Hey guys first of all happy holidays to the SETI @ Home family!

I was wondering if you guys think it is worth it to overclock my CPU. I have a intel core 2 duo Extreme x9000 2.8GHz (unlocked). I hear that video cards are often a bottleneck but I am running a Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX. Both the CPU and GPU were the very most powerful components available for a laptop when I purchased my M15x laptop from Alienware in early/mid 2008. I do assume however that overclocking to 3.2 GHz would speed up BOINC computation.

I opened my laptop for the first time since I got it, about a week ago when I first started running BOINC and thouroughly cleaned the fans and every nook and cranny. The GPU was running at 95 degrees Celsius (when in use) prior to the cleaning but now it runs at 57-61 ( when in use)- BIG improvement!! My CPUs run at about 46-47 Celsius when in use.

Interested to hear any thoughts or experiences on the subject. Of you think it would harm my laptop in anyway to overclock I probably won't do it. The extreme chip was a $1300 extra investment and the GPU was an extra $800. At around $4700 in early 2008 this desktop replacement gaming laptop was a serious investment for me but even now over 4 years later it continues to perform like a beast.
The weakest link in my setup is that it has a 200GB hd that I believe runs at 5400 RPM, so I am considering upgrading to a 1TB 7200rpm in order to increase performance and life expectancy. In my experience, it is always the HD that goes bad first while the CPU and RAM are still fine so it is probably not a bad idea to upgrade HD right? If I happen to by some miracle come into a great deal of money a SSD would be nice! lol.. Anyway thanks for any input you guys have.

I don't crunch with a GPU, but I'll put in my opinion here.

Boinc, either stock, or with optimized apps, run your CPU AND GPU very HOT. I cannot imagine a need to overclock either of them unless you were using very proper aftermarket cooling. I don't think the gains from overclocking are worth the risk to stability of the system and the risk of burning something up.


Oh and for your hard-drive. It would help to know what kind of SATA speed your board supports. If the board does not support faster than SATA1 speeds I would NOT bother replacing the HDD.

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#resist

Seeing as how this is a high end machine, the board may perhaps support decent SATA speed, in which case you may see a marginal improvement with a newer higher RPM HDD. [Not that this matters at all for crunching]

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#resist

thanks for your input xclusive. since i cleaned out the inside of the computer, particularly the fans, the CPUs and GPUs have been very steady in healthy temperatures (CPUs at around 45 Celsius and GPU at around 57 - and these are with 100% of the chips being in use 24 hours a day, i've been using GPU-Z and Core Temp to monitor them constantly). so at this point im not so worried about the heat. probably wouldnt hurt to get some aftermarket cooling if i do overclock.

The HDD upgrade i was thinking of doing is not for BOINC purposes, thats just for myself. its apparent to me that the HDD read time is the weakest link as the processor speed and RAM etc is sufficient.

if anybody else on these boards has ever overclocked a C2D extreme let me know how it worked out for you.

I was just looking at my system with CPUZ, and i was wondering if anybody can explain something for me.

The system is an alienware laptop with a Core 2 Duo Extreme x9000 (mobile)(aka penryn chip) @ 2.80Ghz w/ 45nm technology , 4 gigs of DDR2 RAM + 1 gig turbo ram (not even sure what that does).

In CPU-Z, it says the clock core speed is 797.7 MHZ ... Comparing that with a much much much crappier and older laptop in my posession, an AMD athlon xp 3000+, the core clock speed on that one is almost 1600MHz.

Does this sound right?

Also, on the extreme x9000 chip, the multiplier is at 4.0X, and i could've sworn it should be higher. if i can raise that to increase speed dramatically i would be interested in doing so as my laptop is ALWAYS plugged in, i absolutely never never take it anywhere or run it on battery (in hindsight i wish i spent less money and got a faster desktop since i essentially use it as a desktop replacement, but whats done is done).

In CPU-Z, it says the clock core speed is 797.7 MHZ

I think you'll find that it says that the front side bus speed (FSB) is 797.7MHz (or 800MHz). Not the core speed. With a multiplier of 4x, that means it's overclocked at 3.2Ghz (4 x 800 = 3200).

If the CPU speed is really at 2.8Ghz, then your FSB is really only 700MHz.

an AMD athlon xp 3000+, the core clock speed on that one is almost 1600MHz.

The real clock speed of an AMD Athlon XP 3000+ is 2167 MHz, its FSB is 333MHz (derived from 2 x 166Mhz), multiplier is 13. So you multiply 13 x 166 = 2158 MHz, which is close enough.

Sources:
Intel
Wikipedia on Athlons

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hey ageless,

sorry i forgot to include that in my post

the core speed and the rated FSB are identical..while GPU-Z is loaded, both values change ever so slightly, but are identical around 797.7 MHz

I had read that the multiplier for my system is supposed to be 14x by default, and that i cannnot overclock because alienware locks the BIOS.

i love aliens, and i love fast computers, but i dont think i'll buy another alienware

There is nothing wrong with your Alienware. This is a common feature of Intel's SpeedStep technology. It lowers FSB and CPU speeds to conserve energy and increase battery length.

Intel SpeedStep detects when you're not using your CPU at its fullest, and/or determines that the CPU is within the thermal specifications for the chip and performs the down-clocking automatically.

