Overclocking the new Alienwares

Ok, Looking to a bit of Overclocking, don't want to go crazy, don't need a $2,400 brick and I don't want to be in a position where I have to pull the system apart just to reset the bios (stupid nvram bios). That said, anyone see an issue with the following on a new Alienware 17 with the i7-4700MQ CPU.

1. Lower core voltage from default 1.2 to 1.175
2. Raise Core Current Limit from default 112 to 120
3. Raise Processor Current Limit from default 85 to 120 (110?)
4. Raise Turbo Boost Short Power Max from current 59 to the default 68 (why AW set it at 59 when the processor reports a default of 68 is beyond my pay level)
5. Raise Power Boost Turbo Max from the current 47 to the default 55 (again, why AW set it at 47 when the default is 55 is beyond me)
6. Raise the Active Core Multipliers from 34, 33, 32, 32 to 36, 35, 34, 34

Based on my research these should be safe setting for the system, give me a minor OC boost, but still not bump temps to the unsustainable range or create instability issues. Comments before I do this, anyone see any problems?
Oh, should I bump the processor cache ratio up from 34 to 36 as well to go with the Multiplier boost?

1. by itself, no problem there...but with overclocking, you will want to stability test.
2. Not sure why you would bother with this considering you are undervolting.
3. See above.
4. Sure!
5. Not sure what that is honestly.
6. Sounds good... Be sure to stability and temp test. One really shoukdnt overclock a laptop due to a lack of cooling... But worth a try!

EarthDog said:

1. by itself, no problem there...but with overclocking, you will want to stability test.
2. Not sure why you would bother with this considering you are undervolting.
3. See above.
4. Sure!
5. Not sure what that is honestly.
6. Sounds good... Be sure to stability and temp test. One really shoukdnt overclock a laptop due to a lack of cooling... But worth a try!

Click to expand...

Well, to use a plumbing analogy, Volts=water pressure, so we are lowering that. However, core and processor current limits are measured in Amps which is the "flow rate" of the water (electricity). So while I have lowered the "pressure" of the electricity, I'm increasing the "amount" of electricity going through the processor. (just in case you are curious, the other measurement is Ohms which is the resistance factor and equivalent to the size of the pipes the water is being pumped through). Hope that explains why undervolting but bumping the current limits can affect performance.

Yes, laptops don't have the cooling ability of a desktop, but a well built one, like the Alienwares, can handle some OC without negative effects. They are built for performance and have good fans, copper heatsinks, etc.

Sure.. it's like having a garden hose with 1gpm flow and attaching a firehose to it but lowering the flow rate...

Slightly sarcastic analogy aside, I get it... It will not hurt to raise it, you just won't need to if you are LOWERING voltage in the first place since you are only setting a meager overclock which without voltage increases won't consume a lot more power at all.

Keep an eye on temps.. it's still a laptop and still far inferior cooling wise to a desktop... But again, low overclock and undervolting, it shoukdnt be an issue.

What are your goals? OCing the CPU isn't going to get you much, you should be focusing on GPU OCing if you're gaming. I don't want to be the guy says X ghz is more than you'll ever need, but when it comes to mobile gaming laptops, it's the GPU's that are way behind CPU's, and laptop CPU's hold their own for most applications (photoshop and encoding being the most common exceptions).

ajrettke said:

What are your goals? OCing the CPU isn't going to get you much, you should be focusing on GPU OCing if you're gaming. I don't want to be the guy says X ghz is more than you'll ever need, but when it comes to mobile gaming laptops, it's the GPU's that are way behind CPU's, and laptop CPU's hold their own for most applications (photoshop and encoding being the most common exceptions).

Click to expand...

I want to see what I can safely get from the CPU w/o overhearing the system or make it unstable. Then I'll be working on the GPU to see what I can get out of it. However, the GPU is one of the new Radeon R9-M290x cards and the new mantle drivers are not quite ready for primetime. I'm going to play with the cpu for a bit until we have some mature GPU drivers for the system. Then I want to work on both the CPU and GPU to reach a good mix of OC for the system - both for gaming and for the occasional video editing I do.