Intel Centrino Overclocking Guide Posted!

[Inspector Gadget]

Pug:
You said in your post: "I own an ASUS M6800N - and was able to overclock the FSB to 115 Mhz... thus 1.5 Ghz @ 1.725 Ghz using speedfan."

I would like to hear which clock generator you are using for the overclock, and which settings you are using.

Furthermore I would like to hear something about the memory frequency in your Asus M6800N.
I own a such one myself, but when I take a look with CPU-Z it tells me that my 256 mb Nanya PC2700 memory only is running at 100 Mhz - 1:1 divider with the FSB...
Do you have any idea why I get this number?

I hope you can help me with my questions.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Inspector Gadget

Pug:
You said in your post: "I own an ASUS M6800N - and was able to overclock the FSB to 115 Mhz... thus 1.5 Ghz @ 1.725 Ghz using speedfan."

I would like to hear which clock generator you are using for the overclock, and which settings you are using.

Furthermore I would like to hear something about the memory frequency in your Asus M6800N.
I own a such one myself, but when I take a look with CPU-Z it tells me that my 256 mb Nanya PC2700 memory only is running at 100 Mhz - 1:1 divider with the FSB...
Do you have any idea why I get this number?

I hope you can help me with my questions.

Inspector Gadget, just FYI, it doesn't matter what speed rating your Nanya memory has, the motherboard manufacturer can set it to run at any speed.

For example, in my brother's M30 notebook, it comes with PC2700 DDR SDRAM as well. And it's supposed to run at 166MHz, with a 1:1 divider. But Toshiba set it to run at 133MHz with a 4:3 divider.

So you see, installing faster memory won't do anything, at least in a notebook where we cannot control the memory divider or memory clock.

[Inspector Gadget]

Adrian Wong: Thank you for your quick respond and for the information about memory in notebooks.

I just really don't understand why the memory in my Asus notebook only runs at 100 Mhz when it in e.g. your Toshiba notebook runs at 133...

Do you know anything about which clockgenerator I must use in order to "get control" when i'm overclocking?

I have tried Speedfan and choosen the clock generator ICS952607, but it doesn't provide the correct information about the frequencies...

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Inspector Gadget

Adrian Wong: Thank you for your quick respond and for the information about memory in notebooks.

I just really don't understand why the memory in my Asus notebook only runs at 100 Mhz when it in e.g. your Toshiba notebook runs at 133...

Do you know anything about which clockgenerator I must use in order to "get control" when i'm overclocking?

I have tried Speedfan and choosen the clock generator ICS952607, but it doesn't provide the correct information about the frequencies...

Inspector Gadget,

It all depends on how your notebook manufacturer designs the notebook. Perhaps they intended to fit your notebook with only PC1600 DDR SDRAM but when they ran out of PC1600 DDR SDRAM, they equipped your notebook with PC2700 DDR SDRAM instead.

Or it may be the case where the notebook only comes with XXX amount of PC1600 memory but when you asked to have the memory upgraded to YYY amount, they only have PC2700 memory and so upgraded your notebook with that memory.

However, even if your notebook has the faster memory, the motherboard has been set to run the memory bus at only 100MHz. The PC2700 rating merely specifies the maximum rated speed for the memory module. It does not force your motherboard to run at that speed.

What clock generator you need will vary from notebook model to notebook model. Sometimes, it can also vary within the same notebook model. It all depends on the clock generator used in the notebook's motherboard. You will have to test to find out which ClockGen utility works for your notebook.

[Inspector Gadget]

Thanks for your lesson about notebooks and memory
I just still don't understand why the M6N only runs the memory as slow as 100 Mhz...
Would be nice to hear some other M6N owners about the memory in their notebooks to see if i'm the only one with this "problem".

I have tried some different clock generators in Speedfan, but I haven't succeded finding one which allows me to take control with the overclock...

That's why I would like to hear which one Pug used to overclock his M6N.

[Pug]

@InspectorGadget:

Sorry...may answer to your pm @ computerbase forums seems to be a little confusing maybe...

But the link i send you shoult tell you a lot already.

I will try to post later on.

Just to make it clear.

As far as the M6N Serie of Asus is concerned.
Every single one of the Series is sold working with a FSB of 100 Mhz and the memory running at 166 Mhz - which is the speed Intel originally configured their 855pm chipset for...

Thus theres something wrong in your configuration.
As soon as you try meddling with speedfan or clockgen - which both are a little tricky to use and which BOTH don't work a 100% with the clock generator the M6N is using - there is a possibility that it is "your fault" that the system is not running at default speeds anymore...

Will post later once more.
Greetings

Pug

[yakrider]

Hi all,
nice forum this is indeed. and great guide.
I have a centrino 1.6Ghz laptop with i855 chipset and my motherboard seems to support the clockgen too. However, the funny thing is it shows my PCI at a value of 50.1 at the normal setup (even without overclocking) I was wondering what this means for the system in terms of performance and possible safe overclocking limits.
Also, I have a Toshiba 5400 rpm harddrive which is supposed to be fast but still is the slowest component in my system. heres a screenshot without overclocking.



Also, I noticed in the overclock shot of the guy with OC Dothan where his PCI speed was 56.54 too. So what is the deal with this thing?

also, as you might have noticed, although the screen shot is without overclocking, the actual values for all the values were much lower since my 9 stepping centrino wasnt muscling out all its potential as i was taking the screenshot. What happens once i overclock it? does it get stuck to the overclocked values all the time? or how does the cpu speed stepping work then.

[Pug]

Once more @ Inspector Gadget:

Try using another monitoring tool (like cpu-z) to find out, whether or not your memory is running at the default 166 Mhz.

If you have any other questions, that you couldn't answer
yourselve by reading the german thread i send you via PM @Computerbase, post them here!

@yakrider:
My guess is that you found a "clockgen" which you can possibly use to modify your FSB - but which doesn't support your chipset fully.
I repeat myself: DON'T TRUST CLOCKGEN blindly!!!
Check again with a monitoring tool.

Of Course, for PCI and AGP there is no such tool that I know of - thats the tricky part about the FSB overclocking...
It would be very interesting indeed to find out, what happens to the PCI/AGP speeds when your FSB reach 133 Mhz...
But theres nothing to do about it now...

If you successfully overclock to ..for example..an FSB of 110 Mhz..your Pentium M will autostep between 1760 Mhz and 660 Mhz.. thus it does NOT get stuck at the overclocked maximum!!Via Clockgen you just alter the FSB...the multi is left untouched..!

You guys with centrino Notebooks now about RMClock?? If not, GO check it out. Awesome tool to UNDERCLOCK your cpu dynamically..this will make your Notebook a LOT more silent - if thats what you want....

Offtopic - Do you have ATI mobilities in your notebooks? Did you overclock them? How far?
Greetings.
Pug

[Inspector Gadget]

Pug:
Thank you for your answer. I guess I just have to send my notebook to RMA in order to have the FSB speed set to 166 once again...

I have a Radeon Mobility 9600 running core 317@380 and memory 209@249.
I haven't tested the max settings, but this overclock gives me about 1000 points (10 %) in 3DMark 2001 and about 500 points (24 %) in 3DMark 2003.

[Inspector Gadget]

The tool which I use for testing my FSB is CPU-Z... it shows 100 Mhz at a 1:1 divider