Compiled list of my near 1Ghz Overclock on my i5 + GPU overclock

[mardon]

Thought i'd post this here since its a complete list of what I did and in what order. Rather than doing a search for each guide they are all grouped together.

Before Starting this thread I would like to give Credit to UncleWeb and DavyGT for their hard work in developing the software that has enabled me to do this. Also thanks to the creators of SetPLL and the modded Creative Drivers.

I’ve been playing with my Alienware M11X R2 over the weekend to try and get the most out of it. I’ve had great success. So I thought I’d post my results and links to what I did so owners of the same or similar laptop’s can try their luck.

Here are the factory Specs.
CPU ULV i5 @ 133BLK. 4 Threads 12x Multi, 2 Threads Multi 14x Max 1862MHz (Temp Idle 42C, Load 64C)
GPU Core 450Mhz | Shader 1080 | Memory 790.

My Specs
CPU ULV i5 @ 197BLK. 4 Threads 12x Multi, 2 Threads Multi 14x Max 2758MHz (Temp Idle 45C, Load 68C)
GPU Core 590Mhz | Shader 1500 | Memory 900Mhz.

Quite a jump. In games its gone from 17FPS on the Witcher 2 in the starting camp to 27FPS. This is the difference between Playable and not. Temps are fine never getting anywhere near the danger levels of 85C on CPU or GPU.

What I did.

Step 1.Flash the Bios so the GPU voltage goes from 0.90 to 0.95V. This makes a nice little difference and can get you around 40Mhz on the core and around the same on the shaders. I use EVGA Precision for OCing and DavyGT’s modded Bios. Guide found here: R2 335m nvidia bios flashing to increase voltage

Step 2.Right click on the desktop and go to the Onboard Intel Graphics card and go to power management section and set the Power Plan to Maximum Battery Life. This is a very important step since the Intel GPU is connected to the CPU. With this set to Balanced I could only get 170BLK, with it set to Max Battery I could get 197BLK.

Step 3.Stock the RAM runs at 6-6-6-15 (I think) which is pretty fast and this is usually what hampers overclocking rather than the voltage or quality of the i5 Processor. What I did next was set higher timings of 7-7-7-20. This will give you more overclocking head room as the RAM clocks with the CPU. To do this purchase (Or install a 32Bit OS and use an earlier version) Thaiphoon Burner http://www.softnology.biz/download.html.
If you purchase the proper version (Like I did) make sure to boot using F8 to allow unsigned drivers.
You can now follow this guide: [HOW TO] Update SPD

I use the settings in the First post as they are slightly slower then the DDR3/7 settings which you can select from the drop down box in the edit section. I did try them but my OC was limited to 172BLK.


Step 4.I then used a program called SetPLL which can alter the systems BLK from within the Windows Environment. Use this guide
How to Use SetPLL to overclock your R2 over 166

A few observations about SETPLL.
I’ve been playing with this over the weekend and I’ve noticed a few things. With 2GB and 1 stick I can get 197BLK fully stable. With 2x 2GB I can only get 191BLK. So if you are purchasing new RAM it may be worth leaving one module blank and using just one 4GB stick.

When you have set your timings with Thiaphoon, if I then reboot and try and set a high BLK the PC will crash. I know 191BLK is stable but if I tweek or change my timings and try and jump from 166 to 191 the PC will freeze. So first boot after you change your timings work your way up. What i’ve done is created a folder on the desktop with lots of different BLK speeds short cutted (You get these off the screen shot on the first page). I.e. 133, 172, 180, 188, 191, 194

So i’ll go from 166 (Bios OC) to 172, then to 180, 188 and finally 191. This works and the PC is stable. I can then reboot and the 191BLK will work first time. I can’t explain why this happens? You may find you can actually OC further than you think.

Another strange thing i’ve noticed is you can’t jump from 191 to 133 without it crashing. If i’m leaving the laptop downloading i’ll usually downclock to save power and heat. There are two options to do this. Shut the lid thus putting the laptop to sleep. When the laptop wakes it’ll be set back to the bios setting (166 in my case). You can now jump down to 133 from there. The other long winded process is jumping from 191 to 180 to 170 to 133 using set PLL.


Step 5.For some reason in Windows 7 when overclocking your system using this method can make your games run out of sync like they are in turbo mode. So go to the start menu. Type CMD. When the Command Window opens type in “bcdedit /set useplatformclock true” (Without the Quotation Marks). This will solve the Turbo problem.

Step 6.Install ThrottleStop. This will stop the chip from throttling and help keep it at the maximum turbo levels. This program makes a HUGE HUGE difference. Use this guide: How to Supercharge the M11x with Core i5/i7 UM CPUs

Step 7.Now you have all the software you need to stability test your system using your favourite Stability Tester. I used IntelBurn Test and the maximum RAM I could for 30+ runs. Monitor your temps as you don’t want your CPU to get into the high 70’s early 80’s as this is dangerous. If your testing for a long period of time I suggest putting the laptop on 4 bottle tops to raise it off the surface to allow for more air flow while testing.