If you want to, you can disable it in your BIOS, but doing so would mean that you lose some of the built-in protections against thermal meltdown.

alright thanks for the input guys

the reason i was sayin i wouldnt go with the alienware again is for diff reason- at least my model, the m15x has a chock full o problems that seem extremely common across everyone who has the model- almost rare if you don't have these problems. to name a few:

1. plastic hinge around the screen cracks and pops out. happened to mine 2x (and i never even close the screen or take my lappie with me anywhere, its pretty stationary all the time), they fixed it the first time because it was under warranty, but to do it again they want $300+. I opened up the screen myself and the best i could do was make it stick out a little less. the nubs that the screws go into are made of plastic and it is no wonder they break..also the wires stuffed in the hinge are too big. we never had these problems when i built alienware clones for a living (we basically used sager models but made them look more like alienwares with custom lighting, engraving, colors, and water cooling on the desktops, etc..)

2. the mouse buttons paint chipped off very soon after i received the laptop.

3. they refuse to support "legacy systems" - a term for models purchased before dell bought alienware.

4. the last compatible driver for the nvidia 8800m GTX was 186.1 and alienware knows that thousands of users are very pissed off but, refer to number 3; we are legacy, they dont care. basically we are stuck with ancient drivers. when calling tech support they almost get mad at you for having upgraded to windows 7 x64.

5. i was very surprised to see how simple the cooling schematic is inside my laptop when i opened it up. a good cleaning (literally taking the fan apart piece by piece) helps a lot, but for gaming laptop i'd expect more. thankfully i havent had any major problems even though my GPU was running at 95 degrees before i took out the fans, but apparently lots of other people do run into problems even with clean fans.

6. overall design and parts of the outer case/shell of the laptop is not durable, well thought out, or attractive. i believe they did improve it after the model i bought but i'm not sure how much.

8. i cant think of right now but i'm sure there's something.

to their defense; the light up, color changing alien heads are awesome (especially if you're crunching for SETI!) and the computer is, and has stayed decently fast over the years without any of the major hardware posing any problems- but of course its not like those are alienware components.

in hindsight, i would consider another alienware, but only a desktop and only after doing thorough research on common problems with the model, and comparison with its competitors.

come to think of it, maybe ill just get this... http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/719847/origins-genesis-pc-the-fastest-computer-you-can-buy/

base price for the machine in the link above is about $200 cheaper than what my lappie came to (including tax) in early 2008 when i pretty much maxed out the customization and clicked buy

Any more I will never buy a tower from any company again, I can build a better system for less that what they would charge.

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Any more I will never buy a tower from any company again, I can build a better system for less that what they would charge.

! +1 !

If it's not a laptop, tablet, pad, or phone, I BUILD IT. 10+ years now. 100+ builds. (budget noisemakers to entry level enterprise class, and every specialty in between, (EXCEPT A CRUNCHER :-())

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#resist

Any more I will never buy a tower from any company again, I can build a better system for less that what they would charge.

! +1 !

If it's not a laptop, tablet, pad, or phone, I BUILD IT. 10+ years now. 100+ builds. (budget noisemakers to entry level enterprise class, and every specialty in between, (EXCEPT A CRUNCHER :-())

I have not built nearly that many but I have been building desktops / towers since 1984. The first one was much more difficult as it arrived as bare circuit boards and bags of components. Everything since has already had all the circuit boards populated.

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BOINC WIKI

3. they refuse to support "legacy systems" - a term for models purchased before dell bought alienware.

4. the last compatible driver for the nvidia 8800m GTX was 186.1 and alienware knows that thousands of users are very pissed off but, refer to number 3; we are legacy, they dont care. basically we are stuck with ancient drivers. when calling tech support they almost get mad at you for having upgraded to windows 7 x64.

It does sound like you have had your share of problems with your laptop and/or Alienware/Dell, but it also sounds like you're so frustrated that you're just trying to pile the reasons on. Full disclosure - I do not own an Alienware, nor have I ever owned an Alienware, and I'm not a big fan of Dell buying out Alienware.


I did want to point out though, that Dell isn't the only company that draws the line on how much support they're willing to give, and they're under no obligation to support machines beyond a certain point after they buy out a company (Gateway did the same when they bought eMachines, and HP with Compaq).

Its not unreasonable to understand that when a computer company releases a desktop or laptop, they will have a partnership program with all the third-party manufacturers from which they buy their parts from. For example, Foxconn makes motherboards for many different suppliers (including Apple products), and these manufacturers will give the company a tool which will allow them to customize any standard driver and the startup image in a BIOS. They have the same option to customize Windows too.

The caveat is that once they customize said driver, BIOS, or OS, the company is liable for all support (indeed, the company is liable for all support even if they don't customize anything). Since support never earns the company money (they are considered a "cost" center), companies have to decide exactly how much support they're going to give a product, and for how long. They balance this with the cost of paying their support staff and the cost of supporting aging equipment.

While Dell could spend the money to work with nVidia (likely they would have to pay a contract fee to nVidia's programmers to write an updated video driver specifically for your model, and all the money required to test said patches/drivers), or any other device manufacturer to ensure their product works with Windows 7, but considering the fact that you bought this laptop back in 2008, which is going on 4 years ago, I can completely understand why they wouldn't want to bother with the cost (which would provide very minimal return on investment).


So while I feel your frustration, it is for this reason alone that I prefer to build all my own desktops, and any laptops I own I don't expect to work beyond their original configuration. I take this into consideration when buying any gadget or device, and I weigh the total cost of ownership with what I expect to get out of the item in its original configuration, and make my purchasing decision from there.


I guess I'm trying to say that you should feel happy that you go 4 years of use out of it, and that it is still technically a strong system, even if you're frustrated that you can't install newer drivers to support optimized crunching. My Asus laptop that I bought around the same time you bought yours only has integrated Intel graphics and is already showing its age despite being a fairly powerful Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM and came with Windows 7 natively. I should have picked up the model with integrated ATi graphics so that I could still use it as a portable gamer.