Overclock possible?

This is probably common knowledge, but I couldn't find the info with a quick search or in the Thinkpad sticky.

Is is possible to overclock the CPU of a thinkpad? If so where do I find the BIOS update?

 

As far as I know, no. It has the potential to create a higher heat output than the notebook was designed for.

Not to mention that the warranty on that part (maybe the whole machine too, I don't know) will be void.

 

I've seen utilities to overclock/under-over-volt the processor, and you can do it, but without adding more cooling, the reliability may will suffer. With a processor costing $300-$500 (us) it's hard to justify a ten percent performance gain. Laptop repairs can be expensive.

 

todays CPUs are fast enough, so no need of overclocking.

I did it at the time on my 486DX-40MHz, which I made working on 50MHz ... lol

you can do some for the video card though

 

If you're planning to overclock anything, it should be the videocard. Overclocking a Core 2 Duo processor isn't justifiable since it's so fast already.

 

What are you guys talking about? The CPU is OCed much more often than the video card among PC communities. I OCed my desktop Core 2 from 1.8 GHz to 3.3 GHz and multitasking with demanding programs run so much smoothly. Ripping music/video and gaming performance has also substantially increased.

Thinkpads run surprisingly cool so heat will not be an issue with a small overclock. Reliability won't suffer unless you overvolt, possibly making the system unstable.

Core 2s are also surprisingly durable. A friend of mine did not apply his heat sink correctly on his processor and it ended up running at 90C for a year, and still works perfectly.

 

You can't compare overclocking notebooks to overclocking desktops; there's a huge difference. Performance increases are very limited on a notebook computer.

 

There is more room in a PC chassis to dispel the extra heat produced, and the heatsinks are larger and can take on more heat than the little heatsinks in a notebook. The components aren't as clustered together, so you have a bit more leeway there.

If I wanted to, I would rather undervolt the notebook instead of spending time trying to overclock it.

 

Yes I realize you cannot overclock a notebook like you do a desktop, but increasing my processor to run from 2.0 GHz to something like 2.4 GHz would not generate too much extra heat. In fact I bet it would still run cooler than most consumer laptops.

The extra 400 MHz would reduce the number of times my CPU throttles when I multitask.

Also I'm almost 100% sure that overclocking a GPU would generate more heat than overclocking a CPU in a notebook.

 

If you overclock the processor does it cause the laptop to overheat much faster?

 

The processor will run hotter when fully loaded, but it takes a lot to "overheat" to a point that affects performance or damage hardware on most laptops.

 

where can you find the notebook processors and where are the isntructions to upgrade ?

 

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did you overclock the CPU ?? ... just wondering to see how it went

 

You can't overclock it.