Optional Step 8.You can also install modded Creative X-FI drivers on the M11X. This will give you bonus features like 3D surround Via headphones and the other Creative Suite bonuses. Info Here: Getting the best out of our sound

Here is a pic of my results. I have yet to run a Final 3DMark06 run but the gains are around 1700points (Low 7k’s to Nearly 9k) You may say this is a poor result but for an 11” gaming net book which plays games at 1360x768 its perfectly fine. The new £900+ R3 gets low 9k’s so for my £500 machine to get only a few points less and next to no difference in game this is a phenomenal result. The main difference is CPU dependant games are now fluid and we get a nice FPS boost due to the GPU overclock. This is all achieved with only a 0.05V increase to the GPU and zero voltage increase to the CPU.



Good luck if your trying this yourself.

[M11x ftw]

Its great to have a complete list of everything we need to get the most out of our m11xs.
Thankyou and + rep.

[mardon]

Thanks
Yeah there are quite a few different steps but its not to tricky to do. Was thinking of zipping all the latest drivers and modding tools together an uploading them to a file hosting website. That way people can get them all down in one go.

[madpacket]

Great guide Mardon. This should help a lot of folks get the most out of these little magic boxes. One question though, what makes you think temperatures around 80 is dangerous? my m11x i7 R2 regularly hits these temperatures and higher without issues and this is with just a mild overclock. I plan on doing a tear down to apply some after market thermal paste before shooting for your speeds though

[ajslay]

nice guide, i was the tester for the GPU Vmod, if there wasnt a tester (me) there wouldnt be a finished mod.
the m11x isnt a netbook either, a netbook is a small computer that has the power to surf the web and not much more. the m11x is more like an ultraportable gaming laptop =D
there is also settings in the nvidia control panel that you can tweak to get more fps and an even better 3dm06 score, also turning off a ton of windows services can help too.
an i7 R2 can get over 9k easily

[DeeVu]

Great guide +rep.

Too bad my GPU isnt stable at any clocks above stock settings and my CPU doesn't go above 175mhz. All in the machinery I suppose!

[mardon]

Great guide Mardon. This should help a lot of folks get the most out of these little magic boxes. One question though, what makes you think temperatures around 80 is dangerous? my m11x i7 R2 regularly hits these temperatures and higher without issues and this is with just a mild overclock. I plan on doing a tear down to apply some after market thermal paste before shooting for your speeds though

I was speaking to a tech at Alienware a couple of days ago about a bad stick of RAM and was asking about temps. He said 85C was the danger zone so I class 80C as the hottest i'd be comfortable with before the chip could possibly start to degrade after time. I'm just playing it safe. Stripping mine down this week to put some new TIM on so it'd be great if I can get stock temps when overclocked with the new TIM

nice guide, i was the tester for the GPU Vmod, if there wasnt a tester (me) there wouldnt be a finished mod.
the m11x isnt a netbook either, a netbook is a small computer that has the power to surf the web and not much more. the m11x is more like an ultraportable gaming laptop =D
there is also settings in the nvidia control panel that you can tweak to get more fps and an even better 3dm06 score, also turning off a ton of windows services can help too.
an i7 R2 can get over 9k easily

Well thanks to you as well ajslay for testing and also working on the Bios recovery.
Yeah I guess its not a netbook but the form factor isn't far off, love it
I didn't want to go into tweeking, this guide was just getting the hardware up to speed. I'm chasing 9k when I get my other RAM stick back from Dell. 8800 is not far off and that was at 191BLK. I can now run at 197BLK. As long as the new RAM stick is half decent and I can run with both in i'm sure i'll be able to hit 9k.

Great guide +rep.

Too bad my GPU isnt stable at any clocks above stock settings and my CPU doesn't go above 175mhz. All in the machinery I suppose!

Have you tried the Bios mod or slowing your RAM timings?

Thanks for the rep+

[ajslay]

I was speaking to a tech at Alienware a couple of days ago about a bad stick of RAM and was asking about temps. He said 85C was the danger zone so I class 80C as the hottest i'd be comfortable with before the chip could possibly start to degrade after time. I'm just playing it safe. Stripping mine down this week to put some new TIM on so it'd be great if I can get stock temps when overclocked with the new TIM


Well thanks to you as well ajslay for testing and also working on the Bios recovery.
Yeah I guess its not a netbook but the form factor isn't far off, love it
I didn't want to go into tweeking, this guide was just getting the hardware up to speed. I'm chasing 9k when I get my other RAM stick back from Dell. 8800 is not far off and that was at 191BLK. I can now run at 197BLK. As long as the new RAM stick is half decent and I can run with both in i'm sure i'll be able to hit 9k.

Have you tried the Bios mod or slowing your RAM timings?

Thanks for the rep+

no problem =) i think i could make a guide on how to tweak windows and apps to get the best performance, il need more then one person to want it tho. as well as the best GPU drivers.

also if i upgrade to an r2, im keeping the ram thats in my r1 because it can clock past 1100mhz cas6 with no problems. i have a very lucky pair of ram lol.

[mardon]

Well fingers crossed for you with RAM that good! You gonna go i5 or i7? Just been playing BFBC2 for 2 hours and the max temp reported in throttlestop was 72C very impressed! May even get into the high 60's with some better TIM during gaming.

[ajslay]

Well fingers crossed for you with RAM that good! You gonna go i5 or i7? Just been playing BFBC2 for 2 hours and the max temp reported in throttlestop was 72C very impressed! May even get into the high 60's with some better TIM during gaming.

thanks =p im gonna go the i5 way. but with my im going to see how my R1 performs at 2ghz first, and if its fast enough for bfbc2 and media converting il keep it, but if i want slightly better il sellmy r1 for $650 and buy an r2 for that much.