger brick is no garrenty and just something to try if you have an issue with the stock brick. It is not something you should throw on first. It is far better to change one variable at a time...............

 

I am talking about the power as it is broken down on the PC's board, the problem is your component may be over taxing the boards capability of supplying power at that specific voltage and since we can not tell what the internal limits are before it is overloaded, well you get the idea.

Another example. I just upgraded a P7805 to a P79 main board. at first both had the same x9100. Since the new board is quad capable the power components are designed to handle the load. Because of this I had to with the same CPU significantly lower vCore at the same overclocks...................

 

Didn't think of this I'll pick one up first. That's for the advice sir

lol.. I wasn't going to say anything

thanks for explaining this +1

Also 2720qm proc = doesn't overclock(for now). Only lookin at the gpu atm

Edit: which kill-a-watt?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-001^82-715-001-05#,82-715-005^82-715-005-05#

 

if you have a 180W PSU , i don't see why you need to be worried. Its more than enough to be frank. I'd suggest you look at some D900F 230W bricks or NP9850 bricks although i doubt none will work.

 

ok, frank

i'm waitin on a kill a watt and my lappy. the latter wont be here till monday it looks like. was hoping it'd make here before the weekend, but i guess not lol.. it'll be while before i try to do overclocking that'll kill my psu. i'm just gathering info