Overclocking a Laptop Possible?

reidyg

Hi all,

Just a quick question, I've heard a lot about overclocking and I'm very new to this myself, but is it possible to overclock a laptop, or would the heat be too much?

Dell Precision M65 Centrino Duo 1.86ghz

Stephen

Not really - most laptop bioses (and I'd bet all Dell bioses) won't allow you to overclock, and their cooling probably wouldn't be able to cope with the extra heat.
You could probably overclock a mobile graphics card from Windows but again it probably wouldn't be worth the extra heat.

Anti

It has been done before, but the modifications needed are not something someone new at this would be able to do. custom bioses ect ect.

A laptop has been watercooled before, well kind of:
http://folk.ntnu.no/bardlund/hack.jsp


Its best to leave it to a desktop if you want to overlcock.

reidyg

Cheers guys. I bought my laptop in october and rather than go for a bigger processor I went for the RAM instead. I've been trying to find out if its possible to upgrade the processor but I've had little success. I was afraid if I didn't upgrade in the not too distant future, an upgrade if it exists might go out of stock. Is it even possible to do this?

Capt'n Midnight

many laptops have the CPU soldered to the mother board to get better cooling

try something like cpuz to identify the chip or google for your laptop, you already have a DUO , and that would have been the big jump

TBH it's not worth replacing the CPU unless there is a decent speed jump, otherwise the risk isn't worth the return. eg: if you had VISTA having a flash card as extra memory is a much easier speed tweak

Anti

Yeha i have a vaio with a t2300 ( 1.66ghz core duo ) And the cpu is soldered to the board. Which is a complete pain in the arse, as i was told it was upgradeable

reidyg

Thanks for the reply. It's just that I'm very happy with the laptop but I'd like to explore all possibilities to upgrade it for the future. If a faster cpu could be tacked on I'd like to try before they go out of stock for the motherboard. For example going from T2400 Centrino Duo 1.83 to T7200 Core 2 duo 2.33. Would it be possible?

Anti

Sure, thats no problem at all, as long as your cpu isnt soldered to the board. Also a extra gb or ram can help alot too.

riptide

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

eg: if you had VISTA having a flash card as extra memory is a much easier speed tweak

Now i was thinking about this the other day... (as you do :rolleyes: ). Why would flash based memory be considered....

i mean can an external based flash card be better than just using the Pagefile on a HD?

briman1983

It seems it is. A Link I found when I googled it.

http://www.lexar.com/dp/tips_lessons/cardinal_cards.html

Anti

Readyboost is a load of balls, i have tried it with a 2/4 and 8gb certified usb keys, Sure huge powerpoint documents open quicker, and photoshop opens stuff quicker, maybe 20% quicker at a push.

Maybe when the ram is quickr it migth become a must, but for now

BostonB

reidyg wrote:

Thanks for the reply. It's just that I'm very happy with the laptop but I'd like to explore all possibilities to upgrade it for the future. If a faster cpu could be tacked on I'd like to try before they go out of stock for the motherboard. For example going from T2400 Centrino Duo 1.83 to T7200 Core 2 duo 2.33. Would it be possible?

Why what are you doing that you need that extra speed?

Capt'n Midnight

riptide wrote:

Now i was thinking about this the other day... (as you do :rolleyes: ). Why would flash based memory be considered....

i mean can an external based flash card be better than just using the Pagefile on a HD?

The main difference is that you have to wait a few ms for the sector on the drive to spin around or for the head to move back and forth. flash memory might not have a faster transfer rate, but the access time wipes any device with moving parts.

Some people don't see any difference, and if you have tonnes of RAM probably not worth doing, then again if you have a laptop that takes SD memory you can get a few GB for peanuts on www.7dayshop.com which makes it about the cheapest way of upgrading a laptop

NB. make sure your controller has the later drivers or you won't get the full benefit of the 110x speed or whatever the marketing gimps have called it.

Creamy Goodness

Anti wrote:

A laptop has been watercooled before, well kind of:
http://folk.ntnu.no/bardlund/hack.jsp

that's just ridiculous tbh.

laptops are meant to be pc's on the go, never understood people for example using them huge 17inch laptops as main pc's tbh.

Anti

Cremo wrote:

that's just ridiculous tbh.

laptops are meant to be pc's on the go, never understood people for example using them huge 17inch laptops as main pc's tbh.

Deaktop replacements. I have one for work, and one at home. Sometimes its nice to be able to play c&c3 in bed. Or a quick bout of stalker, while on the khazie.

Anyway, back to more crazy laptops:




Thats all i found, apart from this ps2 laptop:

BostonB

Cremo wrote:

that's just ridiculous tbh.

laptops are meant to be pc's on the go, never understood people for example using them huge 17inch laptops as main pc's tbh.

Makes perfect sense to me.

L31mr0d

BostonB wrote:

Makes perfect sense to me.

me too? cremo's a little slow, so it might take him a while longer to make sense of it

A 17" Laptop is still portable, just less portable than a 15" or similar. Some people just want the ability to move a laptop around the house, not carry it across the Alps or Sahara desert. Regardless of size, a laptop is always going to be more portable to a pc with an equivalent sized monitor. If you have a desktop pc already of course you are going to look for a highly portable laptop. But if the laptop is your only pc you'll want it to be as powerfull as possible for everyday use, which is why you'll buy a large one.

reidyg

BostonB wrote:

Why what are you doing that you need that extra speed?

I'm a student filmmaker and as I travel a lot, I use my laptop for editing. I use Avid programs which drain a lot of resources. Plus to edit HD footage, especially when rendering, speed can take hours of a full footage render. As I'm no expert with CPUs or modding, I just wanted to find out the cost and effort of upgrading. If I posted my specs, could someone suggest what CPU can be stuck in?

Anti

reidyg wrote:

I'm a student filmmaker and as I travel a lot, I use my laptop for editing. I use Avid programs which drain a lot of resources. Plus to edit HD footage, especially when rendering, speed can take hours of a full footage render. As I'm no expert with CPUs or modding, I just wanted to find out the cost and effort of upgrading. If I posted my specs, could someone suggest what CPU can be stuck in?

Sure, just start a new thread and we will see what we can advise you on.

reidyg

Just have

reidyg

I just have, thanks for the help.

BostonB

reidyg wrote:

I'm a student filmmaker and as I travel a lot, I use my laptop for editing. I use Avid programs which drain a lot of resources. Plus to edit HD footage, especially when rendering, speed can take hours of a full footage render. As I'm no expert with CPUs or modding, I just wanted to find out the cost and effort of upgrading. If I posted my specs, could someone suggest what CPU can be stuck in?

Would I/O not be more of an issue?